Lead Design That Gets Noticed and Taken Seriously in Business.
CDO School is a management school for design leaders. Our courses, content, resources, and events help you confidently shift design from business optional to essential.
TRUSTED BY THOUSANDS OF LEADERS FROM TOP COMPANIES
Trying to lead design forward 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 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
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 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.
Get a systems thinking approach to grow your judgment and confidence as a design leader.
- Become Business Savvy
- Drive Product Quality
- Describe the ROI of Design
- Link Design to the Bottom Line
- Measure & Track Your Impact
- Communicate Effectively
13+
on-demand courses
100+
hours of video content
350+
active members
30+
proprietary frameworks
150+
tools and templates
1500+
community posts
93%
student satisfaction
1200+
alumni
+100
referral score
What’s is like inside?
What you get
13+ On-Demand Courses
Access our entire library of on-demand courses, filled with real-world insights, practical tactics, and exercises designed specifically to use in the real-world.
30+ Actionable Plays
Designed to bring leadership out of thinking and into action, these custom, step-by-step activities are perfect for bringing meaningful change to life.
On-the-spot Coaching
Receive personalized feedback, specific to your unique situation and needs, directly from CDO School founder Ryan Rumsey.
150+ Tools & Templates
Bring your biggest lessons back to work with you with our custom Figma, Mural, Miro, Google Sheets, Docs, and PDF templates and tools.
Weekly live events
Join experts and member-led discussions with those who share your responsibilities and pressures and others who have done it before.
Resource Library
Gain full access to no-BS lessons, proven frameworks, and tactical toolkits, all delivered by leaders who've been in your shoes and have your back.
Who is CDO School for?
Senior, Lead, and Principal Designers looking to move into management.
Managers, Directors, and Executives who lead teams and disciplines.
Service Designers, Researchers, and DesignOps Leaders who work closely across teams.
What people are saying
As featured in
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
CDO School is a system to plan, and pivot, where and how design can be most effective inside your company.
- Practical lessons that fit your schedule
- Skills you can apply now
- A playbook to account for the constant changes inside your company
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 🪴
Unlock in-depth learnings.
$300
/year
- Access to all courses ($2400 value)
- Access to all workshops ($297 value)
- Access to past event recordings
- 130-page CDO School Workbook
- 150+ Tools & Templates
- 30+ Actionable Plays Members-only
- Members-only community forum
- Weekly Monday Campfire Calls with Ryan
- Expert and member-led events
- 10% Discount on Live Courses & Workshops
Premium 🌳
Basic + Personalized guidance.
$500
/year
- Access to all courses ($2400 value)
- Access to all workshops ($297 value)
- Access to past event recordings
- 130-page CDO School Workbook
- 150+ Tools & Templates
- 30+ Actionable Plays Members-only
- Members-only community forum
- Weekly Monday Campfire Calls with Ryan
- Expert and member-led events
- 20% Discount on Live Courses & Workshops
- Quarterly, 60-minute 1:1 coaching calls with Ryan ($1200 value)