Sterling’s combination of technology, mathematics, business, marketing, organizational development & psychological types provides the ideal background for founding Step Research, a psychology software company. Sterling Bates was previously at Disney for more than 13 years in IT and Marketing. He has worked with professional sports teams, law firms and everything in between.

Katherine W. Hirsh, DPhil has been involved in university teaching, faculty development/oaching, and MBTI® training for more than twenty years. She has taught at Cambridge University (UK), Cardiff University (UK), Macalester College (MN) and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and consulted with clients locally, nationally, and internationally.

Katherine is a co-author of the second editions of Introduction to Type® and Teams and MBTI® Teambuilding Program: Leader’s Resource Guide. She also co-authored Introduction to Type® and Decision Making and Building Your Career Transition Strategy: A Framework for Managing the Reintegration Process. Katherine has a doctorate in Experimental Psychology from York University (UK). She served as the Conference Chair for the Association for Psychological Type International (APTi) Conference, Portland, 2005. She is a past President of APTi. Katherine has preferences for INTP.

Gene Bellotti is co-author of Visual Type with Sterling Bates. He applies his study of behavior to advance self-awareness of behavior patterns. Examples of his work with Sterling Bates includes Visual Type, Cognitive Superpowers, Go-To-Behaviors and best-fit software such as PersonalityWizard.com. He has an MBA from Babson in Management and Organizational Behavior and an Ed.M from Harvard with a concentration in Counseling and Consulting Psychology. He has served on the Board for the International Association of Psychological Type.

Rebecka fiercely cares about and supports the well being of those around her. A devoted wife and mother, Rebecka spent 5 years assisting her husband Shawn Christenson in their web development business, HighlyInspired Solutions, in the areas of customer service, video production and editing, content and course creation, and marketing. Rebecka now assists Step Research with customer service and operations management while also homeschooling her 2 daughters. Rebecka is genuinely and adamantly eager to work with you to empower your greatest success.

Shawn builds great User Experiences and great companies. He is fueled by his love of product design, entrepreneurship, and building great teams. Shawn believes that great design isn’t just how something looks and feels, but also how it works. Starting his first web development business at 19 when the internet was still accessed via dial-up, Shawn quickly learned what it took to create online experiences that were fast to load and easy to navigate. Shawn also founded a crowdfunding software company in 2010 and a craft brewery in 2015, both of which he sold his shares of in 2017 to continue his pursuit of building great products with great people.