PORTFOLIO

The Resilient Tech Leader

Digital Workbook Companion

Context

Meet Michael Hunter.
Michael is a coach who started out as a software engeneer and turned his passion of “debugging” code into “helping people debug themselves”. With over 20 years of experience in this specific field, Michael wrote the “The Resilient Tech Leader”: a book dedicated to people in tech who are tired of the constant race to keep up — and quietly craving a place to breathe and reconnect with themselves.

The book in itself provided very practical tools in each chapter. And Michael was very clear on this: he didn’t just want readers to agree with the ideas on the page; he wanted them to practice them, starting a self-exploratory journey.

This is how the idea of a digital workbook companion was born. When one piece of the puzzle was solved – finding a suitable and aligned platform (Sutra) that would host it – more questions came up:

Where do I even start?

How do I turn the book journey into a digital workbook companion?

How do I make an engaging complementary experience?
Is there anyone that can support me?

This is when Michael and I met.

The Process

The content and graphic direction already existed. My role was to support Michael in turning it into an experience.

We worked on:

– translating the book into an interactive digital journey,

– ensuring it supported integration,

– creating fun visual supports (infographics + interactive map) to complement the book.

A sneak peek into the workbook

Explore the interactive map readers get access to within the online workbook:

Outcome

  • A digital workbook companion is now live alongside the book: a guided, practice-based journey that turns reading into integration. The readers are using it as a “quiet corner” to pause, reflect, and apply the tools chapter by chapter.

Key Takeaways

For any learner in the current times and especially for Michael’s target audience (people in tech), the design has to reduce mental noise: short steps, visual anchors, and a gentle rhythm – all of this makes practice doable.

And if an online course looks “simple”, chances are it’s the result of long hours of brainstorming, work, and iteration :)

We had the content, now, it was a matter of understanding how to support people integrating what they read.
When reflection is embedded in the learning flow, self-awareness stops being a concept and becomes a practice.

“I have worked with many content designers over the years, but none as dynamic, knowledgeable, and *fun* as Yana. She was fantastic, grokking my vision for the workbook and helping me iterate that into something truly useful. ”

Michael Hunter

Coach & Author