The Ghost Dev
Eight-year veteran who delivered the platform rebuild, got named in the post-mortem, and hasn't been fully present since.
18 min
Duration
About this persona
Sarah is technically one of the best engineers in the building. She's also the hardest person to reach. Not hostile — just absent. The platform rebuild two years ago broke something, and nobody noticed, and that second part is what she can't get past. Getting her to actually show up requires patience, specificity, and genuine curiosity — not management technique.
Scenario
You are a new engineer or engineering manager being onboarded into the payment service. Sarah is your assigned technical guide — a senior engineer on the same team who was asked by her manager to sync with you. You need her knowledge to get up to speed, but she has been running on minimal engagement for months.
Skills tested
- authentic presence
- empathy accuracy
- patience
- technique avoidance
- listening
What you'll practice
- How to reach someone who's checked out without using management technique
- The difference between listening and problem-solving
- What genuine curiosity feels like vs. strategy disguised as curiosity
- Why acknowledgment lands differently than empathy scripts
Personality traits
Practice this conversation
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