Educating the Next Generation of Digital Entrepreneurs—The Starter League
In 2011, The Starter League (formerly Code Academy) launched in Chicago as one of the first coding bootcamps in the U.S., helping adults transition into tech careers through immersive, in-person courses. Housed in Chicago’s 1871 tech hub and partnered with companies like 37signals (Basecamp), the program offered fast-paced, practice-driven training in web development and design.
As the school expanded beyond code, I was invited to create its first User Experience Design curriculum—a 10-week program that would give beginners the skills and confidence to design intuitive, user-centered digital products from scratch.
The challenge.
How might we help adult learners—with little or no design background—quickly build practical UX skills and apply them in real-world projects?
Students came from a wide range of professional backgrounds, including marketing, education, nonprofit, and tech. Many had never heard of user personas or wireframes before. The course had to be both accessible and rigorous, with enough structure to support learning but enough flexibility to let students find their own creative process.
My role.
I designed and taught the User Experience Design curriculum, which ran four times a year over a three-year period. I developed the overall course structure, weekly topics, supporting materials, and hands-on activities, and facilitated each 10-week session in person.
In this capacity, I:
Structured a full UX process into a 10-week learning arc, covering research, personas, IA, wireframes, prototyping, and testing, with the first half of the course being foundational and the second half being project-focused, hands-on application of concepts
Designed or curated weekly lessons, templates, and in-class exercises to reinforce key concepts through doing, not just observing
Led live instruction for 3-hour weekly classes and project workshops, giving verbal feedback and guidance on student work each week
Adapted the curriculum after each cohort to reflect what students struggled with, what resonated, and what industry practices evolved
Helped students apply UX concepts to team-based or personal product ideas, resulting in portfolio-ready project work
Embedded soft skills such as critique, storytelling, and presentation throughout the course
Learning objectives.
By the end of the course, students were able to:
Explain the purpose and value of user experience design in digital product development
Conduct user research through interviews, observation, and field notes
Identify patterns in qualitative data to uncover user needs and pain points
Create personas and scenarios to communicate user goals and behaviors
Develop information architecture through site mapping and content organization
Sketch low-fidelity wireframes to explore and communicate design ideas
Form a visual design direction through style tiles representing colors, fonts, and unique brand elements
Use feedback and critique to iterate on design concepts
Build interactive prototypes to test design assumptions
Conduct basic usability testing and interpret findings
Present UX work with clarity and confidence to peers and stakeholders
Mid-course assessment.
Below is an example of a student team submission which formed their assessment for the first half of the course.
First, I held a class “MadLibs-like” brainstorm where we came up with potential challenges based on a combination of a potential user group, an activity, and an experience adjective (like “easier,” but I asked students to push beyond relatively generic words like “easier” or “more intuitive). This team chose “Make dancing way sassier for the elderly.”
I then asked each team to share their assumptions about the challenge, including assumptions about their user group, the activity, and what the experience is likely like now. Students used the assumptions to help them form a research plan, then performed qualitative, in-person research via a field study with contextual interviews. In this case, the team visited assisted living facilities and interviewed seniors.
Students then brough back their findings, along with any insights from secondary research, to explore the problems and opportunities for improving the experience. This lead to solution ideas, and I coached them on which idea to focus on.
Finally, teams refined concepts and prototypes to design and present their solutions to the class.
Final assessment.
Rather than having a graded assessment, The Starter League focused on helping students form teams to design and prototype a digital product by the end of the course. In an approach unique among bootcamps, we encouraged teams to form across the design and development classes in order to provide something closer to a real-world working experience, resulting in working products by the end of the course.
Each student presented their final product concept on Demo Day, an event that was often attended by over 200 people with a mix of mentors, peers in the industry, former students, and representatives of hiring companies. Leading up to this, students received in-person, in-depth feedback from me and from program mentors.
Outcomes.
Over 12 cohorts, the course helped students develop the UX mindset and skills needed to enter the field, collaborate with developers, or bring design thinking back to their original industries. Many went on to work in senior UX roles or integrate what they learned into startups, nonprofits, or larger product teams.
The Starter League became a model for bootcamp education nationwide, winning several awards for its impact. For me personally, it led to my inclusion in these prestigious lists:
Crain’s Chicago’s Tech 50
TechWeek 100
Built in Chicago: The Women Driving Chicago’s Digital Renaissance
Key takeaways.
A well-designed curriculum is itself a product and a service—it requires testing, iteration, and empathy for learners
Teaching UX helped me clarify and refine how I practice it
Even in fast-paced programs, students thrive when they have real structure, real feedback, and real projects
Student testimonials.
“A good teacher engages students and gets them to look at issues in a variety of ways. Carolyn used facts as a starting point, not an end point; she questioned us with “why”, guided us in looking at a problem from all sides and encouraged us to predict what would happen next.”
“I began my UX/UI design career through taking Carolyn’s class at The Starter League. I really knew nothing about UX or UI coming in to the class. Carolyn was able to break down UI patterns, UX best practices and techniques to a level that made sense. Carolyn teaches what you need to know and how to apply it.”