Strategy & Influence
for product designers
AI is swallowing the execution layer. The designers who thrive next are the ones who shape strategy, lead discovery, and speak the language of the business. This self-paced course teaches exactly that, drawn from 12 years of leading design teams.
Students from:
Design Career Coach
An AI coach built specifically around this course's frameworks. Ask it to apply the methodology to real situations at work.
52-day email series
19 emails over seven weeks, timed to help you apply each module at work while it is still fresh.
30 video lessons
Practical content covering business strategy, product discovery, stakeholder alignment, sharing your work, and building a design vision.
FigJam templates
Discovery whiteboards, stakeholder maps, alignment workshop templates, and structured feedback frameworks, all ready to use immediately.
Proven frameworks
Business model mapping, SWOT analysis for designers, leading and lagging indicators, RACI matrix, and the power-interest matrix.
Real-world case studies
Examples from Kit, Smile.io, and PandaDoc showing how to connect design work to business outcomes and present impact with real metrics.
What you'll learn
Six shifts that take you from executing other people's ideas to shaping what gets built
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.
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 students are saying
From the designers who've taken it
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'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
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
Meet your instructor
The person behind the course
Dan Winer
I've been designing and leading teams since 2007, across five companies from startups to established product businesses. I'm currently Director of Product Design at Kit, and I write about design strategy and career growth for 44,000+ product designers on LinkedIn.
I first taught this material live to 84 designers over multiple cohorts, then rebuilt it as a self-paced course from what worked. It's everything I know about connecting design to business outcomes, owning discovery, and building alignment: the toolkit I wish I'd had earlier in my career.
From pixel pusher to design leader
One payment, lifetime access, at your own pace. 30-day money-back guarantee.
Self-paced
- 30 video lessons
- 19-email onboarding series
- Practical frameworks
- FigJam templates
- Presentation deck template
- 4 take-home assignments
- Real-world examples and case studies
Self-paced. 30-day money-back guarantee. 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."
