Navigating the AI Shift

The tools change. Your career continues.

Course start date: May 11, 2026

The tools changed overnight. The job description and expectations are still catching up. You know you need to keep up but you're not sure what you're keeping up with - or how to find the time. Whether you're an engineer who's spent years honing your craft or a manager trying to coach a team through a shift you're still figuring out yourself, the AI transition is disorienting.

What makes this so hard isn't just the skills gap and learning curve — it's also the identity shift underneath it. And the advice to just start using it skips over the part where you have to work through what you're losing, and how to catch up when you feel like you're already behind. With the industry feeling more pressured and competitive than ever, it's hard to find a safe space to experiment and learn.

Most people who would benefit from coaching never get it - the price puts it out of reach, especially right now. This course is designed to bridge that gap: the structure, the safe space, the personalised feedback, at a price that doesn't require a development budget.

Navigating the AI shift can be disorienting without support and space to experiment.

Illustrations by Joe Groove.

Meet your course guides

Navigating the AI Shift is led by Cate Huston and Jean Hsu, engineering leaders with deep experience coaching engineers and managers through career transitions.

Cate Huston

Cate is the author of The Engineering Leader, fractional CTO at Twill, and engineering leadership coach. She was previously in leadership roles at DuckDuckGo and Automattic, and an advisor at Glowforge. She has been all over the world, but now lives in Ireland.

More about Cate at cate.blog→

Jean Hsu

Jean is a builder, writer, coach, and fractional engineering leader at early-stage startups. She was previously in leadership roles at Pulse, Medium, and Range, and also built out a leadership development company focused on engineers. She lives in Berkeley with her partner and three kids.

More about Jean at jeanhsu.com→

This course is for you if…

✦You're an engineer who fears you are being left behind
✦You want to level up but are getting lost figuring out how to begin
✦You're tired of hype that doesn't match what you actually see at work
✦You're an engineering manager trying to coach a team through a shift you're still figuring out yourself
✦You want the support and accountability of coaching, without the price tag

One-time payment

$449

Early Bird Pricing - Save $50!

Regular price $499 starting April 30, 2026

Course starts: May 11, 2026

This course is not for you if…

✦You're already fluent with AI tools and want advanced techniques
✦You're looking for a technical deep-dive into AI/ML systems
✦You have no technical background - our examples and project work assume at least some

What you'll walk away with

✓Clarity on which of your skills travel in the AI shift
✓A personal project you've actually built and can point to
✓Understanding how judgement is the differentiator, and more confidence in your own
✓A strong starting point for building your own AI-specific workflows
✓A plan for bringing what you've learned back to your team

How it works

🗓

8 weeks, 4 modules

Self-paced, asynchronous content delivered over 8 weeks

🎧

Audio content

Listen on a walk - conversations you can fit around your schedule

📖

Reading material

Module content and frameworks to read between meetings

🛠️

Personal project

Build something real in a low-stakes environment you drive at your own pace

📓

Exercises

Practical exercises to apply what you learn to your real situation

✍️

Personal feedback

Submit your work and get written feedback from Cate and Jean

Plan for around 60 minutes a week. The course is designed to fit into a busy schedule - audio content you can listen to on a walk, reading you can do between meetings, and project work you drive at your own pace.

Modules

Navigating the Identity Threat

If you've been feeling anxious, behind, or quietly resentful about the AI transition - that's a reasonable response. We'll look at what identity threat actually is, what's genuinely changing in the job, and where your existing skills in judgement and systems thinking are more load-bearing than ever.

Your Project, Part 1

You can't build AI fluency by reading about it - you need to have the space to be a beginner in a low-stakes context. We'll help you find an idea that's genuinely yours, scope it to something you can actually ship, and get moving. By the end of this module, you'll have something running.

Your Project, Part 2

Go deeper and develop the habits that make AI useful at scale - constraining problems well, evaluating output, and adding guardrails like tests and documentation as projects grow.

Bringing It Back to Your Team

Individual fluency doesn't automatically transfer to the people around you. We'll cover the concrete moves that help teams - removing bottlenecks, systematising solvable problems, automating overhead - and how to build a learning culture that develops judgement across the team.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much time will this take each week?

Plan for around 60 minutes a week. The course is designed to fit into a busy schedule - audio content you can listen to on a walk, reading you can do between meetings, and project work you drive at your own pace. The project is the biggest time variable: if you get excited about it, you might blow past these limits!

What if I fall behind on my project?

Module 3 is explicitly designed as breathing room. If you're behind, use it to catch up. If you're on track, use it to go deeper. The project is the most important part of this course, so we've built in space to protect it.

What AI plan do I need?

We recommend Claude, though the course works with any AI tool. It's built to be easily done on the Pro plan, but doable on the free plan if you are mindful of planning and okay with missing some convenience features.

Do I need to be actively coding to take this course?

You'll get the most from it if you have some technical background - enough to evaluate what AI produces and understand whether it's solving the right problem. You don't need to be currently hands-on; engineering managers who are less hands-on may find that applying their systems thinking and judgement is a significant accelerator.

I'm an engineering manager who hasn't coded in years. Is this still relevant?

Yes - and you may be better positioned than you think. The technical instincts you built before moving into management don't disappear; they just haven't been exercised as deeply or consistently. This course is a good way to dust them off in a low-stakes context.

What if I'm at a company where AI use is limited or restricted?

Whilst AI hasn't changed your day-to-day as much, it will still be impacting your overall career - and all the more reason to start creating structure for yourself so you can keep up with the broader industry shift.

What makes this different from just reading about AI online?

Most AI content is hype, overly prescriptive, and missing the emotional challenges. This course helps you shift from reading and worrying to actually getting things done - and understanding how to apply that in your current situation, whatever that looks like.

Do you offer scholarships?

Yes, we offer a limited number of full scholarships for each cohort. Scholarships aren't available right now, but check back as this can change.

One-time payment

$449

Early Bird Pricing - Save $50!

Regular price $499 starting April 30, 2026

Course starts: May 11, 2026