Sprint with AI:
First steps.
Move fast without breaking what matters. Learn to run same-day AI-powered Design Sprints to pressure-test concepts, uncover market opportunities and sharpen product-market fit.
Helping product teams accelerate Design Thinking since 2017
Actionable, Analog, Accessible (AAA).
First Steps is built for teams that want practical AI acceleration without the hype, the slop, or the blind automation. Our “triple A” approach combines actionable same-day AI-powered sprints, analog human-in-the-loop decision-making, and accessible AI workflows that teams can actually use. Designed for live product pipelines, real constraints, and teams that need human-centered velocity without losing control.
Human-centered meets AI velocity
Three learning systems, one fast track. The Mindset will equip you to confidently hold a product thesis. The Sandbox will allow you to stress-test the product thesis in simulations using synthetic users and digital twins. The Reality will show you how to use Bolts™ to apply what you've learned to your projects the next day.
The Mindset: Systems & Design Thinking
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The Sandbox: AI-Synthetics Playground.
The Reality: Bolts™ Zero-Day Sprints
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Students worldwide
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Years of award-winning education
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Best Online Design Bootcamp Awards
AI-Supercharged? Yes.
Human-in-the-loop? Always.
> What am I going to learn?
You’ll learn practical AI workflows for accelerating human-centered design in product discovery, concept validation, and prototype execution.
> Who is First Steps for?
For product teams, design teams, founders, product managers, program managers, and AI transformation specialists who need practical, no-hype ways to use AI in product discovery. First Steps helps teams uncover market opportunities, stress-test product concepts, and accelerate decision-making without losing human judgment, product quality, or customer trust. If you want magic tricks, hype, and AI slop, this is not for you. If you want to move faster without breaking what matters: welcome.
> How does the simulation work?
The Sandbox places participants inside a context-rich LLM simulation. They choose from two detailed product scenarios, interact with AI-synthetic NPCs, and practice moving through a realistic product development cycle, from discovery to MVP.
Fast = Slow if you are heading nowhere.
Product-market fit is product-people fit. The future doesn’t belong to teams stacking AI tools without direction. It belongs to teams that can stick the landing: right product, right people, right time.
Hold a product thesis that survives user scrutiny. Ground it in Systems and Design Thinking.
Discover market opportunities and catch PMF issues early, while they are still fixable.
Run Bolts™: Two- hour design sprints. Zero permission. No facilitator. Fit any product cycle.
Co-pilot from discovery to MVP with accessible AI, and human-in-the-loop skills.
Fit fast Design Thinking into the heart of your product development with S.O.FT™.
AI Design Sprint workflows your team can run tomorrow.
Meet your instructors.
Tenny Pinheiro
Former Meta Reality Labs.
Tenny was part of the team that created the Meta AI glasses at Meta Reality Labs in Silicon Valley, and is currently a co-founder of a stealth-mode AI startup building a proprietary model. He pioneered Service Design for startup acceleration and his contributions are cited by major academic and business publications. His methods are taught by NN/g, the canonical institute for UX.
In 2014, Tenny created the Service Design Sprint, published in his book The Service Startup: Design Thinking Gets Lean, two years before Google Ventures published Sprint.
Tais Pancier
Former Apple, Pinterest.
With over two decades of product leadership in Big Tech, including nearly a decade at Apple in Cupertino, Tais brings to First Steps her deep perspective on Agile, Scrum, and AI product development. At Apple she contributed to iconic launches including Apple Pay, Apple Store, Apple Music, Apple Watch, Apple Card, to name a few.
Tais also led the implementation of Agile and Scrum across Apple's AI Machine Learning and Algorithms teams, and for the Machine Learning Platform team at Pinterest.
AI velocity, human craft.
$495/ one year of access
AI co-piloting for Design Sprints- The Sandbox: practice with synthetic users and digital twins
- Bolts™ and S.O.FT™, the Zero-Day pair-sprint system
- Systems and Design Thinking for AI product development
- Advanced prompting patterns that work with accessible LLMs
- Human-in-the-loop safety nets, so nothing breaks