Where Legacy Code
Meets Practical Guidance.

You're stuck in legacy code — slow delivery, constant bugs, and nothing your team has tried has fixed it. Adding AI on top only made delivery worse. You're the one who wants to drive the change — you care about getting it right; what's missing isn't the will, it's the how. Optivem Circle puts you in a room of senior engineers every two weeks, working through the real problems you're facing — live, practical, no curriculum.

Live calls + 24/7 async access
Bring your real challenges
No curriculum, no slides — live guidance on the real problems you're hitting.
Engineering decisions, resolved
TDD, ATDD, Hexagonal Architecture, Clean Architecture, CI/CD, legacy code, AI — all in scope.
Get your sandbox work reviewed
Submit your public / open-source work anytime — Valentina reviews it async between calls.
Full replay access
Every public session recorded — watch anytime if you can't attend live.
Fortnightly · 2-hour sessions
Generally 3–5pm CET/CEST — US East Coast morning friendly (9–11am ET).
The Problem

You've tried everything.
The legacy code won't budge.

Working in legacy code is relentless pressure — stressful deliveries, slipping deadlines, and fresh bugs every time you touch code no one fully understands.

01

You're alone with your legacy codebase

Just you and hundreds of thousands of lines of untested, tangled code — and the pressure to keep shipping without breaking it.

02

Theory doesn't map to reality

Textbook examples are clean. Your production codebase is not. The gap between them is where progress stalls.

03

There's no one to ask

AI gives you confident answers that fall apart on contact with your real codebase. Your team is stuck on the same problems you are. You need someone who's already shipped the fix.

And you're the one trying to change it. You're not content to just cope — you want to raise the bar for your codebase and your team. The will is there, and the mandate. What's missing is the capability to make the change stick. That's the gap Circle closes.

The Other Side

Now imagine
the opposite.

You touch the legacy code and it doesn't fight back — there are tests, so you know the moment something breaks. Deliveries stop slipping, because delivery has become predictable again. Your team stops going in circles and starts moving in one direction. The AI tools finally help, because there's a safety net underneath them. And when you hit something you've never seen before, you're not stuck alone with it for two weeks — you bring it to the next call and leave with a clear next step. The change you've been wanting to drive finally has the how behind it.

That's what the Circle is for.

What You Get

Practical guidance,
every two weeks.

No curriculum. No slides. Just live Q&A on what you're actually working on. Advisory support for engineers already doing the work.

Live Guidance, Every Two Weeks

A 2-hour live session where you bring the real challenges you're facing at work. Concrete, applicable direction — code examples where available. Proprietary code stays off public calls — that's what Teams is for.

TDD ATDD CI/CD Hexagonal Architecture Clean Architecture Legacy Code AI

Ask Questions Anytime All plans

Not just on the calls: post questions async between sessions and get them answered on the dashboard, where the whole community can learn from the answer — so each answer compounds into the archive.

Sandbox Review Annual & Group

Submit your own public / open-source sandbox work and Valentina reviews it async; feedback lands in the dashboard for everyone. The one thing Monthly doesn't include — getting your own work reviewed. Proprietary code stays off — that's Teams.

A Library That Compounds

Every public session is recorded and added to a searchable archive that grows with the community. Join now and you're in on the ground floor; the longer you're a member, the bigger the library you can search. (Ask-Valentina search coming as the archive grows.)

Europe & US-Friendly

Every two weeks, ~2 hours, generally 3–5pm CET/CEST (9–11am ET), with dates announced in advance.

No Syllabus

The kinds of things
members bring.

There's no curriculum — you bring what's blocking you. A few examples of the kind of thing:

"I've got a 200k-line monolith with zero tests. Where do I even put the first test without rewriting everything?"
"My team keeps writing tests that break on every refactor. How do I get them testing behaviour, not implementation?"
"We want to adopt ATDD but the business won't give us time. How do I make the case to my manager?"
"Our CI takes 40 minutes and everyone's stopped trusting it. How do I get it fast and green again?"
"Copilot writes code that passes review and breaks in prod. How do I put a safety net under AI-generated code?"
"Where's the seam? I need to get this legacy class under test but everything's tangled together."
"We're stuck arguing Hexagonal vs Clean Architecture. Which actually matters for our situation?"
"How do I introduce ATDD on a team that's burned out and skeptical of 'yet another process'?"

Bring yours.

Membership

Choose your plan.

Individual · Monthly

Monthly

For senior engineers and tech leads with legacy code. Bring your challenges and we work through them live, with examples where available.

€97 / month
Billed monthly in advance · cancel anytime

  • Live guidance calls every two weeks
  • Your real challenges worked through, with examples where available
  • Ask questions async between calls — answered on the dashboard
  • Full replay access + searchable archive (incl. all sandbox reviews)
  • Unlimited topic scope
  • Alongside other senior engineers
  • Cancel anytime
Join Monthly
Recommended
Individual · Annual

Annual

For engineers committed to the long game of modernizing their codebase — steady, practical guidance every two weeks.

€1,164 €930 / year
Save 20% — €234 off vs monthly

  • Everything in Monthly, plus the one upgrade:
  • Submit your own sandbox work for review — Valentina reviews your public/open-source repo async (the only thing Monthly doesn't include)
Join Annual
Company · Group

Group

For companies bringing several engineers onto the public calls together — same membership, shared calls, alongside other senior engineers.

Up to 20% off per seat
Scaling with team size · exact per-seat pricing on the call

  • The more engineers you bring, the bigger the per-seat discount
  • One company invoice (name + VAT) — easy to expense / budget
  • Annual term available — same per-seat rate, billed yearly (no extra discount on top of the bulk %)
  • Sandbox review for every seat — each engineer can submit their public/open-source work for async review
  • Open-source / freely-available examples on shared public calls — not your proprietary code (that's Teams)
Book a Call to Discuss

All plans billed in advance · cancel anytime — access continues to the end of the period you've paid for. Plus a 30-day money-back guarantee: not 100% satisfied in your first month? Full refund, no questions asked.

Most members don't pay out of their own pocket.

You're improving the codebase you're responsible for — so this is a work expense, not a hobby. We make funding it frictionless:

  • A proper invoice with your company name and VAT number — ready to expense to your employer, or to write off as a business expense if you're an independent contractor.
  • Training-budget friendly — a clear, itemised membership most engineering managers can approve from an existing L&D / training budget.
  • Manager pitch in one line: "Fortnightly senior-engineer guidance on the exact legacy-code problems slowing our delivery — €97/mo, cancel anytime." Forward it and you're most of the way there.

Bringing several engineers? See the Group plan above — per-seat discount, one company invoice.

Bringing your team but need to work on your own codebase — privately?

That's Optivem Teams: dedicated sessions reserved for your engineers alone, on your real, proprietary code, in full confidence. The one option that works on your code, not open-source examples.

About Your Coach

Valentina
Jemuović

Technical Coach at Optivem. Years spent helping engineering teams modernize legacy systems without years of expensive trial and error.

"Teams aren't stuck for lack of theory. They're stuck because no one's shown them how to apply it to real, legacy code."

Creator of the ATDD Accelerator and Pipeline Accelerator programs. Worked directly with engineering teams across Europe and North America. Optivem Circle brings that same guidance to any engineer fighting through legacy code.

TDD ATDD CI/CD Hexagonal Architecture Clean Architecture Legacy Code
Valentina Jemuović, founder of Optivem
FAQ

Common questions.

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 on the dashboard so the whole community learns from the answer. Every public session is recorded, so over time you build up a searchable library you can revisit anytime while your membership is active. (Async question-answering is on every plan.)
Can I get my own code reviewed?
Sandbox review is an Annual & Group benefit — the one thing Monthly doesn't include: submit your public/open-source sandbox work (a kata, a course exercise, an OSS project) and Valentina reviews it async, with the feedback posted to the dashboard for all members. Your real proprietary codebase stays off public calls — that's Optivem Teamsteams.optivem.com.
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.
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.
Get Started

Ready to make
an impact?

Practical, live guidance for the legacy code you're up against — every two weeks.