In this episode of Humans of Reliability, Ryan McDonald is joined by Mark Quigley, Head of Platform Engineering at 90, for a conversation that cuts through the noise around developer productivity metrics and AI.

Mark dives deep into how teams can measure what matters—without falling into the trap of turning every measure into a target. He shares how tools like Developer NPS, DORA metrics, and balanced scorecards can help teams optimize for both output and well-being—but only when framed with the right intent.

As AI tools like GitHub Copilot begin to shift how engineering work gets done, Mark also explores the tension between time saved and value created. Drawing on his experience at Wayfair and now 90, he shares real numbers, practical pitfalls, and a healthy dose of executive common sense on how to track gains without over-engineering the data.

Last year, over 89% of companies claimed to have adopted platform engineering. And, in the past month, LLMs have been disrupting how we think about software development. In this context, Kaspar, asks if the role of Site Reliability Engineers is being obsolete as we know it. Kaspar argues that while SREs aren’t going anywhere, their responsibilities are evolving—fast.

We talk about:

• The need for the SRE role to be transformed
• How to build reliability as part every golden path
• The role of AI and LLMs in Developer Experience
• The limits of LLMs for reliability and infrastructure

Dan Slimmon is an incident management veteran who's worked at Etsy, HashiCorp, and now leads consulting and training on pragmatic, non-bureaucratic incident response. 

In this episode, Dan shares his philosophy on "scientific incident response," the importance of hypothesis-driven troubleshooting, and why incidents should be seen as normal in complex systems. 

We also explore:

• Why asking the right questions is more important than knowing all the answers. 
• How to use nerd sniping to unlock insights from engineers. 
• Common failure patterns he sees across organizations. 

EPISODE LINKS: 

• Video and key takeaways 
• D2E Incident Leadership Course 

Mariano, Staff Product Manager at Vercel, explains why serverless architectures are hitting unexpected limits—they’re too fast. 

The industry has spent millions optimizing serverless for speed, but AI workloads are changing the game. In the AI realm, slower execution often leads to better results. The challenge? Paying for all that idle compute time while waiting for AI responses. 

Mariano explains how Vercel Fluid is introducing a new execution model that blends the best of serverless and traditional servers—scaling efficiently while reducing costs. Mariano breaks down Fluid’s architecture, its built-in reliability features, and how it redefines cloud computing for LLM-powered applications. 

Tune in to learn how Fluid could reshape the industry and what it means for developers. 

EPISODE LINKS:

• Video and Key Takeaways
• Mariano's X
• Mariano's Blog

In this episode, we sit down with Adriana Villela, Principal DevRel at Dynatrace and OpenTelemetry contributor to break down how observability impacts reliability. 

We dive into what contributes to SRE burnout and how managers can create psychologically safer spaces for responders. 

Adriana also shares her perspective on AI as an observability-buddy to navigate incidents. 

SHOW LINKS:

• Video and takeaways
• Adriana’s podcast: Geeking Out with Adriana
• Podcast with Hazel Weakly mentioned by Adriana

In this episode, we sit down with Sean Goedecke, Staff Software Engineer at GitHub, to discuss where LLMs fit into real-world development. 

Sean shares how he’s using LLMs how he’s drawing the line for AI-assistance in the codebases he manages—though, as he says, this might all change by next summer. 

Sean also weighs in on how LLMs could assist SREs during outages—especially when you’re only half-awake at 3 a.m. after a rather inconvinient page. 

Tune in for a nuanced take on the future of AI in software engineering, “vibe coding,” and the evolution of rubber ducks. 

LINKS: 

• Video version and show notes 
• Sean’s blog (recommended) 

In this episode of Humans of Reliability, we sit down with Steve McGhee, Reliability Advocate at Google, to discuss his journey from early SRE work to advocating for reliability best practices. 

Steve shares fascinating stories from his time at Google, the challenges of implementing SRE in enterprises, and what people often misunderstand about the discipline. 

He also offers valuable insights on incident response, distributed systems, and the underrated skill every reliability engineer should master. Whether you're new to SRE or a seasoned professional, this conversation is packed with wisdom and practical takeaways.

This episode is also available as a video interview on YouTube.

What does it take to lead service delivery at a company experiencing massive growth? 

Hannah Hammonds, Service Delivery Lead at Prolific, shares her journey from an IT networking apprentice to a tech leader shaping reliability and incident response. 

We discuss the evolving role of service delivery, the power of mentorship, and how confidence transforms careers.

Plus, we debate hot dogs, spoilers, and The Office.

Tune in for career insights, leadership lessons, and a few laughs! 🎙️🚀

This podcast episode is also available on YouTube if you want to see a video version of this interview.

What happens when a Google-trained SRE joins a fast-moving e-commerce company? 

Gastón Rial Saibene, SRE Lead at Boozt.com, joins Humans of Reliability to talk about adapting reliability practices for different company sizes, the limits of SLOs, and the importance of automation. 

We also dive into decision-making, his favorite books, and—just for fun—whether he’d survive a zombie apocalypse. Tune in for insights, laughs, and a fresh perspective on the world of reliability engineering! 

🎙️ Humans of Reliability: Keeping systems up and the lights on isn’t just about technology—it’s about the people behind it. In this episode, we’re thrilled to chat with Nuno Tomás, founder of IsDown.app, a vendor outage monitoring tool transforming how teams handle third-party incidents.

Nuno shares his journey from software engineer to entrepreneur, the pivotal 4 a.m. moment that inspired Isdown, and the challenges of balancing startup life with family. We dive into the complexities of incident communication, how to tackle alert fatigue, and why transparency is key to building trust in SaaS.

If you’ve ever woken up to a midnight alert or wondered how to streamline incident response, this episode is packed with relatable stories, actionable insights, and a fresh perspective on modern reliability. Don't miss it! 🚀

https://rootly.com/humans-of-reliability