"In the next 10-15 years, I'm either going to be a CTO cleaning up after AI, or maybe there won't be people like me anymore because we're just going to write the specs and generate the whole app from scratch every time"

In this episode of The Hangar DX podcast, Ankit Jain, co-founder and CEO of Aviator, talks to Meri Williams, CTO at  @pleo_io , about what the future looks like for engineering managers in the age of AI coding.

Meri also shares why engineering organizations can't thrive without managers, what makes a good engineering manager,  how to scale tech and teams when AI writes the code, and how to prevent accruing tech debt while doing it. 

00:00 The Changing Landscape of Engineering Management
10:20 Navigating Technical Debt in Software Development
19:52 The Future of Engineering Management
35:58 Adapting to AI in Engineering Management

About Meri Williams
Meri is an experienced CTO and leader of technology organisations. They particularly enjoy helping others to level up as technical leaders and managers of organizations by working as a CTO coach and tech advisor / NED to various companies in this capacity through micro-consultancy ChromeRose.

About Hangar DX (https://dx.community/)
The Hangar is a community of senior DevOps engineers and senior software engineers, focused on enhancing the developer experience. This is a space where vetted, experienced professionals can exchange ideas, share hard-earned wisdom, troubleshoot issues, and help each other in their projects and careers.

We invite developers who work in DX and platform teams at their respective companies, or who are interested in developer productivity.

“What’s your AI strategy’ is the wrong question for engineering leaders. A better one would be: “What are you doing to improve engineering efficiency by 15–20%?”

You don’t have to chase AI just for AI’s sake. Instead, focus on the biggest pain point, on whatever is slowing your teams down. In most orgs, it has nothing to do with needing faster typers.”

In this episode of the HangarDX podcast, Ankit Jain, co-founder and CEO of Aviator, talks to Chris Westerhold, Global Practice Director for Engineering Excellence at Thoughtworks, to discuss how AI is fundamentally transforming the developer experience (DevEx). 

Chris talks about how AI is changing the definition of developer, engineering orgs feeling FOMO of not adopting AI tools instead of focusing on workflow pain points, AI tools adding to cognitive overload, how to evaluate the productivity gains of AI tools, and what’s the right approach to AI strategy when it comes to developer experience. 

00:00 Introduction to Developer Experience and AI
01:12 The Evolution of Developer Experience
04:30 Navigating Tool Proliferation in Software Development
09:35 Cognitive Load and Complexity in AI-Driven Development
18:04 Finding Focused Solutions Amidst AI Hype
20:58 Metrics and Measuring AI Impact
34:06 Developing an AI Strategy for Engineering Teams

About Chris Westerhold
Chris is a Global Practice Director for Engineering Excellence at Thoughtworks. He has over 15 years of technology experience across startups and large enterprises, with a significant focus on building scalable engineering teams, engineering metrics strategies, developer platforms, platform engineering, and technical product management. He is a vocal advocate for developer experience and is passionate about using data-driven approaches to improve it.

About Hangar DX (https://dx.community/)

The Hangar is a community of senior DevOps and senior software engineers focused on developer experience. This is a space where vetted, experienced professionals can exchange ideas, share hard-earned wisdom, troubleshoot issues, and ultimately help each other in their projects and careers.

We invite developers who work in DX and platform teams at their respective companies, or who are interested in developer productivity.

What Actually Is Platform Engineering?

Platform engineering is everywhere — but is it just DevOps with a new name?

In this candid conversation, Ankit Jain sits down with Vilas Veeraghavan (ex-Walmart, ex-Netflix) and Bryan Finster (platform advocate and continuous delivery expert) to break down the truth behind the hype.

🔍 In this episode:
00:00 What is Platform Engineering
05:53 DevOps is alive and well
11:51 Challenges in Platform Engineering: Adoption vs. Enablement
14:51 Standardization in Platform Engineering: The Golden Path
17:54 Measuring Success in Platform Engineering: ROI and Developer Happiness
21:00 Success and Failure Stories in Platform Engineering
25:01 The Strength of a Good Platform
27:51 Understanding Internal Developer Platforms (IDP)
35:30 The Impact of AI on Platform Engineering
44:18 Future Predictions for Platform Engineering

"Augmenting engineers with AI wherever it makes sense so they can be more productive" is the mission of Daniel Doubrovkine and his Augmented Engineering team at Shopify.

In this episode of the HangarDX podcast, Ankit Jain, co-founder and CEO of Aviator, talks to Daniel about AI’s impact on software engineering and developer productivity.

He shares insights on Shopify’s AI-integrated workflows and strategies to improve the developer experience in what he calls a giant mono repo, the world's largest Ruby on Rails app. Daniel also reflects on his career path from individual contributor to management and back, and the importance of staying hands-on with code in an AI-driven future.

Chapters

00:00 AI in Software Engineering
06:36 Solving Engineering Problems With AI at Shopify
18:46 Prioritization and Planning in Developer Productivity
23:15 From IC to Manager and Back
28:52 The Individual Contributor vs. Manager Dilemma
34:44 AI is Getting Better Fast
37:30 Strategies for Successful AI Adoption in Organizations

Find more episodes at https://www.aviator.co/podcast

Dr. Cat Hicks, a psychologist researching software teams, on what cycle time can and can't measure, why software metrics are hard, and why developers feel their work is invisible.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit podcast.aviator.co

Charity Majors, CTO at Honeycomb, on the importance of creating a culture where shipping code is a regular, expected practice, and how organizations can transition to continuous deployment.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit podcast.aviator.co

Seasoned technologist Tracy Bannon from MITRE discusses the role of software engineering, developer experience and AI in government tech.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit podcast.aviator.co

Titus Winters from Adobe discussed the role of psychological safety and culture as the foundation for high-performing engineering teams.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit podcast.aviator.co

Ryan discusses DevEx organization structure, the unique challenges of mobile development, the evolution of mobile tooling, and practices that enable a successful release cycle.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit podcast.aviator.co

Ankit and Sridhar discuss the evolution of Developer Experience (DevEx) at Slack, challenges faced when experimenting with AI, and its significant role in improving developer workflows.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit podcast.aviator.co