A tailored course, built for your situation
Influence over technical direction in engineering orgs
How senior engineering leads shape architecture, vendor, and process decisions across teams
$199 one-time
24-hour access provisioning
30-day money-back guarantee
Hand-built implementation playbook
12 modules. 12 chapters per module. 144 chapters total.
12 modules, each with 12 chapters (144 chapters total), text-based, plus downloadable templates and a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.
Who this is for
Senior Engineering Manager shaping technical outcomes across multiple teams
Who this is not for
Individual contributors focused on personal output, or executives setting top-down mandates
What you walk away with
- Predict and shape vendor selection debates before RFPs launch
- Anchor peer discussions with pre-built technical trade-off templates
- Secure buy-in for architectural changes without requiring top-down approval
- Consistently influence sprint planning priorities across adjacent teams
- Turn informal syncs into decision-forcing moments that shift team roadmaps
The 12 modules (with all 144 chapters)
Module 1. Defining technical influence without authority
Understand how senior engineering leads exert influence through artefacts, timing, and framing, not hierarchy. Learn the three modes of technical persuasion used in high-velocity orgs.
12 chapters in this module
- What influence means in peer-led environments
- The artefact-driven influence cycle
- Timing over tenure in technical debates
- Framing trade-offs for adoption
- Signals that a decision is influenceable
- How defaults shape long-term outcomes
- The myth of consensus-building
- Influence through early draft sharing
- When to escalate, when to absorb
- Building momentum without mandates
- The role of technical storytelling
- Measuring influence beyond attendance
Module 2. Architectural debates: owning the narrative
Master the structure of high-stakes architecture discussions. Learn how to position alternatives, highlight hidden costs, and make your preferred path the path of least resistance.
12 chapters in this module
- Pre-framing before the meeting
- Naming the real decision at hand
- Surface-level vs. structural trade-offs
- Using public RFCs to test ideas
- The 'obvious next step' positioning
- Mapping stakeholder incentives
- Leveraging legacy pain points
- Creating urgency without crisis
- Positioning risk as delay
- How to make alternatives feel heavier
- The power of incomplete sketches
- Closing the loop with lightweight sign-off
Module 3. Vendor selection: shaping criteria early
Influence starts before the shortlist. Learn how to shape evaluation frameworks so your preferred capabilities rise to the top, even when you’re not leading procurement.
12 chapters in this module
- Who really sets selection criteria
- Embedding non-functional requirements
- The weight of 'must-have' thresholds
- Timing your input before scoping
- Using peer pain stories as rationale
- Making integration effort visible
- Positioning cost beyond licensing
- Linking tools to team velocity
- Creating comparison asymmetries
- Steering through pilot design
- How to make rejection costly
- Documenting rationale for reuse
Module 4. Process adoption: from opt-in to default
Turn optional practices into team standards by lowering activation energy and increasing visibility of early adopters.
12 chapters in this module
- The adoption inertia curve
- Reducing first-step friction
- Publicising early wins selectively
- Tying process to existing workflows
- Using dashboards as social proof
- Naming the 'why now' trigger
- Creating lightweight certification
- Linking adoption to promotions
- Removing exit options gradually
- Building ritual around repetition
- How to make non-compliance visible
- Embedding checks in CI/CD
Module 5. Cross-team planning: aligning roadmaps
Influence quarterly planning by shaping dependencies, surfacing constraints, and positioning your team's goals as enablers.
12 chapters in this module
- The dependency framing technique
- Turning blockers into collaboration
- Positioning your roadmap as infrastructure
- Pre-negotiating capacity buffers
- Using shared metrics to align
- Calling out hidden sequencing
- Creating joint ownership moments
- Leveraging off-cycle releases
- Framing delays as investment
- Building reciprocity loops
- Aligning through OKR drafting
- Making your team the path of least resistance
Module 6. Peer review: turning feedback into direction
Use code and design reviews not just for quality, but to propagate standards and discourage misaligned patterns.
12 chapters in this module
- Review timing as influence lever
- Asking questions that redirect
- Citing precedent selectively
- Linking feedback to scalability
- Using performance as rationale
- Making exceptions expensive
- Documenting patterns for reuse
- Creating review shorthand
- Highlighting maintenance cost
- Encouraging self-correction
- Building review consistency
- Turning one-off comments into standards
Module 7. Technical storytelling: making ideas stick
Structure narratives that make complex trade-offs intuitive and position your perspective as the logical outcome.
12 chapters in this module
- The problem-solution arc
- Using real production incidents
- Simplifying without distorting
- Naming the villain in the system
- Creating memorable analogies
- Timing story delivery
- Linking to team identity
- Using customer impact as anchor
- Building narrative consistency
- Repeating key phrases
- Making the future feel inevitable
- Documenting stories for reuse
Module 8. Escalation tactics: when and how
Choose escalation paths that preserve relationships and position you as a resolver, not a blocker.
12 chapters in this module
- The cost of escalation asymmetry
- Preparing decision-ready packages
- Choosing the right forum
- Framing for resolution, not blame
- Using data to depersonalise
- Naming the trade-off clearly
- Positioning your ask as shared gain
- Timing requests around cycles
- Building coalitions quietly
- Making escalation the last step
- Documenting for future reuse
- Closing with forward momentum
Module 9. Decision documentation: creating reusable artefacts
Turn one-off decisions into referenceable assets that compound influence across teams and quarters.
12 chapters in this module
- The decision memo template
- Capturing context, not just outcome
- Naming the excluded options
- Linking to future work
- Storing for discoverability
- Using decisions in onboarding
- Referencing in debates
- Updating without re-litigating
- Making rationale searchable
- Versioning key choices
- Turning decisions into policy
- Measuring artefact reuse
Module 10. Hiring and onboarding: shaping team DNA
Influence long-term technical culture by embedding standards in hiring criteria, interview loops, and ramp-up materials.
12 chapters in this module
- Defining must-have technical instincts
- Writing job descriptions that filter
- Creating interview exercises that reveal
- Using bar-raiser roles effectively
- Onboarding as culture transfer
- Linking ramp-up to key systems
- Assigning early ownership
- Measuring onboarding success
- Creating internal mentor paths
- Documenting team norms
- Reinforcing through feedback
- Tracking cultural continuity
Module 11. Metrics that amplify influence
Choose and frame metrics that highlight impact and make your priorities visible to peers and senior leaders.
12 chapters in this module
- The visibility-value loop
- Choosing leading indicators
- Framing metrics as enablers
- Avoiding vanity metrics
- Linking to business outcomes
- Creating comparison benchmarks
- Using dashboards as influence tools
- Timing metric releases
- Explaining variance proactively
- Making progress irreversible
- Archiving outdated metrics
- Reusing metric frameworks
Module 12. Sustaining influence over time
Avoid burnout and backlash by rotating tactics, measuring impact, and institutionalising successes so they outlast individual effort.
12 chapters in this module
- Recognising influence fatigue
- Rotating leadership roles
- Institutionalising through tooling
- Handing off initiatives gracefully
- Measuring long-term adoption
- Updating frameworks periodically
- Avoiding over-centralisation
- Balancing innovation and stability
- Celebrating team wins
- Reinforcing through promotion
- Documenting evolution
- Planning the next horizon
How this maps to your situation
- Leading technical decisions without formal authority
- Shaping cross-team architecture choices
- Influencing vendor selection cycles
- Embedding standards in team processes
Before vs. after
Before
Technical decisions feel reactive, dependent on timing or hierarchy.
After
Your perspective shapes direction across teams, even without formal ownership.
What's included with your purchase
- 12 modules with 12 chapters each (144 chapters)
- Downloadable templates and worked examples for every module
- Hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Delivery and format
- Course and learning environment access provisioned within 24 hours of purchase
- Hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access
Format: Text-based modules and chapters in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every chapter, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.
Time investment: 45, 60 minutes per module, designed to be applied incrementally across active projects.
How this compares to the alternatives
Most leadership courses focus on communication or delegation. This course is specific to technical influence, how engineering leads shape architecture, tools, and processes through artefacts, timing, and framing, not authority.
Frequently asked
Who is this course for?
Senior Engineering Managers and Tech Leads who need to shape technical outcomes across teams without direct authority.
How is the course structured?
12 modules, each containing 12 chapters (144 chapters total).
Will this help with cross-org alignment?
Yes, especially in influencing roadmap dependencies, vendor choices, and shared technical standards.
$199 one-time. 45, 60 minutes per module, designed to be applied incrementally across active projects..
Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.
30-day money-back guarantee·
144 chapters·
Hand-built playbook included·
Account access within 24 hours