Trusted by 2000+ experienced designers, managers, and directors
Trying to lead design forward through constant change can be demoralizing…
if you don't have a playbook
Your momentum stalls or (worse) dips
You put everything on your shoulders to figure out alone
You struggle to know what is and isn’t working
You spend a lot of energy trying to convince skeptics
You waste time chasing ideas that don’t move the needle
You spend more time guessing vs. taking intentional actions
Your current approach isn't working like you hoped, but it's not your fault.
And that leads to sleepless nights and constant overwhelm. We don’t want that for you. CDO School has given thousands of leaders clear, actionable plays to introduce real alternatives for business as usual.
Our playbook will work for you, too.

CDO School is the best money I have spent on my career.
A playbook to expand your clarity and confidence as a design leader
01. On-Demand Courses
Over the last couple of years, we've created 13+ on-demand courses. These courses have 94% approval rating, with over 70% of our news students coming in a referrals from alumni.
02. Shared Experiments
Every move you make is motivated a desired outcome. CDO School is the ideal place to grow faster is by running experiments and sharing your results.
03. Honest Feedback
Feedback is a gift. The feedback you get inside CDO School is high-quality, real, and direct. Most importantly, it's delivered with kindness.
04. Private Events
Bring your biggest lessons back to work with you with our custom Figma, Mural, Miro, Google Sheets, Docs, and PDF templates and tools.
05. Weekly Q&A Sessions
Every Monday, we host a 60-minute office hours session. Come, bring your agenda, and we tackle it together with your peers.
06. Proven Frameworks
There's a reason experienced designers at Google, Zillow, and Canva achieve breakthroughs. They use our custom Figma, Mural, Miro, Google Sheets, Docs, and PDF templates.
07. Behind-the-Scenes
Get a transparent look of the behind-the-scenes challenges, strategies, tactics, successes (and failures), lessons learned, and the decisions I made as a design executive.
08. Ongoing Support
Most cohorts leave you on your own after they end. We don’t. Get ongoing, real-time support exactly when you need it most… when you're applying lessons IRL.
09. Exclusive Community
Most digital communities feel lonely, but not here. Celebrates wins, overcomes challenges, and builds connections that become career-defining relationships and opportunities.
5 out of 5 stars
“It's eye-opening to map design to how executives think.”

Firefly Health
5 out of 5 stars
“I cannot recommend this enough for getting to the next level in your career.”

Celerity
5 out of 5 stars
“The experience and lessons have fundamentally changed the way I work.”

NTT
Our systematic methodology transforms how you make design decisions. Grow the judgment to evaluate, interpret, and adjust how design drives business.
Become business savvy
Communicate effectively with execs
Connect craft to operations
Describe your ROI with data
Measure & track your impact
Increase product quality
Link Design to the Bottom Line
Position You Team for Success
13+
on-demand courses
100+
hours of video content
350+
active members
30+
proprietaryy frameworks
150+
tools & templates
300+
hours of video content
93%
student satisfaction
2500+
alumni
+100
referral score
Popular courses

Design Org Strategy
A 9-module, 139-lesson design leadership course to determine your Design Org Strategy by establishing the vision, priorities, measurable outcomes, and tactics of your team and the plan to execute.

Business Basics for Designers
A design leadership course to learn the language of business and communicate how design impacts the big picture.

Predicting Business Impact for Designers
A design leadership course to convert insights and opinions into compelling, statistical evidence that your work is awesome.
What it's like inside
CDO School is perfect for…
Senior, Lead, and Principal Designers looking to move into management.
Managers, Directors, and Heads who lead teams and disciplines.
Service Designers, Reaseachers, and DesignOps'ers who work across teams.
What your peers are saying
CDO School has been featured by…

"An emerging platform to recapture the maverick, creative spirit of design and chart a new path forward for design leadership."

"I’ve been hearing really good things about CDO School. Their mission is to elevate business knowledge now, so that we can more effectively articulate what [design’s] value is and strengthen our design organizations."
How it works
1
Join CDO School
Get access to all our on-demand courses, member-exclusive events, and personalized coaching.
2
Start learning
Discover the fundamental skills you’ll need to represent the design as part of a larger ecosystem and help you build your influence beyond design itself.
3
Grow Your Career
With a plan, you’ll be amazed at how your confidence skyrockets, those overwhelming feelings subside, and how design’s relevance to business expands.

CDO School
12-month membership- Access
- All courses ($2400 value)
- All workshops ($297 value)
- 150+ Tools & Templates
- 30+ Actionable Plays
- 130-page CDO School Workbook
- Members-only community forum
- Past event recordings
- Audio Tips
- Weekly Drop-in Office Hours
- Expert and member-led events
- 20% Discount on Live Courses & Workshops
- Quarterly, 60-minute 1:1 coaching calls with Ryan ($1200 value)
FAQs
Why should I join CDO School when there are other design leadership programs?
It's so great that designers and design leaders have options these days to learn about business, communication, management, and influence. Most of these programs do a good job of teaching you how to fit design into the status quo of business - how to speak the language, how to be visible, and how to describe your work. But that's not what drives change.
CDO School is fundamentally different. We teach you how to make design unignorable by building evidence, moving faster than bureaucracy, and showing value in unexpected ways. This isn't about getting a seat at the table. It's about changing the game entirely.
Why choose CDO School over a live cohort on Maven or other platforms?
The traditional path to design leadership learning usually involves piecing together lessons found in multiple courses. At $500-2k each, you'd need to invest over $10k and months of scheduled sessions to get the full picture. Plus, you're locked into instructor timelines, have to take time off work, have limited access to the instructor, and can't easily revisit the material when you need it most.
CDO School provides the complete playbook, ready when you are, for as low as $499. You get immediate access to everything, can learn at your own pace, and apply the tools to your real work in real time. But the bigger difference? This isn't about attending classes. It's about having a proven playbook and personal support when you need it most.
I already understand business basics. What makes this different?
Knowing business fundamentals isn't enough anymore. The real skill is knowing when business decisions are actually business decisions – and when they're emotional ones masquerading as business logic.
CDO School teaches you how to spot the real roadblocks, build the right evidence, and focus your energy where it matters. Business programs leave out your biggest challenge: building relationships and trust with people who are skeptical of what you do. This isn't about learning business terms or frameworks. It's about learning to win in ways you haven't figured out yet.
What if I'm not sure I want to be a CDO or executive leader?
The insights and strategies in CDO School aren't just for people pursuing executive roles. They're for anyone who's tired of seeing good design work die in endless meetings and politics. Whether you're a Senior Designer wanting more influence, a Design Manager trying to protect your team from bureaucracy, or a Director attempting to create real change - this is about having impact. We show you how to adapt, adjust, and position design to win in ways that are specific to your situation.
How is this different from traditional Design or DesignOps training?
This isn't another prorgam about workshops, journey maps, or design systems. Those are important tools, but they haven't fundamentally changed design's influence in most companies. CDO School is about what happens before the frameworks and processes – how to spot real opportunities, how to build evidence that can't be ignored, and how to move faster than the bureaucracy.
With AI democratizing so much of development and operations, we show you how to focus your energy on the work that actually creates change. This is about being dangerous – in the best possible way.
What if my company isn't design-driven?
Here's the reality most programs ignore: most companies don't compete on design. They win through pricing, scale, network effects, or enterprise sales. Instead of fighting this reality, CDO School shows you how to use it to your advantage.
You'll learn how to demonstrate exactly how design can amplify existing advantages, make current strategies stronger, and create unexpected value. This isn't about converting everyone to design-first thinking. It's about making design an undeniable multiplier of what already works, and commanding attention for what doesn't.