When engineering teams talk about observability, they often picture dashboards, alerts, and vendor slides. But inside real enterprise systems, observability is a story about people. It’s about how they communicate, how they respond under pressure, and how they collaborate when platforms are messy, duplicated, or half-maintained.

In this episode, Duncan Mapes and Jason Ehmke sit down with platform veteran Jason McMunn, who has spent years untangling observability chaos across large organizations. What unfolds is a candid look at what actually breaks when systems scale, fractured ownership, unclear contracts between teams, and the silent cost of tools nobody fully uses.

Through real incidents, leadership lessons, and platform consolidation stories, the trio walks through what it looks like to build observability that teams trust, not just observability that vendors promise. If you’ve ever shipped an alerting strategy that blew up in your face, wrestled with tool sprawl, or tried to rebuild trust between teams after an outage, this is the guide you’ve been needing.

Top Takeaways:

• Understanding the current capabilities is crucial for transformation.
• Building relationships is key to gaining buy-in from stakeholders.
• Empathy plays a significant role in technology management.
• Transforming team roles requires a shift in mindset.
• Cost management should focus on value rather than just savings.
• Education and support empower teams to be self-sufficient.
• Being present during incidents provides valuable insights.
• User experiences can reveal underlying issues with technology.
• Leadership is essential in driving organizational change.
• Modeling best practices can inspire others to follow suit.

Connect with us:

Duncan Mapes

Jason Ehmke

DevGrid.io

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