Core Toolkit
Methods you reach for on every project, regardless of context. The foundations.
Design Thinking
The foundational framework for human-centered problem solving. Five stages from empathy to testing.
UX.1.02User Research: Methods, Personas & Synthesis
Every project starts here. Interviews, personas, and synthesis — understand your users deeply.
UX.1.03Journey Mapping, Flows & Task Analysis
Visualize user experiences. Journey maps, empathy maps, user flows, and task analysis.
UX.1.04Usability: Principles, Patterns & Practice
Nielsen's heuristics, Shneiderman's rules, form patterns, navigation, and feedback design.
UX.1.05UI Design Patterns
Proven solutions: navigation, search, filtering, cards, tables, modals, forms, onboarding.
UX.1.06Visual Design
Color systems, type scales, the 8px grid, visual hierarchy, dark mode.
UX.1.07Accessibility in Practice
WCAG guidelines, assistive technologies, and inclusive design patterns.
UX.1.08Information Architecture
Organize, structure, and label content so people find what they need.
UX.1.09Interaction Design: Micro-interactions & Motion
How interfaces respond, move, and communicate through animation and feedback.
UX.1.10Prototyping & Wireframing
From paper sketches to interactive prototypes. Choosing fidelity, tools, and test moments.
PM.1.01Product Strategy & Vision
Vision statements, strategy frameworks, competitive positioning, and product principles.
PM.1.02Product Discovery & Customer Research
Validate problems before building. Customer interviews, assumption mapping, and continuous discovery.
PM.1.03Roadmapping & Prioritization
RICE scoring, Now/Next/Later roadmaps, and managing competing stakeholder demands.
PM.1.04Requirements: Stories, PRDs & Specs
User stories, acceptance criteria, PRDs, one-pagers, and edge case documentation.
PM.1.05Product Metrics & Analytics
North Star Metrics, AARRR, HEART framework, counter-metrics, and measurement practice.
PM.1.06Stakeholder Management & Influence
Stakeholder mapping, managing up, RACI, and influencing without authority.
PM.1.07Go-to-Market & Product Launches
Launch tiers, go/no-go checklists, phased rollouts, and post-launch retrospectives.
PM.1.08Competitive Analysis & Positioning
Win/loss analysis, market maps, competitive teardowns, and positioning frameworks.
PM.1.09Problem Framing & Opportunity Sizing
Problem statements, TAM/SAM/SOM, Fermi estimation, and scope definition.
PM.1.10Agile Product Management
Dual-track agile, sprint planning, backlog grooming, and the PM's role in ceremonies.
MK.1.01Positioning & Messaging
Own a space in the customer's mind. Positioning frameworks and messaging hierarchies.
MK.1.02Brand Strategy & Identity
More than a logo. Brand architecture, voice and tone, and visual identity systems.
MK.1.03Content Marketing & Strategy
Content strategy, editorial calendars, and measuring whether content drives outcomes.
MK.1.04Launch Marketing & Campaigns
Campaign planning, launch tiers, press outreach, and post-launch measurement.
MK.1.05Growth Channels & Acquisition
Channel strategy, paid vs. organic, and building a repeatable acquisition engine.
MK.1.06Marketing Analytics & Attribution
Attribution models, marketing dashboards, and measuring impact honestly.
MK.1.07Customer & Market Segmentation
ICP definition, segmentation frameworks, and targeting strategy.
CS.1.01Content Strategy Foundations
Content strategy frameworks, content pillars, content-market fit, and treating content as a product.
CS.1.02Content Auditing & Governance
Content inventories, audits, governance models, and preventing content decay.
CS.1.03Structured Content & Content Modeling
Content models, metadata schemas, taxonomy design, and AI-ready content architecture.
CS.1.04Content Design & Readability
Scanning patterns, plain language, heading structure, and formatting for comprehension.
CS.1.05Editorial Operations & Workflow
Editorial workflows, content calendars, approval chains, and scaling production.
Specialized
Practices to deepen your toolkit when the basics aren't enough.
Cognitive & Emotional Design
Cognitive load, mental models, emotional design, and bias-aware UX.
UX.2.02Visual Perception & Psychology
Gestalt principles, visual hierarchy, and how users scan interfaces.
UX.2.03Conducting Usability Testing
Moderated, unmoderated, think-aloud, and analyzing usability findings.
UX.2.04Heuristic Evaluation
Nielsen's heuristics, cognitive walkthroughs, and expert UI review methods.
UX.2.05Data-Driven Design
A/B testing, funnel analysis, and using data to inform design decisions.
UX.2.06Service Design
Service blueprints, touchpoint mapping, and multi-channel experience design.
UX.2.07Mobile & Responsive Design
Touch targets, thumb zones, gesture vocabulary, and mobile-first strategy.
UX.2.08Object-Oriented UI Design
Noun foraging, ORCA process, and structuring complex apps around objects.
UX.2.09Dashboard & Data-Dense Design
Decision-first dashboards, KPI cards, filter bars, and five data states.
UX.2.10UX Writing & Content Design
Voice and tone, error messages, empty states, and content-first wireframing.
UX.2.11Design Systems
Token architecture, component APIs, governance, and adoption tracking.
UX.2.12Behavioral Design & Persuasion
Choice architecture, habit loops, dark pattern audits, and ethical persuasion.
UX.2.13Complex Application & Enterprise UX
Design for expert users in specialized domains with complex workflows and high-stakes decisions.
UX.2.14Forms & Data Entry
Inline validation, multi-step flows, conditional logic, error reporting, and research-backed form patterns.
UX.2.15Search & Filtering UX
Search interface design, faceted navigation, autocomplete, zero-results states, and search analytics.
UX.2.16UX Roadmapping
Plan and communicate a UX team's future work. UX-specific roadmap structures, creation workshops, theme anatomy, and stakeholder engagement.
UX.2.17Workshop Facilitation & Design
Structure, facilitate, and debrief collaborative workshops. The facilitation mindset, workshop architecture, activity toolkit, five UX workshop playbooks, and techniques for handling difficult dynamics.
UX.2.18Personas & User Segmentation
Turn user data into user-centered design. A systematic process for distilling qualitative research into behavioral segments, crafting persona deliverables that teams actually use, and keeping them alive across the product lifecycle.
UX.2.19Ideation & Creativity Methods
Structured ideation techniques: warm-ups, reframing, rapid methods, frameworks, group dynamics, and convergence.
PM.2.01Experimentation & A/B Testing
Test hypotheses rigorously. Experiment design, statistical significance, guardrail metrics, and building an experimentation culture.
PM.2.02Pricing & Monetization Strategy
Capture value. Pricing models, packaging, willingness-to-pay research, and aligning price with perceived value.
PM.2.03Growth & Product-Led Growth (PLG)
Build products that sell themselves. Growth loops, viral mechanics, activation optimization, and the PLG playbook.
PM.2.04B2B Product Management
Products for businesses. Enterprise sales cycles, multi-persona products, procurement processes, and managing buyer vs. user tensions.
PM.2.05Platform & API PM
API design, developer experience, ecosystem strategy, and two-sided platforms.
PM.2.06Product Analytics Infrastructure
Event tracking, analytics tool selection, data pipelines, and data quality.
PM.2.07Product Operations
Templates, rituals, tooling, and systems that scale the PM function.
PM.2.08Technical PM
Build vs. buy, tech debt quantification, and bridging product and engineering.
PM.2.09Retention, Churn & Customer Success
Churn analysis, retention curves, health scoring, and at-risk interventions.
PM.2.10Feature Flags & Rollouts
Feature flagging, percentage rollouts, canary releases, and kill switches.
PM.2.11Cross-Functional Collaboration
Product trios, shared decision frameworks, and healthy conflict norms.
PM.2.12OKRs, Goals & Accountability
OKR writing, cascading goals, check-in cadences, and common anti-patterns.
MK.2.01SEO & Organic Growth
Be found when people search. Keyword strategy, technical SEO, content-led organic growth, and building sustainable organic traffic.
MK.2.02Paid Acquisition (SEM, Social Ads, Display)
Buy attention strategically. Ad platform selection, campaign structure, creative testing, and scaling paid channels profitably.
MK.2.03Lifecycle Marketing & Email
Nurture the relationship. Email strategy, drip campaigns, lifecycle stages, segmented messaging, and using email as a retention channel.
MK.2.04Social Media Strategy
Show up where your audience lives. Platform selection, content strategy per channel, community management, and measuring social's real impact.
MK.2.05Landing Pages & Conversion Optimization
Turn visitors into customers. Landing page anatomy, CRO methodology, form optimization, and iterative testing that compounds gains.
MK.2.06Pricing Communication & Value Messaging
Present price as value. Pricing page design, anchoring, plan comparison, and the messaging that makes customers feel good about paying.
MK.2.07PR, Earned Media & Thought Leadership
Get others to tell your story. Media relations, press strategies, thought leadership programs, and building authority without paying for it.
MK.2.08Partnerships & Co-Marketing
Grow together. Partner identification, co-marketing campaigns, integration partnerships, and creating mutually beneficial partnerships.
MK.2.09Customer Storytelling & Case Studies
Let your customers sell for you. Case study methodology, testimonial collection, customer story frameworks, and turning customers into advocates.
MK.2.10Event Marketing & Webinars
Create moments that matter. Event strategy, webinar programs, conference presence, and measuring whether events justify their cost.
CS.2.01SEO & Content Discoverability
Search intent mapping, content clusters, and AI search readiness.
CS.2.02Content for AI Systems
AI content governance, brand voice guardrails, and content labeling for ML/RAG.
CS.2.03Content Accessibility
Alt text strategy, caption workflows, accessible documents, and plain language.
CS.2.04Content Localization & Translation
Localization strategy, translation workflows, and cultural adaptation.
CS.2.05Content Analytics & Performance
Content KPIs, scoring models, attribution, and connecting content to outcomes.
CS.2.06Content for Complex Domains
Content design for legal, healthcare, financial, and regulated contexts.
CS.2.07Content & Design Systems
Content patterns, voice tokens, naming conventions, and content components.
Situational
Methods to open when the situation calls for it. Not for every project.
AI for Designers
AI interface patterns, trust calibration, and designing AI-powered features.
UX.3.02Information Visualization
Chart selection, Tufte's principles, and making data graphics communicate.
UX.3.04Agile, Lean & Sprint Methods
Agile sprints, Lean UX, and Design Sprints — compared for choosing the right approach.
UX.3.05Gamification
Game mechanics in non-game contexts. Progress, challenges, and social dynamics.
UX.3.06Product Adoption
Onboarding flows, habit formation, activation metrics, and retention design.
UX.3.07Dynamic User Experience
Adaptive interfaces, personalization, and contextual UI design.
UX.3.08Ecommerce & Transactional UX
Cart design, checkout flows, product page anatomy, trust signals, and payment patterns.
UX.3.09Designing for AI Agents
Dual-audience design, agent-readable interfaces, human-AI handoffs, and collaborative actor mapping.
PM.3.01AI Product Management
AI suitability assessment, quality thresholds, and managing model uncertainty.
PM.3.02Marketplaces & Platforms
Cold-start problems, liquidity metrics, and multi-sided platform dynamics.
PM.3.03Enterprise & Regulated PM
SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and building products where compliance shapes the roadmap.
PM.3.040-to-1 Product Creation
MVP strategy, finding product-market fit, and the founder/PM mindset.
PM.3.05Internationalization & Localization
Market selection, localization strategy, and multi-language product infrastructure.
PM.3.06Sunset & Pivot Decisions
Sunset planning, migration paths, and pivot decision frameworks.
PM.3.07Hardware-Software & IoT PM
Firmware rollouts, supply chain, and managing hardware-software products.
MK.3.01AI in Marketing
Use AI as a marketing multiplier. AI-powered content, personalization at scale, AI tools for marketers, and AI-driven strategy shifts.
MK.3.02Community Building & Developer Marketing
Build an audience that stays. Community strategy, developer relations, community-led growth, and community-led growth.
MK.3.03Influencer & Creator Marketing
Borrow trusted voices. Influencer identification, partnership structures, creator campaigns, and measuring influencer ROI.
MK.3.04International & Multicultural Marketing
Market across borders and cultures. Market entry marketing, cultural adaptation, localized campaigns, and cultural adaptation.
MK.3.05Product Marketing
Sales enablement, competitive battle cards, and product-market messaging.
MK.3.06ABM & Enterprise Marketing
Account-based marketing, target account selection, and enterprise campaigns.
CS.3.01Technical Writing & Documentation
API docs, help centers, knowledge bases, and documentation architecture.
CS.3.02Content Ops Tooling & CMS Strategy
CMS selection, headless vs. traditional, and content technology stacks.
CS.3.03Video, Audio & Visual Content Strategy
Video planning, podcast strategy, visual guidelines, and multimedia workflows.
CS.3.04Content for Conversational Interfaces
Dialogue design, chatbot personality, conversation flows, and voice content.
CS.3.05Multi-Channel Content Orchestration
Channel-specific adaptation, distribution strategy, and cross-channel consistency.
Reference & Growth
Foundations, frameworks, and career material. Reach for these to think across topics.
Design Philosophy: Don Norman
Norman's thinking on human-centered design, sustainability, and real-world complexity.
UX.4.02Immersive & Voice Interfaces
AR/VR spatial design, voice UI, conversational design, and multi-modal interaction.
UX.4.03UX Management
Leading design teams, building UX culture, and demonstrating design ROI.
UX.4.04Presentation & Communication
Presenting research, storytelling with data, and making design work understood.
UX.4.05Build a Standout Portfolio
Case studies, portfolio architecture, and presenting your design process.
UX.4.06Affordances & Physical Intuition
Gibson, Norman, and the psychology of perceived interaction possibilities.
UX.4.07UX Leadership & Influence
Lead without the title. UX leadership strengths, driving vision, evangelizing UX, and building organizational culture.
PM.4.01Product Leadership
Hiring PMs, career ladders, org design, and building product culture.
PM.4.02Frameworks Encyclopedia
Quick reference for RICE, ICE, Kano, JTBD, and every other PM framework.
PM.4.03The PM Career
APM to CPO, IC vs. management, specializations, and PM interviews.
PM.4.04Product Ethics
Ethics frameworks, dark pattern audits, and responsible AI governance.
PM.4.05Product Thinking
First principles, systems thinking, and senior PM decision-making tools.
PM.4.06Product Communication
Amazon 6-pagers, RFCs, status updates, and communicating product work.
MK.4.01Marketing Psychology
Cialdini's principles, cognitive biases, and ethical persuasion in marketing.
MK.4.02Copywriting & Storytelling
Copywriting formulas, brand storytelling, and persuasive writing craft.
MK.4.03Marketing Leadership
Hiring marketers, team structure, agency management, and budgets.
MK.4.04Marketing Strategy Frameworks
STP, marketing mix, growth frameworks, and marketing plan templates.
MK.4.05The Marketing Career
Specializations, career progression, and staying relevant as AI changes marketing.
CS.4.01Content Leadership & Team Building
Hiring, team structure, career paths, and building a content function.
CS.4.02Content Strategy Frameworks
Quick reference for Brain Traffic, COPE, content pillar model, and other frameworks.
CS.4.03The Content Career
Content specializations, career progression, portfolio building, and the AI era.
Understanding people, designing flows, proving the work
Methods for research, structure, interaction, and evaluation. From discovery questions to usability evidence.
Decide what to build, and how to know it worked
Strategy, discovery, prioritisation, and delivery. Frameworks for setting direction and measuring outcomes.
Find the audience, sharpen the message, grow the channels
Positioning, lifecycle, paid and organic. Practices for the channels that compound and the work that brings people in.
What we say, where we say it, and how it stays useful
Editorial systems, structure, governance, and craft. Methods for content that works across channels and time.