Unsafe Harbor: a podcast about Workday

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Unsafe Harbor Podcast. In this episode, I get to sit down with Michael Domingo. If you've spent any time on Workday LinkedIn, you probably already know Michael. He has a gift for saying the quiet part out loud and in the public eye. In this conversation, we review a few of his hottest takes so see if they've stayed the same or if they've cooled down a bit.

We dig into what it actually means to think like a product manager inside an HR tech org, why curiosity might matter more than your ability to configure, and where Michael stands on his bold Workday Rising 2025 claim that the Business Process Configurator may soon be obsolete. We also get into the foundational stuff: data governance, integrations, & UI.

Make sure you're connecting with Michael on LinkedIn and subscribing to The Department of First Things First. Here's my conversation with Michael:

Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpdomingo/

Michael’s Substack: https://www.michaelpdomingo.com/

Christian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/ 

Chapter List:

00:00 Introduction

00:50 Michael's Origin Story: From COBOL to Workday

04:35 Christian's Background & The Kitchen Table Test

07:19 The Department of First Things First

12:35 ERP UI: Quick Wins for End User Experience

17:23 Integrations: Map It, Rationalize It, Orchestrate It

22:35 Data Governance: The Unsexy Strategy

28:34 Hot Take: Think Like a Product Manager, Not an IT Leader

32:42 Hot Take: Childlike Curiosity > Configuration

35:16 Hot Take: Is the Business Process Configurator on Notice?

38:58 Hot Take: The Battle for the Employee's Front Door

41:46 Career Advice: From Wrench Turner to Blueprint Reader

46:51 Where to Find Michael

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Unsafe Harbor Podcast. In this episode, we get to talk to Neelan Veloo of Mando. It's almost exactly one year after our first podcast conversation with Mando and there's SO much that has changed. We get into some of the biggest debates in this one: Is AI eating Legacy SaaS? Is AI eating the User Interface (UI)? And where should the Workday Admin actually be focusing when it comes to learning AI? Make sure you're following Mando and Neelan on LinkedIn and check out all of the resources below. Here's my conversation with Neelan:

Mando Website: https://www.mando.work/ 

Neelan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neelan-veloo/ 

Adi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaviswanathan/ 

Mando LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mandosystems/ 

Christian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/

Chapters List:

0:00 Introduction & One Year Anniversary Check-In1:13 How Mando Has Evolved: From AI Search to a Full Platform3:25 How Christian's Relationship with AI Has Changed6:26 Why Mando Added Reasoning Models (and Why They Were Afraid To)9:02 Experimenting Practically: Don't Stop at "Wow, That's Cool"12:16 Why Great Enterprise Systems Get Bad Reputations14:03 How Much Code at Mando Is Actually Handwritten?16:21 The Workday Admin as Code Reviewer: What That Shift Looks Like18:59 Debate #1: Is AI Eating Legacy SaaS?22:51 Will Workday Stay in Its Lane or Expand?25:29 Debate #2: Is AI Eating UI?30:12 Live Demo: Mando's New Interface36:45 The Capture Layer Becomes an Execution Layer39:00 DIY vs. Vendor: What Gets Built Internally vs. Externalized?41:28 What Citizen Developers Miss About Building for the Enterprise44:43 How the Workday Admin Role Is Shifting with AI47:56 The Backlog Will Never Clear Itself — Unless You Do This54:08 Where Should Admins Focus? Skills, MCP, CLI, or Agent Swarms?58:52 Closing Thoughts & How to Connect with Neelan

Can AI actually fix the worst parts of Workday M&A integrations?

I built two experimental Claude Skills to find out: an M&A Data Validator that checks employee lists against 19 business rules, and a Supervisory Org Builder that generates complete organizational hierarchies and Supervisory Org EIB files.

In this demo, I test both workflows using fake employee data with intentional errors. Not ready for an actual M&A event yet, but it's a glimpse of what's possible when you combine Workday expertise with AI tooling.

All employee data shown is AI-generated (no real PII).

Connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/

Is this the future of Workday Admin work?

I've been building this MCP integration over the last few months using Python and Workday APIs. It's slow (running locally for data security), not perfect, and it's definitely a prototype right now.

But it works and it does so without having to touch the Workday UI.

You don't need to be technical. You just need to start small and build something.

What are your thoughts? Is this what our jobs will look like soon? What do you wish you + AI could do in Workday?

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/

#Workday #WorkdayHCM #HRIS #AIAutomation #HRTech

Hi everyone, and Welcome back to the Unsafe Harbor podcast. In this episode, we’ll be talking to Rick and Matt of Incubane. We cover a ton of different topics in this one. We explore the differences between Extend and Built on Workday Marketplace, the impact of AI on HRIS processes, and the future of the Workday Admin role. Make sure you’re following Incubane, Rick, & Matt on LinkedIn. They have some of the best content (and memes). Here’s my conversation with Rick and Matt:

Incubane LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/incubane/posts/?feedView=all

Rick’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickleunisse/

Matt’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkomendolowicz/

Built on Workday Marketplace - https://marketplace.workday.com/en-US/homeChristian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/

Chapters List:

(00:00) Introduction to Incubane and Its Vision

(01:19) Evolution of Extend Apps

(03:38) First Experiences with Extend

(07:17) Understanding the Built on Workday Marketplace

(11:44) Subscription Models for Built on Workday Apps

(13:40) Favorite Extend Apps and Their Impact

(18:43) Business Cases for Extend vs. Built on Workday Marketplace

(24:29) Navigating Technical Debt and Integration Costs

(25:05) The Evolution of Workday and Extend

(25:55) The Perfect Storm: AI and Workday Marketplace

(26:54) Transforming Workforce Management with AI

(28:36) The Future of Workday: Speed and Strategy

(30:40) AI's Impact on HR Roles and Responsibilities

(32:20) Vision for Extend Apps and Built on Workday

(36:40) Essential Skills for HRIS Administrators

(40:47) Understanding Technology: A Path Forward

(41:01) Advice for Career Advancement in HRIS

Back by popular demand, I talk to Dani DeMaio & Scott Lawrence in this episode. Dani is a Global Director of People Systems and Technology for a customer in the tech sector and Scott is a HRIS Manager for a customer in the Financial Services space. If you haven’t heard their original episodes of the Unsafe Harbor podcast, I highly recommend checking those out. Scott was episode #1 and Dani was episode #6. 

We cover a TON of ground in this episode related to mergers & acquisitions, selling the benefits of Workday to the company being acquired, how to give feedback to others for improving the M&A process, and much more. Here is my conversation with Scott and Dani

Connect with Dani:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellelotuswelle/

HRIS Coaching - https://lotuswelle.com/

Connect with Scott: 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-lawrence-mba-37676190/

Website - https://slawrwnce7.wixsite.com/senior-hris-analyst

Connect with Christian:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/

Check out this Workday AI Workflow that I've been experimenting with. Please note, this is just a personal experiment I'm running in my free time but I wanted to share a quick demo, what I'm learning as a result of all of this, and the principles I'm (loosely) holding onto during this AI murkiness. Here's the full video and you can also view the video on YouTube and Spotify as well. Let me know what you all think. Also, if you are building AI agents or workflows for the Workday ecosystem, I would love to connect with you about that. Enjoy!

In this episode, we’ll be talking to Neelan Veloo and Adi Viswanathan, the co-founders of Mando, the AI Co-pilot for Workday Admins. Mando is an official Workday Partner that is using AI trained on Workday Community and knowledge contributed by a team of Workday experts.

We’ll talk a lot about Mando, how it works, and how we’re preparing for all of the incoming AI innovation. Before we get into that, I did want to make sure that I shared some information. My company is a happy Mando customer. As an independent podcast, I’ve decided early on to not take any sort of sponsorship. In fact, I’m personally paying out of my own pocket for things like video editing, recording, and hosting software and subscriptions. 

The reason I share all of that is to say that the guests that I’m inviting to the podcast are all people and partners that I really believe in and want to highlight. Here is my conversation with Neelan and Adi from Mando.

Mando Website: https://www.mando.work/ 

Neelan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neelan-veloo/ 

Adi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adityaviswanathan/ 

Mando LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mandosystems/ 

Christian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/
Building Effective AI Agents by Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/engineering/building-effective-agents

In this episode, we’ll be talking to Mahdi Kafi. Mahdi is an independent consultant in the Workday ecosystem and the Founder of Turbin AI. Mahdi has been in the Workday space for 7 years and he’s been independent for almost 4 of those years.

Mahdi is definitely someone to follow if you’ve ever entertained the possibility of becoming an independent consultant. He’s super open about the best and worst parts of being independent and he gives A TON of great advice for making the leap. There is a link to his company, podcast, and LinkedIn in the shownotes. Be sure to follow him and check out all of his work.

Madhi’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahdikafi/ 

Ask An Expert Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6r5E78JQW9NxCL8rYykPE0?si=78dd4fec2e764a76

Turbin AI website: https://turbin.ai/ 

Christian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/

In this episode, we’ll be talking to Carla Corley. Carla is the Managing Partner at Corner Office Consultants. Carla and her team have exclusively been recruiting Workday talent for the last 12 years. 

The more I learn about Carla and Corner Office, the more there is to appreciate. However, the Workday Compensation & Market Guide that they make available is one of the many things that sets them apart. If you don’t know about the Compensation & Market guide, you need to check it out. I’ll have a link in the show notes that you can use to request a copy of the most recent guide.  

Carla and I cover a lot of the key findings from the most recent guide and we discuss some key factors/trends we’re watching for in the ecosystem this year.

Compensation & Market Guide: https://cornerofficeconsultants.com/workday-salary-survey/

Career Cheat Sheet - https://cornerofficeconsultants.com/tips-impact-your-workday-career/ 

Carla’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlacorley/

Corner Office LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/corner-office-consultants/posts/?feedView=all
Christian’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiandelcid/