Podcasts · Technology · Business

Become an Epic Product Engineer

Kent C. Dodds

32 episodes

Become an Epic Product Engineer is Kent C. Dodds's interview podcast about skills that stay valuable as AI takes on more implementation: product engineering - blending technical depth with product judgment, user empathy, and problem clarity.

More about the show

Each episode is a long-form conversation with a guest who has shipped real software and cares about building the right thing before making it right. You get full audio, transcripts, structured show notes, homework (one concrete action to try), and links from the conversation.

Canonical home for the show and every episode page: https://www.epicproduct.engineer/become-an-epic-product-engineer-podcast

New episodes publish on Wednesdays (America/Denver). Video is added on Transistor for supported podcast apps when available.

Complements Better with Kent - Kent's solo series on durable skills for people who ship software.

Episodes

  1. Triage your backlog with LNO - product-minded engineering with Sam Julien

    · 54 min · Episode 32

    If you only get asked about feasibility, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Sam Julien - Director of Product at CopilotKit, author of Agentic GraphRAG - about moving past ticket-taking, collaborative…

  2. Get five people talking about your product - iterative feedback with Ben Vinegar

    · 51 min · Episode 31

    If you ship features and never hear what users actually said, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Ben Vinegar - co-founder of Modem, formerly founding engineer and VPE at Sentry - about aggregating feedback,…

  3. Start with curiosity and talk to a customer - continuous discovery with Teresa Torres

    · 49 min · Episode 30

    If your backlog is full of tickets and zero customer contact, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Teresa Torres - product discovery coach, author of Continuous Discovery Habits, and host of Just Now Possible -…

  4. Lead with empathy and listen without defense - product sense with Mark Techson

    · 43 min · Episode 29

    If you still build for an audience of one and get defensive when users "use it wrong," this episode is for you. Kent talks with Mark Techson - staff developer relations engineer on Angular at Google - about empathy as…

  5. Keep a friction log and read a sales book - product ownership with Joyce Er

    · 37 min · Episode 28

    If execution got cheap and you still wait for someone to tell you what to build, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Joyce Er about five years owning features on VS Code, the jump to product at Cerebras, and why…

  6. Use the product yourself - empathy, architecture, and PM partnership with Rita Kozlov

    · 39 min · Episode 27

    If you ship a feature and never click through it yourself, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Rita Kozlov, VP of Product for Cloudflare's developer platform, about the line between product managers and product…

  7. Ask why in every PR - product engineering with Erin Fox

    · 40 min · Episode 26

    If you are merging beautiful AI PRs without being able to say why the change exists, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Erin Fox about treating every feature like a new product, asking why before you write code,…

  8. AI is a tool, not a silver bullet - product discovery with Peppe Silletti

    · 42 min · Episode 25

    If shipping got cheap and you are still not sure you are building the right thing, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Peppe Silletti, independent product engineer and host of The Product Engineers Podcast, about…

  9. Curiosity, micro-sales, and AI as a supplement with Shaundai Person

    · 47 min · Episode 23

    If you walk into cross-team asks with a prescription instead of curiosity, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Shaundai Person about privacy UX at Netflix, the micro-sales skills she brought from a decade in…

  10. Talk to users, ship live demos, and build durable products with Michael Grinich

    · 47 min · Episode 22

    If you are building something people want but still cannot grow it, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Michael Grinich, founder of WorkOS, about cold-emailing product managers, closing the feedback loop with real…

  11. Write it down: process, benchmarking, and product judgment with Ronan Berder

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 21

    If you ship features before you can explain the process, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Ronan Berder about building consumer products at Nike, Hilton, and Burberry scale in China, why engineers need to leave…

  12. Developer customers, AI skills, and durable product judgment with Ben Ilegbodu

    · 43 min · Episode 20

    If you build internal tools, AI enablement, or platform work, this episode is for you. Kent talks with Ben Ilegbodu about treating developers as customers, measuring success without a checkout funnel, and the durable…

  13. Architecture, AI agents, and product empathy with Robert C. Martin

    · 44 min · Episode 19

    Kent talks with Robert C. Martin - Uncle Bob - about what AI agents change, what they do not change, and why software architecture, design sense, and customer empathy still matter. They cover why engineers may need to…

  14. Curiosity, UX, and durable engineering skills with Annie Sexton

    · 49 min · Episode 18

    Kent talks with Annie Sexton, developer educator at ngrok, about the durable skills engineers need as AI changes the shape of software work. They cover how to teach complex technical ideas without assuming too much,…

  15. Taste, simplicity, and AI-era product judgment with Michael Shimeles

    · 41 min · Episode 17

    Kent talks with Michael Shimeles - Rasmic - about building products in the AI era without losing the engineering judgment that makes software useful. They cover AI consulting, why clients often ask for the wrong…

  16. Know your customer better than your code - product engineering with Lucas Wargha

    · 48 min · Episode 16

    Kent talks with Lucas Wargha, engineering manager at FamilySearch, about turning software engineers into product engineers: understanding mission and business outcomes, talking to real users across cultures, and…

  17. Demos, feedback loops, and AI-era product judgment with Ruben Casas

    · 43 min · Episode 15

    Kent talks with Ruben Casas about building products again in the AI-agent era: why experienced engineers can now stay close to customers and code, how demos turn vague ideas into something people can react to, and why…

  18. The technical person in the room - product engineering with Sean Roberts

    · 44 min · Episode 14

    Kent talks with Sean Roberts, engineer at PhotoShelter, about product engineering shaped by agency work and small teams: being the technical person in sales conversations early, planning with product judgment, and…

  19. Software architecture, human judgment, and AI's limits with Grady Booch

    · 47 min · Episode 13

    Kent talks with Grady Booch about what software engineering still means in the age of AI agents, why implementation is only one part of the work, and why human judgment remains central to building durable systems.…

  20. User outcomes, workflow design, and biotech software - product engineering with Swizec Teller

    · 40 min · Episode 12

    Kent talks with Swizec Teller about product engineering for software that serves real businesses and non-developer users: how to learn a domain you did not grow up in, how to spot hidden friction by watching people…

  21. User empathy, feedback loops, and what not to build - product engineering with Jack Ryan

    · 53 min · Episode 11

    Kent talks with Jack Ryan, Principal Engineer at Intercom, about product engineering at scale: why implementation is only part of the job, how to broaden what you measure as success beyond shipping tickets, and why…

  22. Primitives, agent UX, and Executor - product engineering with Rhys Sullivan

    · 41 min · Episode 10

    Kent talks with Rhys Sullivan about building Executor and thinking like a product engineer in the AI-agent era: how to design the right primitives, why agent experience is becoming its own product surface, and how to…

  23. Customer research, desire, and Sales Safari - product engineering with Alex Hillman

    · 1 h 12 min · Episode 9

    Kent talks with Alex Hillman of Stacking the Bricks about customer research, product fit, and the kind of product engineering that starts before implementation: understanding who you are serving, what they already…

  24. Speed, prioritization, and maintainability — product engineering with Julius Marminge

    · 42 min · Episode 8

    Kent talks with Julius Marminge about building T3 Code in the agent-orchestrator wave: why speed still matters, why fast shipping does not mean shipping every possible feature, and how product judgment becomes more…

  25. Stakeholder empathy, UX, and durable product skills — product engineering with Jamon Holmgren

    · 56 min · Episode 7

    Kent talks with Jamon Holmgren about product engineering from a long-running consultancy lens: how working with clients, stakeholders, and non-technical users sharpens your product sense, and why those skills matter…

  26. Watch users, fix systems, and design for humanity — product engineering with Don Norman

    · 1 h 16 min · Episode 6

    Kent talks with Don Norman about why the core work of product engineering has not changed: watch people work, treat so-called user error as a design problem, and fix root causes instead of blaming symptoms. Don walks…

  27. Human factors, product debt, and industrial design — product engineering with Will King

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 5

    Kent talks with Will King about bringing an industrial design mindset into software: human factors, observing real users, and why good product engineering starts with caring enough to notice what frustrates people.…

  28. Vertical slices, Solo, and empathy — product engineering with Aaron D. Francis

    · 46 min · Episode 4

    Kent talks with Aaron D. Francis about product engineering: why ticket-taking implementation is losing ground to agents, what a vertical slice from UI to database really means, and how Aaron’s desktop app Solo came…

  29. Foundations, feedback, and agents — Dillon Mulroy on product at Cloudflare

    · 49 min · Episode 3

    Kent talks with Dillon Mulroy, Principal Engineer at Cloudflare, about Agent Experience and dogfooding AI platform work: how Cloudflare closes the loop between builders and customers, why observability and support are…

  30. The right thing before the thing right — product engineering with Wayne Allan

    · 51 min · Episode 2

    Kent talks with Wayne Allan (engineer, PM, and consultant) about product engineering in practice: why “building the thing right” only matters after you’re building the right thing, how to shorten feedback loops without…

  31. Product sense, restraint, and OpenCode with Dax Raad

    · 54 min · Episode 1

    Kent talks with Dax Raad about building OpenCode in a crowded coding-agent market: why dev tools are still a consumer-style product, how fast shipping can make good products feel worse, and what “product skill”…

  32. Introducing Become an Epic Product Engineer

    · 2:47 · Trailer

    Kent opens Become an Epic Product Engineer: why product engineering is the durable skill as AI takes on more implementation, what to expect from guest conversations and homework, and where to start in the catalog. •…

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