FAQs

Overview

  • The CDO School is best for those who are mid-career and beyond. Our courses aren’t tailored for Junior or early career professionals.

    Typically, students are leveled as:

    • Seniors, Leads, and Principals

    • Managers

    • Directors

    • Executives

    Our students are craft leaders in:

    • Design

    • DesignOps

    • Research

    • Service Design

    • Product Design

    • UX

    • Content

    • Strategy

  • Individual memberships cost as little as $300 USD per year. Included are on-demand access to our courses, member events, resource library, and the membership community. If you’re interested in Teams pricing, contact us here

  • CDO School Basic membership includes:

    1. Unlimited Access to the CDO School Library: Membership gives you access to all available on-demand courses, conversations, tools, content, frameworks, events, processes, etc.

    2. The Second Wave Dive Community: Members can access our community of hundreds of humble, heads-down Design, Research, DesignOps, Content, Strategy, and UX leaders, managers, and executives.

    Pro membership gives you:

    1. Everything in Basic

    2. Peer Advisory Team matching service: Membership includes a matching service to group you with peers across industries to learn, grow, and keep each other accountable.

  • Our live learning cohorts are sold separately from our membership plans. When you join a live cohort, a 1-year subscription to our Pro plan is included.

  • All members must adhere to our Code of Conduct throughout the program and beyond. The code of conduct applies to all courses, digital channels, calls, and any in-person interactions. Full stop.

    Many of the concepts referenced in one course are applicable to another. While individual courses can be completed on their own, members who complete multiple courses will see the larger benefit on how different approaches connect together.

  • At The CDO School, you’ll learn how to think like an executive and apply rigor and relevance for your hardest decisions – without losing your design soul.

    • Our methodology sets us apart. Rather than focusing on theories, we immerse you in real-life situations so you can practice the skills required to start, build, and scale a successful design organization.

    • We work to address the vast range of organizational challenges and opportunities design leaders face.

    • Our faculty comprises experienced design executives who provide real-life insight while leading with purpose.

    • Our courses deliver more value in less time and at a fraction of the cost of a traditional leadership program or workshop.

  • No. To innovate freely and reimagine the design executive role, we need to reimagine executive education free from outdated constraints.

  • Yes. Upon completion, you can request a certificate from the CDO School team.

  • Send us an email at hey@secondwavedive.com.

  • Every chance to learn is a good one. We highly recommend the following:

    • Want to completely rethink what it means to be Human-Centered, place more accountability behind Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or recover from workplace trauma? Join Vivianne Castillo at HmntyCntrd.

    • Want to move away from self-doubt and imposter syndrome? Check out the The Courageous Leadership Program by Sara Wachter-Boettcher. It’s a group coaching program to know better who you are and find your voice.

Live Cohorts

  • CDO School live, learning cohorts are sold as individual courses. When available, we’ll share the information here on this site.

  • Our cohorts leverage digital tools like Circle, Figma, and Zoom to convene groups of peers in a part-time, intensive learning experience.

    Each cohort combines synchronous and asynchronous learning, accommodating various learning styles.

    We expect the work to take at least 3-4 hours per week. Coursework can be completed at your desired pace and time commitment.

  • No. You can only join one cohort at a time because it takes a lot of time and some live sessions happen at the same time.

  • Cohorts are led every April and September of a calendar year.

  • To make the most of the cohort, we want you to spend at least 3-5 hours per week, which includes a 60-minute Zoom session. Some people will spend more time practicing, getting feedback, and talking to others in the group.

  • No. Sorry, but only CDO School members can access any of the CDO School cohorts.

  • Cohorts are all online and include content you can complete at your own pace, along with live events you can attend online from anywhere.

  • We record each live event for our cohorts. You can find the videos and transcriptions in the community within 2 business days.

  • Yes, absolutely.

  • We'll have live sessions between 9am to 5pm Eastern Standard Time. These hours are most convenient for most members, including those from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, as well as the course instructors.

    You can watch the recorded session later if you can't attend a live meeting.

Courses

  • CDO School courses are a blend of writing and video material.

  • Any member can take every course, and each contains level-specific exercises. Some courses may be more relatable, given the member’s day-to-day responsibilities and challenges. i.e., few leaders are responsible for setting organizational objectives and goals, but we still teach these skills to everyone.

  • Yes. With a catch. Our community learning platform, Circle, has a specific button to click within each course to indicate progress. If you click that button, your progress will be tracked.

  • Yes. All our courses and cohorts are delivered via the Second Wave Dive community. This is the only way to access CDO School materials.

  • No course can provide step-by-step instructions for this. You'll learn about the skills required for higher levels of design leadership, the skills that hold design careers back, and tactics for making time for learning and growth. While our courses nudge you to practice building your own skills, you have to do that work yourself. Practice makes progress.

  • If you can find what you need, we encourage you to learn in whatever way suits you best. CDO School content covers many known and original concepts, but how we teach it is entirely unique. We’ve built CDO School with purpose to suit your specific unique needs as a design leader.

  • Maybe. These courses are best suited for leaders working within design teams and with cross-functional partners.

  • Yes. We’ve had many leaders on the agency side participate in our courses. They are taking these lessons and applying them both to their internal and client work.

Billing & Subscriptions

  • For individuals and small teams, we are only accepting credit cards at this time. For teams larger than 10, we can create invoices with Net 30 terms.

  • Yes. If you’d like to learn more about Team plans, you can contact us here.

  • You can ask for a full refund for your subscription within 14 days of when you bought or renewed it, but you can't ask for a refund after that. To ask for a refund, please send an email to hey@secondwavedive.com.

  • No. You can only access CDO School materials, experiences, and community if you have an active membership. If you reactivate your account later, you can access the materials again.

  • We encourage participants to be sponsored by their organizations to ensure managers are supportive of the curriculum and time commitment. Need tips for sponsorship? Try building a business case.

  • Yes. CDO School memberships will automatically renew one year after your purchase date, but you can turn off auto-renewal in the community settings.

  • No. The company “owns” the membership; if you leave the company, your membership will no longer be active.