SenseCheck
Test your leadership decisions before your team does.
Simulate the psychological and technical ripple effects of decisions before they are executed.
Read: The SenseCheck Manifesto: Leadership as SimulationThe Problem
Leadership decisions in engineering organizations often have invisible costs:
A "quick pivot" that burns trust capital built over months
A deadline compression that triggers quiet quitting
A well-intentioned policy that alienates top performers
By the time these effects surface, the damage is done. SenseCheck lets you test decisions against your team's psychological landscape first.
Three Powerful Modes
Simulate decisions at every level—from org-wide to 1:1
Team Decision Mode
Simulate how your entire team will react to announcements, policy changes, deadline shifts, and pivots.
- Trust Resilience scoring
- Burnout Risk assessment
- Technical Debt impact
- Per-persona reactions
1:1 Feedback Mode
Prepare for difficult conversations, performance reviews, and sensitive feedback with a specific team member.
- Defensiveness Risk prediction
- Flight Risk assessment
- Reaction timeline
- Alternative phrasings
Org Tension Mode
Simulate cascading effects across management levels. Model how decisions ripple up and down your org chart hierarchy.
- Management layer tension
- Upward & downward pressure
- Cross-level conflict detection
- Hierarchy-aware reactions
How It Works
Monte Carlo simulation for human systems
Model Your Team
Each team member is represented as a persona with attributes: role, seniority, burnout level, trust baseline, personality traits, and life context.
Choose Your Mode
Team Decision for announcements, 1:1 Feedback for individual conversations, or Org Tension for hierarchy dynamics.
Run Simulation
AI models how each persona would react based on their unique psychological profile and current state.
Get Actionable Insights
Receive risk scores, predicted reactions, alternative phrasings, and recommendations tailored to your situation.
Powerful Team Visualization
See your team's health at a glance with interactive dashboards
Interactive Org Chart
Visualize reporting relationships with a drag-and-drop org chart. Set managers with shift+click, zoom and pan to explore.
Team Health Dashboard
Scatter plot of Trust vs Burnout reveals friction points instantly. Identify flight risks, disengaged team members, and burnout zones.
Smart Search & Filter
Find team members instantly by name, role, seniority, or traits. Auto-generate org hierarchies with one click.
Risk Scoring Metrics
Trust Resilience
How much trust capital is consumed by this decision. 1 = severe damage, 10 = fully preserved.
Burnout Risk
Probability of triggering developer flight or quiet quitting. 1 = minimal, 10 = critical.
Tech Debt Impact
Long-term engineering cost of a short-term pivot. 1 = negligible, 10 = catastrophic.
See It In Action
The Decision
"Hey team! I know things have been a bit hectic lately, but I have got exciting news - we are launching in 3 weeks instead of 6! To show appreciation, leadership has approved pizza Fridays and a $25 DoorDash credit for anyone working weekends."
Context: Company laid off 20% of engineering last month. Remaining team has been pulling 50+ hour weeks.
SenseCheck Analysis
"This message will severely damage trust and accelerate burnout. The 'exciting news' framing for a deadline cut reads as tone-deaf given recent layoffs."
Core Philosophy
Trust is a depleting resource
Every decision either builds or spends trust capital. Unlike velocity, trust compounds over time but can collapse instantly.
People are non-linear systems
A 10% deadline cut doesn't cause 10% more stress. It may cause 100% if it crosses a threshold.
Context is everything
The same message lands differently after layoffs than after a successful launch.
Simulation beats intuition
Leaders often have blind spots about how their words land. Running decisions through diverse personas reveals hidden risks.
Ready to test your decisions?
Start with 10 free simulations per month and 10 pre-generated team personas.