Ryan Scott

Cohort 1

March 2024

April 25

December 2023

January 2024

February 2024

March 2024 APAC

November 2023

Mar 24

January 2025

December 2025

April 2024

May 2024

June 2024

Webflow private cohort

August 2024

September 2024

Self-paced Cohort

March 2025

October 2024

November 2024

December 2024

February 2025

March 25

May 2025

June 2025

July 2025

August 2025

October 2025

Oct 2025

September 2025

Nov 25

January 2026

The design industry is changing faster than most designers can keep up, leaving designers at all levels uncertain about their careers. Not having a career strategy is not an option anymore. Today, I’ll share lessons from my MBA to explain what’s changing about the Design industry, why it’s been turbulent, and how to achieve your career goals in today’s market. Learn to:<ul><li>Understand the business forces changing the Design industry</li><li>Avoid career traps set by the current market</li><li>Build a strategy to move your career goals forward</li></ul>

Free lesson: How to Accelerate your Design Career in 2025

Learn business school tactics for running a successful design review with senior leadership. We go deeper on these techniques in the full course, Describing the ROI of Design.

Free lesson: Make your next review a success

Learn business school tactics to build credibility, gain influence & drive impactful design work at any organization

Fmr Airbnb Design Lead + UC Berkeley MBA

Design & Product Leader • Airbnb, DoorDash, Salesforce • UC Berkeley MBA

Describing the ROI of Design

Designer

Senior Product Designer

Head of Product Design

Staff Product Designer

Design Squad Lead

With AI enabling speed & quantity, master product strategy to ship the highest quality design work of your career.

Former Airbnb Design Lead + Berkeley MBA

PM Masterclass for Designers

UX Designer

Principal Product Designer (Tribe Lead)

Today, companies care about the return on every investment. Being able to describe your impact influences everything, from whether you get hired or promoted to whether you have the credibility to influence decisions. But that process has never been easy for designers.Describing the ROI of Design gives you the essential business, communication, and stakeholder skills to make your impact unmistakable. You’ll learn how to connect your work to revenue and profits, show how you create value across the organization, build credibility by aligning to business needs, and grow a movement of support around your ideas.Join 450 designers who are being heard, understood, and rewarded:• "I’m being heard by everyone, and am creating visibility and understanding of the awesome work my team is doing." – Head of Design• "I didn't know designers worked and thought this way." – CTO to his Head of Design• "Ryan Scott helped me get a promotion. He's worth your time." – Design LeadIf you want to be seen as a high-value contributor, get pulled into strategic projects, persuade business leaders to back your ideas, and be recognized and rewarded for your impact, this course is for you.

Be recognized and rewarded for all of the impact your design work creates

Instantly elevate your credibility by connecting design to the bottom line

Get rewarded for all of the business impact you create

Succeed as a designer in any business environment 

Collect allies and build momentum around your ideas

Experienced UX designers who want to unlock more strategic and impactful product design work for themselves and others

Design leaders &amp; managers who must collaborate with and persuade founders, executives, and other cross-functional leaders

Designers who work in Product or Eng-led environments where good Design must be strongly (and carefully) advocated for

Today, AI has blurred the lines between traditional tech roles. Processes are evolving and expectations are increasing. Designers are rewarded not just for the designs we ship, but for the product we shape and the impact we deliver. But our training did not prepare us for a world where design, strategy, and business are now inseparable.PM Masterclass for Designers gives you the product, strategy, and cross-functional leadership skills to influence what ships and to operate as a strategic partner. You’ll learn to find and validate high-impact opportunities, assess and prioritize user and business impact, catch flaws in data analysis, and navigate the politics that shape what ships. After building that foundation, you’ll learn to apply AI to these skills efficiently and effectively.Join 220+ designers who are driving product outcomes: “After your class, my company asked me to spend 20% of my time leading product initiatives. It's completely transformed my career.” – Senior Product DesignerIf you want to be a trusted partner to PMs, get your ideas on the roadmap, influence product strategy, and future-proof your design career in a rapidly evolving industry, this course is for you.

Master skills beyond craft and code to shape the strategy behind what ships

Spot product opportunities no one else sees

Master new prioritization methods that even impress PMs

Turn metrics & data into your new superpower

Finesse your approach to stakeholder management

Leverage AI like a PM

Experienced UX Designers who want to influence what ships, when it ships, and explain the business rationale for why it's valuable.

Design leaders &amp; managers seeking new tools to uncover business opportunities &amp; advocate for Design from a business perspective.

Designers who want stronger partnerships with PMs or are considering a shift to Product Management themselves.

Target the right companies, write unforgettable case studies, & build a portfolio that can't be ignored.

As an experienced designer, you want to keep your career momentum on track. These days, finding and landing that right next role can take many months. But it doesn’t have to.Having hired hundreds of designers, including for companies like DoorDash, Airbnb, &amp; Palantir, I’ve seen what companies are desperate for (but just not finding) in designer after designer.In Design Job Search: Strategy + Tactics, we'll work together to position you as exactly what companies are looking for. From how to write world-class case studies to polishing overlooked details that make your portfolio perfect, you’ll learn dozens of tactics I’ve used to get offers from top tech companies.As one student put it:&nbsp;“Ryan’s approach is a rare, truthful &amp; invaluable resource for designers who want more than just a job—they want a successful career in design. Take this course if you’re looking for a clear, actionable guide to stand out. You spend countless hours helping companies grow. Now, it’s time to invest in your growth.”If you want to&nbsp;stand out from the competition, find the&nbsp;right next opportunity,&nbsp;get in front of leading companies, and&nbsp;land a better design job faster, this course is for you.

Cut months off your design job search to land the role that's right for you

Define your wants and needs for your next role

Understand the macroeconomic driving today's hiring market

Write case studies that can't be ignored

Craft a pixel-perfect portfolio

Explore unexpected ways to find open roles

Learn to boost your application & offers

Experienced Senior to Principal ICs who are considering a change or actively seeking roles that align to their long-term career goals

Experienced Managers, Senior Managers, &amp; Directors who want to make sense of new market conditions and position themselves accordingly

*NOT* for early-career or aspiring designers. This course is for folks with at least 5+ years of full-time experience as a designer

How Designers can influence the roadmap

Design leader · Airbnb, DoorDash, Salesforce · Berkeley MBA

Get actionable tactics to quickly build trust with PMs so your voice carries more weight in strategy & roadmap decisions

Learn how to can gain credibility with product leadership

See where designers lose credibility, and how to correct those mistakes, to become the go-to strategic designer

Avoid common missteps that weaken design influence

AI is shifting who does what and when. Learn how to tactfully navigate and negotiate changing team responsibilities.

Learn how to redefine your relationships in the AI era

Join Mindy for a 30-minute Q&A to get direct answers on how to build better partnerships with PMs and product leaders.

Ask your questions in Live Q&A

Behind Closed Doors: Design Performance Reviews

Hear leaders explain the actual review process, including how impact is assessed and how raises & promotions are decided

Demystify how reviews really work

See what makes or breaks a review, where most designers fall short, and what top designers do to excel

Reveal what separates top performers

Gather evidence and framing that makes it easy for your manager to champion your work and advocate for you

Equip your manager to advocate for you

After the panel talk, ask Alex (Google), Kristine (LinkedIn), and Cameron (Gusto) your top performance review questions

30-min Q&A with design leaders

How Designers can use AI to prioritize like a PM

Learn Ryan's simple but powerful value/cost/risk model that makes prioritization clear & persuasive, even in complex org

Master a practical prioritization model

See how to guide ChatGPT to brainstorm, pressure-test, and refine initiatives instead of just spitting out ideas

Turn AI into your product strategy partner

Go inside an actual ChatGPT chat. See its outputs, Ryan's critique & how he refines it to reach a high-leverage priority

Watch a real demo in action

Learn to frame context, spot bad trends, push back on assumptions, and guide AI toward stronger, more strategic outcomes

Apply proven best practices

Defusing Politics to Ship Great Designs

Learn to keep turf wars, executive meddling, missing info, & perceived failure from derailing your projects.

Get a tactical playbook that works

To give your project the best shot, decide who to involve, when to bring them in, and how to engage them.

Learn to prevent pushback before it starts

Hear how politics nearly derailed big launches, and how I got them back on track.

Go behind-the scenes at Airbnb & DoorDash

After the lesson, stay for an extra 30-minute of Q&A to get help with your toughest stakeholder situations.

Join the bonus Q&A for personalized advice

Making the Business Case for Design Craft

Define and share what "design craft" means so it doesn't come across as big, vague, or costly to non-designers.

What is craft?

Understand why companies regularly deprioritize the details designers care about

Why craft isn't often a priority

Relentlessly pushing for craft isn’t the right move. Gain credibility by knowing when to push or when to compromise.

When you should—or shouldn't—push for craft

Learn business arguments to successfully advocate for your design priorities and unlock support from key stakeholders.

How to advocate for craft with business language

True or False: What actually matters in a design job search?

Design leader · Ex-Airbnb & DoorDash · U.C. Berkeley MBA

Hang Xu

Founder & Talent Agent @ Collective Supply

To land a role quickly, make sure you're not missing a factor that actually does impact hiring decisions.

Find out what actually matters to land a new design role

ATS formatting? Unposted jobs? What matters, and what doesn't? We'll cut through the noise so you can focus.

Learn to ignore common misconceptions about hiring

Want to stand out? Start by simply avoiding the biggest mistakes most designers make when it comes to getting hired.

Avoid the most common design job search mistakes

Accelerate your Design Career in 2025

Learn how forces like Economics, Entrepreneurship, & Strategy are reshaping design careers & job opportunities.

Understand the business forces changing the Design industry

Designers are being pushed towards jobs that may undermine their larger career goals. Learn to spot & avoid these traps.

Avoid career traps set by the current market

A good strategy will help you get ahead. Learn how I've recently helped designers land raises, promotions, & new jobs.

Build a strategy to move your career goals forward

Building Design Teams with Clout

Ryan Scott (Host)

Founder @ Accelerate Design. Ex-Design Lead @ Airbnb & DoorDash. UC Berkeley MBA

Alex Schleifer

Former Airbnb Chief Design Officer. Co-Founder at Human Computer.

We’ll dive into the short- and long-term benefits for designers & our companies when design teams are truly empowered.

Why Design teams should have more influence in their orgs

Why don’t all Design teams have clout? We'll breakdown why non-designers might be unclear about Design’s value & impact.

What holds Design teams back from being more impactful?

Everyone—not just leaders—can build Design’s influence. Bring your colleagues to unlock meaningful design work together.

Join with your team & learn to build influence together

Grow your design credibility at any tech company

Founder @ Accelerate Design, Former Design Lead @ Airbnb & DoorDash, UC Berkeley MBA

Tommy Geoco

Author of UX Tools Newsletter (80k+ Readers), 14 yrs of product design experience

From collaboration to the design process itself, learn how to adapt your process to get recognized for your work

Adapt how you work to get credit for the value you create

Credibility is a finite resource. Learn to avoid common errors that make your perspective as a designer easier to ignore

What top mistakes that cause designers to lose credibility

Making a change? Learn how to quickly identify and align what matters most to your new team or company

How to move effectively to a new team or company

Ask Designer Tom himself your top questions about how he's succeeded at companies of different stages

Live Q&A with Tommy

Defending your Designs

We'll break down how concerns about Value, Cost, & Risk drive business decisions and are often the source of opposition

Identify the business reasons for pushback

Learn the difference between constraints and pushback so you can prioritize your focus and preserve your credibility

Learn how to pick your battles

Mitigate common arguments to win "swing voters" over to your side and keep your solutions moving forward

Ryan Scott

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