Player-Coach: The Workshop for Hybrid Design Leaders
Yuan Wang
Head of Design, Maven. Ex-Airbnb/Twitter
Thrive as a player-coach design leader without burning out.
The design leader's role has changed. Flat orgs. Reduced middle management. Companies are now hiring for player-coach roles everywhere.
More design leaders are being asked to ship and manage at the same time — often as one headcount doing two jobs. The result: burnout, misalignment, and talented leaders quietly stepping back to IC work.
I've been a hybrid design leader at Airbnb. For the past 4 years, I've been a player-coach leader as the Head of Design at Maven.
This workshop teaches the mindset and skillset that I've learned the hard way: when to play, when to coach, and how to do both without burning out.
Workshop agenda
- 12:00PM EDT
How to Play: Craft and Communication
What changes when you're still shipping but also responsible for a team's output. Distinguishing the work only you can do from the work you do by habit.
- 12:30PM EDT
How to Play: Strategy and Calibration
Being the connective tissue between design and business without becoming the bottleneck. Hands-on exercise to build a personalized calibration framework for when to jump in and when to step back.
- 1:30PM EDT
Break: 15 mins
Short Break
- 1:45PM EDT
How to Coach for Growth
Coach and critique that builds taste and autonomy. Learn the coaching skills and mindset to scale yourself and empower others to step into their own wisdom. Yuan will do live demo and practice.
- 3:00PM EDT
Develop Your Player-Coach Action Plan
Let's turn the learnings into actions. You'll map where you are now, identify your default mode (over-playing or over-coaching), and build a concrete weekly action plan for the shift you want to make.
Learn directly from Yuan
Yuan Wang
Head of Design at Maven. Certified Coach. Ex: Airbnb/Twitter/Mozilla
Who this workshop is for
Senior, Staff, or Principal designers interested in stepping into Head of Design or newly in the role.
Design managers who still ship and want frameworks for balancing playing and coaching without burnout.
Founding designers at early-stage startups scaling from being the solo designer to hiring and growing a design team.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Yuan Wang in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Access to ongoing 1:1 support
Opportunity to get 1:1 coaching from Yuan to thrive as a design leader (separate offering. limited spots)
Maven Guarantee
Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
$550
USD