Going to Production is the podcast where technical leaders get real about the complexities of shipping software. Hosted by Wael and David, each episode features honest conversations with VPs of Engineering, CTOs, and seasoned technical decision makers who share the unvarnished truth about what it really takes to get code from development to production.
What You'll Discover
This isn't another podcast about the latest frameworks or theoretical best practices. We dive deep into the messy realities that every technical leader faces: the trade-offs that keep you up at night, the production incidents that teach hard lessons, and the organizational challenges that textbooks don't prepare you for.
Our guests share real stories from the trenches—the moments when "it works on my machine" meets the harsh reality of production environments, scaling challenges, team dynamics, and the pressure to deliver reliable software under tight deadlines.
Who This Is For
Going to Production is designed for technical decision makers who need more than surface-level advice. Whether you're a VP of Engineering navigating organizational complexity, a technical lead managing production systems, or an engineering manager balancing technical debt with feature delivery, you'll find actionable insights from leaders who've been where you are.
The Format
Each series focuses on a broad topic critical to production success, explored across multiple episodes with different perspectives and real-world case studies. From deployment strategies and incident response to team scaling and technical decision-making under pressure, we cover the full spectrum of challenges that define modern software delivery.
Join us for conversations that matter—where technical leaders share what they've learned, what they wish they'd known, and what really works when the stakes are high.
Everyone's talking about spec driven development — and almost everyone is thinking about it too narrowly. If your spec only describes what your engineering team needs to build, you're leaving most of its power on the table. In this episode, David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi challenge the AI coding community's definition of "spec" and make the case for holistic specification thinking that drives your entire business.
What You'll Learn:
Why spec driven development as it's currently practiced is too narrow
How LLMs fill context gaps the same way humans do — and why that's not hallucination
Why BRD thinking and agile aren't mutually exclusive
How a holistic spec drives backlogs, architecture, marketing, and sales from a single source of truth
The regeneration power of AI when product direction changes from Feature A to Feature B
Why ubiquitous language across all teams is more critical than ever in the AI era
How the "multiplier effect" of centralized business context accelerates everything
Key Insight: A spec isn't a technical artifact — it's a business artifact. When your entire organization shares the same context, AI doesn't just help you write code faster. It helps you change direction, regenerate plans, and move the whole business forward in days instead of months.
11 Dec 2025
True Development in the AI Age: What It Means Beyond Writing Code
Is computer science a dying field now that AI can generate code? Are developers just becoming "code monkeys" who paste AI output into repositories? In this episode, David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi tackle these questions head-on and explore what true development actually means when AI handles the implementation grunt work.
What You'll Learn:
What true development means beyond writing code
Why context and documentation are critical for effective AI pairing
How AI exposes the difference between code monkeys and real developers
The importance of shared understanding and ubiquitous language
Why interdisciplinary teams and collaboration matter more in the AI age
How to provide AI with the context it needs to be effective
The future of software development careers when AI handles implementation
Key Insight: AI doesn't eliminate the need for skilled developers—it raises the bar. The question isn't whether AI will replace developers, but whether you're doing true development or just being a code monkey. If you're the latter, AI is coming for your job. If you're the former, AI is your new superpower.
Hosted by engineering leaders David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi, co-founders of Kisasa.
27 Nov 2025
Production First Development: Why Staging Environments Are Holding You Back
Most engineering teams treat staging environments as a safety net—a place to test changes before they hit production. But what if that safety net is actually slowing you down and creating more problems than it solves? In this episode, David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi challenge the conventional wisdom around staging environments and make the case for production-first development.
What You'll Learn:
Why staging environments create false confidence and environment parity problems
How infrastructure as code (CDKTF) enables production-first development
Blue-green deployment strategies for safe production deployments
Why moving the edge to deployment eliminates the need for staging
How to simplify cloud security audits with infrastructure as code
Practical approaches to deploying directly to production safely
Key Insight: If your staging environment isn't identical to production, it's not protecting you—it's just slowing you down. Invest in deployment practices that make production safe, not in maintaining a staging environment that lies to you.
Hosted by engineering leaders David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi, co-founders of Kisasa.
13 Nov 2025
AI Pair Programming: How AI is Transforming Developer Roles and Velocity
The rise of AI coding assistants is fundamentally changing what it means to be a software developer. But contrary to popular fear, AI isn't replacing engineers—it's transforming their roles from code writers to context managers and decision-makers. In this episode, David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi explore how AI pair programming is reshaping development at every level, from entry-level developers to senior architects.
What You'll Learn:
How AI is transforming developer roles at entry, mid, and senior levels
Why context management is the new critical skill for developers
The economics of AI pair programming and productivity gains
How to structure development workflows around AI collaboration
Why documentation and shared understanding matter more than ever
The future of software development careers in an AI-augmented world
Key Insight: AI doesn't eliminate the need for skilled developers—it raises the bar. The question isn't "Can AI write code?" but "Can you provide the context and make the decisions that turn AI-generated code into production-quality software?"
Hosted by engineering leaders David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi, co-founders of Kisasa.
30 Oct 2025
Thin Slices vs Story Points: Better Backlog Grooming for Engineering Teams
Most engineering teams struggle with backlog grooming because they focus on estimating story points and debating technical implementation details rather than defining user value and thin slices. In this episode, David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi discuss why traditional backlog grooming often becomes a solutioning session—and how to shift toward grooming that enables rapid iteration, effective testing, and better product outcomes.
What You'll Learn:
Why story points create false precision and slow teams down
How to identify true thin slices that deliver vertical value
The difference between grooming (defining what) and solutioning (planning how)
Practical techniques for journey-based testing
How to maintain ubiquitous language across product and engineering
Why premature technical planning hurts iteration speed
Key Insight: The best backlog grooming sessions ask "What does the user need to accomplish?" not "How should we build this?" Save the technical planning for after you've clearly defined the user value you're delivering.
Hosted by engineering leaders David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi, co-founders of Kisasa.
16 Oct 2025
When Good Engineers Build Bad Systems: Why Smart Teams Create Problems
Why do talented engineers with good intentions end up building problematic architectures? In this episode, we explore how smart teams create bad systems through local optimization, unintended consequences, and the gap between component thinking and systems thinking.
What You'll Learn:
Why smart teams create problematic architectures
The danger of local optimization without global context
Unintended consequences of well-intentioned technical decisions
Systems thinking vs component thinking
How technical debt accumulates in successful systems
Patterns that lead good engineers to build bad systems
Key Insight: Good engineers build bad systems when they optimize locally without understanding the global delivery system. The problem isn't skill or intent—it's perspective. Systems thinking requires seeing beyond your component to understand the whole.
Hosted by engineering leaders David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi, co-founders of Kisasa.
2 Oct 2025
The Stack, The Plan, and The Platform: Modern Delivery Stack Methodology
Your technology stack isn't just a list of tools—it's the foundation of your entire delivery system. In this episode, we introduce the Modern Delivery Stack methodology: how to connect business goals to technical decisions through a unified platform that enables sustainable velocity.
What You'll Learn:
The Modern Delivery Stack framework: Customer Value → Domain Applications → Domain Services → Runtime Platform
How to connect business goals to customer outcomes through technology
Why platform is the foundation for delivery, not just infrastructure
Strategic technology planning that aligns with business objectives
The difference between tooling and delivery systems
How to build platforms that enable teams rather than constrain them
Key Insight: Most teams focus on tools and frameworks. Great teams build complete delivery systems that connect business strategy to customer value. The Modern Delivery Stack provides the framework for making that connection real.
Hosted by engineering leaders David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi, co-founders of Kisasa.
18 Sept 2025
Conway's Law in Action: How Team Structure Dictates System Architecture
Your system architecture mirrors your organizational structure—whether you planned it that way or not. In this episode, we explore Conway's Law in practice: how team boundaries, communication patterns, and organizational design directly shape the technical systems you build.
What You'll Learn:
How team structure inevitably dictates system architecture
Why organizational design is a technical decision
Real-world examples of Conway's Law in action
How to align teams with your desired architecture
The relationship between communication patterns and system boundaries
Strategies for restructuring teams to enable better systems
Key Insight: If you want to change your architecture, you have to change your team structure first. Conway's Law isn't a suggestion—it's an organizational reality that shapes every system you build.
Hosted by engineering leaders David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi, co-founders of Kisasa.
4 Sept 2025
The Platform Multiplication Problem: Why Teams Duplicate Infrastructure
Why do organizations end up with multiple platform teams building the same infrastructure? In this episode, we explore the platform multiplication problem—how well-intentioned teams create duplicated effort, fragmented systems, and wasted resources across the organization.
What You'll Learn:
Why platform teams naturally duplicate effort across organizations
The hidden costs of fragmented infrastructure and tooling
How team autonomy leads to platform proliferation
The difference between platform teams and platform engineering
Why unified delivery systems matter for scale
Practical approaches to consolidating platform efforts
Key Insight: Platform multiplication happens when teams optimize locally without understanding the global delivery system. The result? Multiple teams solving the same problems, fragmented infrastructure, and wasted resources that could be invested in actual business value.
Hosted by engineering leaders David Dieruf and Wael Rabadi, co-founders of Kisasa.
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