Leading Beyond Design - Course overview
Become a more effective and influential design leader within your business. Learn how organizations think, make decisions and measure value - helping you collaborate better across functions, influence senior stakeholders and grow your impact beyond the design team.
Who this course is for
Design leaders who want to contribute more effectively in cross-functional teams. Those who want to build confidence working with their broader business. And those in more senior positions looking to grow into leadership roles extending beyond Design.
Choose your course time slot
Tailored to your individual needs, select the perfect time slot for you and book the course.
Understand core business concepts
Build confidence with how businesses use numbers
Become more effective and influential beyond Design
Understand how other business functions think
Bridge gaps with other disciplines
Lead cross-functional teams
Communicate impactfully with senior executives
Build your professional network beyond Design
Kickoff session
We start the course with a live kick-off session to get to know each other and set you up for success.
Week 1: Understand the basics of business
Demystify some of the business concepts that throw up walls between designers and other business functions, plus understand why no-one has ever been “invited to a seat at the table”. You'll walk away with a better understanding of how Design fits into business and identify ways to make that work better for you.
Week 2: Impact, impact, impact
Understand why numbers are an inescapable part of every successful business and get comfortable with how everyone else seems to be making them up as they go along. You'll walk away with an understanding of business value and the confidence to justify your team’s budget.
Week 3: Business problem solving
Learn how other parts of the business think, why many struggle with a design-led approach and why that’s not a problem. You'll walk away knowing how to better lead cross-functional teams and complement rather than compete with peers.
Week 4: CEO-whispering
Learn how to land key messages with senior audiences in ways that will drive them to act. You'll walk away with tools and techniques for structuring your written and verbal comms more impactfully.
Week 5: Growing beyond what you know
Understand the critical importance of your personal brand and why, for successful leaders, being good just isn’t good enough. You'll walk away understanding sponsorship as well as tactical next steps to improve your business standing.
Closing session
We end our course with a live session to celebrate your achievements and onboard you to the iF DESIGN ACADEMY alumni community.
Want more details? Get your personal consultation session!
With a background in design and engineering, Garen has counselled the C-suites of multinational businesses across the globe on operations, product development and R&D excellence, including multi-year corporate transformations in sectors including consumer goods, medtech, retail, industrials and aerospace.
In his last role as Associate Partner at McKinsey, he developed and co-authored McKinsey's influential reports on the Business Value of Design, as well as leading professional training programs for clients and McKinsey’s own leaders on leadership excellence and design in business.
Guest Lecturers
Van is the Head of Transformation at the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in London, helping to steer the RA through a significant period of change.
Chris is the former Head of Research & Design at Xbox and advises companies and senior executives on the intersection of strategy and user experience.
