Articulating Design Impact: How to Speak the Language of Design Leadership
Kai Wong
Medium.com's Top Design Writer.
Learn How to Position Your Design Work for Leadership Opportunities in 4 Weeks
Translating UX into business outcomes influences everything, from buy-in to hiring. But it's where designers often struggle.
Data Informed Design gives you the frameworks to connect your design work to business outcomes, reframe case studies using existing data, and communicate like a design leader.
Backed by interviews with 26 design executives and 100+ designers worldwide:
"Even AI can do decent design drafts—what I want to see is: can you create impact?" – Head of Design, Enterprise
"To reach the next level, you need to be a strategic thinker who can communicate." – Design Director, ex-Amazon
"Talk the same language. Learn how to talk in the way that they're going to understand." – Principal Design Consultant, Agency
✅ Research-backed frameworks from 26 executive interviews—not random storytelling tips
✅ Transform YOUR case studies using the Ladder Technique and Goals-Signals-Metrics approach
✅ Learn copywriting principles that sell products—applied to selling your strategic value
✅ Personalized feedback from Medium's Top Design Writer (350+ articles)
If you want to position your work for leadership roles that show the value you create, this course is for you.
What you’ll learn
Go from undervalued designers who speak design to strategic design partners who can speak business
Learn the 9 Product Goals framework to identify which metrics your design work actually impacts.
Master the "Ladder Technique" to identify which Product Goal your Design Projects are about
Practice extracting metrics from from a real-life case study from Meta
Learn the Goals → Signals → Metrics framework to connect business objectives to user behavior
Practice translating vague requests ("improve the experience") into specific, measurable outcomes
Use the Core Challenge framework to make complex user problems instantly understandable
Use the Talk It Out framework to identify which Data Visualization best expresses your point
Understand how to find data that helps you craft an effective data visualization
Learn the ICE Prioritization framework to evaluate which design solutions move the needle on key metrics
Learn to create hypotheses, which tie design decisions to business outcomes
Understand how to effectively use data to turn ideas into evidence-based recommendations
Use AI to practice presentations and understand things from a PM/Executive view
Create a 5-minute story, a universal UX Story that can be used everywhere
Learn how to use Problem-Agitate-Solution, the persuasive framework that's sold billions of iPhones
Learn directly from Kai
Kai Wong
Medium's Top Design Writer| 13 Years Designing in Low Maturity Organizations
Who this course is for
Designers who want to use data to bypass office politics and prove their value immediately
Designers tired of watching 'strategic' roles like PMs get promoted while their insights are ignored
Designers in low-UX maturity environments where relationship-building isn't enough
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Kai Wong in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.
Course syllabus
12 live sessions • 42 lessons • 4 projects
Week 1
Workshop 1 Lessons: Align with Product Goals
Mar
2
Workshop 1: What is Data Informed Design? Bridging Design Work and Business Goals
Workshop 2 Lessons: Track Design impact on Business outcomes
Mar
5
Workshop 2: Want to talk about the Value of Design? Track Business Outcomes
Mar
6
Office Hours
Week 2
Workshop 3 Lessons: Identifying the core problem that matters to your audience
Mar
9
Workshop 3: The most important question to answer is "So What?"
Workshop 4 Lessons: Turn your Core Challenge into Data Visualizations
Mar
12
Workshop 4: Turn your Core Challenge into a Data Visualization
Mar
13
Office Hours
Schedule
Live sessions
2 hrs / week
Mon, Mar 2
5:00 PM—6:00 PM (UTC)
Thu, Mar 5
5:00 PM—6:00 PM (UTC)
Fri, Mar 6
4:30 PM—5:00 PM (UTC)
Projects
1 hr / week
The exercises help create a final project, which is an effective Data Story draft presentation
Async content
1 hr / week
Follow along with not only pre-recorded videos, but concept cards and templates as well
Testimonials
"Kai brought structure and clarity to our transformation stories — distilling complex, multi-layered design challenges into simple, human narratives that reveal how design drives real organisational change."
Jean-Baptiste Kaloya
VP, Product Design at BPIFrance
Frequently asked questions
$599
USD