The pathways

The Design Management Pathway.

From Design Coordinator to Design Director

4 modules · 16 lessons · about 2 hours · free, with a certificate at the end

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What this pathway teaches.

Sixteen lessons across four modules, each closed out with a ten question exam. Pass at 80% to unlock the next module. Complete all four to earn your certificate.

Four modules, taken in order. A 10-question exam closes each one; you need 8 out of 10 to pass, retakes are unlimited, and the next module unlocks when you do. Finish all four and your certificate is issued in your name.

The modules

01

Foundations

The design manager's toolkit reframed as leadership training: reading a drawing set for what is missing, the information release schedule as your programme, risk registers and decisions that hold up as evidence, and the site's trust as your first asset.

  1. Reading the Drawing Set for What Isn't There · about 7 minutes
  2. The Information Release Schedule Is Your Programme · about 7 minutes
  3. Risk Registers and Records That Mean Something · about 6 minutes
  4. Coordinating Design Versus Managing It · about 6 minutes

Module exam: 10 questions, about 5 minutes.

02

Design, Money and Risk

How design decisions become commercial outcomes in design and build: the boundary between development and change, contracts read as commercial documents, split loyalties under novation, and what the Building Safety Act now demands of design control.

  1. Design Development Versus Scope Change: Where Margin Lives · about 7 minutes
  2. Contractor's Proposals and Employer's Requirements as Commercial Documents · about 8 minutes
  3. Novation and the Split Loyalties Problem · about 7 minutes
  4. Value Engineering, Late Information and the Building Safety Act · about 7 minutes

Module exam: 10 questions, about 5 minutes.

03

The Management Layer

The step from running a project's design to running the design function: leading other design managers, setting method and standards, reporting status a board can act on, and managing consultants and stakeholders commercially.

  1. Leading Design Managers Across a Project or Cluster · about 7 minutes
  2. Design Input to Bids and Two-Stage Pursuits · about 7 minutes
  3. Reporting Design Status Upward · about 7 minutes
  4. The Design Manager as Client-Facing Figure · about 7 minutes

Module exam: 10 questions, about 5 minutes.

04

Getting There

The route to design director: what boards actually want, building visibility and credibility, the first ninety days leading a function, and where the role goes next.

  1. Internal Promotion Versus External Move · about 7 minutes
  2. Visibility, Credibility and Chartership · about 6 minutes
  3. The First Ninety Days Leading a Design Function · about 6 minutes
  4. Failure Modes and Where the Role Goes Next · about 7 minutes

Module exam: 10 questions, about 5 minutes.

16 lessons between you and the next title.

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