Stanford Life Design Lab
Stanford Life Design Lab is a non-profit academic program within Stanford University that applies design thinking to life and vocational wayfinding, offering experiential courses for Stanford students and the Life Design Studio training program for university educators across 500+ partner institutions globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersStanford, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Stanford Life Design Lab does
Stanford Life Design Lab is a non-profit academic program within Stanford University, founded in 2015 by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans at the Stanford d.school. It applies design thinking principles to the "wicked problems" of life and vocational wayfinding, offering a portfolio of experiential courses for Stanford students (Designing Your Life, Designing Your Stanford, Designing the Professional, Designing Black Experiences, Designing Your Spiritual Life) and a separate training program, the Life Design Studio, for university educators worldwide. The Studio program operates in three delivery modes: a 4-day in-person training at Stanford, a 5-day synchronous Virtual Studio on Zoom, and Customized Trainings for groups of 50+ participants, supported by post-Studio resources and a monthly Equity and Inclusion Working Group spanning 30+ universities.
The Lab's underlying technology is a methodology rather than a software platform: structured frameworks such as Odyssey Planning, Workview/Worldview, Prototyping, Social Identity Reflection, Life Design Sketches, and Energy Engagement Maps, all delivered via facilitator-led workshops. Teaching materials are licensed under Creative Commons for educational use, with training operations relying on commodity tools (Zoom, MIRO, Google Workspace/Sheets/Calendar). The Lab has no AI/ML components and no proprietary software product; its core "technology" is the codified design thinking curriculum and the trained facilitator network.
The business model is mission-driven and non-commercial. The Lab is funded primarily through Stanford University's academic budget, with limited revenue from registration fees for the Life Design Studio training programs (specific pricing not publicly disclosed). Teaching materials are distributed free under Creative Commons, and Stanford student courses are included in tuition. The go-to-market motion is event-driven and community-led: growth occurs through Stanford-hosted events, conference presentations (e.g., SXSW EDU), and word-of-mouth within a network of 500+ partner universities globally. The Lab operates with a small team of approximately 5 employees and is led by Executive Director Bill Burnett, following the recent departure of long-time Managing Director Kathy Davies.
Stanford Life Design Lab firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Stanford Life Design Lab
- Legal name
- Stanford Life Design Lab
- Website
- https://lifedesignlab.stanford.edu
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Stanford Life Design Lab is a non-profit academic program within Stanford University that applies design thinking to life and vocational wayfinding, offering experiential courses for Stanford students and the Life Design Studio training program for university educators across 500+ partner institutions globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Stanford Life Design Lab industry classification
Industry- NAICS
- Professional and Management Development Training (611430), Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Engineering Design & Project-Based Learning Programs (EDAMADAB)
Keywords
Where Stanford Life Design Lab is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Stanford
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices4 records
Markets served
Stanford Life Design Lab business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Stanford University Funding: As a Stanford University program, the Life Design Lab is funded through the university's academic budget, supporting courses for Stanford students at no direct cost.
- Life Design Studio Training Fees: University educators from other institutions pay registration fees to attend the Life Design Studio training programs (in-person and virtual), which provide immersive training, materials, and access to the community of practice.
- Licensing of Educational Materials: Life design teaching materials are licensed under Creative Commons for educational purposes, with some materials and curriculum available to educators globally at no cost.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Academic term | Stanford Student Courses |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Life Design Studio for University Educators |
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Open Educational Resources |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels7 records
Stanford Life Design Lab product offering
Product offeringCore offering
The Stanford Life Design Lab offers experiential academic courses that apply design thinking to life and vocational wayfinding, and provides training programs (Life Design Studio, Virtual Studio, Customized Trainings) for university educators to deliver the methodology on their own campuses. Course offerings include Designing Your Life, Designing Your Stanford, Designing The Professional, Designing Black Experiences, and Designing Your Spiritual Life, while the educator training programs have built a global network of 500+ partner universities.
Product overview
Stanford Life Design Lab is an educational program that offers a portfolio of experiential courses centered on applying design thinking to life and vocational wayfinding. The core course offerings include Designing Your Life (DYL), Designing Your Stanford (DYS), Designing The Professional (DtP), Designing Black Experiences (DBE), and Designing Your Spiritual Life (DYSL), each serving different student populations and life design focus areas. For university educators, the Lab provides three distinct training pathways: the in-person Life Design Studio (4-day intensive at Stanford), the Virtual Studio (5-day synchronous online training via Zoom), and Customized Trainings (tailored programs for specific institutional needs). The program also supports the global life design community through the Equity and Inclusion Working Group, Post Studio Resources, and open educational resources including the foundational 'Designing Your Life' book. The platform's architecture consists of a course-based product portfolio for students combined with a training-and-certification model for university adoption, creating a global network of over 500 institutions implementing life design curriculum.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Designing Your Life (DYL): A course applying design thinking to designing one's life and career, taught at Stanford and adopted by universities worldwide.
- Designing Your Stanford (DYS)
- Designing the Professional (DtP)
- Designing Black Experiences (DBE)
- Designing Your Spiritual Life (DYSL)
- Life Design Studio
- E+I Working Group
Quantifiable outcome
- 92% of Oakland University participants identified at least one next step to clarify future goals
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Stanford Life Design Lab
Customer profileNamed customers20 records
Segments4 records
Stanford Life Design Lab technology and API
TechnologyAPI detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
Feature6 records
Stanford Life Design Lab partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered notable, core and minor.
- RRR Women's Network of WA (Rural, Regional and Remote Women's Network of Western Australia)notableCurtin University partnered with the RRR Women's Network as an industry partner to deliver life design workshops to rural, regional, and remote women across Western Australia. The partnership conducted 7 workshops for 120 women across 10,700km, focusing on career sustainability and economic empowerment.
- Equity and Inclusion Life Design Working GroupcoreAfter the murder of George Floyd, life design practitioners from across North America established a working group to improve life design tools through an equity and inclusion lens. Co-founded by Julia Lang of Tulane University and Kathy Davies at Stanford, the group represents 30+ universities meeting monthly.
- Michigan State University - Career Services Network and Undergraduate Education OfficecorePartnership between MSU Career Services Network and Undergraduate Education Office to promote proactive parallel planning through Designing Your MSU (DYMSU) programs reaching 3,000+ students.
- Ashoka UnotableTulane's Taylor Your Life curriculum was developed incorporating Ashoka U award-winning Transformative Action Institute curriculum, which has been used at over 50 campuses including Harvard, Stanford and UCLA.
- Net ImpactminorTulane's Taylor Your Life curriculum incorporated elements from Net Impact's Career Development Program for undergraduate and graduate students.
- University of Dayton - Institute of Applied Creativity for Transformation (IACT)coreUniversity of Dayton's IACT serves as the home for life design programming, integrating design thinking principles into the Catholic, Marianist mission of vocational discernment and whole-person education.
- Kellogg School of Management - Career Management CentercoreNorthwestern's Kellogg Career Management Center delivers DYL workshops to full-time, evening & weekend, and executive MBA students, Master's students, undergraduates, staff, and alumni across global locations.
- Kellogg Alumni ClubsnotableKellogg Alumni Club chapters in Boston, New York, Washington DC, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis host DYL workshops for alumni.
- Tulane Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design ThinkingcoreThe Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane hosts Taylor Your Life and Taylor Your Tulane programs, reaching 868+ students with equity-centered life design curriculum.
- Texas A&M University-Commerce - College of Innovation and Design (CID)coreCID serves as the foundation for college-wide life design implementation, delivering DYL curriculum to all incoming freshmen and sophomores at risk of dropping out through University College 101.
- Grow Dat Youth FarmminorTulane learned the 'Kujichagulia' identity activity from Grow Dat Youth Farm, which introduces identity as a lens through which lives are designed.
Scale indicators16 records
Recent moves12 records
Expansion highlights10 records
Stanford Life Design Lab competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- IDEO U: IDEO's learning platform teaches design thinking and innovation to professionals and educators, closely overlapping with the Life Design Lab's methodology, audience, and training delivery model.
- OneHE: Provides professional development and training resources to higher education educators globally, directly comparable to Life Design Studio's focus on training university faculty and staff.
- Center for Creative Leadership: CCL provides leadership development and training programs to institutions and individuals, comparable to Life Design's professional development and educator training offerings in methodology and delivery.
- Emeritus: Partners with universities to deliver professional development and executive education programs globally, paralleling Life Design Studio's model of training educators and professionals through structured engagements.
Broad incumbents
- 2U: Works with universities to deliver online degree and non-degree programs, comparable to Life Design's mission of expanding university access to structured learning content and educator training.
- General Assembly: GA offers professional skills training and career-focused courses across multiple disciplines, sharing Life Design's mission of equipping individuals with career and life design capabilities.
- Coursera for Campus: Provides universities with curated online courses and credential programs, comparable to Life Design's mission of bringing structured curricula to higher education institutions at scale.
- Stanford d.school: The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design is the parent unit of the Life Design Lab and offers design thinking courses, fellowships, and executive programs that overlap with Life Design's methodology and Stanford-based offerings.
- LinkedIn Learning: Provides professional development video courses spanning career, leadership, and personal development, overlapping with Life Design's broader goal of helping individuals navigate career and life decisions.
Emerging players
- Pathrise: Career coaching and mentorship platform focused on helping job seekers navigate career transitions, addressing similar vocational wayfinding problems as Life Design but with a more individualized coaching model.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Stanford Life Design Lab social profiles
Digital presenceStanford Life Design Lab financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Stanford Life Design Lab leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Stanford Life Design Lab funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Stanford Life Design Lab M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Stanford Life Design Lab
What does Stanford Life Design Lab do?
The Stanford Life Design Lab offers experiential academic courses that apply design thinking to life and vocational wayfinding, and provides training programs (Life Design Studio, Virtual Studio, Customized Trainings) for university educators to deliver the methodology on their own campuses. Course offerings include Designing Your Life, Designing Your Stanford, Designing The Professional, Designing Black Experiences, and Designing Your Spiritual Life, while the educator training programs have built a global network of 500+ partner universities.
Is Stanford Life Design Lab a public or private company?
Stanford Life Design Lab is a private company. It is currently operating.
When was Stanford Life Design Lab founded?
Stanford Life Design Lab was founded in 2015. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Stanford Life Design Lab based?
Stanford Life Design Lab is headquartered in Stanford, United States, in the North America region.
How does Stanford Life Design Lab make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Stanford University Funding is the primary driver. The others are life Design Studio Training Fees and licensing of Educational Materials.
Who are Stanford Life Design Lab's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are IDEO U, OneHE, Center for Creative Leadership and Emeritus. Broad incumbents are 2U, General Assembly, Coursera for Campus, Stanford d.school and LinkedIn Learning. Pathrise is listed as an emerging player.
Does Stanford Life Design Lab have an API?
No public API is recorded for Stanford Life Design Lab.
What industry is Stanford Life Design Lab in?
Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAMADAB, Engineering Design & Project-Based Learning Programs. Its NAICS code is 611430 and its SIC code is 8200.