Watch
Short videos, 10 to 20 minutes, at your pace. Politics first, then AI, then the design work.
Get your design system funded,
used, and kept alive.
The office politics of design systems: get the CFO to pay, every team to adopt, and the budget to survive the next cut.
First cohort forming · join the waitlist
We earned €3M+ with design systems in the last three years.
This course is that same play, taught: the same power maps, funding memos and kill reviews we run inside €125k+ Installs at BSH-sized companies. Want to run it yourself?
You don't leave with a certificate. You leave with the Case File.
Every module gives you one ready-to-use file, and every file goes into one folder: the case for your design system, in the words of the people who pay for it. Who said it should exist. What it brings in. What happens if we cut it.
The Case File
9 files · 1 kill review
- 01The Stakeholder Power Map canvas
- 02The budget one-pager template + ROI calculator
- 03The Adoption Dashboard spec
- 04The Governance Charter
- 05The Defense Memo + board slide template
- 06The AI rules starter kit
- 07The AI velocity board slide + metric spec
- 08The Token Architecture Decision Record template
- 09The Component Intake + Definition-of-Done checklist
The kill review
Fifteen minutes defending your Case File against a fake budget cut. We play the CFO.
Watch. Ship. Defend.
Every module runs the same way, and it ends in a meeting, not a certificate.
Ship the artifact
Each module ends with a template you fill in for your company: power map, budget ask, board slide. No essays.
Defend it
It all goes into your Case File. The final test is the kill review: defend it against a fake budget cut. We play the CFO.
Design systems don't die from bad tokens.
They die in meetings. The same three meetings, in every company we've worked in.
Built before sold
A year of tokens and components, then the budget ask. A boss answers your ROI deck with a hunch, and wins. The system dies in a meeting it never knew it was in.
Run off the side of a desk
No money, no one hired to own it. People do system work between other tasks. Within a year the library rots, and every team goes back to building its own buttons.
First to get cut
When budgets got tight in 2023, design system teams were cut across the industry. Seen as a cost, they had no answer when the CFO asked what they bring in.
Nine modules, politics first.
Every lesson and every template, out in the open. Five modules on politics, two on AI, two on the design work.
Politics5 modules
Learn who can kill your system, before they know it exists.
- 01.1Name who backs you, who blocks you, who can quietly kill it
- 01.2Get a senior backer before you need one, plus a spare
Ships: The Stakeholder Power Map canvas (opens your Case File)
Build a budget ask the CFO can't brush off.
- 02.1The only three numbers finance believes: build time, rebuilt twice, cost of bugs
- 02.2Why ROI decks lose to hunches, and what wins instead
Ships: The budget one-pager template + ROI calculator
Getting teams to use it is a campaign you run, not a launch you announce.
- 03.1Pick your first three teams (and which teams to say no to)
- 03.2Stop the “we can do better” rebuild before it ships
Ships: The Adoption Dashboard spec
Rules for who decides what, that work without you in the room.
- 04.1Write a roles-and-decisions sheet nobody has to reread
- 04.2Handle new versions and breaking changes without a fight
Ships: The Governance Charter (one-page roles + decision rules)
Practice the meeting that kills design systems, before it's on the calendar.
- 05.1The board slide: your system in 90 seconds, in their words
- 05.2The kill review: defend your Case File (final test)
Ships: The Defense Memo + board slide template
AI2 modules
Make every AI tool in the building build from your system.
- 06.1Make the system machine-readable: tokens and component rules AI can read
- 06.2Write rules that stop Cursor, Claude Code and Codex inventing their own patterns
Ships: The AI rules starter kit (rules file + MCP wiring checklist)
A new funding argument for your system. Use it honestly.
- 07.1Reframe the system: the context AI needs to ship on-brand, not a cost
- 07.2Measure AI speed without lying to the board
Ships: The AI velocity board slide + metric spec
Craft2 modules
Every token name is a brand call someone will fight about.
- 08.1Build your token layers: tiers, aliases, and who owns each
- 08.2Run many brands without a war (the three-brand playbook)
Ships: The Token Architecture Decision Record template
Build the 30 to 40 components people use instead of working around.
- 09.1The cut line: what goes in the system, what stays in the product
- 09.2A “done” checklist that keeps design and code in sync
Ships: The Component Intake + Definition-of-Done checklist
They say it better than we do.
Early words from the first Intensive groups — names withheld until the cohort clears.
We left the kill review with a budget answer we'd needed for two years. The power map alone was worth the two days.
VP DesignIntensive participant · name withheld
The first course that treats the meeting as the thing you ship. Our funding memo went to the CFO the week after module two.
Design systems leadWaitlist group · name withheld
I'd built the tokens twice already. What I'd never built was the case for them. That's what this teaches.
Staff designerIntensive participant · name withheld
What it costs.
Learn it yourself from €990 (founding price, opening soon), or we teach it inside your company for €19,500 today. Same material; the difference is how much of it runs on your real company.
launching soon
The Course
€990
founding price · €1,400 after launch
All 9 modules, at your own pace, every file as a ready-to-use template.
- ~6 hours of video, 18 lessons
- All 9 templates, ready to use
- Team licenses: 20% off 3+ seats
Launching soon. Join the waitlist for the founding price (€990 instead of €1,400) and first access.
Join the waitlistbooking now · 1 per month
The Intensive
€19,500
2 days, at your company
The whole course, live, on your real org chart, with both founders in the room. Your team leaves with the first version of its Case File.
- Up to 25 people, plus a 90-minute briefing for the bosses
- Day one ends with your team getting through a fake budget cut
- Full fee taken off an Install you book within 60 days
One per month, never during a busy Install.
Book the IntensiveThe Course comes with a 30-day full refund, no questions. The Intensive: if you don't want day two after day one, you only pay for one day.
Founders · 90 sec
Taught by the people who get paid when it works.
Not made-up course content. The same material we sell as a service, taught by the two people who do the work. The course teaches you the play. The Install is us running it for you in 90 days, guaranteed.
Start with the kit that gets design systems paid for.
Four ready-to-use files from our €125k+ Installs: the funding memo, the board slide, the power map, the survival score. One email, free.
Send me the kit
One email with the four files. No drip emails, no funnel. Course launch news when there is some. First cohort forming.
- The funding memo: the budget ask, in words a CFO trusts
- The board slide: your system in 90 seconds
- The power map: who backs you, who blocks you, who can quietly kill it
- The survival score: 12 questions on lasting through the next reorg
Learn
Questions
Because tokens don't kill design systems. Meetings do. The biggest reported problems are about people: buy-in, staffing, adoption. The design work is the easy half, and every other course already covers it.
Today: The Memo is free, and you can book The Intensive, the same material we teach during Installs.
The self-paced course is in production. The Memo list gets first access and the founding price (€990 instead of €1,400).
It's real training: two days, your org chart, your numbers. Your team leaves with its Case File whether we talk again or not.
Same people, same material they install. That's why the full fee comes off an Install you book within 60 days, if it makes you want it built instead, you don't pay twice.