Not a course you watch. A live cohort of six people, two evenings a week, where you take one idea from a sentence to something real enough to put in front of a user. You do not need to write code.
TUE & THU · 7:00–8:30 PM ET · OCT 27 – DEC 10, 2026 · $599
Everything below is yours to keep and to show. Not notes on a process — the artifacts themselves.
Put plainly: you arrive with an idea you can only describe, and you leave with something you can open on a phone, hand to someone, and point at.
There are no sessions during Thanksgiving week (Nov 24 & 26), so the six weeks run across seven calendar weeks. Every session is recorded and posted, so missing one does not put you behind.
We teach a workflow, not a product. These are the tools the cohort works in — all browser-based, all with usable free tiers, and none required before day one.
User flows, screen layouts, and your component starter set. Taught from zero.
Scoping, synthesizing what users told you, and drafting the words in your product.
Where the prototype gets made. You describe; it builds. Optional to go deeper.
Before Us is my own product — a daily inheritance of Black wisdom, one quote a day with the person behind it. I took it through these exact six decisions: scoped it to six features, organized it around how people actually arrive, designed the flow and the interface, then built it with AI tooling.
It is built in React Native and shipped on the App Store, with the marketing site live alongside it. The case study breaks down what got decided in each week — including what I cut.
Every session is run by the same person who does the client work. I am a product designer and design lead based in the Baltimore / DC area, and I have shipped work inside regulated, high-traffic products where the details are load-bearing.
I have also mentored designers over four years, which is the part this cohort is really built on — I have watched a lot of people get stuck in the same five places, and the six weeks are arranged to get you past them.
GEICO, CNN, and Publicis Sapient — regulated, high-traffic products.
Design systems, research, and delivery inside IHG and Fortune 100 teams.
Built idea to working product on this same six-week path.
Mentoring designers one to one, which is where this curriculum came from.
Per participant, for the full six weeks. A $150 refundable deposit reserves your seat; the remaining $449 is due Monday, October 26.
Seats are held in the order deposits come in.
$599 buys six weeks and the ability to build the thing yourself. Paying someone else to build it starts near $30,000, and agencies quote $60,000 to $250,000. It is not the identical purchase — you leave here with a working prototype and the skill, not a finished production app — but it is the trade worth understanding before you spend either number.
Short form, no interview. Seats are held in the order deposits come in. I read every application, and if it's not a fit, I refund your deposit in full.
If you are not sure your idea is good enough — that is what week one is for. Send it anyway.
All of it. Your prototype, your flows, your screens, your templates, and your launch plan are yours outright — no license, no revenue share, no claim on the idea. I ask only that I may mention the cohort produced work; I will not show yours without asking first.
Yes. Every session is recorded and posted afterward, available to you for six months. Sessions are live first — the value is in getting your specific work looked at — but missing one does not put you behind.
The $150 deposit is fully refundable up to the first session on October 27 — if you change your mind before we start, you get it back, no questions. After the first session the deposit is non-refundable, and the $449 balance is refundable through the end of week two (November 5) if the cohort turns out not to be for you.
Yes. If I read your application and it is not a fit, I refund it in full without you having to ask. You can also withdraw for a full refund any time up to the first session on October 27.
You get a Stripe receipt straight away, then a confirmation from me with the welcome guide, the schedule, and what to bring to week one. The remaining $449 is due Monday, October 26.
About five hours. Three of those are the two live sessions, Tuesday and Thursday from 7:00 to 8:30 PM Eastern. The other two to three are your own work between sessions. The deadlines are the part that makes it work.
One. There are no sessions during Thanksgiving week — Tuesday, November 24 and Thursday, November 26 — so the six weeks of material run across seven calendar weeks. We start Tuesday, October 27 and the last session is Thursday, December 10.
No. We build the prototype with AI tools that take instructions in plain English. If you can describe clearly what you want, you can build it here. If you already write code, there is room to go further with Cursor or Claude Code.
Week one is scoping. Bring a problem you find annoying, or a group of people you understand well, and we will shape it into something buildable. You do not need a finished concept to apply.
Yes, at checkout. Alongside card, bank, and Cash App Pay, both the $150 deposit and the $449 balance can be spread over time with Klarna, Affirm, or Afterpay. Those plans are between you and the provider — they decide what terms you are offered and you repay them directly, not me. It changes nothing about the refund policy above: a refund goes back the way it came.
Yes. Book a 15-minute fit call and bring your idea. It is a fit call, not a sales call — I will tell you honestly whether the Lab is your next step or whether something cheaper comes first. Fifteen minutes, hard stop, a few slots each week.
Live. Six people, two evenings a week, with your work looked at by name. That is the whole point — a recording cannot tell you what is wrong with your particular flow.
Less than most people fear, and more than the one number everyone quotes. An Apple developer account is $99 a year, a domain about $22, a database you can actually launch on around $25 a month, and whatever AI subscription you built with on top. We work through your real figures in the final week, so you leave knowing what your idea costs to run and how many customers it takes to cover it. The full itemized version, with current prices and sources, is here: the true cost of an app.
Applications close October 20, 2026. First session is October 27.
