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Build Inclusive Products & Services with Women-Centric Design

4.5

(9 ratings)

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10 Days

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Cohort-based Course

Level up your design research & product strategy with our Design for Women Methodology to meet the commonly overlooked needs of women.

Course overview

Designing for "everyone" often leads to one-size-fits-men solutions

The world is rife with products & services creating unintended consequences for women. Embedding women-centricity into our design process ensures that our solutions actually serve women as equal users. But, getting started with inclusive design can feel overwhelming. We can help.

This course is for you if...

01

You are a design practitioner who shapes products, services & programs. You practice HCD methods driving research, insights & ideation.

02

You are sick of talking about "why inclusive design" matters — you are excited about the how, but unsure of how to get started.

03

You dream of a world that also designs for women and you want to actively help create that future.

This course will help you

Activate your internal "inclusive design eye"

Through a repository of examples and thoughtfully designed exercises, practice how products and services serve or overlook women. Evaluate the world's experiences as offensive, impartial, informed, or holistic with our foundational "Women-Centric Eye" framework.

Embed key women-centric lenses in your own design project

Incorporate women-centricity into problem scoping, research and ideation by engaging in our 'Six Non-Negotiables Framework.' Apply your learnings on a real project during the course.

Facilitate inclusive design sessions to get your teams aligned, energised, and engaged

Inclusive design conversations can be hard. What's more, it can feel like they never lead to action. Our tools and frameworks are designed to help you shift the discussion from the why to the how with your teams.

Join a community of like-minded practitioners committed to women-centric design

Each module will allow you to apply what you've learned in small, supportive groups. You will not only expand your women-centric perspectives and understanding, but also build relationships with fellow inclusive design enthusiasts.

What people are saying

        This course was incredibly well-executed. Mansi provided a compelling & grounded framework, examples and exercises so we could apply as we learned. Her lens was global, intersectional, and just pretty freaking brilliant. I thought I knew a fair amount about women-centric design. Turns out, I had absolutely EVERYTHING to learn.
Jessica Weaver

Jessica Weaver

Game & Social Impact Designer | Winter 2022 Cohort
        Mansi's framework for women-centric design is based on extensive research, clear, simple, and easy to use. She shared the thought process behind the content, and set aside time for participants to process it using real-world examples. The framework is application to other marginalized groups as well. Thank you for this amazing course!
Karen Patwa

Karen Patwa

Leadership, Education, DEI | Winter 2022 Cohort
        I am happy to have learned a hands-on approach to implement design for women. This was exactly what I hoped for. Mansi cared for all students and made me feel safe during the course. What’s super cool is that I won’t look at another project without the non-negotiables. Usually frameworks don’t translate into easy to use steps which this course did!
Lies Benjamens

Lies Benjamens

Service Designer | Winter 2022 Cohort
        I really loved this course. Mansi is a master facilitator. She is knowledgeable, thoughtful, critical and action-focused. Her delivery of the course is professional, kind and very practical. The content is readily applicable to research and design work in real life. There’s something in there for everyone, I really recommend it.
Pip Bennett

Pip Bennett

Feminist Researcher | Winter 2022 Cohort
        Mansi delivered a brilliant mix of teaching, discussion, and collaborative activities that made us think. She introduced a framework that people felt they could back and use in their projects. The most wonderful thing is that even though it was focused on women, we are able to see how to apply the framework to other marginalized groups.
Victor Udeowa

Victor Udeowa

Chief Experience Officer & Service Design Lead, NASA
        Mansi has pioneered a set of tactile, practical principles and frameworks that can guide busy practitioners on how to actually design for women. Her Design for Women workshops are effective in engaging a broader, less-experienced audience that is interested in learning how to apply gender to their work. Mansi is a natural speaker and catalyst.
Jona Repishti

Jona Repishti

Senior Advisor, International Center for Research on Women; prev. MIT Design Lab
        I really enjoyed the activity where we came up with practical ways to design for women on a specific context. It got the juices flowing about how we can contribute to an otherwise massive feeling problem.
Suruchi Srikanth

Suruchi Srikanth

Head of Strategy, International Baccalaureatte
        I enjoyed the perspective of design from offensive to holistic. It put a lot of design into perspective for me, especially with the examples you provided. This was definitely a worthwhile workshop, it's quite hard to find workshops that don't feel like the same content being regurgitated in different forms.
Design for Women Workshop Participant

Design for Women Workshop Participant

Anonymous Feedback

Meet your instructor

Mansi Gupta

Mansi Gupta

Women-Centric Innovator & Founder at Unconform

After spending a decade leading women-focused projects I realised that the very design methodologies I'd been leaning on are biased against women.


I have since been on a journey to understand how our current design methodologies overlook women's key needs. At the same time, I find that many well-intentioned design practitioners struggle to get started with inclusive design.


I founded Unconform to help organisations incorporate a women-centric design lens across products, programs and processes. I facilitate teams through our signature women-centric design methodologies, have consulted on projects and trained teams at MIT Design Lab, IDEO, NASA, Booking.com, PVH and more.


I created Design for Women — a methodology focused on intentionally and actively designing for women — to help design practitioners overcome overwhelm and actually practice inclusive design methods in their day to day. Our introductory Design for Women Workshops that have trained hundreds of design and impact practitioners have received a 4.4/5 value rating.


I have spent the past decade deepening my expertise in women and design:

  • I have engaged in deep research with 100+ gender-design practitioners, which is the foundation for our key tools and methods.
  • I have led research, design and ideation for female financial inclusion, gender-lens investing, and reproductive health projects with organisations such as Women's World Banking, MIT Design Lab, and Final Mile Consulting.
  • I continue to advance dialogue at the intersection of women x design by curating the Unconforming newsletter; and leading Design for Women Conversations, a monthly event series bringing together gender and design practitioners. 
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Course syllabus

01

Orient + Activate

Get grounded with why we need women-centric design. Meet your classmates and get to know your working group for the course. Explore our fundamental women-centric eye framework. Choose a project to work on for the next few sessions.

02

Explore Non Negotiables: Safety, Trust, Non-Linearity

Diving into three of our six non-negotiables, evaluate your project with the lenses of safety, trust, and non-linearity. Experiment how these themes might change your research and ideation phases.

03

Explore Non-Negotiables: Lifecycle, Community, Role of Men

Diving into three of our six non-negotiables, evaluate your project with the lenses of lifecycle design, community, and role of men. Experiment how these themes might change your research and ideation phases.

04

Converge: Reflect, Identify, Apply

Reflect on which exercises, examples and non-negotiables most resonated with you. Identify potential opportunity areas in your product, program or service. Re-construct your problem scoping, research and ideation methods with women-centric design and chart a plan to get your team onboard.

Course schedule

4 hours per week

  • Course Dates: December 6 – 15, 2022

    4 Sessions over 2 Weeks

    Our first cohort runs this December – an end-of-year opportunity to reflect on your product, service, or program and get set up to drive inclusive design action next year.

  • Live Sessions: Tuesdays & Thursdays

    5-7pm CET; 11am-1pm EST; 8-10am PST

    Our live sessions will take place Tuesdays and Thursdays (December 6, 8, 13, 15). Each live session will include content sharing, small group exercises, time to work on your specific project, and ample time for Q&A.

  • Optional Office Hours

    30 minutes | Between Dec 6 - 20

    I offer 1:1 time to help move your women-centric design practice even further.

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm not sure if I am a "design practitioner," how can I be sure this course is a fit for me?
I'm not sure I have my own design project to work on. Can I still join the course?
Is this course only for women?
Is this a DEI course? Why is there a focus on women?
What is the expected time commitment?
What happens if I can’t make a live session?
Am I able to expense this course to my organisation?
Do you offer scholarships?
I would love to join, but these course dates do not work for me. Will you offer future cohorts?
What’s the refund policy?
I still have more questions!

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