I rebuilt a 10-week design immersive around the people who hire its graduates, and 90% of my graduates were hired within six months.
From 2014 to 2016 I was lead instructor and program manager for a full-time design immersive at a tech education school. My co-instructors and I turned a thin starting curriculum into five projects, one rubric, and a steady review rhythm, and that material became about 90% of the program's global curriculum.
Client
A tech education school
I changed names and details to respect my nondisclosure agreements.
My role
Lead instructor and program manager
Focus
A 10‑week, full‑time design immersive for professionals changing careers
Result
200+ graduates, with 90% hired within six months
More than 20 career changers had 10 weeks to become hireable designers, and the course gave them very little to stand on.
Each cohort brought together more than 20 students from very different backgrounds, and every one of them expected to be ready for a junior design role at the end of 10 weeks. The curriculum we inherited was incomplete and, in places, incorrect. The course had no schedule, no precedent for design reviews, no software demos, and no code lessons.
Recruiters and hiring managers pointed to a second gap. They told us graduates needed stronger visual and interface skills to compete for jobs. I wanted to answer that request without letting hiring demand redefine the whole discipline, because research and a sound process still had to come first.
I treated the course as a product, with students, hiring managers, and recruiters as its users.
My co-instructor and I applied the same design process we taught. We filled in the curriculum, wrote a schedule, refined the projects, set review guidelines and cycles, and built software demos and code lessons. Click or tap a card to turn it over.
The project briefs carried the advice students needed most.
My co-instructors and I refined every project brief. Each brief paired the deliverables and the schedule with a few success tips, written in plain words that a nervous first-week student could use.
The tips set the same habits the rubric graded. A student who followed the tips was already working toward the next review.
- A basic design executed well beats an ambitious design executed badly.
- A good presentation tells a story about the user rather than the technology, so sell the house and not the light switch.
- A team should spend 80 to 90 percent of its time creating and the rest talking.
- Getting along with teammates and designing from data matter more than getting a favorite idea into the prototype.
- Hiring managers are the users of a portfolio, so a portfolio deserves the same research and testing as any other project.
Plan a cohort and run a design review in the instructor studio.
I designed this studio as a concept that puts the program map, the rubric, and the review form in one place, with AI writing the code from my design. In the original course, those pieces lived in shared documents, an online form, and a project board. Smith Design School, the cohort, the students, and every score are sample data.
Things to try
- Choose Project 5 on the program map to see the client brief and the rubric areas that carry the most weight.
- Choose Start a design review, then press Send evaluation before rating anything to see the checks.
- Rate the focus areas, add one thing to try next, and send the evaluation.
- Open Rubric to read what exceeding expectations looks like in each area.
Warm paper, one brick red, and a serif for headings make the studio feel like a design classroom.
I gave Smith Design School the look of a well-kept sketchbook: warm paper, near-black ink, and a brick red saved for actions and focus areas. Sage marks strong work, and every text color passes current contrast standards.
Color
- Paper
#F7F4EEPage background and hover states - Ink
#1E1C1AHeadings, body text, and selected ratings - Brick
#A8432APrimary buttons, the active tab, and focus areas - Deep brick
#8A341FButton hover states, focus tags, and error text - Sage
#2C6650Exceeds ratings and the sent confirmation - Night
#24211EThe sample data bar, Project 3, and the rubric guide card - Gold
#E8B84AThe portfolio project and the rules beside written feedback - Stone
#655F56Labels and secondary text
Type
Page titles
Ten weeks, five projects, one rubric
Fraunces
Panel titles
A web app with checkout
Fraunces
Labels
Rubric focus
IBM Plex Sans
Body
Students apply the method to their project the same day.
IBM Plex Sans
Components
Program map
Each project is a bar across ten week columns, and choosing a bar opens its brief, deliverable, and rubric focus.
Rubric focus chips
Chips list all seven rubric areas and fill in only the ones a project emphasizes, so the weighting is visible at a glance.
Rating row
Each rubric area offers Not yet, Meets, and Exceeds, and a brick edge marks the areas that need a rating before sending.
Error summary
A box at the top lists every missing rating in plain words and links straight to the row that needs attention.
Review meter
Seven segments fill in as the instructor rates, so the summary panel shows progress without counting.
Evaluation receipt
The sent screen repeats every rating and both feedback notes, so the instructor sees exactly what the student received.
Principles
- Show the whole program before any single project.
- Use the same rubric words in every review.
- Require ratings only where a project puts its weight.
- Say why out loud, and then put the feedback in writing.
200+
students graduated from my cohorts
90%
of my graduates were hired within six months
20%
average pay increase over what graduates earned before the course
More than 200 students graduated from my cohorts, and most were hired within six months.
These numbers describe the students who graduated from the cohorts I taught from 2014 to 2016. Click or tap a card to turn it over.
I still design learning the way I design products.
Today I offer AI-native product research and design, and workshops and trainings are part of that work. I start a training the same way I started this course: I ask who the learners are, who depends on what they learn, and what good work looks like. Then I build the practice and the feedback around those answers.
There is plenty more where this came from.
Names, brands, and data in my case studies are changed to protect my clients.
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