"Dave changed the way I approach building products...It wasn't just about tools or methods, it was about unlocking better ways of thinking."
João ConceiçãoLead Product Designer @ PandaDoc
SYSTEMS THINKING FOR DESIGNERS WITH DEADLINES
A video course library for designers that want to design more than just screens, but design connected and unified products.
Leveling up systems thinking for teams at
"Dave is not only an expert at what he does...he can break down the complex concepts and ideas around systems thinking in ways that make them less daunting to start applying to my everyday work."
Kristin TerpezaContent Designer @ Audible
"Doing one of Dave's courses changed how I design and with it, the trajectory of my career. I can't recommend this enough!"
Sophie BenjaminLead Conversation Designer @ Canva
Systems thinking courses aren’t designed for people who build and design products
General systems thinking
- Talk about cause and effect and causal loops, but not how the principle applies to products
- Relationship mapping that doesn’t equate to product changes
- Complex methods that sound really cool in a class, but fade in practicality when breaking down product work
- Enroll in $5,000 cohort that lasts for months
Systems thinking as a product designer
- Understand the product and break it down so you can get to work fast
- Tame complex features and flows that take others months of back and forth in days
- Create design systems with meaning, not just guidelines
- Use AI to create wireframes and designs that make sense
Yet everyone is asking for systems thinkers
45+
of hiring managers rank systems thinking in their top 5 desired skills in the AI era.*
~55%
of current senior design job postings mention system thinking.
*Source: Figma, 2026 Design Hiring Study
Instead of waiting to figure out what systems thinking is and does for you
Learn systems thinking specifically made for product, content, and UX designers. Make more cohesive designs. Increase your ability to handle complexity, speak about your decisions with more authority, craft design systems with meaning, give AI better prompts.
Start learningGo from purveyor of pixels to sage of systems
Explore your path to sage
FROM 0 TO SYSTEMS THINKER IN UNDER 3 HOURS
Reset your mindset and learn about systems thinking in a product design context.
- How systems thinking works in a product
- The difference between systems thinking & design thinking
- How you’re already a systems thinker
- A crash course in objects and how they impact a UI
- How all of this changes how you design
What can I do with what I learn?
- Become a design leader that teams turn to for complex projects.
- Be the one in the room that can explain why something is wrong that no one else can name.
- Become a better collaborator by speaking the language that engineers and AI natively understand.
- Know what it takes technically to make a design work and what trade offs you’re making.
- Be able to advocate for users and better UX in more technical conversations.
- Create AI prototypes, governance, and evals that have better hierarchy and architecture.
- Build design systems that include meaning, relationships, and hierarchy, not just guidelines.
- Save build and design time by understanding the system up front rather than create an experience that doesn’t scale.
- Move beyond just designing stuff handed down to you and start influencing the roadmap.
- This list could just keep going and going and going.
What is system thinking for designers?
Free workshop, November 30th @ 1 - 1:30 EST
Learn a quick overview of systems thinking specifically for designers. Learn how it’s different than other ways of thinking you’ll find at work as well as 3 tricks that you can apply immediately at work.
Why learn from me?
I’m Dave Connis, founder of System Design Lab, and I didn’t learn what I teach in a bootcamp or classroom.
When I started my tech career in code, object-oriented programming gave me a systems thinking mindset that I’ve spent years trying to develop and apply in real fast-paced day-to-day product design work. When I wanted to learn more, systems thinking content was so boring and academic I lost interest fast or didn’t feel like I was smart enough to understand how to apply it. I tried certification programs and courses, all of them were so comprehensive that it felt like I was getting quantum mathematics when my day-to-day reality only had space for addition and subtraction.
After 10+ years in UX and design, System Design Lab is what actually worked. It’s not comprehensive frameworks that breakdown the moment a PM says “this needs to be done by tomorrow.” It’s not abstract theories that require PhDs to apply, or feel too ambiguous to use on Monday morning. It’s practical everyday thinking that changes what you see when you look at a product.
SDL is for designers who don’t need another framework or academic theory, but a perspective shift in how they see and design products. It’s practical systems thinking that you can apply when you’re staring down a deadline in the trenches of a flow with 5+ stakeholders telling you different requirements.
- 10+ years in UX, content design, and product design
- Contributor, 97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know (O'Reilly)
- Former design system lead
- Multi-course author, UX Content Collective
BECOME A FOUNDING MEMBER
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FOUNDER'S ANNUAL
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Full access to everything. New lessons added regularly. Cancel any time.
- Full library access
- Access to founding member-only Office Hours
- Access to member's only events
- Access to templates, tools, and resources (coming soon)
FOUNDER'S MONTHLY
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Save $48/year when you sign up for yearly
Full access to everything. New lessons added regularly. Cancel any time.
- Full library access
- Access to founding member-only Office Hours
- Access to member's only events
- Access to templates, tools, and resources (coming soon)