Tech & SaaS
Technical skills got them here. People skills determine what happens next.
New managers who can't delegate. Staff engineers who can't influence. Cross-functional teams that can't align.
Risely coaches the people skills your engineering org needs to scale.
Coaching Session I went from writing code to managing a team and I have no idea what I'm doing.
What's the thing you keep doing that you know you shouldn't?
Reviewing every PR myself instead of coaching my team on code quality.
Classic. You're still doing the old job. Let's work on delegating that review in a way that actually improves quality...
The people skills gap that slows your engineering org.
Technical skills got them here. People skills determine what happens next. Three patterns repeat across every tech company:
New managers who keep coding
Promoted Friday. Managing Monday. No training on delegation, feedback, or hiring. They default to what made them successful: writing code. Six months in, velocity is flat and turnover starts.
Staff+ ICs who can’t influence
They need to lead across teams they don’t manage, mentor people who don’t report to them, and influence roadmaps they don’t own. Technically brilliant. Organizationally stuck.
Cross-functional friction
Engineering optimizes for velocity. Product for scope. Design for quality. Every roadmap conversation becomes a negotiation. The friction isn’t personal. It’s structural.
What got them promoted
What the new role requires
Your engineering managers aren’t failing because they’re bad at their jobs. They’re failing because you promoted them into a job they’ve never done, didn’t train them, and expected competence by Tuesday.
Risely provides practical, relevant advice from a 1:1 coaching standpoint. I like how it compares to my own 1:1 coaching I’ve had in the past. Instead of just giving me advice, Merlin asks questions to better understand my situation and guides me to solutions that fit my specific context.
Three stages, same problem, different constraints
Hiring fast. Promoting faster. New first-time managers every quarter. People team is 2-3 people. No time to build a program from scratch.
Scale development faster than you’re scaling headcount.
You have a leadership program. It runs twice a year with 20-30 seats. You promoted 50 people. Between cohorts, new managers are unsupported.
Fill the gap between cohorts. Extend learning into daily work.
L&D, Engineering Enablement, and People Partners all own different pieces. Engineering wants engineering-specific content. L&D wants consistency. Nobody has budget alignment.
Something engineering will actually use. No inter-departmental alignment needed.
All three stages need the same thing: Leadership development that happens in the flow of work, doesn’t require group facilitation, and proves ROI fast enough to secure next year’s budget.
Leadership development that engineering won’t ignore
No group facilitation. No completion tracking. No LMS portal. Engineers get an invite, start a conversation with Merlin, and get coached on the problem in front of them.
For engineers, PMs, and designers promoted to people management in the last 6 months. Typical cohort: 10-25 people.
Skills coached
Real scenario
My first 1:1 with a former peer is tomorrow. I don't know how to start without it being weird.
Let's walk through the conversation structure. Start by acknowledging the transition explicitly. Ask how they're feeling about it. Then set expectations for what changes and what doesn't.
Leadership development that happens when you need it, not when the calendar says it’s time
Sarah is promoted to Engineering Manager on Friday. Her first 1:1 with a former peer is Monday at 10am.
She opens Merlin on her phone. Voice session. Ten minutes. “My first 1:1 is with someone who was my peer last week. How do I start without it being weird?”
The 1:1 happens. Sarah uses the structure. The conversation isn’t awkward. The relationship survives intact.
A report missed a deadline. Sarah needs to give feedback for the first time. Merlin coaches her through separating behavior from person.
Sprint planning. Needs to push back on a PM’s timeline. Merlin helps her frame technical constraints as tradeoffs, not blockers.
12 sessions. Still engaging. Her manager sees the data without reading a single conversation.
No group sessions. No training calendar. No LMS login. Coaching in the flow of work.
ChatGPT gives advice. Merlin coaches behavior change.
Your engineers are already using ChatGPT for everything. Code reviews, architecture decisions, documentation. Why not leadership questions too?
Here’s the difference.
| How it compares | Risely | ChatGPT | BetterUp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coaches your specific engineering scenario | Generic advice | Coach learns over time | |
| Tracks skill growth over time | Coach notes | ||
| Leaders coach freely (fully private) | Trains on data* | Private with coach | |
| Ready when the problem hits (24/7) | 24/7 | Scheduled | |
| Gives HR engagement + skill data | Utilization only | ||
| Cost per user/month | $59 | $20 | $300-500 |
*Unless you configure ChatGPT enterprise tier correctly
Merlin is built for what tech companies actually need: AI coaching that understands engineering context, tracks skill growth, gives HR measurable data, and costs $59/user/month.
Voice or chat. Async. 11pm or 6am. I coach a Staff Engineer on influence differently than an EM on performance conversations. Tell me your actual situation and I'll coach you on that. You're skeptical? Good. Try me on a real problem.
Merlin — AI Coach Running a pilot takes 30 minutes of your time
Send invites. Check a dashboard once a week. Pull results at 12 weeks. That’s it.
Traditional cohort program
- Schedule coordination
- Facilitator sourcing
- Attendance tracking
- Make-up sessions
- Collecting feedback after each session
Risely pilot
- Send invites
- Check dashboard weekly
- Pull results
The math for a 500-person engineering org.
Voluntary attrition in tech averages 13%. For a 500-person org, that’s ~65 departures a year — and each one costs more than you think.
Return scenarios
IC replacement
Recruiter, onboarding, 3-6 month ramp
EM replacement
Team disruption, velocity loss, cultural cost
Staff+ IC replacement
Institutional knowledge loss, 6-12 month ramp
You don’t need to prevent all attrition. You need to prevent the attrition caused by unsupported leaders. That’s where the math works.
Build your custom business case
Your program teaches frameworks. Risely coaches application.
You already have manager training. Quarterly cohorts. Workshops. Keep doing it. Risely fills the gaps between.
Your existing programs
Quarterly leadership cohorts
Two-day workshops
Leadership offsites
Keep these
The gap
Promoted in March, next cohort starts June. No coaching between sessions. Frameworks learned but not applied.
Risely adds
The daily layer
Engineering Enablement, Corporate L&D, and People Partners all see different pieces of the same problem
If you’re in People Ops / Head of People
You own manager effectiveness and retention. You see the pattern in exit interviews: “My manager didn’t support my growth.” You see the performance data: New managers underperform in their first year. You need something that works without requiring headcount on your team to run it.
Run a pilot with your next promotion cohort. Prove ROI with retention and engagement data. Expand from there.
If you’re in Engineering Enablement
You own technical skills development for engineers. You’ve tried to build manager training, but you’re not L&D. You know what engineering managers need (delegation, feedback, hiring, strategy), but you don’t have capacity to build curriculum or facilitate cohorts.
Partner with People Ops to sponsor a pilot. Position Risely as “leadership development that speaks engineering language.” Use it to augment your technical enablement work without becoming a leadership training team.
If you’re a People Partner
You see the problems in skip-levels. You hear the complaints. You coach managers 1:1 when things go wrong. You’re the first escalation point when a new manager struggles. You don’t have budget to buy solutions, but you can advocate for them.
Pull the data. New managers in the last 6 months. Exit interview themes. Cost to replace one failed manager. Take the business case to your Head of People or VP Engineering.
If you’re in VP Engineering
You care about team performance and velocity. You don’t want to own leadership development (that’s People’s job), but you need your managers to be effective. You’re skeptical of HR-designed training that doesn’t understand engineering culture.
This isn’t an HR initiative engineering will ignore. It’s AI coaching that works async, doesn’t require group sessions, and uses engineering language. Try it with one team. See if it works. Expand if it does.
Pilot sponsor is whoever can approve 15 seats for 90 days. Usually Head of People. Sometimes VP Engineering. Occasionally both as co-sponsors.
Don’t pilot with your best managers. Pilot with your newest.
Start with your next promotion cohort. Engineers who became managers in the last 30-90 days. The need is immediate, the counterfactual is clear, and one failed hire costs more than the entire pilot.
Week 1
Send invites
- 10-25 new managers
- 2-minute onboarding video
- No LMS integration needed
Weeks 2-8
Coaching happens
- 85%+ engage in week one
- 4-5 conversations per user/month
- Topics: delegation, feedback, 1:1s
Weeks 8-12
Measure results
- 26% avg skill improvement
- 80%+ still engaging at day 90
- Retention + velocity + manager scores
Investment: $59/user/month. Use results to expand to Staff+ ICs, then cross-functional leaders.
26%
avg skill improvement (12 weeks)
87%
of invited users engage in week one
82%+
still engaging at day 30
$59
per user per month
Trusted by teams at
Frequently asked questions
Our engineers won't use something that feels like mandatory HR training.
How does this work for remote and distributed teams?
What about data privacy? Engineers are paranoid about AI tools.
Does this integrate with our HRIS/LMS/Slack?
What if our engineering culture is "figure it out yourself"?
How do you measure if this is working?
Can we try this with just one team first?
What happens after the 90-day pilot?
Your next promotion cohort starts Monday. Let's get them ready.
150 people. $100K a year. One prevented departure pays for the entire program. Everything after that is ROI.