2-4 week design curriculum
A friendly but accelerated path toward an AI-native Product Owner with design specialist capability. Start with simple language and clear examples, build real visual craft in layout, typography, color, and composition, then move into interface judgment, tradeoffs, product briefs, AI-assisted output, and startup-ready decision making.
Week 2: read interfaces, explain visual foundations, make layout, typography, color, and composition decisions, and use AI to deepen design understanding without outsourcing judgment.
Week 4: turn a small product idea into a 3-screen flow, critique options, write a product/design brief, and explain tradeoffs like an AI-native Product Owner with design specialist capability.
Studio loop
Notice, name, ask, try, improve, explain. Every session returns to this loop.
First value sprint
Week 1
Explain design as evidence-based help for people using systems, read one everyday object and one product screen, compare vague and structured AI critique, curate AI output with accept/adapt/reject notes, and produce a small product decision artifact grounded in user, task, context, friction, and evidence.
Artifact: AI-native design observation board and product decision sheet
Week 1
Read one product screen as a user moment, identify screen job, hierarchy, primary action, supporting information, status, friction, and accessibility concerns, use AI critique critically, then create one evidence-backed product decision.
Artifact: AI-native screen noticing board and product decision sheet
Week 1
Map layout, typography, color, composition, density, and accessibility as product-facing visual design fundamentals, critique one screen with AI support, and prepare for the dedicated craft studios that follow.
Artifact: Visual foundations map with layout, typography, color, composition, AI critique, and one product decision
Week 1
Explain layout as attention, content inventory, spacing, grouping, alignment, grid, density, responsive behavior, accessibility, and tradeoff, then build a low-fidelity Figma layout board grounded in a screen job or task brief.
Artifact: Figma layout and spacing studio board with content inventory, mobile and desktop frames, layout guides, auto layout test, AI critique notes, and one product decision
Week 2
Explain typography as roles, hierarchy, readability, tone, accessibility, and system reuse, then create a typography audit board and one evidence-backed type decision.
Artifact: Typography audit board with type roles, hierarchy, readability, accessibility, AI critique, and one typography decision
Week 2
Explain color as roles, contrast, state, accessibility, restraint, and product meaning, then create a color role sheet and one evidence-backed color decision.
Artifact: Color role and contrast sheet with palette roles, state meanings, accessibility checks, AI critique, and one color decision
