Product Info-Packet 2023

Design
Academy
Product Design
Academy Info-pack 2023

Your journey to a career in

product design starts here!
In today’s digital world, the role of product designers has never been more critical. UX/UI designers have the power
to shape the world we live in, creating products that solve real problems and enhance our everyday experiences.

The demand for UX/UI skills continues to soar as more brands recognize the value in user-centric design in
creating successful products and services.

According to a report by the Bureau In a survey conducted 79% of UX leaders believe

of Labor Statistics, employment of by Adobe, 87% of the demand for UX skills
web developers and digital designers managers surveyed at their organization will
(including UX/UI designers) is said hiring more UX/UI increase over the next
projected to grow 8% from 2020 to designers was a priority 1-2 years.²
2030, which is much faster than the for their organization.
average for all occupations.

As a product designer, you’ll get the chance to work on exciting projects and skyrocket your earning potential as
you grow in your career. The average base salary for a product designer in the United States is $120,000, with
senior talent earning upwards of 200K+ per year.¹

“Dribbble’s course was life-changing for

me. It gave me confidence as a designer
and amazing resources to study.”
Patrycja Bolesta, UI/UX Designer @ Codebridge Technology

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¹ Indeed April 2023 Salary Data / ² Journal of UX Leadership
Product Design
Academy Info-pack 2023

Who is this course for?

Dribbble’s Product Design Academy is for anyone eager and motivated to break into product design. Many of our
students fall into one, or more of the following categories:

Professional graphic designers Design savvy professionals who Creatively wired, and/or
who want to transition into are competent in design tools strategic problem solvers
UX/UI product design to and enthusiastic about design looking for a new way to
expand their skills, level up work, but don’t hold a design express their talents and
within their organization, or role, or have any formal design work on exciting projects
refresh their careers. training (e.g. marketers). with meaningful impact.

Please note that if you do not have any design experience at all, or
do not understand the fundamentals of UI design, and/or lack basic
working knowledge of Figma, then you should start with our 6 Week
Intro to Figma & UI course as a prerequisite to this course.

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Product Design
Academy Info-pack 2023

Why learn product

design with Dribbble?
As the world’s most active design community with over 3 million creative professionals, and #1 designer hiring
platform, Dribbble is the place where designers grow their careers. Since 2009, we’ve helped top brands like
Apple, Airbnb, IDEO, Google, Shopify, Lyft, and Slack build their best design teams.

This 100% online remote learning program is taught by the leading names working in UX/UI design today who will
impart their expert knowledge to you. You will learn the best design frameworks and build a body of work that’s
relevant with current trends and technology. You will get career guidance from real hiring managers and you will
get the exposure of being on the world’s most active design community and leading designer hiring platform.

Course benefits

Learn from the top names working in design today 4 Portfolio Capstone Projects

Weekly mentorship with senior product design Industry-Recognized Product Design Certification
professionals

Career Prep & Hiring Network

Online Slack community to connect with other students

1-Year Free Dribbble Pro Subscription

Peer reviews & 1-1 feedback on course projects

Permanent access to course material

20+ Course Assignments

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Product Design
Academy Info-pack 2023

Meet your instructor

Jesse
Showalter
Senior Product
Designer & Educator

Known for his creativity and innovation, Jesse Showalter has spent the last decade of his career developing over
300 products for industry-leading brands like Apple, Nike, Adobe, Sketch, Bravo, and Affinity. Jesse’s skill set
is vast, encompassing UI/UX, front-end development, and digital marketing. He frequently shares educational
content on his Instagram or his YouTube channel garnering over 300K subscribers.

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How this course works

Our course format is 100% online and modeled after the

working processes of today’s professional UX/UI designers to
prepare you for a career in product design in just 6 months.

Through a mix of on-demand video lessons, weekly mentorship, and live sessions with industry experts, you will
have the flexibility to learn on your own time, from anywhere you are in the world. By the end of the course, you
will be equipped with the skills needed to excel on any UX/UI design team and confident enough to apply to your
dream product design job.

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Academy Info-pack 2023

On-demand video lessons

Each week you’ll receive assignments designed exclusively for Dribbble by Senior Product Designer, Jesse
Showalter. You’ll digest this video content on your own time, completing the practice exercises independently
before your scheduled weekly mentorship session.

On average, students can expect to spend approx. 10 hours per week completing coursework independently.

“Dribbble’s course has been an amazing

experience. I am able to work my
day job and study comfortably.”
Femi Odejide, Dribbble Student

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Academy Info-pack 2023

Hands-on mentorship from senior UX/UI professionals

Each week, you’ll receive feedback on your weekly assignments from a working product design professional
along with other students in an intimate forum via Zoom. These 2-hour group sessions are highly interactive,
collaborative, with the objective of refining and improving your work to be portfolio ready. The guidance from
these sessions will help prepare you to succeed on any UX/UI design team.

Mentors are located globally, so when you enroll, you’ll be able to select a mentor session time that works with
your availability. These sessions are scheduled at the same time every week for the duration of the 24-week
course, and attending them will be your main time commitment. The rest of the course can be completed on
your own time at your own pace.

Our mentors have at least 4 years of experience working in a senior-level UX/UI position and come from design-
forward companies like IKEA, MetaLab, Instagram, GoDaddy, Lonely Planet, KPMG, and more.

Natalia Veretenyk Charles Christie Nina Geometrieva

Lead Product Designer Product Design Manager Product Designer
@KPMG UK @Pupil @Instagram

Yisel Rosaria-Chang Juan Carlos Diez Rodriguez

Lead Product Designer Global Product Designer
@Lonely Planet @IKEA

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Academy Info-pack 2023

Live Q&A sessions with thought leaders in design

Sprinkled throughout the course, you’ll also get the opportunity to participate in live 1-hour Q&A sessions with
some of the world’s most experienced and influential designers. You’ll have direct access to chat with these
experts to gain insights that will shape your product design career and process for years to come.

Design System Q&A Design Process Q&A

with Dan Mall with Jesse Showalter
Get introduced to design systems in a 90-minute Learn the essential steps of the product
interactive Q&A session led by Dan Mall. With over a design process such as wireframing,
decade of experience developing design systems prototyping, and documentation & handoff,
for world-renowned brands like United Airlines, in a 90-minute interactive workshop
ExxonMobil, Nike, and Eventbrite, Dan Mall is session led by Jesse Showalter. Ask Jesse
considered a pioneer of product design whose all of your design process questions
expertise is imparted at conferences, private client directly as he takes you step-by-step
engagements, and higher education. through his own workflow.

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Academy Info-pack 2023

Preparing you for your

UX/UI career path
By the end of the course, you’ll have a polished portfolio packed with strong case studies that reflect what
today’s top hiring managers want to see. You’ll have developed the skills, knowledge, and confidence to
position yourself as a top candidate for any product design role.

Portfolio & Resume Guidance

The final four weeks of our Academy are focused solely on your portfolio and career development. You’ll work
closely with your mentor to refine your portfolio and resume so that by the end of the course, you’ll have the
confidence to submit your work to employers and stand out as a top candidate.

Exposure to the world’s top brands

Your portfolio will be hosted on the #1 design platform for hiring designers where thousands of top brands and
hiring managers source creative talent. Plus, with your free Dribbble Pro membership, you’ll be able to attract
more opportunities with increased exposure to the work you upload to your portfolio.

Certificate of Completion
Upon graduation, you will receive a Certificate of Completion from Dribbble that acknowledges your skills and
accomplishments in product design. You can share this certificate on your LinkedIn, resume, and portfolio to
help you stand out to potential employers.

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Graduate Testimonials
“This course is great. The video material is full “Since graduation, I landed a Senior UI/UX Associate
of information and Jesse does a great job of role at Capital One! My mentor helped me prep for
explaining all the subjects. The Slack channel is interviews, add content to the case studies I would
really awesome, and the fact that you are divided be showing, and helped broaden and refine my
into smaller mentor groups makes connecting design thinking. I credit a large part of my success in
very easy.” the job hunt to him.”

Wilco Van Petten Tiffany Yeh

Product Designer @ Picnic Technology UI/UX Designer @ Capital One

“Since graduating, I switched my role from “Take the course, it’s definitely worth it. My favorite

graphic designer to UI/UX designer at the part was collaborating with a team of professionals

company I work at. It’s been great to make the from around the globe while learning all of the facets

switch and work with product teams, PMs, and of the product design lifecycle.”

engineers. There is so much to learn from them!”

Rafael Dauria
Nataly Valencia Senior Designer @ NOW Health Group Canada
UI/UX Designer @ Health Engine

See a student case study

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Academy Info-pack 2023

Curriculum
COURSE PREP WEEK Using guided tutorials, you will set up all the accounts you need, including Dribbble Pro and Figma.

Introductions Get access to course Slack group where you will meet your mentor and get to know your classmates.
& Set-Up

WEEK 1-2 Design thinking starts with the end-user in mind. You will learn to define fundamental problems
you’re trying to solve. This includes user research, interviewing identified users, applying
UX design thinking techniques to test assumptions, analyzing and synthesizing the results, and
Fundamentals establishing insights that will impact your work.

WEEK 3 User flows convey your designs to engineers and important decision-makers from the
user’s perspective. Likewise, a clearly defined UX flow helps troubleshoot and spot potential
User Flows problems from the very beginning planning phase.

You will learn the basics of Figma to develop a user flow diagram to visualize your user’s journey.

WEEK 4 Wireframing is where you will learn to determine what is actually on each screen that will
assist you in achieving your user’s goal, test ideas and get feedback on your designs without
Wireframes investing too much time.
and Fig Jam
You will continue to use Figma to create wireframes, and you’ll jump into a FigJam to ideate and
iterate your designs alongside your mentor.

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WEEK 5-6 Visual design is where you start dressing the wireframe applications you have built to bring
out their style. You will learn visual design fundamentals and UI design aspects like grids,
Visual Design navigation, typographic scales, and product design patterns.

You will also learn essential design skills through practice and experimentation, including
balance, proximity, alignment, visual hierarchy, repetition, contrast, color, and typography. Your
eye for design aesthetics will be sharpened as you practice these visual design skills and your
confidence as a designer will grow.

WEEK 7 Make your designs more scalable by using modern design tools and techniques. You will future-
proof your designs when scaling them to multiple screens and different layouts.
Scaling Design
and Auto-layout

WEEK 8-9 You will learn to use components, scalable systems, responsive UI cards, pattern libraries, and
design systems within Figma.
Components
and Design
Systems

WEEK 10-11 In this module, your designs will be brought to life with high-fidelity prototypes. We will cover
transitions, animations, and micro-interactions so you can build robust prototypes.
Prototyping
and Testing The job of a product designer is to get the prototype as close as possible to the real product,
so the stakeholders don’t have to imagine anything, or take risks. Thus, a huge part of
product design is creating a testable prototype that you can get user feedback on before
product development.

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Academy Info-pack 2023

WEEK 12 Communication, documentation, and handover play a big part in the quality of your designs.
Taking this step will ensure your vision for development is not lost. You will prepare your designs
Handoff to hand off to the development team by creating documentation and design specifications.

After testing your product, you will learn how to preview your work, share and present your
work, run inspections, redline, and document your work using industry-standard practices.

WEEK 13-17 Throughout these 4 weeks of practical application, you will get briefs and receive feedback and
advice from your expert mentor on your projects. As part of your live mentor sessions each week,
Capstone you’ll discuss pain points and ideas, plus you’ll receive asynchronous feedback on your designs.
Projects
This is your chance to put everything you have learned into practice by creating three
capstone projects that you can include in your interview-ready portfolio. The briefs you
receive will help you practice user journeys, diagrams, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs for
prototypes of your products.

Take a breather, you’ve earned it!

WEEK 18

Break

WEEK 19-23 Now that you have the skills to be a product designer, you’re ready for the next part of your
journey: landing a job. During these 4 weeks, you will create your portfolio, resume and prepare for
Career Prep interviews to land your first product design job. Portfolios and resume templates will be provided,
along with instructions on preparing for design interviews.

WEEK 24 Congratulations, you’ve made it! This final week you’ll get the chance to present and share your
work to the entire graduating class and celebrate together!
Graduation!

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Academy Info-pack 2023

Tuition and Financing

Financing options
Academy Tuition We offer two financing options — You can choose

$7,999 USD
to pay upfront or in monthly installments:

1 Upfront Payment (Credit or Debit Card)

Extended Payment Plan (Monthly installments)

Get your company to cover your tuition!

Did you know that most companies offer employer-sponsored learning? If your company has an employee education
fund, Dribbble’s Academy is an excellent investment to spend your funds on and bring more value to your organization.

Even if your company doesn’t have a formal education fund, they still may agree to pay upfront or reimburse a
portion or full of the course costs. Here’s a handy template you can use to help convince your boss why
they should fund your learning:

Hi [Manager Name],

I wanted to reach out and ask for your support in funding my enrollment for the Product Design Academy offered by
Dribbble. This program is an incredible opportunity for me to learn new techniques and bring fresh ideas to our projects.

The curriculum is taught by current product design professionals working at companies like Apple, Google, and
Instagram, ensuring that I’ll be up-to-date with the latest industry trends. Plus, the course is fully remote and flexible,
making it easy for me to balance my work commitments while learning.

I understand that investing in my professional development is investing in our team’s success. With this program, I’ll be
able to contribute even more to our projects and bring value to our company.

Thank you for your consideration.

Best,
[Your Name]

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Academy Info-pack 2023

Ready to get started?

If Dribbble’s Academy sounds like the right program for you, make
sure to secure your seat to the next cohort now before spots fill up!
We can’t wait for you to join us.

Still have questions?

If you still have questions about our Academy, join Jesse Showalter
for a live workshop to get a taste of the course experience, ask your
questions, and connect with other potential students!

Register for Free Workshop

If you can’t make an live workshop, you can schedule a call with me
Elona Love
to chat through any specific questions or concerns you have. I’m Director of Admissions
here to help!

Enroll Now!

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