General
Do I need to have completed an Optivem course to join?
No — open to any senior engineer or tech lead actively working on legacy code modernization. Prior course experience is helpful but not required.
What topics are covered on the calls?
Whatever you're working on. TDD, ATDD, CI/CD, Hexagonal Architecture, Clean Architecture, legacy code, AI — driven by your real questions, not a fixed curriculum.
Will you write the code or build it with me?
No — coaching is advisory. You bring your real challenges to the calls and we work through the approach together, but the implementation stays in your hands between sessions. It's guidance on your work, not a build-it-with-you (or build-it-for-you) service.
Are results guaranteed?
Coaching is advisory guidance, not a guaranteed outcome — we give you the clearest, most practical direction we can, but the results come from the work you do between sessions and the decisions you make. We're confident enough in the value that every membership is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee: if it's not the right fit, get a full refund within your first month.
Is guidance live or async?
Both. Guidance is delivered live on the calls every two weeks, and you can also ask questions async between sessions — answered in the community so everyone learns from the answer. Every public session is recorded, so over time you build up a library you can revisit anytime while your membership is active. (Async question-answering is on every plan.)
How many sessions are there, and how do I get my questions answered?
Right now we run a fortnightly 2-hour live session — that's the current schedule, and it may adapt over time. You can queue your questions ahead of the call or raise them live on the day — plus ask async in the community between calls. Sessions are demand-driven: a scheduled call runs as long as someone has registered for it and/or submitted a question in advance — so to make sure a session happens, just register or drop your question in beforehand. A slot with no registrations and no questions at all simply isn't held. And when questions are heavy and we're regularly running over the 2 hours, we may add extra session slots to get through them — so the schedule flexes to fit the room either way.
What if I have follow-up questions?
Bring them to the next call. Most real problems take a few passes — you try the next step, hit something new, and we pick it up from there. Between calls you can post follow-ups to be answered in the open, so the thread keeps moving and everyone learns from it. Progress comes from a little direction applied call after call, not from one perfect answer.
When are the calls scheduled?
Sessions are held every two weeks and run about 2 hours, with dates and times announced in advance. They generally run 3–5pm CET/CEST (9–11am ET), though exact timing varies. The Technical Coach reserves the right to reschedule a call to a different day or time, and you'll be notified in advance. Public sessions are recorded in full with replay access always included (by joining a public call you consent to being recorded); for Private (Teams), recording is your team's choice — so even if a new time doesn't suit you, you keep full replay access.
What if I can't make the live calls?
All calls are recorded. You'll have full replay access — watch at your own pace, on your schedule.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes — any plan can be cancelled anytime, whether monthly, annual, or Teams. Billing is always in advance, so access continues until the end of the period you've already paid for — the rest of the month on a monthly plan, or the rest of the year on an annual one — and you're simply not charged for the next one.
Can I pause my membership?
There's no separate pause — and you don't need one. Since every plan is billed in advance and cancels anytime with no penalty, you can simply cancel and rejoin whenever you're ready. Just note that replay access to recorded sessions is part of an active membership: it's available while you're a member and returns when you rejoin.
Is there a money-back guarantee?
Yes — every membership, individual or Teams, comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If it's not the right fit, request a full refund within your first month, no questions asked.
What's the difference between monthly and annual?
Nothing in what you get — same calls, same async Q&A in the community, same full replay access, same unlimited scope. The only difference is billing: pay monthly, or pay yearly and save 20%. Either way you can cancel anytime.
What if my company won't cover it?
There are two ways to fund Circle, and each pays back differently.
Expense it — what the company gets: faster, more predictable delivery, fewer production bugs, a team that can modernize the legacy code instead of working around it, and AI used with a safety net rather than as a liability. An invoice (company name + VAT) is available on request, plus a ready-to-send manager email, clean to claim from a training budget —
here's how to expense it.
Fund it yourself — what you get: skills that genuinely move legacy code are some of the best career insurance there is — the market rewards engineers who can do what most can't, and you don't have to wait for anyone's sign-off to start building them.
Can I enrol several engineers from my company?
Yes. There's a
per-seat group discount that grows with the team, stacked on the annual per-seat rate — see the
Group plan for the seat tiers. Everyone joins the same shared public calls, you can request an
invoice to expense (company name + VAT number), and an annual term is optional.
Book a call and we'll set it up.
(Need dedicated calls on your own private codebase instead? That's Optivem Teams → teams.optivem.com.)
Circle vs Teams
What's the difference between Circle and Teams?
Circle runs as open public calls alongside engineers from other companies, working through the approach together — any code shown is open-source or freely available, never proprietary.
Optivem Teams is exclusively for your team: dedicated calls, no outside attendees, where you get advice on your company's real, proprietary codebase in full confidence. Teams now lives on its own page →
teams.optivem.com.
Can I work on my company's private code?
Not on public Circle calls — those use open-source / freely-available code, so nothing confidential leaves the room and no NDA is needed. For your real proprietary codebase, that's
Optivem Teams: dedicated calls for your team alone, in full confidence →
teams.optivem.com.
