Data Science Foundations

Data Science: Foundations for Strategic Decision-Making

Data Science for Business

Data Science Models & Their Business Applications

Storytelling with Data

Data Visualization and Storytelling: Making Data Speak

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity: Securing the Modern Enterprise

Digital Transformation

Digital Leadership: Leading in a Digital World

Emerging Technologies

Emerging Technologies: Shaping the Future of Business

Creative Problem Solving

Design Thinking: Creative Approaches for Modern Challenges

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship: Launching and Scaling New Ventures

Growth Strategy

Growth Strategy: Expanding Business 

Innovation Management

Innovation Management: Driving Creativity and Change

Budgeting & Planning

Budgeting and Planning: Financial Success for Business

Finance Foundations

Finance Fundamentals: Building a Strong Financial Foundation

Investment Analysis

Investment Analysis: Making Data-Driven Investment Choices

Complex Decision Making

Decision-Making: Navigating Complex Business Challenges

Leadership

Leadership Essentials: Developing Personal Leadership Skills

Negotiation & Influence

Negotiation: Achieving Win-Win Outcomes

Storytelling in Business

Business Storytelling: Persuading and Inspiring Audiences

Strategic Leadership

Strategic Leadership: Visionary Leadership for Growth

Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning: Creating Long-Term Success

Team Leadership

Team Leadership: Leading High-Performance Teams

Brand Marketing

Brand Management: Building and Sustaining Market Leadership

Growth Marketing

Marketing Analytics: Data-Driven Marketing for Results

Marketing Foundations

Marketing Fundamentals: Building and Implementing Strategies

Sales Leadership

Sales Leadership: Leading Teams to Achieve Excellence

Strategic Sales

Sales Strategy: Driving Growth Through Strategic Sales

Influence & Power

Influence and Power: Strategies for Professional Impact

Product Design

Product Design: Crafting Solutions for Customer Needs

Product Management

Product Management: Driving Success Across Product Lifecycles

Product Marketing

Product Marketing: Aligning Product with Market Needs

Project Mgmt Leadership

Project Leadership: Managing Teams for Successful Outcomes

Project Management

Project Management: Delivering Projects on Time and Budget

Technical Program Mgmt

Technical Program Management: Leading Complex Programs

Strategic Marketing

Strategic Marketing: Aligning Goals with Market Opportunities

variant_1

Build in-demand AI skills with a certificate course from MasterClass and top-of-their-field organizations.

Learn AI from the world's best

Enjoy 7 days free

The promo may be over, but your opportunity isn't. Dive into the full experience, worry-free, with our 7-day money-back guarantee.

The offer has ended

Amount charged now

Your 7-day free trial starts today

Get 50% off an annual membership of MasterClass

Congratulations, you purchased an annual standard membership of MasterClass. A confirmation has been sent to your email. You will now be able to access 200+ classes in addition to your Certificate course.

You're all set!

Build practical AI skills that matter. Learn how to think with AI, make better decisions, and prove you’re ready for what’s next.

AI as Your Copilot (4 min)

Prompting: Speak So AI Listens (8 min)

Step inside The Moonshot Factory to see how teams prototype new concepts in hours, pinpoint the riskiest part of any idea, and turn bold thinking into real-world breakthroughs.

This Is Where Bold Begins (12 min)

"What If" Before "What Is" (8 min)

Learn from five former SEALs, including Medal of Honor winner Command Master Britt Slabinski (Ret), and hear how they tackle issues, recognize stress early, and use quick resets to regain composure.

The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoW) visual information does not imply or constitute DoW endorsement.

Intro to High-Stakes Leadership (10 min)

Strategic Readiness Starts With You (6 min)

Learn how to find product-market fit, choose your next growth bets, and build compounding growth loops from the executives who scaled Uber.

Growing From the Core

Using Feedback to Grow

Become the AI catalyst your organization needs, grounded in Microsoft’s decades of experience turning breakthrough technology into trusted tools that drive measurable results.

Lead With AI: Adapt, Implement & Transform Your Organization

Choosing the Right Work for AI

Learn from negotiators who've trained U.N. diplomats and closed major sports deals to uncover what people really want and reach win-win deals without burning bridges.

Build the Relationship First: Why the Contract Isn't the Deal

Surface the Other Side's Needs

Learn to command a room, read what your audience really needs, and turn hesitation into a confident yes.

Overcoming Objection and Hesitation

Reading People: The Cues That Matter

Become a growth expert

CPO to CPO: Find The Problem. Grow The Business

Mandar Bapaye

Sachin Kansal

CPO to CPO: Find the Problem. Grow the Business.

Pre-enroll and save 30% on this course. Available Fall 2026.

di-preenrollment

Pre-enroll and save 30% on this AI Strategy course from NVIDIA. 

nvidia-preenrollment

From TIME ©2022 TIME USA LLC. All rights reserved. Used under license.

Times

Wirecutter

Reviewed - USA Today

Leadership and Decision-Making Under Pressure

Breakthrough Innovation Strategy

Scaling AI Strategy

Lead With AI

Data-Driven Decision-Making in the Age of AI

Turn AI into a powerful decision-making partner. Pressure-test your thinking, uncover blind spots, and make stronger decisions with confidence.

MasterClass

![](https://www.masterclass.com/course-images/attachments/rj56bpbuk5r21fdz0975lvy7d128)

Cassie Kozyrkov founded the field of decision intelligence and served as Google’s first Chief Decision Scientist. She helps leaders navigate the AI era, make better decisions, and improve how their organizations approach decision-making.

Cassie Kozyrkov

![](https://www.masterclass.com/course-images/attachments/td6aug493bjjc1cgrntzf3e5rghi)

DJ Patil helped coin the term “data scientist” and later served as the first U.S. Chief Data Scientist. He has made high-stakes decisions at LinkedIn, in the White House, and across national security, health care, and venture capital.

DJ Patil

### **Dos and Don’ts**

**Do**

* **Bring real decisions into the course.** Beyond the capstone, try applying what you’re learning to real decisions you face.  
* **Give yourself time to think.** Strong decision-making takes practice. Make space to explore and test what you learn.  
* **Use feedback to improve.** Review and apply feedback from AI activities and assessments to strengthen your decision-making process.  
* **Use AI as a thinking partner.** Ask questions, test ideas, challenge outputs, and consider what human knowledge or context may be missing.  
* **Build your Decision OS as you go.** Complete the activities and capstone work along the way to build a system you can use after the course.

**Don’t**

* **Rush.** Give yourself room to explore other possibilities before committing.  
* **Hand your judgment over to AI.** AI can analyze, generate, and challenge. You still need to use your judgment to decide what matters and make the call.  
* **Aim for perfection.** Practice, feedback, and revision are part of learning.  
* **Ignore the human side of a decision.** Data matters, but so do the people, incentives, experience, and dynamics surrounding it.  
* **Wait until the end to think about your Decision OS.** The work you do throughout the course builds toward the system you’ll leave with.

Do’s and Don’ts

**YOUR CALL**

**The Call:** I recommend that Meridian invest in accelerating Velocity.

**Why This Call:** Velocity’s pre-campaign enterprise conversion rate held up when I verified it. I found no strong enough evidence to change the Velocity default, while the Classic Range rebrand still depends on whether customers would pay more for a repositioned product.

**What the Decision-Maker Needs to Know:** The Q3 Velocity growth number includes promotional lift, so I would not use it as the main reason for the recommendation. The stronger signal is the verified pre-campaign conversion rate.

**Potential Risks or Uncertainties:** Supplier lead times and a Q4 demand spike could create problems as Velocity scales. I recommend flagging the supply chain risk and using a 90-day review gate to check how implementation is holding up.

**Make It Real:** Approve the shift toward Velocity, begin planning for increased manufacturing and enterprise onboarding, and establish the 90-day review gate before scaling further.

her Call

**YOUR OS CONFIGURATION**

**I tend to:** Focus quickly on the option with the strongest evidence.

**When that happens, push me to:** Check what the evidence does and does not show, and look for information that could change my thinking.

**I especially want help with:** Finding assumptions I may be making and perspectives I may be missing.

**Keep me responsible for:** Deciding what matters, weighing the trade-offs, and making my recommendation.

Her configuration 

**THE DECISION**

Classic Range Rebrand vs. Velocity Acceleration to Enterprise. Which direction should Meridian commit to?

her decision

**DECISION MAP**

**Who owns the call:** CFO  
**My role:** Analyst. I make sense of the recommendation and help the CFO make the decision. I don’t own the call.  
**Who else matters:** CEO, VP of Strategy, outside consultant, and Marcus, VP of Classic Range.  
**Who I need to call:** Marcus. He built Classic Range, but he isn’t in the room. I need his information to evaluate and give context to the deck.

her Decision Map

**EXPANDED OPTIONS**

My expanded options:

* Continue the current split and reassess in Q4.  
* Wind down Classic Range over 18 months and redirect investment.  
* Rebrand Classic Range as a premium, lower-volume product.  
* Use Velocity for growth while keeping Classic Range as a brand anchor with minimal investment.  
* License Classic Range to a third party while retaining the rights.  
* Create a distinct enterprise sub-brand for Velocity.  
* Explore a manufacturing partnership or acquisition.  
* Exit Classic Range.  
* Pause and run a 90-day test of a Classic Range repositioning.

**A different angle:** Instead of treating this as a choice between saving Classic Range or accelerating Velocity, I can look at how the two products could play different roles in Meridian’s portfolio.

**How I expanded:** I used AI to push beyond the two options I started with, asking for strategic paths forward, including less obvious ones. That opened up options involving customer segments, partnerships, licensing, testing, and different roles for each product. I’ll bring these possibilities to Marcus to get his perspective.

her expanded options

**TESTED DIRECTION**

**My direction:** I would recommend accelerating Velocity into the enterprise market. Its enterprise conversion rate was strong before the Q3 ad campaign, so there’s no evidence its growth is only the result of increased marketing.

**What shaped my view:** I verified that Velocity had a 34% conversion rate on qualified enterprise leads before the Q3 campaign.

I also learned from Marcus that loyal Classic Range customers may not be willing to pay more for a repositioned product.

Together, those findings strengthened the case for Velocity and weakened my confidence in the Classic Range rebrand.

**What this direction depends on:** I’m assuming Velocity’s pre-campaign enterprise conversion rate is a meaningful signal that demand can continue as Meridian invests in the line.

**What still needs attention:** I don’t know how much of Velocity’s recent Q3 growth came from the promotional campaign or whether that growth will continue.

If new evidence shows that enterprise demand is weaker than the pre-campaign conversion rate suggests, or that Classic Range customers are willing to pay more for a rebranded product, I would reconsider my recommendation.

her Tested Direction

**UNTANGLED STARTING POINT**

**Default action:** Accelerate Velocity to Enterprise. The organization is already moving in that direction, and Velocity is up 28% while Classic Range is down 34%.

**Decision to focus on:** Which direction should Meridian commit to when the performance of Classic Range and Velocity may be shaped by more than customer demand alone?

**Mission \+ Priorities:** Make a recommendation that reflects what is actually driving the performance of both products, rather than relying on the headline numbers alone.

**What could change my mind:** Evidence that Classic Range’s decline is being driven by factors other than customer preference, or that Velocity’s growth is being driven by redirected marketing spend rather than organic demand.

her Untangled Starting Point

![](https://www.masterclass.com/course-images/attachments/doeksacjsn6mfnwt05dt55ms2z7c)

Maya Chen is a senior analyst at Meridian Footwear, a sixty-year-old American shoe company built on the premise that quality doesn't go out of style.

She holds a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Georgetown's McDonough School of Business.

In her four years at Meridian, she's become the analyst the CFO relies on to make sense of a recommendation before he acts on it.

She's data-fluent, organized under pressure, and sharp enough to know the numbers in front of her are only as good as the assumptions underneath them.

Maya Chen

Focus on:

* Keeping your message clear  
* Leading with actions  
* Your message logic  
* Adapting your response when challenged

Completely fill out the roleplay settings.

Technical note: Roleplay will continue asking you questions and prompting you until you end the conversation.  
After five exchanges, finish the activity to receive your feedback.

Tips for a better experience

Once you click “submit,” your response will be evaluated by AI. The process can take more than a minute to calculate. 

You’ll be evaluated on your performance and receive targeted feedback on:

* Clarity  
* Brevity  
* How well you respond to questions and pushback

Use that feedback to refine your message and try again. Practice is key to improvement. 

Understanding your feedback

This tool can assess your clarity, structure, and how effectively you communicate your decision.

It doesn’t assess body language, eye contact, or the tone and pace of your voice. To build those skills, practice in real conversations and seek feedback from others.

You might also try using video-friendly applications like Yoodli to record and assess your performance.

What AI Can and Cannot Do

Explore where AI can help and where your judgment matters. Set up how you’ll use AI in the course. Use AI to find a real decision to work through as you build your own decision-making system.

Lesson 1: Introduction

Introduction

Lesson 2: Challenge Your Decision Making

Challenge Your Decision Making

Lesson 3: Welcome to Data-Driven Decision-Making in the Age of AI

Welcome to Data-Driven Decision-Making in the Age of AI

Lesson 4: How You’ll Use AI in this Course

How You’ll Use AI in this Course

Lesson 5: Find A Decision Worth Exploring

Find A Decision Worth Exploring

Lesson 6: Try It With AI: Find Your Decision

Try It With AI: Find Your Decision

Lesson 7: Name Your Decision

Name Your Decision

Lesson 8: M1 Review | M2 Preview

M1 Review | M2 Preview

Own the Decision

Knowing who owns the call and who can influence it shapes your approach. Uncover hidden dynamics, map the people involved, and learn when to step away from the computer and “pick up the phone.” 

Lesson 1: Module 2 Preview

Module 2 Preview

Lesson 2: The Reality of Decisions

The Reality of Decisions

Lesson 3: Map the Reality Around a Decision

Map the Reality Around a Decision

Lesson 4: The Human Side of Data: The Jennifer Bittner Story

The Human Side of Data: The Jennifer Bittner Story

Lesson 5: Try it with AI: Map the Room

Try it with AI: Map the Room

Lesson 6: Your Decision Map

Your Decision Map

Lesson 7: M2 Review | M3 Preview

M2 Review | M3 Preview

Read Reality

What looks like one decision may be several bundled together. You’ll learn to untangle decisions, identify which one deserves your attention, and determine how much effort to invest. 

Data-Driven Decision-Making in the Age of AI

Pre-enroll and save 30% on this course. Available Fall 2026

15-20 hours. Big results.

Taught by the world’s best

Build in-demand skills

Career proof, not just paper