Live Courses | Leadership
LECTURE SERIES: SUSTAINABILITY AND IMPACT
Gain insights from industry leaders through a lecture series exploring design’s evolving role across organizations, sustainability, and impact measurement. Each week, speakers will share real-world experiences, emphasizing impact, professional growth, and resilience in design.
Who should take this course?
Early to Mid-Level Researchers
Grow your ability to turn synthesized data into compelling narratives that speak to broader audiences and more effectively drive change on teams.
Product
Designers
Develop a deeper understanding of user needs and behaviors, create more informed and innovative design solutions, and communicate their insights compellingly to stakeholders
Product
Managers
Enhance your capacity to understand user needs, guide the development of user-centered products, communicate effectively with design and development teams
Course Summary
Upon completing this course, you will be able to better position your career within design, and apply techniques and applications to design socially responsible solutions.
Key Details
Format: Live instruction from AC4D faculty, including office hours
Schedule: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 7-9 PM CST
Duration: 10 weeks
Tuition: $4,000 $2,550
Location: Remote
Upcoming Courses
📆 November 10, 2025
📌 Enrollments close approximately two weeks before each course begins.
This course will enable you to:
Understand Impact: Students will understand how practitioners contextualize (face) wicked problems in their work and measure their impact against them
Position Yourself within Design Professions: Students will develop a clearer understanding of the differences between design professions within the realm of human centered design (HCD), including UX, service design, interaction design, civic design, and enterprise
Apply Techniques and Applications: Students will learn about the real-world application of design methodologies and tools preferred by established practitioners that complement the base HCD structures of research, synthesis, and prototyping
Implement Principles of Resiliency: Students will develop an appreciation for the resiliency of HCD career paths, as many practitioners move between industry verticals and design contexts over time
Plan Your Future Self: Students will through the course of the quarter explore and play with aspirational versions of themselves, giving them the opportunity to reflect both on short term and long term impact they hope to have
Leverage Your Abilities for the Career Hustle: Students will build comfort in cold outreach to designers and companies that interest them in order to build connections that help them further build their tribe outside of the AC4D network in realms of design that interest them
Week 1: In-House Design Leadership
Week 2: Research & Strategy
Week 3: Design Research in Government Service
Week 4: Design in Healthcare
Week 5: Design for Enterprise I
Week 6: Design for Enterprise II
Week 7: Design for Sustainability
Week 8: Design Consultancy
Week 9: Design Leadership & You
Week 10: Presentations, Reflection & Celebration
