Cate Huston
Author · Fractional CTO · Coach
Author of The Engineering Leader, fractional CTO at Twill, and engineering leadership coach. Previously in leadership roles at DuckDuckGo and Automattic.
More about Cate at cate.blogBy engineers, for engineers
Tools and support for a changing industry.
Async career courses for engineers and engineering managers, written and taught by people who've done the job.
4 coursesNo live sessionsA coach reads everything you write
The courses
Four places to start.
Navigating the AI Shift
The tools change. Your career continues.
Self-paced · Start anytime
$499
The EM Survival Guide
Your toolkit for effective engineering management
Next cohort · September 21, 2026
$899
Breaking Into the Security Mindset
Application security, no hoodie required.
Next cohort · October 12, 2026
$699
DRI Your Career
Start driving your career with clarity and confidence
Next cohort · October 19, 2026
$449$499
Early bird until September 19, 2026 at 3:59 PM PDT
How it works
Structured enough to keep you on track.
Each course is four modules over eight weeks, about an hour a week, with no live sessions to attend. You write about what's actually going on for you, and a coach writes back on everything you turn in. You come away with clarity on your own situation and an approach you can keep applying, in documents you wrote yourself: a career strategy, a feedback plan, a working project, a plan for your team.
- No live sessions
- Written exercises
- A coach reads everything you write
- Small cohorts
- Your own docs, not a playbook
- About an hour a week
How it compares
A course with a coach in it.
If DRI didn't exist, you'd read a book, book a live cohort, hire a coach, or wait for a quieter week. Here's what each gets you.
| Option | Built for one specific moment | Fits around a job | Someone reads your work | What it costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A live cohort course | Yes | Live sessions on a schedule | Rarely. Q&A and community, not written feedback | $500 to $5,000 |
| 1:1 coaching | No. Open-ended, whatever you bring | Calls to book | Yes, live in the session | $150 to $400 a session |
| DRI | Four modules on one transition | About an hour a week, no live sessions | Written feedback on every exercise | One payment, no subscription |
If you mainly want a peer community, a live cohort might be a better fit. If you want something completely custom, 1:1 coaching may suit you better. We built DRI to take common journeys we saw in coaching and make them more accessible.
What people are saying
Cate and Jean are the ultimate dynamic duo. With clarity, humor, and intense wisdom earned in the trenches, they will shine a light on your reality and help you find new ways to relate to it. I've turned to them for many of my own most important career decisions, and I'm so excited more people will get to tap into their deep well of playful insight through this course.
Diana Kimball Berlin, Product at Gamma
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About us
The coaches.
Jean Hsu
Builder · Coach · Fractional VPE
Builder, writer, coach, and fractional engineering leader at early-stage startups. Previously in leadership roles at Pulse, Medium, and Range.
More about Jean at jeanhsu.comWe met at Grace Hopper years ago and have been coaching engineers and engineering managers one at a time for years. DRI is the format we built so more people could get that: a course with a coach in it. We read every submission ourselves, and everything you write stays between you and us.