What do you learn after spending 15 years at Apple and demoing your work directly to Steve Jobs? Ken Kocienda, Co-founder of Infactory AI and author of Creative Selection, joins us to share the answer. As a former Principal Engineer at Apple who helped create the iPhone keyboard and autocorrect, Ken discusses his incredible journey from a history major to a key figure in building technology used by billions. He explains his core philosophy of bridging the gap between the liberal arts and technology to create meaningful products, and why he believes AI is the next frontier for this mission. (BTW – we sat down with his co-founder Brooke, so if you like this episode be sure to check that one out!)

The conversation dives into his disciplined, spec-driven approach to coding with AI and the power of "extractive AI" to unlock hidden value in data. Ken reveals the crucial lesson he learned from Steve Jobs—that "everything is provisional"—and how his "evolutionary design" process is perfectly suited for today's AI challenges. This episode is a deep dive into the timeless principles of design and a powerful argument for why the best technology is so intuitive, it makes technical literacy irrelevant.

Check out:

• Register now: AI productivity guide for engineering leaders

Follow the hosts:

• Follow Ben
• Follow Andrew

Follow today's guest(s):

• Learn more about Infactory AI: infactory.ai
• Connect with Ken on LinkedIn
• Ken's Book: Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs

Referenced in today's show:

• MCP is probably the first protocol i

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.