About Us

Curious Duck Digital Laboratory, LLC started with the idea that technology leaders at all levels and in all roles — everyone who makes any kind of decision about how software is built — need better ways to experiment and learn about software development.

Every decision involves tradeoffs. Learning how to reason about those tradeoffs from real world experience takes decades. What if you could make decisions and see how they play out in minutes instead of years?

Curious Duck is all about finding ways to experiment with decisions and tradeoffs in a microcosm. Whether it's in a game or simulation, or a focused workshop, everything we do is grounded in experiences.

Our Values

People first. Technology is powered by people, and people are at the heart of everything we do.

There are many 'right' ways. The idea that there might be one single right way of doing things is antithetical to our approach. Every choice is a tradeoff. Every context is unique. There is no one process or set of practices that is appropriate for all contexts.

Experience is the best teacher. You can learn in a wide variety of ways, but the most impactful lessons come from experience. That's why so much of what we do is focused on creating games and simulations where you can learn by doing.

Who We Are

Elisabeth Hendrickson, Founder and CEO

Friends

Davis Frank paired on much of the original code, particularly the simulation engine that powers the challenges. Thanks to his Ruby, Rails, and Javascript expertise he made substantial contributions to the architecture and test strategy of both the application and underlying engine.

James Thomas provided incredibly valuable feedback on early versions of the challenges. He exercised the challenges in clever and surprising ways, and in the process found weirdnesses and limitations no one else noticed. His contributions drastically improved both the in-game status reporting and the underlying simulation engine.

Matt Wynne paired in on early versions of the simulation engine and in doing so contributed substantially to the style and quality of the code. His expertise with RSpec and Ruby were a tremendous help. He also set up the first build pipeline and ensured it not only ran the tests but also enforced the Ruby Standard style guide.

© 2024 Curious Duck Digital Laboratory, LLC