Class: Begin by selecting a compelling project topic. Gain a comprehensive understanding of design thinking and the design process, exploring how it intersects with marketing, business strategy, and technology. Dive into insightful case studies from startups, consulting firms, and Fortune 500 companies like Amazon, Pepsi, Airbnb, Apple, and IDEO to see how design drives innovation and success.

Deliverables: Outline your key assumptions about your chosen project topic. Identify the challenges you aim to address and define the problem areas you’re most passionate about tackling.

Class: Delve into UX research methods to uncover critical user needs, address stakeholder challenges, and identify opportunities for innovation. Explore techniques such as leading user interviews, facilitating focus groups, hosting ideation sessions, and conducting stakeholder workshops. Gain a deeper understanding of the psychology behind effective UX interviews, including interpreting body language, recognizing user emotions, and analyzing verbal and non-verbal cues.

Deliverables: Conduct 5-8 user interviews, facilitate 1 focus group and 1 ideation session, and synthesize your findings through affinity clustering.

Class: Transform your research findings into actionable insights and clear design directions. Create journey maps, process maps, storyboards, Jobs-to-be-Done frameworks, and sketches to effectively communicate your discoveries. Develop the art of storytelling to present your product vision in a way that resonates with diverse audiences, from stakeholders to end users.

Deliverables: 5-8 user interviews, create user journey maps, define user types, design process maps, articulate Jobs-to-be-Done, and develop storyboards and sketches to illustrate your insights.

Class: Master the art of integrating UX innovation with robust business strategies. Explore pre-totyping methods to validate ideas swiftly and craft business models that address real-world challenges. Refine your concepts by navigating business, operational, and technical constraints, ensuring feasibility and impact. Immerse yourself in a crash course on entrepreneurship, gaining the skills to scope and define a compelling Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that aligns with both user needs and business goals.

Deliverables: Execute pre-totyping experiments, design comprehensive business models, map UX workflows, develop wireframes, and generate transformative ideas through focused ideation.

Class: Elevate your prototype through rigorous usability testing with five users, refining your concept based on actionable insights. Develop expertise in managing the end-to-end UX design process across diverse contexts, including startups, consulting firms, and corporate environments. Learn the principles of effective stakeholder management and master strategic product and feature scoping. Gain the ability to choose and apply the most appropriate UX methodologies tailored to the unique challenges of each project.

Deliverables: Conduct five usability testing sessions and produce a professional user testing guide to document insights and drive design iterations.

Class: Deepen your understanding of AI technologies, including large language models (LLMs) and generative AI. Master AI design heuristics and best practices, while addressing ethical considerations and strategies for fostering user trust. Learn to balance user control with AI automation and design intuitive AI chatbots. Explore advanced techniques such as Wizard of Oz prototyping to craft innovative and user-centered AI solutions.

Deliverables: Define and scope an AI feature for your MVP product, illustrating how it evolves and gains sophistication as your business scales.

Class: Present your research findings and concept ideation to the class, telling a compelling story and pitching your MVP (minimum viable product) idea.

Deliverables: present midterms, telling a balanced story between the user perspective, business strategy and business model, as well as tech/operations constraints.

Class: Dive into detailed competitor analysis—both direct and indirect—for your MVP product idea. Leverage UX heuristics and laws to identify strengths and weaknesses in competitors' designs. Refine your sketches and low-fidelity wireframes by focusing on the organization and information architecture (IA) of your MVP, ensuring clarity and usability.

Deliverables: Comprehensive competitor analysis and IA diagrams, including sitemaps and user flows.

Class: Elevate your low-fidelity wireframes and user flows to mid-fidelity by implementing structured grid systems for polished layouts. Leverage AI tools to enhance your designs and develop AI features with greater sophistication, bringing them to mid-fidelity refinement.

Deliverables: Mid-fidelity wireframe concepts, a comprehensive style guide, and detailed AI feature designs.

Class: Develop your low-mid fidelity wireframe concepts into sophisticated components. Utilize atomic design principles to create a unique design system for your MVP product. Consider how your design system will scale over time as your MVP scales into a more sophisticated product.

Deliverables: high fidelity concepts, design libraries, and style guides.

Class: Learn about cross-functional team collaboration, UX and stakeholder management, and working within design and development sprints. Learn how to handle design critiques and pitch a variety of concepts to senior stakeholders and executives, showcasing the ROI on UI/UX concepts, the reasoning behind on your designs and how they will affect conversion rates, clicks, lead generation and engagement.

Deliverables: high fidelity concepts continuing to be refined.

Class: Learn about auto-layout, connecting your high fidelity screens into a clickable prototype, and refining your storytelling and presentation of each of your screens, your UX workflow, and your full prototype.

Deliverables: clickable prototype

Class: Take a break to catch up on all your design initiatives, such as wire-framing and prototyping before the finals presentations.

Deliverables: catch up.

Class: Present your complete project idea to the cohort and tell a compelling story about your product that gets users and investors alike interested.

Deliverables: present finals.

Class: Build a standout online portfolio that highlights your journey through this course, showcasing two compelling case studies—one focused on UX research and the other on UX design. Gain the confidence to present your work effectively during various interview stages, including recruiter screeners, hiring manager discussions, portfolio reviews, whiteboard challenges, and team interviews. Develop strategies to navigate these conversations with poise and professionalism.

Deliverables: Write your first UX case study and launch your portfolio website. Hone your interview skills through targeted practice, preparing thoughtful, impactful answers to common questions.

Class: Master the art of crafting a compelling UX resume and optimizing your LinkedIn profile to stand out in the competitive job market. Explore potential UX career paths and discover effective networking and job search strategies designed to help you secure a role within four months of completing the course. Gain clarity on aligning your strengths and goals with the right opportunities.

Deliverables: Create the first draft of your polished resume and apply to 20 targeted UX job opportunities, putting your learning into immediate action.

1:1 Career Coaching: In your first month post-graduation, receive personalized guidance to craft both long-form and short-form UX resumes tailored to your prioritized career path. Collaboratively refine and create multiple versions of your resume, leveraging A/B testing to identify the most effective format and content. Once the optimal resume is identified, align and optimize your LinkedIn profile to enhance visibility and attract the right opportunities.

Deliverables: Polished UX resumes and a professionally optimized LinkedIn profile to elevate your job search strategy.

1:1 Career Coaching: Work closely with your career coach to design and launch a professional UX portfolio website that showcases your skills and projects. Develop 3-5 compelling case studies that highlight your expertise in UX research, design, and strategy. Each case study will be crafted to effectively communicate your process, insights, and impact, positioning you as a standout candidate in the job market.

Deliverables: A fully functional UX portfolio website featuring 3-5 polished case studies that demonstrate your abilities and elevate your professional profile.

1:1 Career Coaching: During the third month after you graduate, we help you craft answers for recruiter interviews, hiring manager interviews, UX portfolio reviews, and whiteboard challenges.

Deliverables: Interview techniques and practice.

Group Alumni Career Coaching: We host 1-hour alumni group coaching calls every 2 weeks. We also host a Slack alumni community for asynchronous communication. These resources will help you stay accountable with your job search and moving up in your UX career!