Button School

Write for your tech job and get buy-in.

Glovo

Adobe

Etsy

Apple

Google

Meltem Naz Kaso

UX Researcher (ex-Glovo) and Career Coach

Nevan Scott

Product Designer and Design Educator - Head of education at Button School

Boost your written communication skills to get buy-in.

Write killer emails, Slack messages, and presentations

Keep your team, clients, and stakeholders informed so you can do your best work without getting burned out.

Engage your audience

Build a personal brand that will allow you and your team to grow.

Lead the conversation

Update: The February 2025 cohort is sold out! I've opened an April 2025 cohort, which is now open for enrollment. If you've been thinking about joining, I'd love to see you in class.___ If you're a high performer, you likely got to where you are because of your raw talent and ability to execute. Now that your scope has grown, though, your ability to increase impact depends on how well you influence other people--often without formal authority. In other words, you need people to do what you want them to do--enthusiastically and collaboratively. Unfortunately, no one teaches us how to do this beyond a basic level. So your day-to-day involves avoidable back-and-forth, friction, pushback, apathy, random questions, skepticism, or confusion about areas you believe are important. But it doesn't have to be this way. You and your team can move faster. You can quickly understand each other. You can worry less about cajoling skeptics. You can spend less time figuring out how to say what you want to say. You can accomplish more of what you want--and have more fun in the process. To get to the next level, you can't simply "do" more yourself. You must extend your impact beyond your own work. You must get genuine cooperation and true buy-in from those around you. This is what you will learn to do in this course. WHAT TO EXPECT: This is a highly-interactive course with in-depth discussion, Q&amp;A, examples, exercises, and tactics you can apply immediately. There are 9 hours of live instruction, all live on Zoom taught personally by Wes. We will focus on both the "why" and tactical pieces around the "how." The skills you need to become more effective CANNOT be solved through brute force. In these 2 days, you will come away with new tools. Course content• How to be direct (without seeming like a jerk)• How to perform well in high-stakes real-time conversations• How to sharpen your ability to prevent/overcome skepticism• How to frame 90% around your recipient and maximize buy-in• How to work with (not against) human nature• How to get headcount, cross-functional support, and budget by pitching the right way• How to articulate your POV when clarity can make or break the outcome• How to instill a sense of urgency so your ideas are heard and acted on quickly• How to communicate your plans and priorities so you build alignment• How to diagnose the question-behind-the-question so folks are satisfied by your responses The course also includes:• Review and reflection• Verbatim scripts for tricky work scenarios• Real-life examples• Hands-on exercises• Frameworks to help you structure your written and verbal communication• Bonus: 2 Q&amp;A sessions• Plus: Homework to put concepts into practice• All Zoom workshops are live, taught by Wes The goal isn't simply to learn the concepts--it's to internalize them. If you put effort into the course, you will make a major leap ahead. If you follow my writing, the course builds on concepts I’ve written about--we will discuss important nuances, edge cases, and examples, with the opportunity to put these lessons into practice. I've designed this course specifically so you begin to build your intuition and muscle memory. All the sessions will be recorded so you can refer back to the material. WHO WILL BENEFIT MOST FROM THIS COURSE: Folks who will get the most from this course tend to be the following:- You care about quality, rigor, and setting a high bar for yourself and others- You are ambitious and you want to sharpen your ability to execute- You are on a lean team punching above your weight class- You are self-aware, open-minded, and intellectually honest I'm looking forward to bringing together a thoughtful group of operators and leaders. Students are from Uber, TikTok, Grammarly, Workday, CVS, Google, Wealthsimple, Pinterest, Expedia, Sephora, Twilio, Spotify, GitHub, Zillow, PayPal, Netflix, Square, etc. WHO THIS IS NOT FOR: - This is not for you if you are looking for 1:1 coaching for yourself or your team. By nature, a course is 1:many. If you're looking for private coaching, please email me to learn more about rates and availability.- This is not for you if you believe there's nothing more for you to learn about sharpening your communication.- This is not for you if you expect to become excellent in communication overnight. You will likely change your behavior for the better within 2 days, which is huge achievement. But becoming excellent at anything requires ongoing practice.- This is not for you if you want a slower-paced course over several weeks. This is a 2-day intensive designed for busy operators who want to avoid task-switching and who want an immersive experience. Therefore, you will be drinking from the firehose. My goal is to help you drastically improve your competence and confidence in a condensed period of time. Then, you will go back to work and build on this foundation with continued practice.

Strong communication is a force multiplier

Provide a brief description for each module as a way to sell the value of what students will be learning throughout the course.

First Module

Second Module

Third Module

Course syllabus

9:00 - 12:30pm Pacific Time12:00 - 3:30pm Eastern Time5:00 - 8:30pm British Standard Time The workshop includes hands-on exercises and opportunities to put lessons into practice throughout. Afterward, there will be an optional 1 hour Q&amp;A. Recording will be available.

Thursday, April 10

9:00 - 12:30pm Pacific Time12:00 - 3:30pm Eastern Time5:00 - 8:30pm British Standard Time Get ready for an action-packed second day. Afterward, there will be an optional 1 hour Q&amp;A. Recording will be available.

Friday, April 11

This course will be interactive, so get ready to chime into Zoom chat, unmute to share, etc. Live workshop sessions will be video recorded and made available to watch/rewatch at your own pace. If you can't attend the full time or need to hop off, you can catch up later.

Live workshops, Q&A, group discussion, exercises, real-life examples

Do you want feedback on a piece of communication? You'll have the opportunity to submit your homework for a live teardown. (You can redact before submitting.) I'll pick to share the most useful ones with the class.

Submit your homework for live review in class

Course schedule

Senior individual contributors (ICs). Marketing leads, PMs, engineers, program managers, UX designers, etc. Minimum 3+ years of experience.

People managers (team leads, directors, VPs) and leaders. You run a team and have to balance managing up, down, sideways to drive outcomes.

Teams who want shared language so you can move faster, give feedback faster, have shared expectations, and persuade folks outside your team.

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

You might only have a few minutes of your leadership team's attention. We will review tactics for how to move fast, frame the conversation upfront, handle unexpected questions, prevent "insecure vibes," etc. Get senior leaders to seek (and truly listen to) your input.

Present to your CEO to maximize highly-visible moments

The more senior you become, the more you'll need to manage up. Hint: It's not about sending a weekly recap of your contributions. We will review real examples and practice how to reduce cognitive load for your manager, share your rationale, focus on the punchline, and more.

Managing up in day-to-day interactions

How do you get buy-in with less back and forth? How do you know the right level of detail (and which details) to share? How can you be more concise w/o sacrificing context? We will dissect these nuances and you will have a chance to rewrite examples to put lessons into practice.

Frame your ideas and give the right amount of context in any situation

Real-world scenarios are often messy, with conflicting data points. Some principles are even at odds. How do you decide what to do? I will share a set of foundational principles, show how to apply them, and you will practice balancing trade-offs in mock simulations.

Combine and "stack" techniques to get people to care about what you care about

Writing a useful, compelling strategy doc/Slack message/email/DM always takes longer than you expect. After the course, you will be able to write faster and more easily. You will practice rewriting a before-and-after example, and have the opportunity to edit your own work.

Write more efficiently to achieve your goals 

Some principles (like reducing cognitive load) apply regardless of your audience--while other situations require you to understand power dynamics, leverage, etc. We will practice "reading" situations and subtext with more accuracy so you can make better decisions.

Influence up, down, and sideways to get things done

You may have trust with your team, but how do you advocate for ideas with other teams? We will discuss frameworks to tackle this, so you can get inside the heads of individuals/teams you want to appeal to more quickly.

Get enthusiastic buy-in and collaboration from colleagues outside your team

Sell your ideas, manage up, gain buy-in, and increase your impact. Sharpen your skills via hands-on exercises, deep dives, scripts, and more

Wes Kao

Cohort 3 (December)

Cohort 5 (April)

You want to present your ideas and opinions with unshakable confidence. You want to feel powerful in every room or zoom, but sometimes, when the moment is at hand, you start second-guessing yourself. You want to be both assertive yet kind. But you also don’t want to come across as pushy or a pushover. Maybe you’ve even spent the night counting the opportunities you missed instead of counting sheep. Or worse, you spent the night spiraling about that thing you regret saying.&nbsp;&nbsp;In this course, you'll learn how to step up without stepping on toes, inspire your employees to take meaningful action and captivate your boss with your words so your ideas are heard and valued. Whether you are delivering a presentation, leading a meeting, or having a difficult 1:1 feedback conversation, I’ll give you frameworks to help you with what to say and how to say it so you’re not just part of the conversation but leading it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Every lesson is live and is packed with opportunities to practice and refine your communication skills. You’ll learn how to take up space in the “right way.” And how to get your employees to be thanking YOU when you ask them to take on another project.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;You will develop the communication skills that will help you drive your team’s success and earn that next promotion or raise!&nbsp; Next Cohort: February Cohort is Tuesdays at 2pm EST

The Ultimate Leadership Edge

Before you speak it starts with how you think. We are going to train your brain to&nbsp;think like a great leader.

Manager Mindset

Learn how to give feedback that sparks change. We'll learn how to get buy-in and how to give super specific, realistic, and kind feedback. Yes, I'll show you how honesty can be kind and powerful.

Fruitful Feedback & 1:1s

Clarify your strategy and make it so compelling your employees are thanking you for the opportunity to work on it

Spellbinding Strategy

Set the tone and structure of meetings to optimize productivity and collaboration. Learn what to say to help you navigate tricky challenges and how to stay confident and calm throughout.

Confident Collaboration

Course Syllabus

Four 1-hour-long workshopsTuesday Dec 3: Manager MindsetThursday Dec 5: Fruitful FeedbackTuesday Dec 10: Spellbinding Strategy &amp; Defining DecisionsTuesday Dec 12: Confident Collaboration

December Cohort: Tuesday & Thursday 

Compact learning format for busy professionals

No required homework

Every session is recorded, so you can watch it on your own if you can't make the live session.

Can't make a session?

First-time managers (Congrats!) Develop the critical skills that differentiate a follower from a leader

Startup founders &amp; business ownersBuild a culture that will empower your employees to create their best work

Experienced leaders with a new team Quickly ﻿establish trust, improve productivity and amplify your influence

You'll learn how to ...

Discover the most costly communication mistake most managers make in giving feedback and the seven-step formula to spark change.

Give feedback that actually results in change

Understand the psychology underneath great storytelling. Learn the technique politicians like Barack Obama use to make your message stick with limited time.

Develop spellbinding presentations & pep talks

The 5 key questions that will transform your relationship with your direct reports. Plus, the simple communication checklist that will help you optimize every meeting.

Run effective 1:1s & efficient meetings

Why trying only to control your employees is a waste of time and what you need to say instead that actually increases accountability and improves trust.

Improve employee engagement and productivity

The secret the best conflict negotiators know to surface issues before they become problems.

Breakdown unproductive conflicts and avoid misunderstandings

The simple tip for converting any task or project into a hero’s mission that employees want to take on.

Inspire employees with a clear & compelling mission

The 5-part formula to take your boss from questioning your ideas to following them.

Manage up with grace & power

Many people think charisma is only for extroverts, but I’ll give you two simple tools to increase your likability instantly. In the course you’ll get scripts and formulas to help you get started. And don’t worry, we’ll practice so you can sound natural when you use them.

Level up your confidence and charisma

🚀 Learn the 8 critical skills to make you a confident and compelling leader. 

Jess Goldberg

Teaches communication skills  @ Columbia University, Executive Coach & former VP in AI Robotics 

December 2024

Feb 2025 

If you're a leader, you’ve built your success on talent and drive. But to make an impact beyond your immediate circle, you need more than raw ability—you need to be heard by turning your ideas into impact. Many experienced professionals struggle to write in a way that captures attention. Maybe your ideas don't land as powerfully as they should. Perhaps you hesitate to publish, unsure if your writing will resonate. Or you’ve struggled to streamline your process, keeping you from writing faster and with more clarity. It doesn’t have to be this way. With the Writing Accelerator, you’ll learn a proven system that has worked for +160 alumni and will professionalize your writing, help you reach thousands (if not millions) of readers, and grow your audience. You’ll leave with actionable insights, refined writing habits, and the ability to publish confidently. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT:This course combines cutting-edge learning science with actionable strategies. You’ll gain practical tools, expert feedback, and a structured process that turns your thoughts into polished, professional articles. Every workshop focuses on both strategy and execution. By the end, you’ll have not only the skills to write but the confidence to do it at a world-class level. You’ll leave the course with:● 1 to 3 professionally written and published articles (depending on your time commitment).● A clear path to continue growing your audience and reaching millions of readers.● A bulletproof system to keep your writing sharp and impactful long after the course ends. COURSE CONTENT:●&nbsp;How to choose the best platform for your writing (Substack, Medium, LinkedIn, personal blog).●&nbsp;How to craft headlines that attract thousands of readers●&nbsp;Master the art of writing introductions that captivate●&nbsp;Develop a repeatable, idea-to-paper process to professionalize your writing●&nbsp;Grow your audience and build a loyal following●&nbsp;Edit efficiently and effectively—save time while improving quality. EXTRAS:●&nbsp;Lifetime access to video recordings of all live sessions via the Maven platform.●&nbsp;PDF summaries of the course for easy reference.●&nbsp;Direct access to Eva for personalized feedback and guidance.●&nbsp;Optional co-writing and coaching sessions to refine your work.●&nbsp;AI prompts and custom-built GPTs to accelerate your writing process.●&nbsp;A behind-the-scenes look at Eva’s personal knowledge management system (including Kindle Notes, Readwise, and Obsidian workflows). WHO THIS COURSE IS FOR:This course is for professionals who●&nbsp;Want to grow their thought leadership and communicate their ideas more effectively.●&nbsp;Struggle with consistency and need a structured, actionable writing system.●&nbsp;Are ready to grow their audience and make a lasting impact through strategic writing. The goal isn’t just to teach writing techniques—it’s to help you internalize them, so that writing becomes a consistent and effective part of your professional toolkit. Each session will provide you with the tools, feedback, and frameworks needed to elevate your writing and grow your influence. If you’re ready to become a confident, consistent, and impactful writer, this course is for you. Reach out to hello@evakeiffenheim.com for any questions, corporate trainings, and group/student discounts.

Professionalize Your Writing in Just 3 Weeks

If you want to become a great writer, consistency matters most. You will establish the mindset that helped successful authors continue throughout rejections.

How to get into the mindset that fuels sustainable growth

You will no longer struggle to get your thoughts on the paper. You'll get a focused approach so you can put your ideas on paper. This module will help you find inspiration, have a personal knowledge management system for collecting ideas, creating articles, and deriving motivation from it.

How to have endless article ideas and pick the best ones

Most people think it's the content that matters. But if your headline is bad, nobody will read your work. That's why you need to know how to write great headlines. In this module, you'll apply headline hacks you can repeat over and over again.

How to write headlines that get you thousands of readers

Platforms change. Emails don’t. Your follower’s email address is their most permanent online identity. You will learn how to set up your newsletter in a way that helps you grow your audience. You will create a powerful call-to-action and build or improve your own e-mail landing page.

How to build and grow your e-mail list 

You'll no longer struggle where to start. You'll establish your own arsenal of first sentences and introduction techniques. You'll learn frameworks you can use to share what you know in compelling ways.

The art and science of introductions that hook people in

You will no longer stress about your work not being good enough and your mind getting in the way. You will have my editing framework that will make you feel relaxed and confident about your work so you can hit publish several times a month. ​

How to edit your work to make it 10x better without 10x the work

I'll guide you through my RoamResearch and Obsidian setup. You will learn how you can build your personalized, high-quality personal knowledge management system with minimum maintenance.

How to manage your personal knowledge for effective writing

Tying all modules together you'll leave this course with templates, frameworks, tools, and motivation to continue writing.

Your repeatable idea-to-paper process for attracting an audience online

a step-by-step writing and learning process

Live sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays (recorded and forever accessible if you miss them).

Tuesdays and Thursdays

You learn best through applying and practicing. During the cohort, you will be held accountable to submit 3 articles that combine everything you've learned. We offer an optional co-writing session. If you get stuck, we will be there to support you.

Guided self-paced action items

Executives and entrepreneurs eager to share insights, stand out as thought leaders, and become a trusted voice beyond their immediate circle

Professionals in tech, finance, or consulting, who want to communicate effectively in technical domains and showcase their expertise.

Writers and creatives seeking a clear, actionable structure to consistently publish high-quality articles.

This course is ideal for 

Topics covered

A clear publishing strategy that suits your expertise, goals and audience.

Choose the right platform (Medium, Substack, or blog) to amplify your reach.

Apply this mindset to overcome blocks and keep creating long after the course.

The mindset to develop the resilience to maintain a consistent writing habit.

Reduce your writing time from 12 to 3 hours, and publish with confidence.

Idea-to-paper workflow to consistently publish high-quality articles.

Leave with repeatable frameworks (including GenAI prompts) to produce clear, engaging articles.

Tools and templates for compelling headlines, introductions, and structure that captivate readers.

Leave the course with a live landing page, a compelling call-to-action to convert readers to followers, and a growing email list to expand your influence.

An optimized email landing page to grow your audience independent of platforms.

This feedback will help you refine your writing, elevate its impact, and build sustainable habits for improvement.

Personal feedback on up to three articles to uncover your blind spots and build on your strengths.

Become a better writer in 4 weeks. Turn your thought leadership into impact and grow your audience. Quick, actionable, proven.

Eva Keiffenheim

Teacher turned writer, TEDx speaker

WOA8

WOA9

Stop tweaking words and sentences to craft the perfect report or email. 'Better writing' is not the solution. It's better thinking. Learn a repeatable strategy to clarify and convey complex ideas in any setting. Communicating becomes easy once you have extreme clarity about the message you actually need to convey.

Get out of the details to craft communication that cuts through with busy people

I offer a small mount of reading that will help you prepare for the workshop. It is not essential, but will help you get more out of it.

Optional Pre-work

Other time zones ... Thursday June 6 -<ul><li>New York - 6pm to 8pm</li></ul> Friday June 7 -<ul><li>Singapore - 6am to 8am</li><li>Sydney Australia - 8am to 10 am</li><li>Auckland - 10am to noon</li></ul>

Workshop Details

I offer extra tips and tools to help you apply the ideas we go through during the workshop.

Post Workshop Consolidation

Workshop details

Frustrated PMs experiencing slow responses to their emails, convoluted chains in messaging channels and miscommunication in meetings.

Ambitious experts who want to connect with decision makers, even when they don't share your technical expertise.

Professionals wanting to waste less time chasing for responses and fixing problems caused by miscommunication.

Learn how to structure your thinking to find and frame insightful messaging

We have a joke that the big idea is often buried at the bottom of page 47. This typically happens because the author hasn't prioritised what they really need to achieve with that communication.

Master a simple sentence that defines the outcome your communication must deliver.

Many famous people have said that if you can't say it in a sentence, you don't know it. It's true. You are also unlikely to get the response you need from busy leaders if you don't convey what matters in that single sentence.

Clarify and convey your main message so it jumps off the page. 

Visualise your messaging so it literally jumps off the page. Match the hierarchy of your messaging with the hierarchy of the formatting in your communication.

Structure your messaging so any audience can find it in 30 seconds.

Don't just learn about how to structure your messaging. Do it! We will practice and review the results together.

Practice synthesising your main message.

Do you fear losing your audience's attention? Or, worse: They pay no attention?
Communicating with extreme clarity is essential.

Davina Stanley

Clarity First Program

Learn to structure your thinking so your communication resonates with busy people.

Lightning Lessons

Write for your tech job and get buy-in.