Trusted by thousands of design leaders
Trying to lead design forward through constant change can be demoralizing… if you don’t have a playbook.
You waste precious time chasing ideas that don’t move the needle.
You put everything on your shoulders to figure out alone.
You spend a lot of energy trying to convince skeptics.
You struggle to know what is and isn’t working.
Your momentum stalls or (worse) dips.
You do more guessing vs. taking intentional actions.
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.
Learn and apply a playbook to expand your clarity and confidence as a design leader.
Popular Courses
Design Team Strategy
9 modules • 136 lessons
Business Basics for Designers
1 modules • 13 lessons
Find Your Executive Champions
1 modules • 12 lessons
Predicting Business Impact
1 modules • 11 lessons
CDO School is perfect if you want to evaluate, interpret, and adjust how good design drives good business.
Become business savvy
Connect craft to operations
Describe and estimate your ROI
Measure & track your impact
Communicate your strategic value
Raise product & service quality
Position your team for success
13+
on-demand courses
150+
tools and templates
30+
step-by-step guides
200+
lessons
100+
hours of video content
20+
original frameworks
94%
student satisfaction
2000+
alumni
+100
recommendation score
What it's like inside
What you get when you enroll
13+ essential courses, so you don't have to choose.
Pragmatic. Effective. Systematic. Take one of our popular courses to multiply your effectiveness in business, and see yourself within it.
Live role-playing, to practice before it's real.
Participate in real-world scenarios (negotiating, persuading, measuring, etc.) and get opportunities for critical observation and feedback from peers.
1:1 coaching for your specific challenges.
Personalized guidance and support when you need it to help you gain valuable insights and overcome challenges specific you and your role.
30+ step-by-step plays to take action now.
Designed to bring leadership out of thinking and into action, these custom, step-by-step activities are perfect for bringing meaningful change to life.
Weekly events & replays to connect, share, and reflect.
From Drop-in Office Hours to Manager Circles, our calendar is made to fit your busy schedule, not compete with it.
150+ tools & templates to shift key decisions.
Bring your biggest lessons back to work with you with our custom Figma, Mural, Miro, Google Sheets, Docs, and PDF templates and tools.
Daily audio tips for your busy schedule.
Each tip is less than 3 minutes long, delivered Monday thru Friday, because some of the best lessons come in small packages.
130-page activity guide to print and reuse.
A 130-page activity guide to interpret your business strategy and choose the unique, specific ways your Design Team brings good business to life.
The CDO School Leadership Playbook
Examine the Four Fits of Design Value, and repeatedly give you yourself the time, energy, and deliberate effort position design to win at your company.
What our alumni are saying
CDO School is perfect for…
Senior, Lead, and Principal Designers looking to move into management.
Managers, Directors, and Executives who lead teams and disciplines.
Service Designers, Reaseachers, and DesignOps'ers who work across teams.
CDO School is a system to plan, and pivot, where and how design can be most effective inside your company.
A playbook to deal with the constant changes inside your company
Actionable skills you can apply now
Progress at your own pace - no rigid schedules.
Get straight to what 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.
Pricing
Basic 🌿
An MBA in your pocket
- Access
- All courses ($2400 value)
- All workshops ($297 value)
- 150+ Tools & Templates
- 30+ Actionable Plays
- 130-page Workbook
- Past event recordings
- Daily Audio Tips
- Weekly Drop-in Office Hours
- Expert and member-led events
- Completion certificates
Pro 🪴
Courses + Cohorts + Coaching
- Everything in Basic, plus:
- Live Role-Playing Cohorts
- Real-world simulations
- Practice specific leadership challenges
- Receive feedback
- Private group of peers
- Asynchronous 1:1 coaching with Ryan Rumsey
- Ask questions about your situation
- Get a written response within 48 hours
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 $588. 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.