FAQs

Each Masterclass explores brand and business design through a different lens—a different way of thinking. The current Masterclasses are focused on DISRUPTIVE, STRATEGIC, ARCHITECTURAL, and PROFITABLE thinking.
You can decide where you want to start your exploration of business design with us. Masterclasses may be taken in any order, and they will all connect with each other, no matter where you begin or in which order you take them.
We always suggest beginning with DISRUPTION. It's the foundation for everything else.
If you don't care about earning the LVLC credential, then you can take—or not take—whatever Masterclasses you want.

If you do want to earn the LVLC credential, then you may not skip a Masterclass, but you can still take them in which order you want.
The criteria for passing/failing a Masterclass are set in the class, when it begins.
It's extremely rare for someone to not pass a Masterclass, but when it has happened it's almost always because they demonstrated a complete lack of ability to collaborate, recognize what they don't understand, and decide to not make any effort to participate.
In other words: if you don't pass, it's because you tried really hard to fail.
Yes, unless there are space or other logistical issues.
No. That's what everyone else does.
If there is, the class description will say, and details will be provided when you enroll.
You don't have to like them.
Not necessarily.
Classes and exercises are designed in advance, usually around a hypothetical challenge or a real-world guest client.
No. Not anymore.
We wanted to make LVLC more accessible and democratic, so we redesigned each Masterclass to fit together in a flatter and more interconnected way. Now, no one class is more important than any other, and we believe that is more realistic and meaningful to practitioners.
Yep. Contact us and tell us what you have in mind.
Yep. Contact us and tell us what you have in mind.
Maybe. Contact us and tell us what you have in mind.
Yes—we offer one main credential now, and only after you successfully complete all available Masterclasses in the curriculum.
The LVLC Fellowship is the highest recognition Level C gives.
It recognizes not only what someone has completed, but the quality of their thinking, performance, understanding, and character.
Not really.
You can certify that someone completed a class. Fellowship recognizes something bigger than completion.
After completing the full LVLC curriculum, you may apply to stand for Fellowship.
We will invite those who not only complete the program, but who also—in our professional and objective judgment—are ready and able to fulfill the role.
The process will continue to evolve as the role of Fellow itself evolves.
It means we believe you’re ready and able to be considered for it.
It also means you have to demonstrate how and why.
LVLC leadership and current Fellows will define the role and confer the credential.
That design is intentional.
Yes, and it goes beyond just wearing the new title.
Fellows are expected to continue to demonstrate the abilities and qualities they stand for by using them to make the discipline—and its communities of practitioners—better. That includes working with us to define what those things mean before we even get to work.
The Board is leadership from within the Fellowship.
Fellows nominate and choose Fellows to represent the group to the community and LVLC leadership, to challenge all of us, to protect what Fellowship stands for, and to help shape what comes next.
And the idea of a Board wasn’t our idea, it was theirs.
We wanted to offer something more meaningful to you and to us. Certifications stopped being that something.
Of course.
We’ve just decided that Fellowship is a more meaningful way to recognize where the professional journey in this discipline can and, based on the opinions of people on that journey, should lead.
If you’ve earned Fellowship, yes.
If you haven’t, please don’t.
A Masterclass is more of an academic workshop, with lectures, craft exercises, and sprint critiques in the mix. They can be larger groups organized into small teams, built around one main theme of the class.
A full Critique session is focused on open discussion to explore a range of topics with a much looser structure. It's more like professional small-group professional therapy sessions that can become whatever you—or we—want or need them to be. We believe they are the perfect compliment to a Masterclass, and where next-level serious learning can happen.