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Home / Product Design Program
The Full Discipline

A product design program
for the AI era.

Product design is the discipline of taking a product from problem to shipped solution. This 12-week program teaches the whole discipline, from research through launch, with AI tools woven through every phase.

🔍 Research → 🚀 Launch
🧩 Full design system
🤖 AI-native curriculum
🌐 100% online
Next Cohort
Cohort 05 · Sept 2026
Start dateSept 7, 2026
Duration12 weeks
Commitment~10 hrs/week
FormatLive + async
Spots6 left
Apply for Cohort 05 →

Applications close Aug 24 · No coding required

What is
product design?

Product design is the end-to-end craft of making digital products work: understanding users, defining the right problem, designing the interface, and shepherding the solution until it ships. It's broader than making screens look good: a product designer owns outcomes, not just aesthetics.

The terms get used loosely, so here's the practical breakdown:

🧭
UX design

The structure and logic: research, user flows, information architecture, usability. Makes products make sense.

🎨
UI design

The visible layer: typography, color, layout, components, motion. Makes products feel considered and trustworthy.

🧩
Product design

UX + UI + product thinking: strategy, prioritization, and shipping. The role most modern teams actually hire for.

🤖
…with AI (the new part)

AI workflows now run through all three: synthesis, generation, and even the build. That's the version we teach.

What you'll learn,
in the order you'll use it.

01
User research & validation

Interviews, problem framing, and evidence-gathering, so you design for a real need, not a guess.

02
Wireframes & user flows

Translate research into structure: flows, wireframes, and information architecture in Figma and Whimsical.

03
Prototypes & design systems

High-fidelity UI, a component-based design system, and clickable prototypes ready for testing.

04
AI workflows

Claude, ChatGPT, Midjourney, and v0 across the whole process: the working style modern teams expect.

05
MVP development

Build the real product with AI-assisted tools (Cursor, Supabase, Expo or Next.js), with no coding background needed.

06
Testing, launch & iteration

Usability testing with Maze, an App Store launch, analytics with PostHog, and your first iteration loop.

The detailed week-by-week breakdown lives on the program page.

Where this skillset
takes people.

🧩
Product designer

The generalist role at startups and product companies, and the one a launched product prepares you for most directly.

🧭
UX designer

Research- and structure-focused roles at larger organizations, agencies, and consultancies.

🏥
Service designer

Designing end-to-end service experiences in health, finance, and the public sector: UX thinking beyond the screen.

🚀
Founder

Some graduates skip the job market entirely and keep building the product they launched in the program.

How the program
actually runs.

Each week follows the same rhythm: a live cohort session where new material is taught and work is critiqued, several hours of hands-on building toward that week's deliverable, and a 1-on-1 check-in with an instructor on your specific product. Everything is recorded, but the live cadence (and a cohort expecting you to show up with work) is the mechanism that gets people to week 12.

The program runs four phases over 12 weeks: validate (weeks 1–2), design (weeks 3–6), build (weeks 7–10), and launch (weeks 11–12), ending with a Demo Day where you present your live product. Total commitment is about 10 hours a week, deliberately shaped to fit around a full-time job. Tuition is $2,400 in full or three payments of $900, with everything included: no tiers, no upsells.

Questions,
answered straight.

Do I need any design background to join?
+
No. The program starts from fundamentals and builds to a complete product. Complete beginners finish it; existing designers use it to add AI workflows and shipping skills.
How is a product design program different from a UX course?
+
Scope. A UX course typically covers research through prototyping. A product design program covers that plus visual/UI craft, product strategy, and, in Element's case, actually building and launching the product. You leave with the full loop, not a segment of it.
What software will I learn?
+
Figma is the backbone, alongside Whimsical, Maze, and Zeplin for the design process; Claude, ChatGPT, Midjourney, and v0 for AI workflows; and Cursor, Supabase, Expo/Next.js, TestFlight, and PostHog for building and launching.
How much time does it take?
+
About 10 hours a week for 12 weeks: one live session, several hours of hands-on work, and peer review. It's designed to fit around a full-time job.
What does the program cost?
+
$2,400 paid in full or 3 monthly payments of $900, including live sessions, recordings, weekly 1-on-1s, lifetime community access, and Demo Day.

Related guides
& program pages.

Explore the specialties within product design:

Learn the whole craft.
Ship the whole product.

Cohort 05 starts Sept 7. Applications close Aug 24.

Apply for Cohort 05

Questions first? Get in touch. We reply within one business day.