Real Results from Real Engineers

Hear from technical professionals who've transformed their communication — one experiment at a time.

When I shifted from engineer to entrepreneur, I was terrified. The thought of going to business events and pitching was a huge blocker. Andrea helped me figure out why, and it was the weirdest thing — my clothes.

I thought I had to wear polos, button down shirts, and khakis to be seen as "professional." But I hated wearing them. I'd always felt most comfortable and relaxed in my jeans, geeky graphic tee, and sneakers.

Andrea suggested I experiment with wearing what I liked but swinging by a thrift store before my next event to pick up a cheap sports coat to elevate my look. I was super skeptical, but game for giving it a try.

I had no idea how powerful that small change would be. My confidence soared and I started making sales, introducing myself to strangers, and speaking at conferences. All that from an $8 sports coat? That tiny experiment and tiny investment completely changed my career.
M. Scott Ford

M. Scott Ford

CEO, Corgibytes

"Andrea understands communication the way I understand code: there are patterns, rules, structure. She sees what I can't see on my own, and helps me build a mental model for whatever I'm facing. What felt chaotic suddenly has structure. Before tactics, she helps me understand myself: what I value, where I stand. Then she gives me a concrete experiment, and the fast feedback loop helps me learn quickly."

Lada Kesseler

Lada Kesseler

Lead Developer, Logic20/20

"Andrea's coaching is effective because she helps me spot assumptions I didn't even know I had. She helps me design communication experiments that feel way too easy to have such a big impact."

Ted M. Young

Ted M. Young

Technical Coach & Creator of JitterTed's TDD Game

"In my Discovery Session, Andrea immediately spotted a tiny detail in how I could frame my message and sent me peer-reviewed papers to back up her claims. When I tried the experiment, I easily persuaded my stakeholders to hire more people for my team — in a hiring freeze!"

Soumya Kulkarni

MTS, Software Engineering Full Stack

"Attending my company's annual conference sounded like hell on earth for my introverted self. Instead, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of the last few months and probably a peak of my entire life in communication. Now that I've rested, all I feel is the joy and energy of connection — a weird sensation for an introvert!"

Ellis Lempriere

Ellis Lempriere

Associate Software Engineer, OpenSesame

Sample Session Report

Names and identifying details have been changed to protect privacy.

Session Notes: Alex

Date: January 5, 2026 | Duration: ~59 min Attendees: Andrea Goulet, Alex

Overview

Alex spent ~15–16 hours on his blog during the holiday break and feels proud of the progress. The session explored why budgeting 20 hours (vs. 1 hour) shifted his emotional experience from embarrassment to pride, identified a sunk cost fallacy pattern around rabbit holes, and established experiments for estimation and context capture.

Experimental Design

1. Friction Point

Estimating accurately and avoiding rabbit holes that delay launching the blog.

2. Context
Theme Description
Previous session Felt embarrassed about lack of progress when estimating 1 hour for tasks
This session Felt proud after budgeting 20 hours and spending ~15–16
Work blocks Morning sessions continue to be effective; context switching is expensive
Documentation Writing tickets/documentation "doesn't feel like work," contributing to sunk cost trap
Work situation Increased estimation requests at work
3. Variables
Variable Observed Outcome
Time budget (1 hr vs 20 hrs) 20 hrs → pride; 1 hr → embarrassment
Doom scrolling replacement Successfully swapped for blog work multiple times
Breaking work into pieces Easier to estimate smaller chunks
Claude Code for tedious tasks Content import, to-do list generation, redirect script creation worked well
4. Success Criteria
Criterion Status
Blog live In progress
First post published Pending
Proud of visual design Achieved locally
Able to publish new articles Pending deployment
5. Hypotheses
IF THEN
Alex quadruples his gut instinct for estimates He'll avoid disappointment and feel proud of progress
Alex uses Claude Code to capture thinking when hitting a blocker He can avoid sunk cost fallacy and context-switch more easily
Alex breaks big things into smaller pieces before estimating Estimates become more accurate
6. Measurement
Metric How to Track
Actual time vs estimated time Track for each task
Sunk cost trap occurrences Notice when falling in and capture the moment
Blog launch Binary: is it live?
7. Experiment
Behavior Change Expectation
Estimation approach: Before communicating any expectation (external or internal), break the big thing into smaller pieces, apply 4x multiplier to gut instinct, sum the pieces More accurate estimates, less disappointment
Avoiding rabbit holes: When a task exceeds its budget and isn't mission-critical, pause. Capture: goal, blockers, potential solutions. Create WIP commit with to-do list, push to branch, link in ticket Escape sunk cost trap, preserve context without full documentation overhead
Ask: "How essential is this for accomplishing the actual goal?" Prioritize mission-critical work
8. Follow What Works
Past Experiment Effectiveness
Budgeting more time (20 hrs vs 1 hr) Proud vs embarrassed
Morning work sessions Consistent progress
Doom scrolling → blog work swap Successful
Claude Code for tedious tasks Content import, to-do generation, redirect scripts all worked
"If I search and don't find the answer, publish when I figure it out" Content strategy in place

Action Items

Alex:

  • Hide non-essential elements (2 hrs budgeted)
  • Fix broken images in imported posts
  • Complete deployment with staging environment (10 hrs budgeted)
  • Set up redirect links (4 hrs budgeted)
  • Update essential content (remove stock/template text)
  • Write first blog post (favicon generation process)
  • Test everything works (images, RSS, URLs)

Andrea:

  • Post notes in Heartbeat

Planning

Task Estimate
Hide non-essential elements 2 hrs
Deployment + staging 10 hrs
DNS + redirect links 4 hrs
Content updates + testing ~4 hrs
Total remaining ~20 hrs

References

  • Content Collections library — separating content from display
  • Claude Code — content import, to-do list generation, redirect script creation
  • AWS S3 + CloudFront — hosting approach for redirect support

Next Session

  • Did the 4x estimation approach help with both personal project and work estimates?
  • How did the "Claude Code for context capture" experiment go when hitting blockers?
  • Is the blog live? If not, what blocked it?