The school I came into
AC4D was founded in Austin in 2009. Its one-year, full-time program ran until 2019 and produced about 100 alumni. From 2014 to 2019, more schools and programs entered the field, so AC4D asked what came next. In 2020 it launched Remote Studio, and its offerings today include research courses, a Catalyst Lab, group training, an Impact Hub and events. The school’s own alumni survey (as of June 2021) found 96% of surveyed alumni working in design careers, at employers including Indeed and LegalZoom. Those are the school’s results, not mine.
The role I took
The Director of Operations role was created in March 2022 to build a sustainable operating model: enroll a cohort of students, secure donated space, and set the dates and deadlines that keep a school running, supported by volunteers, committees, instructors and the accreditation the school holds as a career school. I held monthly check-ins with every student, kept the calendar, ran admissions, reported to the board each quarter, and kept the school in compliance. The role later grew into Managing Director and faculty.
How my role changed
| Years | Title | What changed in scope |
|---|---|---|
| Student | Learned human-centered design in the one-year program. | |
| Instructor | Taught six courses across research, systems and AI-era design (listed below). | |
| 2022 – 2026 | Director of Operations, later Managing Director and faculty member | Ran enrollment, student services, scheduling, space and partners, and taught. The role grew from operating the school to leading it. |
The initiatives, in order
2022 – 2026
Operations and student services
Enrollment, donated space, the calendar, board reporting, compliance and the day-to-day running of a school with 10 to 15 students and 8 to 12 instructors.
- Convening and community partnerships
- Team design and leadership
2023 – 2025
Teaching
Six courses, from research and sensemaking to designing structures and systems with AI.
- Curriculum and program design
- Coaching and capability building
Curriculum redesign
Building students' literacy across engineering, science and product disciplines.
- Curriculum and program design
Courses I have taught
- Research & Sensemaking. Students learn qualitative design research (contextual inquiry, participatory design, cultural probes) and synthesis (affinity diagrams, data mapping, work and concept models) by running a real research project in pairs.
- Studio: Research & Synthesis. The start of a year-long project on a large-scale social problem. Students find patterns and insights and produce storyboards, sketches and diagrams that point toward design opportunities.
- Sustainability & Impact Lecture Series. Guest practitioners on the role of design across organizations and on measuring impact. Students facilitate guest interviews and prototype a future career.
- Remote Studio in Design Research. A remote studio that walks students from a research focus through a plan, recruiting, interviews, affinity diagramming and insights, with a critique every week.
- Designing Structures & Systems. Students build a systems map, a journey map, a service blueprint and an experience vision, finish with a portfolio case study, and design human-to-AI, AI-to-human and AI-to-AI interaction moments.
Across these courses I teach the full arc of human-centered design: how to plan and run research, how to make sense of it, how to map the systems and services around people, and, most recently, how to design for the relationship between people and AI. The newest course ends with a portfolio case study, so students leave with proof of their work as well as the method.
What I carried forward
AC4D taught me that design is a practice you teach by doing, and that a school is a product with customers, a business model and a mission. I carried that into every client room afterward, and I bring the same operating discipline to RGLR’s work.