Product Design

Take a product from problem framing and research through strategy and metrics to a validated prototype, defending every decision with evidence.

6 Weeks5 Sessions/WeekIn PersonIntermediate

Problem FramingProduct MetricsUsability Testing

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Overview Curriculum Deliverables Assessment Enquire

What you'll be able to do

Graduates can take a product from problem framing and research through strategy, scope and metrics to a validated prototype, and can defend every decision with evidence.

Frame a problem, map a business model and analyse a competitive field
Plan and run discovery research and turn it into evidenced insight
Set a vision, prioritise a backlog and define an MVP with an explicit out-of-scope list
Define metrics and write a product brief that engineers and stakeholders can both use
Structure a product at scale and move quickly from sketch to wireframe to prototype
Run usability tests and experiments, and act on the results
Work with engineers through sprints, handoff and design QA
Design AI features responsibly, including for uncertainty and failure
Present a product case study

Who it's for

UI/UX designers moving into product ownership and strategy
Product managers and business analysts working with design teams
Founders and early product hires defining what to build
Designers who can build interfaces but not justify them commercially

Prerequisites

Working familiarity with Figma, or completion of the UI/UX Design course
No coding required

Tools and technologies

FigmaFramesAuto layoutComponentsVariablesStylesFile structureDev modeRICEMoSCoWKanoHEARTAARRRResearch and synthesis tooling with AI assisted clusteringAI generated wireframe variantsProduct requirements documentationAnalytics or experimentation tooling

Target roles

Product DesignerSenior UI/UX DesignerAssociate Product ManagerDesign Lead in a small teamFounding designer

Course curriculum

6 modules · 5-6 weeks

01
What product design is
Product design against UI design and product management, what the role owns, career paths, product teardown by business intent
02
How products live and die
Discovery, delivery and growth; product market fit; why features go unused; the build trap
03
Business models
Subscription, freemium, marketplace, advertising, transaction fee and enterprise models; unit economics; how the model shapes the interface
04
Framing the problem
Jobs to be done, problem statement structure, the opportunity solution tree, feature requests against problems
05
Market and competitors
Direct, indirect and substitute competition; feature against positioning comparison; competitor matrix; finding the gap

06
Planning research
Question led research, matching method to question, sample size, bias, ethics and consent
07
Interviews and observation
Semi structured interviews, the five whys, contextual inquiry, facilitation practice
08
Surveys and numbers
Survey design, question types and scales, sampling and sample size, reading percentages honestly
09
Making sense of it all
Affinity mapping, thematic analysis, quantifying qualitative data, insight statements, AI assisted clustering
10
Who you are designing for
Segments, personas and jobs to be done stories; choosing a primary segment; evidence attached to claims

11
Vision and strategy
Vision against strategy against roadmap, positioning statements, strategy as choosing what not to do
12
Prioritisation
RICE, impact against effort, MoSCoW, the Kano model, defending a ranking with evidence
13
Defining the MVP
Minimum and viable, vertical slicing, writing what is out of scope, scope creep
14
Metrics
North Star metric, the HEART framework, the AARRR funnel, leading and lagging indicators, vanity metrics
15
The product brief
Product requirements document structure, acceptance criteria, writing for engineers and for stakeholders

16
Figma for product work
Frames, auto layout, components, variables and styles; file and page structure
17
Structure at scale
Object oriented UX, object maps, sitemaps, navigation models, separating onboarding, core loop and settings
18
Wireframing fast
Crazy eights and sketching, low fidelity wireframes, speed over polish, AI generated wireframe variants
19
Interface craft and content
Empty, loading, error, offline, first run and permission states; content design and UX writing; bilingual interfaces
20
Prototyping to learn
Fidelity matched to the question, Wizard of Oz prototyping, concept testing against usability testing

21
Testing with people
Usability, concept and preference testing; task scenarios; facilitation; severity rating and fix lists
22
Experiments
A/B testing, hypothesis and control, sample size and significance, feature flags and staged rollouts
23
Working with engineers
Agile and sprints, dev mode and handoff, design QA, estimating and negotiating scope, design debt
24
Onboarding, growth, and ethics
Activation and first run, retention loops, notifications, dark patterns, bandwidth, device and trust constraints
25
Designing AI features, and the case study
AI product patterns, designing for uncertainty, confidence, citation, correction and undo, failure states, privacy and consent

26
Problem, research, and evidence review
Evidence review, tracing every claim to a source
27
Strategy and scope review
Strategy, MVP scope and metrics review
28
Structure and flows review
Object map, sitemap, flows and wireframe critique
29
Interface and validation review
Interface critique, prototype walkthrough, usability test results
30
Final pitch
Product case study pitch, brief, Figma file and prototype submission

Deliverables

#	Checkpoint	Submission
1	Session 5	Problem statement, business model map, competitor matrix
2	Session 10	Research plan, findings, survey results, target segment
3	Session 15	Strategy, backlog, MVP scope, metrics, product brief
4	Session 20	Flows, wireframes, key screens, working prototype
5	Session 30	Case study PDF, product brief, Figma file, pitch

Assessment

40%The five checkpoint deliverables

20%Critique participation, assessed on the quality of feedback given

25%Final case study, product brief, Figma file and prototype

15%Final pitch and questioning

Project week is structured entirely as review and critique. Each of the four review sessions gates the next stage of the project. Session 26 requires every claim in the project to be traced to a source.

Out of scope

Frontend coding and implementation
Branding and identity design
Visual and interface fundamentals such as colour, typography and layout systems, which are covered in the UI/UX Design course, and engineering delivery management, which is covered in IT Project Management