Client Case Studies
Real results from real engagements. See how Tavlin Consulting has helped teams transform their effectiveness, culture, and outcomes.
The Challenge
When I began as Fractional VP of Engineering, the team was navigating a significant transition following recent leadership changes. Engineers were working hard but feeling the strain of past approaches, with deadlines proving challenging to meet consistently. The organization was also experiencing significant ARR growth and momentum, which brought opportunities alongside the natural complexities of scaling an engineering organization.
The Solution
Serving as Fractional VP of Engineering, I provided comprehensive leadership across people, process, and culture. The engagement included organizing the team's first-ever engineering offsite, where everyone walked through the software development lifecycle together and tackled tech debt as a unified group. The approach emphasized mentorship and growth opportunities for existing team members while strategically bringing in new engineering leadership and talented engineers. Throughout the engagement, Tavlin introduced new engineering processes and practices designed specifically for the team's context, fostering a growth mindset that made engineers more flexible and collaborative teammates.
The Results
33%
increase in code quality
29%
reduction in tech debt impact
38%
improvement in stability of requirements
7%
improvement in engineering job satisfaction
The engagement successfully handled staff transitions and an updated organizational design while maintaining team morale and avoiding regrettable attrition. By the end of the 1.5-year partnership, strong new engineering leadership was in place, and the team had evolved into a more flexible, collaborative engineering culture ready to support the company's continued growth.
Metrics measured via Quotient developer productivity tool
The Challenge
A high-performing engineering team was experiencing remarkable year-over-year growth as the company scaled from Series A through 3x expansion from 2024 to 2025. While the technical work was strong, the team recognized opportunities to strengthen communication channels with leadership, develop a more effective partnership between engineering and product, and create clearer requirements and prioritization processes that could keep pace with the rapid growth.
The Solution
Serving as Fractional VP of Engineering over two years, I became a strategic partner during this period of intense scaling. The role focused on partnering closely with the product team to improve cross-functional collaboration, facilitating more effective communication between engineering and leadership, and providing clear, succinct guidance on complex technical decisions. For example, when leadership needed to understand tech debt implications, Tavlin helped them get precise answers about both the severity and urgency of addressing it, enabling informed prioritization decisions.
The Results
21%
increase in satisfaction with reasonable deadlines
18%
increase in ability to work without distraction
14%
increase in stable requirements
The engineering-product partnership strengthened significantly, and the team successfully navigated the challenges of scaling while preserving the culture and effectiveness that made them strong in the first place.
Metrics measured via Quotient developer productivity tool
The Challenge
The agency leadership team was navigating complex organizational priorities and needed dedicated time away from daily operations to align on strategic direction. Team members were managing diverse responsibilities and stakeholder needs, making it essential to create clarity around priorities, develop concrete action plans, and leverage the collective expertise within the room to move forward efficiently.
The Solution
I facilitated a focused one-day offsite with an agenda designed around three core objectives: prioritization, action planning, and peer learning. The session created space for the team to learn effective strategies from one another while drawing on industry expertise to accomplish key goals quickly. Through a carefully structured agenda, participants engaged in both strategic discussion and practical planning, with facilitation that ensured every voice was heard and concrete outcomes emerged from each conversation.
The Results
The team left the offsite with clear priorities, actionable plans with designated ownership, and strengthened alignment across the group. Participants remained engaged throughout the full day, and the strategies developed during the session translated into executed initiatives in the following months. The team also gained valuable insights from one another's approaches and experiences, building both immediate outcomes and longer-term collaborative capabilities.
The Challenge
The 16-person company wanted to strengthen their management practices by understanding team perspectives on leadership and expectations. Given the sensitive nature of gathering honest feedback about management, it was essential to create an environment where every team member felt comfortable sharing their true thoughts and experiences without concerns about negative consequences. The company sought to gain deeper insights into management best practices and what effective leadership looked like from the team's perspective.
The Solution
Tavlin designed and facilitated a series of virtual retrospective sessions, thoughtfully breaking the full staff into smaller groups to create psychological safety and encourage candid conversation. The facilitation approach efficiently drew out meaningful insights while maintaining an atmosphere of trust and productive engagement. After the sessions, all feedback was synthesized into an actionable report for managers, providing clear guidance while protecting individual confidentiality.
The Results
The process successfully gathered honest, valuable feedback from every team member, resulting in specific and actionable next steps for management improvement. The company's managers received clear guidance on team expectations and areas for development, while team members felt genuinely heard throughout the process. The careful facilitation built trust rather than anxiety, proving that difficult conversations about management can be both productive and psychologically safe.
The Challenge
ATCC was at a pivotal moment in its organizational journey, bringing together a leadership team under a new CEO following recent transitions. The team needed to establish a strong foundation for working together effectively while also developing the strategic frameworks to guide the entire organization forward. This required both building the interpersonal trust and connection that enables great leadership teams and creating the strategic alignment necessary to drive meaningful organizational outcomes.
The Solution
Tavlin Consulting facilitated a comprehensive full-day offsite designed to address both the relational and strategic dimensions of leadership team development. The day focused on building trust and camaraderie among the newly formed leadership team, then transitioning this foundation into strategic execution, teaching the OKR methodology through hands-on application where the team actually crafted company-level OKRs together, ensuring full leadership buy-in and creating concrete next steps for implementation.
The Results
The leadership team emerged from the day with both strong interpersonal foundations and clear strategic direction. They had established operating agreements that defined how they would work together under the new CEO, created company-level OKRs with genuine collective ownership, and developed the capability to guide OKR implementation throughout the organization. Following the leadership team's successful adoption, OKRs were rolled out company-wide, creating alignment and strategic clarity across the entire organization.
The Challenge
FIA Tech's R&D leadership recognized opportunities to strengthen their management capabilities in two critical areas. First, they wanted to improve their culture around performance management, with team leaders seeking greater confidence and comfort in conducting critical feedback and performance review conversations. Second, they identified that more effective meeting practices could significantly enhance team productivity and collaboration. Both areas represented the gap between knowing these skills were important and executing them consistently and well.
The Solution
I delivered a comprehensive workshop series that included three virtual sessions in addition to a full-day in-person workshop, each focused on building specific management skills. The virtual workshops allowed for focused skill-building in shorter sessions that fit into busy schedules, while the full-day in-person session provided deeper immersion and practice. Topics included giving effective feedback and making meetings more effective, with each session combining conceptual learning with hands-on practice that allowed participants to internalize new approaches and structured techniques.
The Results
The R&D team leaders gained tangible confidence and practical skills they could apply right away. Managers developed comfort with feedback conversations that had previously felt challenging, armed with structured approaches for providing difficult information constructively. The team also gained practical tools for running more effective meetings, which they began implementing immediately. The combination of virtual and in-person formats allowed for both accessibility and depth, meeting the needs of different groups. Beyond the individual skill development, the workshops enhanced the overall culture of the management team, fostering stronger collaboration and shared language around these critical leadership capabilities.
The Challenge
The engineering leadership team at this health tech company identified several interconnected areas where they wanted to strengthen their effectiveness. They sought better approaches to calendar management and prioritization, wanted to become more proactive rather than constantly reactive, needed to build stronger connections with one another as a leadership group, and recognized the importance of improving their technical advocacy skills and communication.
The Solution
I facilitated a comprehensive full-day workshop designed to address all four focus areas through highly interactive sessions and targeted breakout groups. The day included practical tools and frameworks that participants could implement immediately, combined with facilitation designed to surface challenges that often go unspoken in day-to-day work. The approach balanced structured learning with organic discussion, creating space for the group to learn from each other's experiences and perspectives.
The Results
By the end of the workshop day, the engineering leadership team had made tangible progress across all their goals. The group was communicating more openly about shared challenges they each faced, having surfaced important issues that typically remained unspoken in regular team meetings. They established new ways to communicate with one another and created concrete action plans to strengthen technical advocacy, complete with specific next steps and clear ownership.
The Challenge
The conference organizers wanted to create a fun and engaging way for attendees to build genuine connections and community during the developer conference. The challenge was particularly nuanced: while connection and networking are valuable, engineers typically resist anything that feels like forced fun or awkward ice breakers. The session needed to facilitate meaningful connection without triggering the natural skepticism many developers have toward team-building activities.
The Solution
I designed and facilitated a 75-minute lightweight program that helped people connect with others in a low-pressure, high-touch way. The approach respected developers' natural preferences while creating genuine opportunities for connection. Rather than forcing participation or creating artificial scenarios, the session provided structure that made it easy and comfortable for attendees to meet new people and find common ground, all while maintaining the authentic, technical culture that developers value.
The Results
~100
participants
20%
of entire conference attended
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many attendees sharing that the session made the conference feel smaller and more accessible despite the large number of participants. Perhaps most tellingly, people reported that after the session, they had specific people to sit with, talk to, and connect with throughout the rest of the conference. The session successfully transformed what could have been an isolating experience into one where attendees had genuine connections and a sense of belonging within the larger community.
The Challenge
The team needed dedicated time away from the demands of day-to-day operations to step back and focus on bigger-picture team dynamics and collaboration. They recognized that creating space to strengthen team connections, address underlying dynamics, and develop actionable plans for improvement would require focused facilitation that could make a half-day maximally productive and impactful.
The Solution
I facilitated a focused half-day retreat that balanced multiple objectives within a compressed timeframe. The session wove together presentation elements with highly interactive attendee involvement, integrating diverse activities throughout to maintain engagement and draw out different perspectives. The facilitation created a safe environment for connecting with each other while ensuring the team left with concrete, actionable outcomes rather than just good feelings.
The Results
The retreat successfully strengthened team connections and mutual understanding building team camaraderie. The team particularly appreciated the variety of activities integrated throughout the morning, the effective balance between facilitator-led content and participant involvement, and how the comprehensive approach helped them feel genuinely connected to one another. The thoughtful nature of the team building exercises and conversations created outcomes that persisted well beyond the retreat itself.
What Sets These Engagements Apart
Highly Interactive Approach
These engagements go far beyond traditional presentations or lectures. Participants are actively involved through hands-on activities, breakout discussions, and collaborative exercises that make learning stick.
Surfacing the Unspoken
Through careful facilitation, these sessions create psychologically safe spaces where important issues that usually remain unspoken—the "elephants in the room"—can finally be addressed productively.
Immediately Actionable Tools
Every engagement provides practical frameworks and tools that participants can implement right away, not theoretical concepts that sound good but never get used.
Lasting Impact
The real measure of success comes months after the engagement ends. These sessions produce results and behavioral changes that persist 4-6 months later, not just short-term enthusiasm that fades quickly.
Genuine Customization
Each engagement is tailored to the specific organization, team, and challenges at hand. This isn't cookie-cutter content pulled from a standard deck, but carefully designed facilitation based on deep understanding of the client's context.
Technical Credibility
With 25+ years of engineering leadership experience, these sessions bring authentic understanding of technical culture, challenges, and decision-making that resonates particularly well with engineering and tech organizations.
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