Cat Hicks
Dr. Cat Hicks is a psychologist for software teams and the founder and principal scientist of Catharsis.
Dr. Cat Hicks is a psychologist for software teams and the founder and principal scientist of Catharsis (catharsisinsight.com), a scientific consultancy that helps engineering organizations transform with human-centered evidence. She is the author of The Psychology of Software Teams (CRC Press, 2026), writes the Fight for the Human newsletter, and co-hosts the podcast Change, Technically. She created the Developer Thriving and AI Skill Threat frameworks and holds a PhD in Quantitative Experimental Psychology from UC San Diego. Previously she led research at Google, Khan Academy, and Pluralsight.
Building for the new developer
So we’ve bought a Copilot license for our teams….AI in software solved, right?!
Why support and belonging are the final key to developer thriving
Beyond agency, motivation, and learning, a sense of support and belonging shouldn’t be overlooked as a key driver of developer thriving.
Building a learning culture to unlock developer thriving
Allowing developers to learn on the job can be difficult when the pressure is on, but research proves that a strong learning culture can help developers thrive.
Why motivation and self-efficacy drives thriving software teams
Don’t overlook the importance of self-efficacy and sustaining motivation through challenges as qualities of thriving software development teams.
The importance of developer agency in thriving software teams
Giving your engineers a strong sense of agency can help build trust, improve code quality and velocity, and hopefully keep your engineers from leaving.
Where we’re going wrong with developer productivity
Cat Hicks proposes a different, science-backed approach to productivity using research evidence from a study with 1200+ developers: developer thriving.
