Build Your Governance Framework with Lisa Welchman

Winter 2023 Cohort - January 26 - March 9 (in session; enrollment closed)

Spring 2023 Cohort - May 11  - June 22 (enrollment open)

Lisa Welchman works with a cohort to teach the methodology described in her book, Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design. The course builds on Lisa’s digital governance fundamental online training course. The online course—consisting of videos, interactive exercises, and quizzes—will introduce you to key concepts, and offers a flexible schedule. You will also meet weekly with Lisa and your cohort to delve deeper into the curriculum and to review and discuss case studies for each module. In addition, Lisa will support the cohort with weekly office hours. At the end of the course, you’ll meet one-to-one with Lisa to review your framework.

Who is this for?

  • Team leaders who want to help their digital, content, or design team to align around a shared vision
  • Agency consultants and technologists who need to make sense of a group or organization to get a specific job done, like a brand redesign or technology re-platform
  • Anyone trying to understand the dynamics of digital governance in a large organization
  • People interested in a more in-depth exploration of timely topics
  • Those who value group interaction and one-to-one guidance from Lisa Welchman.

How does the course work?

Once you’ve signed up, Lisa will send you a copy of her book—hard copy or digital—and you will be given access to Lisa’s Digital Governance Fundamentals online course.

You’ll spend about an hour every week on your own learning the fundamentals of each concept via the online training course.

On top of that, there will be a 90-minute weekly live (via Zoom) learning and discussion session with Lisa and your cohort.

Group office hours will be held for 60 minutes twice a week.

When do we meet?

CET UTC ET PT
live teaching sessions Thursday 17:00 16:00 11:00 8:00
office hours Tuesday 14:00 13:00 8:00 5:00
office hours Wednesday 19:00 17:00 12:00 9:00
one-to-one framework review Scheduled individually

What will I learn?

Session 1 - Digital Governance Basics

May 11, 2023

  • What digital governance is and why it’s important
  • How and why organizations fall into digital chaos
  • Where your organization lies on the digital maturity curve
  • Defining the scope of digital for your organization

During the class lecture time, members of the cohort will have the opportunity to introduce themselves to other members in the group.

Session 2 - Your Digital Team: Where Are They, And What Do They Do?

May 18, 2023

We’ll learn about the different people that make up a team and their governance-related roles and responsibilities.

Lisa’s class lecture will focus on the dynamics and situational strengths and weaknesses of centralized and decentralized teams.

Session 3 - Digital Strategy: Aligning Expertise & Authority

May 25, 2023

We'll explore the role of strategy and talk about the broad array of people who need to be consulted and informed when you are defining your organization's digital strategy.

Lisa’s class lecture will focus on explaining the difference between strategy, governance, and operations.

Session 4 - Who is Accountable for Digital Policy?

June 1, 2023

We'll define the differences between various types of guidance—policies, standards, and guidelines—and then do a deep dive into how to determine accountability in order to establish policy for technology, content, and design.

Lisa’s live course lecture will focus on how digital, content, and design team members can best collaborate with other aspects of the organization that drive the policy agenda, like legal and regulatory departments.

Session 5 - Digital Standards - who decides what they are?

June 8, 2023

Lisa will discuss why a structured approach to digital standards is essential in a fast-paced development environment. We'll explore the concept of inputs vs. decision-making when it comes to defining standards, and dive deep into how to work through the standards lifecycle of defining, disseminating, implementing, and measuring standards compliance.

Lisa’s class lecture will center around tactics you can use to cut through debates regarding standards “ownership” in diverse, large, and complex organizations.

Session 6 - Digital Governance Design Factors

June 15, 2023

We will learn about five factors—outside of digital product teams—that impact how you need to govern your organization’s digital portfolio.

In the class lecture, Lisa will explore the impact of vertical market regulation, and web and internet governance instability, on the digital governance framework design process.

Session 7 - Getting it Done – Building and Implementing Your Framework

June 22, 2023

We will learn about practices and tips for bringing your framework to life inside your organization—from initiating the framework design process, to implementing your framework.

This last session will be dedicated to your questions and answers.

Framework Review Framework

Scheduled Individually

An hour-long one-to-one session with Lisa where you will have the chance to ask individual questions or present your framework for comments and suggestions.

Who teaches this course?


Lisa Welchman is a digital governance pioneer. For over 20 years, she's helped organizations manage their digital teams to enable them to collaborate with intention. Her book, Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design, is a reference and guide for organizations seeking to establish mature digital governance practices. In addition, Lisa gives guidance to consultants and digital leaders who want to learn how to implement governance frameworks. She is the co-host of the Surfacing podcast, and blogs at A Mindful Web.

How much does it cost?


1595 USD

When do I have to sign up by?


April 6,  2023

How do I sign up?


I use Thinkific as a learning management system. You can sign up for this course there.