Black Friday Relaunch:
The 5-week d.MBA is back!
Learn business. Stop being told what to design. Start shaping what gets build.
5-week online program
10h weekly workload
Weekly live call with mentors
d.MBA certificate upon graduation
Lifetime access to Alumni Collective
Cohort date: Jan 12th - Feb 16th, 2026
Tuition: €3,480 + VAT
Black Friday tuition: €1,980 + VAT
Black Friday tuition: €1,980 + VAT.
Instead of €3,480 + VAT. You save €1,500.
Why business confidence matters
Create designs that get implemented
More influence on strategic decisions
Speak the language of business
Higher salaries, day rates, and faster promotions
The confidence and skills to build and run your own company
Who is d.MBA for?
In-house
designers
Leap from execution to decision-making
Consultants &
Freelancers
Deliver stronger results and win higher-value projects
Design
Founders
Start and grow a design-led company that strives
Curriculum focused on designers’ unique needs
The d.MBA is a program that will make you a more influential designer, not a business person. The 5 modules cover all the relevant business topics for designers while honoring the human-centeredness that made you a designer in the first place. Each topic is explained through business rationale along with ideas for how to use them in your design work.
Core Modules
Understand the competitive arenas designers operate in. Understand how competitors create value, and learn how to shape business insights.
- Competitive Arena
- Competitor Research
- Value Chains
Learn how great companies compete and how to design a winning strategy for a product or venture.
- Porter's Generic Strategies
- Playing to Win
- Blue Ocean Strategy
Get familiar with various business models and learn how to design and test business models.
- Business Model Building Blocks
- Famous Business Model Patterns
- Framework for designing and testing business models
Plan a new venture or a product, estimate its potential, and create a rigorous testing plan.
- Market sizing
- Business case design
- Calculating business impact of design decisions
Use Hypothesis-Driven design to implement business and design metrics to measure progress of design work
- 101 of most important business metrics
- Design Metrics Canvas
- Hypothesis-Driven Design
Your d.MBA journey
The d.MBA is designed for full-time professionals, striking a perfect balance between structure and flexibility. In the 5-week program, you’ll dive into one business module each week. At the end, we’ll wrap things up with a graduation ceremony where you’ll receive your unique d.MBA certificate!
A format that works
The d.MBA is not just another mass online course but rather a carefully crafted, intimate experience focused on effective skill acquisition, with the ultimate goal of applying what you learn in the real world. You can expect results after the very first live session.
Video lessons build fundamental understanding
In Coworking Calls, we'll discuss weekly's content, case studies, and the assignment
After your assignment submission, we will share a Reflection Video, revealing how experts would have approached the assignment
All cals are optional but highly recommended. If you do miss a Coworking call, you can catch up with a recording. And if you have a busy week and can’t submit the assignment by Monday 5pm CET, you can still submit it anytime before the program ends.
1000+ alumni
97% completion rate
9.1 student rating
This limited Black Friday Offer ends in:
Black Friday tuition: €1,980 + VAT.
Instead of €3,480 + VAT. You save €1,500.
Learn business by solving real-world challenges
We believe that learning happens by doing. So, each module consists of small projects based on d.MBA’s original case studies. Students of the upcoming intake will have a chance to train their newly acquired business skills on the challenges involving Wikipedia, Netflix, Headspace, Apple, and other organizations that have shaped today’s business and design landscape.
Your d.MBA certificate
In order to graduate, you must submit all five assignments by the end of the program. Once you do, you’ll receive a one-of-a-kind certificate. Each crafted with generative art to make it uniquely yours and proudly d.MBA. A new standard for wall-worthy certificates.
This limited Black Friday Offer ends in:
Black Friday tuition: €1,980 + VAT.
Instead of €3,480 + VAT. You save €1,500.
The d.MBA network is different
The d.MBA community isn’t just another Slack group. It’s a living network of business-savvy design leaders from around the world — with an average of 8 years of experience, and a shared drive to grow.
Meet online and in person - from Berlin to Boston
Swap job leads and freelance opportunities
Share wins, dilemmas, and experiments
What our alumni say
You can read more alumni stories here.
d.MBA experience overview
Program dates: January 12th, 2026 - February 16th, 2026
5-week online program
10 hours weekly workload
1 weekly live call with mentors
Real world case studies
Coworking calls recorded and available on demand
Lifetime access to program content
(video lessons, templates and cheat sheets)Curated cohort of experienced designers
Graduation certificate
Regular tuition: €3,480 + VAT
Black Friday tuition: €1,980 + VAT
FAQ
General
+ What would the impact of the d.MBA be on my design work?
In five weeks, you will become fluent in the language of business. You will also understand the relationship between business and design. This means that you'll no longer base your decision solely on aesthetics and what is good for the customer but try to look for the balance between customer and business goals. You will also learn the most important and widely used business frameworks (value chain analysis, competitor analysis, Porter's generic strategies, Blue Ocean strategy, prototyping with numbers, etc.). It is not uncommon that students use newly learned tools and host workshops with their colleagues days after learning them at the d.MBA.
“I ran a client workshop a week after learning about it at the d.MBA.”
- Lucas Coelho, Roam Collective, d.MBA alumni
Here you can read how other d.MBA alumni designed their impact.
+ How is the d.MBA different from the regular MBA?
There are four main differences:
It focuses on business knowledge relevant to designers. Traditional MBAs cater to a much wider audience and are thus much broader in their topics and include many courses (e.g. accounting, economics, etc.) that are not relevant for designers.
In the d.MBA, we always talk about the relevance of business knowledge for designers' work. For example, when we cover prototyping with numbers, we also explain what impact it has on service or product design.
“My girlfriend who studied business and heard d.MBA videos the other night said that the content was greatly presented. Very streamlined, and very efficient. She said that these kinds of subjects are studied with much more clutter in business schools!” - Nathan Delavictoire, French Ministry of the Sea, d.MBA alumni
A cohort consists only of designers. All discussions, questions, and experience sharing is thus much more focused on designers' use case.
An average regular MBA costs somewhere between $55,000 and $150,000. The d.MBA is much more affordable and lets you acquire business skills without pausing your career for a year or two.
+ How is d.MBA different from other online courses?
We believe that education is about growth and especially how to make an impact in the real world, not certificates. Therefore, we developed a new type of online course that we call MiCCs - Micro-Community Courses. While most online education is built around the content, MiCCs recognize that growth happens in a specific context. So, MiCCs are built around three factors: community, culture, and content. You can read more about it here.
+ Do you follow a prescribed business philosophy?
The d.MBA curriculum is built on fundamental business frameworks because we want designers to speak the same language as our business-minded peers. For example, if we present a value chain in our next project, our clients and managers will know exactly what we are talking about.
However, the d.MBA teaches how to use these tools a bit differently than, for example, a business school. Business methodologies are designed as analytical and deductive tools but, the d.MBA shows you how to use them as a part of a creative design process. So, instead of narrowing down your thoughts and ideas, the curriculum will show you how to use these tools to design better briefs and unlock your creative process--not limit it. Furthermore, most business tools are business-centric. We flip that and explain how to use them with a human-centric or planet-centric perspective.
+ Can I do the d.MBA together with my team?
Of course! Learning together is great as you will have the shared language and tools to work on the business side of your projects. There is even a special offering for teams. To learn more about the team offer, please write to us at support@d.mba.
+ What do previous students say about the d.MBA?
Well they have a lot to say :) You can check out all the reviews here.
+ Is d.MBA program accredited?
The d.MBA is proudly unaccredited. The focus of the d.MBA is on practical knowledge and network. The accreditation process leads to redundancies in the curriculum and format, which would devalue the program for designers. But the curriculum has been peer-reviewed by fellow business designers such as Jo Robertson, Lisa Xue, Andreea Vangeison, Tina Slåttedal Jacobsen, and Brian Wong.
+ Should I have any prior business knowledge to join the d.MBA?
No. You don’t need any prior business knowledge. We will start from the ground up, avoid business jargon, and build a holistic understanding of business.
+ I live in Europe/South America/North America/Asia/Africa/Oceania. Can I join?
Definitely. The d.MBA’s schedule is designed so that participants from all over the world can join the program. This ensures diversity and cross-pollination of perspectives.
To enable that, we offer live calls at 5pm CET that work well for participants from various locations. We also record all the calls so you can rewatch them in case you miss a call.
+ Will I need to travel?
No, the d.MBA runs completely online. There are no in-person meetings and hence no travel necessary. This means that the time investment from the perspective of an employer is much lower than other alternatives (conferences, in-person training, etc.), which you can bring up when making the case for getting the program investment reimbursed.
Application Process
+ What are the criteria for selecting students?
This course is for design professionals. Regardless if you are working in an agency, as an in-house designer, or a freelancer, this course is for you. On the other side, this course is not suitable for non-designer such as business professionals.
While more working experience improves your chances, the main criterion remains your motivation. Focus on that in your application. If you can showcase that you are willing to learn, put in the time, and share your experience with other students, you are on a good path to get your seat in the program.
+ How does the payment process work?
Spots in the d.MBA are limited so we accept candidates on first-come basis. Upon receiving an invite to join the program, your seat is reserved for a couple of days. In case you are getting tuition reimbursed and need more time, we can discuss the extension of your seat reservation.
The payment can be made by the candidate or by the employer. We accept only credit card payments. If you are getting the program reimbursed, we kindly ask you to settle the tuition fee with a corporate credit card. Alternatively, you can use a personal credit card and expense the cost to your employer.
+ Do you offer payment plans?
Yes, you can pay the tuition fee in 2 installments. The first one is due within 5 days of receiving the invite to the program to book your seat, the second one is due 10 days before program start.
+ Can I get the d.MBA investment reimbursed?
Roughly 50% of d.MBA students get their investment reimbursed by their companies. You can also contact us for help preparing to pitch the program to your manager and getting reimbursed by your company.
+ I don't have the final reimbursement approval from my company yet. Should I still apply?
It's a great idea to start your quest for getting reimbursed even before applying. Company processes can be long and cumbersome. But we also encourage you to apply for the d.MBA even without the final reimbursement-approval from your company. We can discuss your situation in the application process and work it out together.
During the d.MBA
+ What does the course content look like?
The course consists of video lessons, slides and templates. Each week, you’ll receive 4-6 videos that explain the content of the module. All together about 50-70 minutes per week. Assignment are presented in slide decks. Additionally, you will receive Miro templates that can be used during and beyond the program.
Here you can watch the first video of the Prototyping with Numbers module, which shows how to use numbers to design viable products and services.
+ Who will be my mentor?
The d.MBA mentors have deep expertise and experience in the intersection of business and design. Typically, they work as business designers at top design agencies (Fjord, Designit, IXDS, etc.) across the world. But the main mentor for the upcoming cohort will be founder of d.MBA and ex-IDEO business designer, Alen Faljic.
Furthermore, the MiCC format is really built around the community. We try to bring out as many benefits of the community approach as possible. So, you can expect to learn as much from your peers as from mentors and content.
+ What is the size of an intake?
We aim to keep each intake small enough to create an intimate learning experience, yet large enough to ensure diversity of thought. This balance helps us maintain an excellent mentor-to-student ratio and foster meaningful engagement among participants. Our goal is to help you learn, grow, and build a strong network for the future.
+ What is the level of collaboration with other students?
All assignments are individual so you can be very flexible with your time. However, we do recommend joining the weekly call, where you will have the chance to discuss content and assignments with your peers and learn from mentors.
Furthermore, you have access to the community at all times. For example, there is an online digital campus where you can ask questions, join discussions, share resources, and talk about your challenges.
+ How much time will I need for the course?
The course was designed for busy practitioners who have full-time jobs. So, the d.MBA requires roughly 8-10 hours per week. Most students find the time for the course on weekends but some get a day or several hours off their weekly schedule to invest in the course. Our completion rate of 97% also indicates the program is completely doable along your job.
"My schedule is extremely busy during the week, so I was concerned about having enough time for d.MBA. But once the program started and I met my cohort, I was motivated and enjoyed investing the extra time on weekends to complete assignments."* - Julia Olson, Bain&Company, d.MBA alumni*
+ What are the deadlines and important meetings within the program?
The program is designed to be as flexible as possible; however, there are deadlines to ensure that each cohort benefits from moving along each subject as a group while working individually.
In order to successfully finish the program and join the alumni network, you have to finish all assignments within the 5-week program. Additionally, each Monday is a project assignment deadline.
There are only 2 mandatory meetings:
Orientation call - the first call where students get to know each other and learn about the logistics of the program.
Graduation call - reflection in smaller groups and graduation ceremony.
Apart from that, there is a weekly call, which is not mandatory but still highly recommended. There you will have the chance to discuss your assignments in small groups, meet your cohort colleagues, and learn from mentors.
+ How do you pass the d.MBA?
There are no grades in the d.MBA. Every student joins the program with the best intention of learning about business and increasing their confidence. The program is rather built around reflection process, which is fuel for our growth and impact.
To receive the d.MBA certificate, you must hand in five assignments by their respective deadlines. But if you have a busy week and can't submit a prticular assignment, you can hand it in before the end of the program.
+ What tools are we going to use?
There are just a couple of tools used in the d.MBA. For written communication, we use the chat on our digital campus and for video conferencing, we use Zoom. Lastly, we will also use Miro for the assignments and the Coworking call.
No tool requires additional investment from students.
After d.MBA
+ What is the d.MBA alumni community?
All graduates of the d.MBA get lifetime alumni community access. So, after you graduate, you can meet everyone who has taken the d.MBA before you. It is an opportunity for you to further grow your network and keep growing your business confidence.
The alumni community is organized as a private Slack workspace.
+ What can I expect from the alumni community?
You'll have access to our alumni member list, local meetups, career opportunities, and other interesting alumni resources.
Privacy Policy · Legal · support@d.mba · © 2025. All rights reserved.