About d.MBA
What is d.MBA?
d.MBA (Business by design.) is an online education platform that bridges the worlds of business and design. The mission is articulated verbatim on the about page: "The d.MBA's mission is to show that companies can be run more thoughtfully and also be successful in the business sense." The platform empowers designers to lead companies — described verbatim as "anyone who puts people over profit" — through micro-courses and a flagship cohort-based MBA program.
The company was founded in 2017 by Alen Faljic (ex-IDEO business designer), who saw the lack of business literacy in design schools as the biggest obstacle to design-community aspirations. Alen's first experiments involved an email course and podcast, which led to the d.MBA program's first intake in 2018 with 10 students from around the world. With each cohort, d.MBA's team has refined a new category of online courses called MiCCs — focused on "education, personal growth, and impact, not on certificates and content distribution."
Outcomes (verbatim): "our completion rate is 97%, have a student rating of 9+/10, and we've managed to accumulate dozens of success stories of our students along the way." Today the d.MBA alumni community is hundreds of designers strong and still growing.
The company's four core values are stated verbatim: Empowerment over enablement; Skills over Certificates; Impact over profit; Existing over exiting.
Where will I work?
Fully remote, with no company office. From /join-us verbatim: "We don't have a company office so we are all in the same boat. And all our processes are designed for remote collaboration." The team is distributed globally; the DB lists Berlin as the operational HQ.
What is the d.MBA team like?
The team page introduces five named team members:
- Alen Faljic — Founder and CEO. "Alen's passion lies in the intersection of business, design, and education worlds. He makes sure that the content of d.MBA program is exactly what designers want and need to gain business confidence and impact."
- Klara Faljic — Design and Operations. Takes care of UX processes and oversees all internal operations and processes.
- Mersi Silec — Experience Manager. Runs sales and admission process to shape diverse cohorts; supports student success during the program.
- Tom Prior — Program Director. Shapes the d.MBA learning experience and leads marketing to bring the right designers to the program.
- Jernej Gracner — Design. Stewards d.MBA's visual identity across all touchpoints.
Culture is articulated verbatim on /join-us: "No VC money and pressures for never-ending growth. No office and geographical limitations. No crazy deadlines and overtime. No bureaucracy and internal politics. And it will stay this way." The team practises Team Walks (topic-based walks for connecting, sharing, and getting to know each other) and a weekly Posture Workout for physical health.
Work-Life Balance
d.MBA operates a 4-day work week at full salary. Verbatim from /join-us: "Four-day workweek — Healthy private life transfers to good professional work. Enjoy long weekends and come back to work recharged every week." The team is "in the same boat" working remotely, with all processes designed for remote collaboration.
Vacation is generous: verbatim, "5 weeks of paid holidays — Take time to recharge and spend your paid holidays traveling to places that have bad wi-fi. Why? Well, you traveled to all the places with good wi-fi during work time anyway, right?"
Perks and Benefits
Full verbatim perks from /join-us:
- Remote — fully remote, no company office, all processes designed for remote collaboration
- Four-day workweek — 32 hours / week at 100% pay
- 5 weeks of paid holidays — paid vacation on top of the 4-day week
- Team Walks — topic-based walks for connection and growth
- Weekly Posture Workout — physical-health initiative
Focus on mental and physical health is a stated cultural priority. Hiring page caveat: "Currently, we don't have any open positions. If you would still like to get in touch with us reach out. We'd love to hear from you!"