Strategy & Influence
for product designers
Become a strategic partner by connecting design with business, driving discovery, and creating compelling narratives that build alignment.
What you'll get out of this course
Everything you need to transform from a tactical designer to a strategic leader
Connect design to business goals
Learn to connect your design work to business objectives, speak the language of stakeholders, and demonstrate tangible value through frameworks and templates.
Showcase your work
Present your designs in a way that leads the conversation and drives decision-making, using versatile templates and structured feedback frameworks.
Drive product discovery
Ensure you solve the right problems with the right solutions. Gather insights, validate assumptions, and lead discovery sessions that engage cross-functional teams.
Navigate and influence stakeholders
Learn to map key players, understand their motivations, and build proactive alignment. Gain the trust and buy-in needed to turn your design vision into a shared, actionable reality.
Communicate your impact
Identify leading and lagging indicators, connect design changes to key product metrics, and tell a compelling, data-informed story about your work.
Position yourself as a strategic partner
Transform your role from executing tasks to building alignment and mapping out the future of the product. Gain the skills to influence product direction.
From pixel pusher to design leader
This course is your blueprint to becoming a strategic partner and design leader.
Self-paced
Learn independently, on your schedule.
- 30 video lessons
- Practical frameworks
- Figjam templates
- Presentation deck template
- Real-world examples and case studies
Tax may be applied at checkout.
Cohort-based
Everything in the self-paced course, plus:
- Community of peers
- Live sessions with Dan
- Instructor feedback on your projects
- Maven certificate of completion
Tax may be applied at checkout.
"Dan's class was hands down the best product strategy course I've ever taken! 🙌🏼 I've already had success with some of my learnings, for example, I created a value stream map that helped align my product team around my UX strategy. I also love his teaching style! I feel more confident and equipped to be a stronger strategic partner and leader in the product space."
What students are saying
Hear from designers who have transformed their careers
My favorite parts of the course were how practical it was and how Dan taught. Dan is a wealth of knowledge and I felt he genuinely cared about each of us growing into more strategic and influential designers. Everything he taught I was able to take into my work and projects. I still have a ways to go but I would recommend this course to everybody w...
Product Designer
Dan's course offers great insights into product strategy with practical templates and methods, real-life examples, and guidance on how to make change happen to become more influential in your designer position. The ability to ask questions and get personalized feedback makes it easy to apply what you learn right away!
Product Designer | UX/UI designer
Dan was an incredibly thorough and responsive instructor. He chunked out the lessons in easy-to-understand ways, offered significant flexibility on completing projects, and added a special Q&A session a different day and time after feedback from some of the cohort in other time zones. The course gave me a lot to think about as I plan my career prog...
Designer
Dan's course is packed with helpful frameworks, content, and actionable items on how to think strategically while communicating designs—all of which will help elevate your career. Dan is a wonderfully engaging and professional presenter who is easy to listen to and follow. The course content strikes a perfect balance between theoretical concepts an...
Senior Product Designer
Dan's course on product strategy was exactly what I needed to better understand how I can bring my voice as a designer to my team and advocate to work on meaningful features. He provided ample examples to help students understand his strategies and frameworks. He also shared out these frameworks that I could immediately apply to my workflow. I woul...
Senior Product Designer
Great content for the course, and very interactive workshop sessions. There's a lot to get through in a short duration, but the content is still accessible after the course ends.
Product Designer II
I really enjoyed the course and was refreshing to have exposure and meaningful context on how to bridge the gap from an individual contributor to a leader and strategic partner within an organisation. Dan's vast experience in many leadership positions helped simplify unknown territory for us and shared effective ways in embedding business contexts,...
Senior Product Designer
Dan provided great frameworks and methods for engaging team members and gathering important information to improve my work as a product designer. I go back to the lessons and use his strategies to help with discovery, share work, and gather feedback. It was an invaluable experience, highly recommend it.
UX/UI Designer
I really benefitted from the Strategy and Influence for Product Designers course. Throughout the process, Dan helped me understand how to communicate my ideas and prep my projects to make a bigger impact. I loved how he brought in real-life scenarios from the cohort. Seeing how others tackled their challenges and getting Dan's on-the-spot advice wa...
Senior UX/UI Designer
Course syllabus
Module 1
Understanding your business
Strong designers know how to solve problems. Exceptional designers know which problems are worth solving. This module teaches you how to understand the business context you work in, so you can prioritise high-impact work and make better strategic decisions. You'll learn to map value streams, analyse pricing models, and use business insights to guide your design efforts.
Module 2
Communicating the value of design
Design only drives outcomes if others understand its value. In this module, you'll learn how to connect your work to business goals using clear, evidence-based language. You'll move beyond vague ideas like "cleaner" or "more intuitive" and start framing your work in terms of leading indicators, revenue impact, and customer behaviour. You'll walk away with a repeatable framework for making your impact visible and credible.
Module 3
Owning product discovery
If you want more influence as a designer, discovery is your biggest lever. This module shows you how to lead discovery without waiting for permission. You'll learn how to define real problems, align cross-functional teams, and use a structured whiteboard process to drive clarity and reduce risk. By the end, you'll know how to shape what gets built, not just how it looks.
Module 4
Sharing your work to maximise impact
Great design doesn't speak for itself—you need to share it well. This module helps you build the communication skills that drive influence, not just approval. You'll learn how to present work with confidence, get the right feedback at the right time, and use early artefacts to shape product direction. Whether you're sharing in a design review or job interview, you'll have a structure that highlights your thinking and shows real impact.
Module 5
Leading with alignment and clarity
You can't lead without alignment. This module teaches you how to bring clarity to messy product conversations by engaging the right stakeholders, surfacing assumptions, and building a shared vision. You'll learn practical techniques for stakeholder interviews, internal research, and alignment workshops, along with a structured way to turn insights into a strong design vision. The result is fewer dead ends and stronger ownership of the work that matters.
What You'll Gain
Transform your career with practical skills and frameworks
A path to promotion
Build the skills that get you noticed—and promoted. Learn how to align your design work with business objectives, influence product direction, and lead strategic conversations that drive decision-making.
Practical tools
Get 6 proven frameworks, 5 powerful templates, and real-world strategies you can apply immediately. Includes business model mapping, SWOT analysis for designers, stakeholder mapping, and ready-to-use interview templates.
In-depth content
4 deep-dive weekly modules covering business understanding, product discovery ownership, work sharing, and leading with alignment and clarity.
Confidence to lead
Whether leading product discovery sessions, presenting your work to stakeholders, or managing cross-functional teams, you'll develop the confidence and skills to lead with authority.
Design files
Downloadable Figma and FigJam templates for discovery whiteboards, structured async feedback, strategic alignment workshops, and presenting design work.
Real-world examples
Case studies from companies like Smile.io, PandaDoc, and Kit showing how to connect design work to revenue and present impact with metrics.
Assignments and practice
4 take-home assignments to map your business model, run discovery processes, craft strategic design stories, and build stakeholder alignment plans.
Additional highlights
Dual-track agile for designers, stakeholder interview techniques, reframing design problems as business opportunities, and building visibility with async workflows.
Meet your instructor
Transform your career with insights from a seasoned design leader
I've worked in the design industry for over 18 years. During the last decade, I've led design and research teams and helped product designers achieve their best work.
As a product designer and UX manager, I've driven the design strategy for various startups and established companies, ensuring alignment between design and business goals.
This course is the culmination of years of experience and knowledge. It will serve as a practical toolkit to help you excel in your career and make a meaningful impact in the industry.
"Dan's content is very practical, actionable and useful. There are always plenty of useful insights and nuggets of wisdom that you can apply to your project right away!"
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