Everyone learns from everyone
Junior engineers hear how seniors think through decisions. Seniors hear what isn't obvious to someone newer. Managers learn what their team actually wants from their careers.
For teams
Start a book club your team will actually show up for
The Missing Cipher was built to be read together. Pick any chapter, bring the discussion questions, and spend an hour learning from the people you work with every day.
Why book clubs work
Learning sticks when you do it together
Reading on your own gets you the ideas. Talking them through with your team turns them into habits. A book club gives everyone, from your newest engineer to your most senior, a shared language for growth and a regular reason to talk about more than the sprint.
Made for remote teams
When you rarely share an office, it's easy to only talk about tickets. An hour on a video call with a chapter and a few good questions builds the connection that hallway conversations used to.
Growth that doesn't need a budget meeting
A book club costs a few copies and an hour a month. It shows your team you're investing in them, and it turns professional development into something you do together, not alone.
This book makes it easy
No prep, no reading order, no homework
- Choose any chapter. Every chapter stands on its own, so start with whatever your team is facing right now: prioritization, system design, incidents, networking, or interviews. There's no need to go in order.
- Use the questions at the end. Chapters 1 through 16 each end with a Book Club section of five to eleven discussion questions, ready to go. No one has to write an agenda.
- Turn talk into action. Worksheets for each chapter help everyone apply the ideas to their own work after the discussion ends.
From the Book Club sections
A taste of the discussion questions
Six of the more than 100 questions in the book.
Have you ever had a job title that didn’t match what you actually did?
Can you share an example of “bikeshedding” you’ve seen in a design review?
Use the book club time to try out a new index card design.
Write your “I do (x task) for (y people)” introduction.
The chapter opens with engineers swapping “ghost in the machine” horror stories around a campfire. Do you have your own favorite horror story?
Who ends up maintaining older products where you work? Is that work recognized, and is it shared fairly?
Copies for your team
Buy for the whole book club
Get a copy into every reader's hands at once, and add coaching to help your team put the book into practice.
Bulk copies
Order copies for your entire book club or engineering organization in one purchase.
Book club plus coaching
Bundle team copies with coaching sessions with Michelle and save on both. Use the sessions for one-on-one coaching for your engineers, or have Michelle join a book club discussion.
Want to plan ahead? Tell me about your team