Jeff's Strategy Course

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Portrait of Jeff Humble smiling in a dark blue shirt

Jeff Humble

Jeff Humble is an innovation designer turned founder. Since 2011, Jeff has shaped how product teams think about design and research before most organizations knew they needed it. He founded the Fountain Institute to give senior practitioners the rigorous, advanced training the field was missing.

Jeff Humble skills

The 3 Pillars of Jeff’s Practice

📋 CONTINUOUS RESEARCH

Research is too important to leave to chance, so I treat it as a ritual, not an event. I run it continuously, and I augment it with AI agents to cover more ground faster, surfacing the 3 C's of customer, competitor, and company so I always have an up-to-date mental model of what's actually going on, not what I assumed last quarter.

Good research is also a team sport. A single perspective creates blind spots, even a sharp one, so I pull as many people as possible into the gathering process. The more vantage points feeding the picture, the fewer assumptions slip through unchecked.

📈 AI EXPERIMENTATION

Even well-researched designs can fail if you never test the theory behind them. In design, everything is an assumption until it's in front of a real customer. AI has changed how cheap and fast that testing can be: I can take a hypothesis from sketch to working prototype in a fraction of the time it used to take, which means I can put ideas in front of customers early and often, even before a design feels "finished."

I bring an analytical, scientific approach to that process, testing concepts for viability, feasibility, desirability, and usability rather than relying on instinct alone. The faster the feedback loop, the faster the bad assumptions get caught and the good ones get sharpened.

🗺️ STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

Sometimes alignment means designing a strategy from scratch. Other times it means sharpening the reach of one that already exists. Either way, it starts with the same foundation as everything else I do: the continuous research and rapid experimentation above don't just inform individual designs, they compound into insights that can guide an entire company's direction.

A good strategy works like a high-level theory of the world, but a theory nobody understands is useless. I use design to make strategy tangible: visible, concrete, and easy to act on, because the biggest reason strategies fail isn't bad thinking, it's bad communication. Any team can benefit from a strategy, but only if everyone actually gets it.

That's why I build strategy collaboratively rather than handing it down. It's hard to ignore a strategy you helped create.

Select Project Deliverables

Get a feel for Jeff’s knowledge and the quality of his work.

Product Building

  • LingoPlaytime.com - full language-learning app for kids with 16+ games, 2026・View the Product

  • Tools for Conviviality - library of tools that promote conviviality, a concept from author Ivan Illich, 2026・View the Library

  • WorkshopTimers.com - fullscreen timer web app that works offline with tons of themes, 2026・View the App

  • Pigrosoft - umbrella brand for my product-building experiments・View the Site

  • The Fountain Institute - full design and build of an online school 2020-2025・View the Company

Product Strategy & Innovation

  • UX Strategy Info Session - masterclass on UX strategy for the Fountain Institute, 2025・Watch the Video

  • Actioning Strategy - workshop on turning strategy into action for Ecosia, 2025・View the Slides

  • Aligning with Strategy - masterclass on business strategy at the Leadership Ateliers Conference, 2024・View the Slides

  • How to Test Innovation Ideas - product talk on rapid experimentation for the Fountain Institute, 2023・Watch the Video

  • Get Started with Weekly Research - product talk on continuous discovery for Airtime, 2023・Watch the Video

  • How to Do UX Research Weekly - product talk on continuous discovery for the Fountain Institute, 2022・Watch the Video

  • Tech Vision: an Engineering Strategy Workshop - all-day workshop to facilitate a dev team strategy at CareerFoundry, 2020・View the Slides

  • How to Run a Design Thinking Workshop - YouTube tutorial based on multiple client workshops, 2020・Watch the Video

  • UX Design Crash Course - monthly workshop for sales leads at CareerFoundry, 2019・View the Slides

  • Journey Mapping for Alignment - half-day workshop for UX Alive Conference in Istanbul, 2018・View the Slides

  • What is Information Architecture? - all-day workshop for the UX team at Lufthansa, 2018・View the Slides

  • The Future of Voice UI - main-stage tech talk for UX Alive Conference in Istanbul, 2018・Watch the Video

  • Lufthansa: Design Sprint 101 - all-day workshop for the UX team at Lufthansa, 2018・View the Slides

Product Design

  • Rubrics for Education - grading system for improving student submissions at CareerFoundry, 2017・View the Document

  • Spredfast Presenter for iPad - app for event hosts to curate social media content during live broadcasts, 2016・View the Document

  • Soundcloud for Android Auto: A User Story - product concept work for Soundcloud, 2015・View the Document

  • Social Image Poll Product - white-label template for brands like ABC Family to generate social media polls, 2015・View the Document

  • Chase U.S. Open Social Hub - interactive social media hub for Chase Bank, 2015・View the Document

  • Paramount Pictures Social Experiences - interactive social media experiences for Paramount movies, 2014・View the Document

  • Leap for Instagram - touchless controller prototype for social media on the Leap Motion Controller, 2014・View the Document

  • Victoria’s Secret Social Hub - interactive social media hub for Victoria’s Secret, 2012・View the Document

  • Austin City Limits Event Hub - iPad app to curate social media from the music festival in Austin, 2011・View the Document

  • NBA Hoops Around the World App - phone app to gather pictures of basketball goals from around the world, 2011・View the Document

Learning Design

  • How to UX Strategy - my free video course on designing strategy on YouTube, 2024・Watch the Videos

  • Defining UX Strategy - my six-week live, cohort-based program in design strategy, 2021・View the Curriculum

  • Designing Product Experiments - my six-week live, cohort-based program in rapid experimentation, 2021・View the Curriculum

  • Continuous UX Research - my six-week live, cohort-based program in continuous discovery, 2021・View the Curriculum

  • The UX of Online Learning - educational talk for the Fountain Institute on my approach to instructional design, 2021・Watch the Video

  • Advanced UX/UI Design for the Real World - my six-week cohort-based program for UX bootcamp grads, 2020・View the Curriculum

  • UX Design Video Tutorials - instructional videos for CareerFoundry’s UX Bootcamp, 2018・Watch an Example

Graphic Design

  • The Big Show Lookbook for Spredfast - biz dev editorial to help brands innovate during live events, 2015・View the Lookbook

  • The Social Media Pocket Guide - designed and contracted custom illustrations for a biz dev lead magnet, 2014・View the Guide

  • Gig Posters for Transmission Events - event poster design for bands like Big Freedia, King Tuff, and Mark Kozelek 2013・View the Posters

  • Brand Identity for Fat Fuse - logo, branding, and website design for an Austin recording studio, 2010・View the Identity

(long-form case studies available upon request)

"I loved working with Jeff - he's smart, emotionally intelligent, driven, and open to feedback and experimentation, all qualities I consider essential for a leader."
Megan Mulholland, Founder & Principal Consultant