Gourdanen Ventures
Good things grow here.
Your product, your business, your career.Bring the seed. The garden does the rest.
Plant something with meScroll to plant
Chapter 01 · The seed you are carrying
You are here because something wants to grow.
A product that is stuck, and a team that cannot say why.
A business that knows AI matters, and cannot cut through the noise.
A store with traffic that does not turn into sales.
A career ready for its next move, with no map and no mentor.
Each of these is a way we can work together. Tap the one that’s you.
There’s plenty of noise out there already. What’s harder to find is someone who’s actually grown these things before. That’s what the garden’s for.
Chapter 02 · What I grow by
Things I believe.
Almost everything is behaviour change.
A product that won’t ship, a store that won’t convert, a team that won’t touch the new tools, a career that won’t move. Same thing underneath. It’s all more connected than people think, and most of us make it harder than it needs to be. I’m good at the change part, and I can point it at almost anything.
Customer obsession makes great experiences.
And it is never one and done. It is co-creation, working with your customers again and again to find solutions, improve them, and bring the knowledge together.
AI amplifies you. It does not replace you.
It is a companion that needs your context, your brain, your partnership. Let it do the mechanical work, so you are free for the hard things only a human can do.
Ambiguity is an advantage, once you give it structure.
Most people freeze without a map, so I draw one. Evidence gates, small steps, and something to hold onto while it’s still unclear. The workbooks below are that process, written down.
Vision needs a path.
You have to know where you have been and where you are now to choose the right next steps. Most people only talk about the vision. They never ground it in the now. Ungrounded, it stays a dream instead of a build.
Take advice from people who care about you and have done the thing.
The opinions that matter come from people who truly care about you and people who have already done the thing. That overlap is small, and it’s worth more than everything else combined.
Everyone has potential. Not everyone gets the support.
Guidance shouldn’t be a luxury good. I build for people who were never handed a map, not just the ones who can afford a guide. It is why the seed packets below are free.
People grow when they feel safe and see possibility.
Show someone real safety and a real path, and watch what they become.
Chapter 03 · Your gardener, Simone Dive
Every garden needs a gardener who has seen winters.
I am Simone Dive. Twenty years growing businesses and the people inside them, from Australia to Canada with a few continents in between. My path was not the usual one. No handouts, no safety net, no straight line. I earned every step while living and working all over the world, and I moved faster because of it.
I started in HR, training and developing people, then moved into tech in 2007. I am a creator at heart who loves understanding what makes humans tick, which is why product and design pulled me in. I have made a whole career of that curiosity.
Along the way I kept getting handed the blank page. First UX departments, first innovation departments, first product teams, programs that did not exist until I built them. Building teams from the ground up taught me to turn how I work into structure other people can use. That is how I grow products, open new markets and make businesses more money, while keeping people and customers at the centre.
I have done it in payments, gaming, renewables, home services and a nonprofit, in public companies and startups, from UX architect to Chief Product Officer. Most recently I was VP Product at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, accountable for a portfolio behind $600M in revenue. These days I’ve got two things on the go. The Proxies is the AI company I co-founded, giving businesses a staff of AI helpers that actually do the work. Gourdanen Ventures is where you hire me directly, for your product, your company, or your career.
Ambiguity is where I do my best work. People find me when there is no map and no mentor, because I have been there and found the way through. I love showing people what is possible in themselves and in their business.
I have spent my life proving people wrong. I am not done.
Chapter 04 · The Constellation
One gardener, many gardens.
At The Proxies, my co-founders and I run fleets of AI helpers inside real businesses. Junk removal operators, painting companies, builders, schools. Each one is a garden growing on its own, tended by helpers we planted.
The Proxies is its own company. Here, you get me, and I bring everything I’ve learned running AI inside real businesses. You’re not hiring one person. You’re hiring a person with reach and an AI workforce behind the work I do for your business and your career.
Chapter 05 · The Blooms
Four ways we can grow something.
The garden has been green until now. Watch what happens when the blooms open.
Product & Strategy
I step into your business and run product like it is mine. Strategy, roadmap, team and delivery, taught by doing. Show, not tell, from inside the work.
- Fractional product leadership
- Product operating model. Implement, train, teach
- Strategy review, or strategy built from scratch
- Product coaching for your team
Dig deeper
How this one runs: I join the work and run it alongside your team, then leave the operating model behind when I go, with champions ready to run it. That might look like a strategy reset, a product operating model install, team assessments and development, or fractional leadership a few days a week.
AI
I show your departments how their workflows need to change, what is possible now, and how to get unstuck. You’ll get a diagnosis, a plan, and coaching so it survives me leaving.
- AI diagnosis of your company
- Workflow redesign, department by department
- One on one AI coaching for business owners
- AI coaching for leaders and teams
- Getting stuck teams unstuck
Dig deeper
How this one runs. Side by side, in your real work. I use AI myself to go deeper and wider than one person normally could, so I can review and absorb more of your business than you would expect. Then I show each department how their workflows can change, live, in their tools. Along the way I make people comfortable with not knowing, more comfortable with learning, and I give their AI development real structure. People believe things they’ve watched get built.
Growth & Optimization
Your online presence, made to sell. Audits that find the money you are leaving on the table, and short, sharp plans to go and get it. This site is my proof.
- Ecommerce and usability audits
- Channel audits
- Conversion optimization
- Quick-win diagnosis to find the gains
- Short-term growth planning and website builds
Dig deeper
How this one runs. Audit first, always, grounded in your data. What’s dropping off, what’s working, and where your biggest short-term focus should be. I have been around the block enough to see the quick wins fast, because I have done them before. Big builds take time, but the small wins along the way compound. So I size the gains, hand you a short plan ordered by payback, and then we fix, measure, and go again.
People & Coaching
Companies bring me in to assess teams and find rare expert talent. People bring me their next move. I coach anyone who wants to build or learn: AI, business, product, career.
- Team assessments
- AI skill assessments
- Expert talent hiring
- Career development and coaching
- Resume and LinkedIn review and refinement
- Interview prep
Dig deeper
How this one runs. Assessment first, so we know where you actually are, and a deep dive into your goals so I know where you want to go. Then we build your career path the way I build strategy for a business. Choices clear, future clear, measured and refined along the way. The plan fits whoever’s in front of me. For companies, hiring works the same way: I scope the role with you, source and screen against a real competency bar, and stay until the hire lands. I have been training and developing people since before I was in tech, and it is still my favourite part.
Chapter 06 · How I work
Tended, not tortured.
Business, product or career, every engagement moves through three stages, two questions at a time. Each bloom above shows what they look like for that service.
Now
Where is your business, product or career right now? What is your current story?
Future
Where do you want it to be? What is the future story you are trying to tell?
Barriers
What is standing in the way? Gaps in profitability, skills, time, luck. Name what is stopping you.
Choices
What steps will you take now, next and later? What will you try first?
Implementation
What do you need to make your choices real? Support, skills, structure to keep you on track. What will we build, and how will we know it is right?
Refine
Did we reach the goal? We check the data, not the vibe. Keep iterating. Continue, start, stop, pivot or kill, without drama.
However we work, two things stay true. I show rather than tell, in the real work with your team. And AI does the mechanical lifting alongside us, so the human time goes where judgment lives.
Chapter 07 · Full bloom
This site is one case study.
It went from first idea to live on this domain in a single working session. Hours of work, not months. The art direction, the artwork, the words, the code, all grown with AI in hand.
AI has become a dirty word in places, and fair enough. Most of what it makes is generic, because most people hand it the wheel and skip the review. They cannot tell it what good looks like. Everyone can build apps and websites now. What’s rarer is having done the job long enough to know what to throw away. AI did the heavy lifting here. I made every call and reviewed every line.
Same thing I’d bring to your product, your life, your business or your team.
Simone is a coach turned friend I’ll always be grateful for. I first admired her from afar while she led her team, she’s incredibly smart, and has a gift for bringing the people around her forward in their careers. When I finally worked up the courage to message her about feeling stuck, she was on vacation, yet she responded right away and made time for me within a week. She helped me see my own potential, pushed me to stop selling myself short, and gave me the tools, referrals, and confidence to grow both my career and my side hustle. Simone doesn’t just coach you, she brings you forward.
I’ve had the incredible privilege of working with Simone at two different companies, and I can honestly say she is one of the most extraordinary product leaders I’ve ever worked with.
Simone has that rare combination of exceptional product, design, and UX instincts and a genuine, almost infectious obsession with customers. But what makes her truly special is her energy. Give her a hard problem, an impossible challenge, or a blank sheet of paper, and she lights up. The bigger the challenge, the more excited she becomes.
She has an extraordinary ability to make the people around her believe in what’s possible and to see beyond today’s constraints and imagine something bigger, better, and more meaningful. She brings people together, creates momentum, and makes the work feel exhilarating.
I would follow Simone into the hardest, messiest, most ambitious challenge imaginable. She is that good and that rare.
Watch this space bloom.
Chapter 08 · Seed packets
Take some seeds home.
Free workbooks and tools I make for people who want to start growing on their own. Take them, use them, pass them on.
Discovery
Product management competency framework
A free interactive check-in that maps your product management skills, level by level, junior to head of product.
Use it to see where you stand and what to work on next.
Start the check-inProduct design competency framework
A free interactive check-in that maps product design skills, level by level.
Use it to plan your growth, or to level up your design team.
Start the check-inProduct marketing competency framework
A free interactive check-in that maps product marketing skills, level by level.
Use it to find your gaps and build a development plan.
Start the check-inInnovation team competency framework
Coming soonA skills checklist for innovation teams.
Use it to build or assess an innovation function.
Business owner competency framework
A free interactive check-in on the AI skills that actually run a business. Fluency, daily use, judging output, data and privacy, and how AI shows up in marketing, sales, operations, finance, and picking the right problems. Same five-rung ladder as the diagnoses.
Use it to see which of those you can already do, which you are faking, and what to learn next. Get a partner or manager to score you too and compare.
Start the check-inThe AI Business Diagnosis
A free review of your business, department by department. Workflows, whether AI is the default or an afterthought, capability, willingness to change. Invite others to score it too and merge the reviews into one bloom.
Use it before you spend a dollar on AI tools or consultants.
Start the diagnosisThe AI Individual Diagnosis
The same review, pointed at one person. Seven areas of your working week (writing, thinking, research, making things, numbers, admin, people), four questions each, the same five-rung ladder. Ask your manager or a teammate to score you too and merge the views.
Use it on yourself before you sign up for another AI course, or on your team to see who needs support and who can lead.
Start the diagnosisThe ecommerce usability checklist
Twenty-four checks I run on a store before anyone spends another dollar on traffic. Product page, checkout, trust, speed, measurement, in the order they pay back.
Use it with your own store open in another tab. Every no is a job for this week.
Open the checklistThe Life Diagnosis
A guided review of your whole life, not just the job. Messy reflection, the wellness wheel, your values, your role, the story so far, and an outside read on your strengths. Career sits inside it.
Use it when something is off and you cannot yet name which part of life it is coming from.
Start the diagnosisThe Career Diagnosis
The work slice on its own. Your role, the skills it depends on, whether the role itself is right, what the last year taught you, and where it points next.
Use it before you update your resume, take the promotion, or hand in your notice.
Start the diagnosisDesign
The Barrier Diagnosis for a business
Score every department or team on the five questions a change has to pass, in order. The first one they score three or lower is their barrier, and it is different for each team. That is why one all-hands training never works.
Use it when a change is landing in some parts of the business and not others.
Run the diagnosisThe Barrier Diagnosis for a group of people
For when you are driving a change and the people who have to make it do not sit in one team. Name them, score each on the five questions, mark whether they are positive, neutral or negative and how much sway they hold, and get the order of conversations.
Use it when you have no authority over the people whose behaviour has to change.
Run the diagnosisThe Barrier Diagnosis for your career
Name the move you want, score yourself honestly on the five questions every change has to pass, and find the first one that fails. Add the people whose support you need and see whose conversation comes first.
Use it when you know what you want and keep not doing it.
Run the diagnosisGoals and measures
A goal without a measure is a mood. Set what you are going for across three timeframes, how you will know it happened, and by when. Works for a career, a team or a life.
Use it when you have goals written down that nobody could tell you had been hit.
Open the toolThe development plan
The plan a good manager or coach would hold you to. What you are developing, how (the actual steps, not the intention), the support you need and who from, by when.
Use it for yourself, or with someone you are developing.
Open the toolNow, next, later
Turn a plan into moves in an order you can live with. Now is the next two weeks, next is this quarter, later is on the list but not yet. Being honest about later is what keeps now achievable.
Use it when everything feels urgent and nothing is moving.
Open the toolBuild
The 6 Week AI Challenge for business owners
Six weeks of small AI experiments for the person who runs the place. A morning brief, voice notes composted into writing, follow-ups that never slip, a second opinion on every decision. All six weeks are open right now, free, no email needed.
Use it if you know AI should be working for you and keep putting it off.
Open the challengeThe 6 Week AI Challenge if you're new to AI
Six weeks of small AI experiments if you have dabbled, or not even that, and want it to stick this time. Real tasks from your real day, one at a time. All six weeks open right now, free, no email needed.
Use it if every other attempt fizzled after week one.
Open the challengeThe 6 Week AI Challenge for marketers
Six weeks of small AI experiments for the person who makes the words and the pictures. Your voice, not the generic one. All six weeks open right now, free, no email needed.
Use it if AI has made you faster and blander at the same time.
Open the challengeThe weekly commitments log
The commitment you made, whether you did it, and what you noticed. The reflection column is the one that matters. Missing a week is data, not failure, as long as you write down why.
Use it between coaching sessions, or instead of one.
Open the logInterview questions
Coming soonReal interview questions for product and business roles, from the person who used to ask them, with what a good answer actually sounds like.
Use them to practise before the interviews that matter.
Case studies
Coming soonProduct and business case studies of the kind interviewers set, with worked answers and the traps people fall into.
Use them to rehearse the case round out loud, more than once.
Resume dos and don'ts
Coming soonAnnotated resume examples showing what works and what to avoid.
Use them to fix your resume in an afternoon.
The whole process
The Groundwork
The whole workbook, all three stages. Discovery is the Life or Career Diagnosis. Design is the gaps, what to measure, the vision and the first moves. Build is the weekly commitment log. Nothing gated, nothing sent anywhere.
Use it if you feel stuck and want a proper reckoning before your next move.
Open the GroundworkThe competency frameworks are live in the Growth Garden. The rest are still being pressed. Save your copy above and it will be in your inbox the day it drops.
Chapter 09 · Plant something
This lands with me, Simone. You will hear back from a human.
Tell me what you want to grow.
A product that’s stuck. A company that knows it should be using AI better and hasn’t started. A store that should be selling more. Or your next move. Start here.