InfoQ High-Performing Teams Program certification

Shaping how engineering work gets done.

A five-week live cohort with Olimpiu Pop for experienced engineers, architects, and engineering leaders who influence how teams are structured, how work flows, and how AI changes delivery.

Olimpiu Pop
Facilitator
Olimpiu Pop
Solutions Architect, Engineering Manager, and CTO & Co-host of the InfoQ Podcast
Starts
17 Nov 2026
Tue & Thu, 16:00 - 18:00 CET/CEST (Berlin time)
Cohort fee
USD 1,470
Starts
17 Nov 2026
Schedule
Tue & Thu, 16:00 - 18:00 CET/CEST (Berlin time)
Duration
Two 2-hour sessions a week · 5 weeks
Location
Online (Zoom)
Price
USD 1,470
High-Performing Teams Program in practice

Team structure, flow, AI roles, and metrics constrain each other.

Team-design decisions rarely sit in one place. Where a team boundary sits shapes delivery flow. Ownership decides who a team depends on. AI agents in the delivery process change which work still needs human judgment, and that changes what is worth measuring.

The difficult part is not finding a framework. It is deciding which structure, responsibilities, and metrics fit your architecture, incentives, and organizational history, then explaining that choice to the people it affects.

Across five weeks, compare those decisions with experienced practitioners from other organizations, then apply the thinking to a team or delivery challenge you already own.

Full syllabus

Week 1

Team Design and High-Performing Traits

Examine the structures, culture, and process choices behind teams that deliver well. Identify the bottlenecks in your own delivery setup, then compare alternative team and workflow patterns against the constraints you work under.

Week 2

Flow, Ownership, and Self-Sustaining Delivery

Work through what interrupts delivery flow, where teams become dependent on individuals or external groups, and what needs to change in responsibilities, infrastructure, or process for a team to sustain its own delivery.

Week 3

Delivering with AI Teammates

Examine what changes when AI agents join the delivery process. Compare what can be delegated, what still needs human judgment, and what new artifacts or controls the team needs.

Week 4

Metrics When Output Is No Longer the Bottleneck

Compare measurement frameworks and common metric anti-patterns. Work out which signals still tell you something useful when AI changes where the bottleneck sits and output is no longer the constraint.

Week 5

Responsible AI and the Team Operating Model

Examine the ethical and environmental implications of AI-enabled delivery. Most of the session is the group presentation of the target operating model built across the five weeks.

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Live, applied, cross-company

A live certification cohort, not another self-paced course.

Selected QCon and InfoQ technical material provides a starting point. The live sessions are where the group examines trade-offs, challenges assumptions, and sees how the same issue changes in other environments.

Between sessions, put the thinking into practice against systems, proposals, controls, assessments, or decisions you already own.

5 weeks · 20 live hours · Online · Time-boxed application work · Capstone · InfoQ certification
Olimpiu Pop
Facilitator
Olimpiu Pop
Solutions Architect, Engineering Manager, and CTO & Co-host of the InfoQ Podcast

Olimpiu stays with the cohort across the five weeks so later discussions can build on what participants tried between sessions.

The cohort model

How the five weeks work

01
Start from concrete technical material
Use selected QCon and InfoQ material to establish the week’s problem and approaches.
02
Challenge the thinking live
Examine the approach with Olimpiu and experienced practitioners working under different constraints.
03
Put it into practice
Use the week’s thinking against a system, proposal, control, assessment, or decision you already own.
04
Bring back what happened
Return with what held up, what changed, and where your environment led you somewhere else.
Different operating contexts

Compare where the same control changes.

A control that works in one environment can behave differently when the data, architecture, regulation, threat model, team structure, or operating constraints change.

The cohort gives you other reference points while the decision is still current. The value is not generic networking. It is seeing where an approach transfers, where it changes, and why.

Capstone + certification

Finish with an assessment in High-Performing Teams Program you can point to.

Develop a documented risk assessment and mitigation report for an AI product architecture and present the work as part of the cohort.

Length
2,000 to 3,000 words
Presented
During week five
Earn the InfoQ certification

Complete the current attendance, participation, and capstone requirements to earn the InfoQ Certified High-Performing Teams Program credential.

Type Live, cohort-based certification
Earned through Attendance + active participation + successful capstone
Credential InfoQ Certified High-Performing Teams Program
Share Add the certification to your LinkedIn profile
Past cohort work

See the kind of work the capstone produces.

The capstone is developed as a professional technical article built around a documented risk assessment and mitigation report for an AI product architecture. Selected work may be published on InfoQ under the current program terms.

For experienced practitioners

Is this the right cohort for the work you own?

Good fit
✓ You already influence how engineering teams are structured, where responsibilities sit, or how delivery works
✓ You can bring a current team, delivery, or operating-model challenge into the sessions
✓ You are working out how AI agents change roles, review, and measurement on your team
✓ You want reference points from practitioners working under different constraints
✓ You can attend two 2-hour live sessions each week
Probably not a good fit
— You are looking for introductory people-management training
— You do not currently influence how engineering work is organized or delivered
— You mainly want recorded or self-paced content
— Your main goal is the credential rather than applying the work
— You cannot commit to the live format
Typical roles include:
Senior Software Engineer Staff Engineer AI/ML Platform Engineer Privacy Engineer Security Engineer Software Architect Engineering Manager Technical Lead

Designed for experienced practitioners, generally with at least five years of professional experience.

The technical starting point

Start from QCon and InfoQ technical material.

Selected QCon talks and InfoQ technical material provide the starting point for the cohort. The live sessions are where participants examine those ideas against different systems, organizations, and constraints.

Manager approval
Build the case around the work you already own.

Open the shared Convince Your Manager page with this cohort preselected. The guided prompt uses the current October 14 intake facts and asks about your role, current work, the problem you want to work through, what your manager cares about, and the most likely objection.

It then drafts a ready-to-send manager email, a version under 150 words for Slack or Teams, five short talking points, and one note on any missing detail that would materially strengthen the request.

Build the manager case

Cohort questions

Are the sessions recorded?
No. The live sessions are not recorded so participants can discuss current systems and organizational context more openly.
What happens if I miss a session?
The current attendance requirement and catch-up process are shown from the production source of truth for this intake.
How much time should I allow?
Plan for four live hours each week, plus the current time-boxed application work between sessions.
How do I earn the certification?
Certification is based on the current attendance and participation requirements plus successful completion of the capstone.
Can my company pay by invoice?
Current invoice terms are shown dynamically for this intake.
What is the cancellation and refund policy?
Current terms are shown from the Terms of Participation rather than a summary that may go stale.
What do I produce in the capstone?
A documented risk assessment and mitigation report for an AI product architecture, developed as professional technical work and presented as part of the cohort.
High-Performing Teams Program · November 2026

Shaping how engineering work gets done.

with Olimpiu Pop

Starts
17 Nov 2026
Schedule
Tue & Thu, 16:00 - 18:00 CET/CEST (Berlin time)
Duration
Two 2-hour sessions a week · 5 weeks
Location
Online (Zoom)
USD 1,470
Certification + event updates

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USD 1,470
Starts 17 Nov 2026