Madeline Springle

Stop Blanking: How to Think Clearly Under Interview Pressure

Jeffrey To

PhD Candidate in Social Psychology & Storytelling Coach

PhD Candidate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology & Job Interview Coach

Learn why blanking in interviews happens and why most people are terrified of it

Understand the psychology of blanking

Understand how to warm up your voice and your mind in this 10-minute pre-interview routine

Warm up your voice and your interview mind

Build a mindset using improv tools that nurtures that unscripted interview confidence

Develop strategies for handling interview mind-blanks

Make it easier to get work done by identifying your unique strengths & building new strategies for supporting your challenge areas

January 2026

Author, Researcher, Neurodivergent Coach

Becca Block, PhD

Researcher, author, educator, and neuroaffirming executive function coach.

Sept-Oct 2025

spring26

In this course, we'll explore how to draw from the strengths that frequently come with having a brain that's wired a bit differently -- like creativity, curiosity, hyperfocus, and empathy -- to tackle some common frustrations -- like procrastination, inconsistent motivation, distractibility, and feeling incompetent. To do this, we'll learn about the science of how our minds work, share and learn from each other's lived experiences, and support each other in conducting mini "experiments" to figure out the exact strategies that work for each of us.Each participant will learn about a broader menu of strategies -- but get support identifying exactly which ones work for your unique brain and current needs. There is no one path that works for every spicy brain; this cohort gives accountability and structure to the path of figuring out the right tools for you.

Understand how to leverage your brain's unique strengths

Understand why you procrastinate & learn strategies to manage it

Create a custom plan to own your attention & manage distractibility

Switch from panic-fueled drive to lasting motivation

Change how you see your brain (from deficit-based to asset-based)

Make confident decisions grounded in what actually works for your brain

Build a custom toolbox to help you maintain momentum even after the course ends

Professionals and leaders who suspect their brain may work a bit differently, and want to learn the unique strategies that work for them.

Adults who have recently realized they are ADHD, autistic, anxious, &amp;/or have other processing differences, and want to learn together

Anyone who feels like procrastination, distractibility, inconsistent motivation, and feelings of incompetence get in their way at work.

You’ll learn practical tools, frameworks, and hacks that you can use right away to:

Jan 2026 Cohort

Founder of Leadership Lab, ex-Amazon

Leadership Lab

Amazon

The Wharton School

Myra Deshmukh

Ex-Amazon Leader, Communication Coach, and Highly-Rated Facilitator

Oct 2025 Cohort

May 2026 Cohort

If you’ve ever been told to “get to the point,” felt your ideas were strong but your delivery wasn’t landing, or dreaded being put on the spot in meetings—this course is for you.This course helps you turn communication, arguably the most important skill at work today, from a stress point into a repeatable skill. You’ll learn how to organize your thinking, speak and write with intention, and deliver messages that actually stick—whether you’re sending an email, presenting to leadership, or answering a tough question in real time. Plus you'll learn how AI can help you, without losing your voice or critical thinking.Participants consistently say they’re using these tools immediately at work and have improved confidence, clearer feedback from peers and managers, and better responses in meetings. Scroll down for verbatims!Over four weeks, we’ll focus on both what you say and how you say it, then practice until it becomes second nature.Each week includes:<ul><li>90 minutes of live training + learning labs for personalized feedback</li><li>Real workplace scenarios and low-risk practice that doesn't impact your work performance</li><li>Weekly challenges to build the habit</li><li>AI prompts you’ll actually use</li><li>1:1 coaching</li></ul>

Get Out of Your Head. Start Landing Your Message.

Turn your ideas into clear, structured messages that land

Feel confident speaking up in meetings (yes, even those unexpected questions!)

Manage stakeholders more effectively

Push back, disagree, and give feedback with clarity and respect

Build credibility and visibility, earn trust faster

Learn the best ways to use AI for communication

Mid to senior level individual contributors or managers (5-15 years of experience) who are communicating with stakeholders &amp; leaders

Anyone who has received feedback to speak up more, communicate more clearly, and/or gets lots of feedback rounds on their writing

Technical roles (software engineers, PMs, data analysts) looking to better represent their work and earn trust with stakeholders

Transform from anxious or unsure to confident, clear, and in control in every media interaction.

Crisis Communications Strategist

Kathryn Kolaczek

Crisis strategist teaching you to lead with clarity, control, and confidence.

Cohort 1

Cohort 2

By the end of the course, students will transform how they show up in every media interaction — moving from uncertainty to confidence. They’ll learn how to craft clear, compelling key messages, anticipate tough questions, and stay calm under pressure. Through practical exercises, mock interviews, and feedback, they’ll build the skills to represent their brand authentically and with impact. Ultimately, they’ll walk away with a complete media toolkit — ready to handle interviews, press opportunities, and public statements with clarity, composure, and credibility.

Gain confidence, clarity, and control in every media interview and message.

Confident Media Presence

Clear, Impactful Messaging

Control Under Pressure

Ready-to-Use Media Toolkit

Municipal Leaders &amp; Spokespeople – Build confidence handling media on public issues, crises, and community updates.

Nonprofit Executives &amp; Communicators – Strengthen interviews, advocacy, and storytelling to represent your cause with impact.

Corporate Leaders &amp; PR Teams – Master key messages, protect reputation, and deliver confident, credible media responses.

Acquire the Skills to Run Customer JTBD Interviews with Confidence 🔍 Stop guessing why customers buy. Instead, learn how to uncover the real stories of progress that shape decisions. Most customer interviews fall short. Why? Because teams often:❌ Ask about features instead of struggles❌ Accept surface-level answers❌ Miss the non-obvious jobs that drive switching behavior This hands-on Customer JTBD Interviewing Skills course helps you break those habits and master a repeatable, end-to-end JTBD Research Process. You won’t just “learn the theory”—you’ll practice it live, using a real-world case study of your choice, and walk away with insights you can 💡 immediately apply to product, marketing, and sales decisions. What You’ll Learn (and Practice) 🧠 Formulate Better HypothesesStop chasing assumptions. Learn how to craft hypotheses that uncover motivations and struggles to make progress—not just product ideas. 🎯 Plan + Recruit with PrecisionDiscover overlooked contexts and triggers that make or break interviews. Recruit participants who reveal the full spectrum of jobs—including the hidden ones. 📝 Use Structured Storytelling PromptsMove beyond “Tell me about yourself.” Practice interview cards and prompts (life events, triggers, retell in detail, playback) that pull customers into narrative mode and reveal hidden forces. 🤝 Run Team-Based JTBD InterviewsSplit facilitator vs. listener roles to capture richer insights. Leverage The Wheel of Progress® framework to uncover drivers of behavior most teams overlook. 🌱 Spot Non-Obvious Jobs &amp; PatternsTrain your ear to hear what others miss: anxieties, habits, switching triggers, and compensating behaviors. Then synthesize them into clear demand clusters and opportunity areas. ✍️ Write Desire for Progress Statements That StickGo beyond personas. Create living, testable progress statements that capture what customers are really trying to achieve—and directly align with product, marketing, and sales. BONUS MATERIALS:- Get Customer JTBD Mural Board for conducting customer jobs-to-be-done research using The Wheel of Progress(R)- Get the 12 Elements of Progress listening framework for conducting team-based interviews- Get Customer JTBD Card Deck (62 digital cards) color-coded to match 12 Elements of Progress (additional $149 VALUE)

Aquire the skills and methods to perform Customer JTBD interviews yourself:

Course syllabus

This course is designed for multiple Teams to each go through a Case Study of their collective choice from start to finish. Planning, conducting, and synthesizing findings across two to four customer JTBD interviews.

Four Cohort Sessions

Outside of LIVE cohort class sessions to provide guidance and direction, educate on methods, check-in, and review share outs by each team. An additional 6 to 8 hours will be required by your Teams to recruit participants, conduct the interviews, and synthesize findings.

The Case Study Itself

Leveraging the Maven community for posting announcements, reading materials, general discussion, and takeaways from the class.

Maven Community

Course schedule

The Marketer who wants to better tailor their messaging to the core jobs-to-be-done (aspirational, functional, emotional, social)

A Product Manager who wants to fall in love with problem (based upon jTBD research) prior to thinking about the solution.

The Designer or Researcher who wants to better understand constraints or behavioral-based barriers to customer progress.

The Product Trio (PM, UX, Tech) who want to learn how to improve the customer interview process as a team (multiple perspectives).

Who is this course for

What you’ll get out of this course

Learn a repeatable framework for planning and conducting customer interviews that actually uncover why people switch.

🎯 Master the full E2E JTBD Research Process

Step into the room as both the one asking questions and the one catching nuance — so you never miss hidden insights.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Practice both facilitator + listener roles

Learn how to plan, structure, and execute team-based interviews that eliminate bias and capture a richer picture of customer struggles.

🛠️ Run JTBD interviews as a team

Turn messy raw conversations into clear patterns of demand, progress, and opportunity.

🧠 Aggregate and synthesize insights across interviews

Learn to hear the anxieties, compensating behaviors, and hidden triggers buried in customer stories.

🔦 Spot non-obvious jobs competitors miss

Craft statements that capture real customer intent — language you can plug directly into product roadmaps, marketing copy, and sales enablement.

📝 Formulate Desire for Progress Statements that stick

No more overlooking context, stopping at surface answers, or asking solution-led questions.

🚀 Confidence in avoiding the top 5 interviewing mistakes

Upgrade your JTBD interviewing game.
Learn the full process— from planning to execution—practice interviews that uncover customer progress.