Fundamentals of Systems Thinking

How technical leaders can tame complexity (€299 + VAT)

"Being able to have a framework to reason about complex systems, identify positive and negative emergent behaviors, and methods to model the future, are essential skills for any leader. This course blends just enough of the theory along with practical software engineering examples to get you thinking about your work and your life with greater clarity. Highly recommended."

- James Stainer, SVP Engineering of Brandwatch and author of "Become an Effective Software Engineering Manager"

Why Systems Thinking?

The pace of software and companies building software continues to increase. This means as a Technical Leader, you need to manage ever increasing amounts of complexity. How? With Systems Thinking!

Systems Thinking provides you with tools to improve your ability to inspect, explore and manage complex systems. These tools apply equally to the components and architectures of software systems as much as they do to the systems of people that build them.

Sign up for this course to become a better problem solver through Systems Thinking.

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for everyone wanting to improve their ability to explore, understand and manage increasing levels of complexity in software systems.

You will particularly benefit from this course if you:

  • Lead or manage people - Perhaps you’re an Engineering Manager, Director or VP of Engineering
  • Lead or manage technical topics - Maybe you’re a Tech Lech, Architect, Technical Programme Manager or CTO
  • Build or operate software systems - An Individual Contributor, Software Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer or Operations person.

This course will give you new tools and perspectives to boost your personal and team productivity.

What’s in this course?

This course consists of videos, guided examples and a number of thinking exercises applying Systems Thinking to teams building software. This course is self-paced but is designed to be followed one module after another - building on knowledge from a previous module.

What you will learn

When you complete this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Explain what a system is and its core building blocks
  • Recognise and understand systems from the real world
  • Build clear models explaining common software scenarios like why a team is going slower (and what you can do about it)
  • Prevent unnecessary action by recognising delays in feedback
  • Understand how delays make it more difficult to influence a system and where they are useful
  • Improve conflicts by uncovering new perspectives
  • Identify common mental models found in software and how to improve them
  • Build longer-lasting solutions through double-loop learning


Your Instructor


Pat Kua
Pat Kua

Patrick Kua is a seasoned technology leader with almost 20 years of experience. His personal passion is accelerating the growth and success of tech organisations and technical leaders. He has had many years of hands-on experience, leading, managing and improving complex organisations and software systems as the CTO and Chief Scientist of N26 (Berlin, Germany) and as a Technical Principal Consultant at ThoughtWorks. He is a frequent keynote and conference speaker, author of three books including The Retrospective Handbook, Talking with Tech Leads and Building Evolutionary Architectures and runs the popular newsletter for leaders in tech, “Level Up” (http://levelup.patkua.com). You can find him online on twitter as @patkua or running his very popular “Tech Lead Skills for Developers” workshop around the world.


Course Curriculum


  1. An Introduction
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  2. The Building Blocks of Systems Thinking
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  3. Feedback Loops
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"Every system is perfectly designed to achieve the results it gets" - Dr Donald Berwick

"This course equipped me with valuable tools to depict processes and effectively lead my team on the required changes to promote the desired outcome.

It made me more confident to challenge practices of the software industry that leads to commonly observed difficulties on several teams.

I strongly recommend the course not only to tech leads but to anyone involved in the software industry"

- Saulo Oliveira, Development Team Lead at Johnson & Johnson EMEA Development Centre, Ireland

Get started now!



Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.