Kent closes Chats with Kent season 7 and explains what changes on this feed: Become a Product Engineer is now its own podcast, with season 7 episodes and upcoming releases on that RSS feed. He previews guests still in the pipeline and introduces Better with Kent , a new solo series on durable skills for software engineers. Season 7 of Chats with Kent is over. The interview series you have been following as Become a Product Engineer has graduated into its own show . Kent may do another Chats with...
May 27, 2026•5 min•Season 7Ep. 11
Rhys has an unusually current perspective on product engineering because he is working right at the edge of the agent tooling shift. The conversation starts with his recent work on Vercel Domains and then moves into Executor , where the challenge is no longer just implementing integrations, but choosing the abstractions that make a system composable, safe, and pleasant to use over time. What makes the episode strong is how often it comes back to product judgment instead of novelty. Rhys and Kent...
May 20, 2026•41 min•Season 7Ep. 10
Alex brings a product and marketing lens that fits this season perfectly: great products do not just solve technical problems, they help the right people recognize that you understand their world. The conversation starts with finding an audience and quickly turns into a practical way to build product sense inside a company: learn how customers describe themselves, observe where they gather, listen for the language they use, and speak from their priorities instead of your own taste. The second ha...
May 13, 2026•1 hr 12 min•Season 7Ep. 9
Julius is building right in the middle of one of the fastest-moving product categories in software, and that gives this episode a useful tension: everything feels possible, but that does not mean everything belongs in the product. The conversation covers the shift from one-agent-at-a-time coding to orchestration, why T3 Code focuses so much on a fast app layer, and how Julius thinks about what should live in the core product versus forks, plugins, or future work. The deeper lesson is about judgm...
May 06, 2026•42 min•Season 7Ep. 8
Jamon brings a useful mix to this conversation: founder of Infinite Red , longtime consultant, React Native specialist, and now indie game developer. That perspective makes the episode unusually practical. He has spent years watching where projects go wrong when product thinking is weak: bad requirements, unclear stakeholder alignment, UX details nobody owned, and engineers optimizing the wrong thing too early. The thread through the whole episode is durability. Product engineering is not just a...
Apr 29, 2026•56 min•Season 7Ep. 7
Don's career makes this episode unusually wide-ranging: early computing, human error, aviation safety, Unix, Apple product decisions, digital cameras, color TV, and the long arc from usable products to systems that shape society. The through-line is straightforward but demanding: if you want better products, watch what people actually do , notice the workarounds they no longer complain about, and treat clusters of small usability problems like real product debt. The second half brings that think...
Apr 22, 2026•1 hr 16 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Will's path runs from designing bucket trucks to self-taught software engineering, education products, and database tooling, and that background gives this episode a distinctive lens: software is still a product people use with bodies, habits, emotions, and mental models. The conversation makes product sense concrete through examples like onboarding timing, course complexity, support workflows, and the small confidence signals that separate stable-feeling products from merely functional ones. Yo...
Apr 15, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Aaron builds in public—Laravel roots, education, and now Solo , a terminal multiplexer–style desktop app for organizing agents and dev stacks. This episode is a practical tour of product sense for developers: watching people work, reading support email with empathy, cow paths vs. fences, and why the “right” architecture can still lose if humans go home furious. You’ll hear how Aaron reasons from problem → solution when users ask for worktrees, when to duplicate UI affordances even when the model...
Apr 08, 2026•46 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Dillon's path runs from internal insurance tools to Vercel Domains to Cloudflare's agent and dashboard work-always with the same through-line: care about the user , get real feedback, and invest in primitives so delighters don't collapse under bad foundations. This episode covers metrics and paging as a product habit, learning from customer escalations , scoping small when AI speeds up coding, and building cross-functional relationships (support, sales, finance) as part of engineering judgment. ...
Apr 01, 2026•49 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Wayne blends delivery and product leadership—his stories range from a flagship-adjacent launch that nobody used to the everyday discipline of listening to customers without waiting two weeks for a meeting. This episode connects feedback-loop thinking (familiar from CI) to product discovery, yes-and conversations when someone is married to a feature idea, and the difference between hygiene features, performance features, and delighters when teams ship faster than users can absorb. You'll also hea...
Apr 01, 2026•51 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Dax has spent years building tools developers actually use; on OpenCode he's thinking hard about product process while the space moves at breakneck speed. This episode is a practical look at product deterioration (not just code rot), bottom-up adoption for dev tools, and how coding agents change who decides what gets built—without replacing the need for taste, restraint, and clarity about what problem you're solving. You'll hear concrete examples from OpenCode's terminal UI and onboarding, paral...
Apr 01, 2026•54 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Software keeps changing, and a lot of the spotlight is on AI—but the shift Kent cares about is bigger than models and agents. Implementation is increasingly delegated to tools that will keep improving; quality, review, and craft still matter, but the gap that won’t go away is product : understanding users, clarifying problems, and shipping what actually helps. This season is a deliberate tour of product engineering : conversations with people who blend product judgment with technical depth—inclu...
Apr 01, 2026•3 min0
Kent says goodbye at the end of another season of the "Chats with Kent" podcast, which featured interviews with speakers for the upcoming Epic Web Comp 2025 conference in Salt Lake City. The host, Kent C. Dodds, expresses excitement about the lineup of speakers and encourages listeners to attend the conference in March 2025. He also mentions that the talks will be available on the EpicWeb.dev platform for those who miss the live event. Meet at Epic Web Conf . Guest: Kent C. Dodds Website: kentcd...
Mar 10, 2025•2 min•Season 6Ep. 26
Kent C. Dodds sits down with Jason Lengstorf to discuss his talk at Epic Web Conf, Of Things Epic , where he dives into the principles behind effective decision-making in web development. Rather than focusing on which tools to pick, Kent emphasizes the need for a framework that enables developers to make confident decisions that scale. He draws from his experience with the Epic Stack, highlighting the importance of clear reasoning behind technical choices. Key topics in this conversation include...
Mar 09, 2025•13 min•Season 6Ep. 25
Andre Landgraf joins Kent to discuss his talk at Epic Web Conf, Epic Image Optimization. In this conversation, they explore the challenges and trade-offs of optimizing images for the web, particularly when handling large numbers of event photos or user-generated content. Andre shares how building his own image optimization pipeline gave him a deeper understanding of the process, allowing him to make more informed decisions when choosing external services. Kent and Andre also discuss: The evoluti...
Mar 08, 2025•13 min•Season 6Ep. 24
In this conversation, Jason Lengstorf, creator of CodeTV and the Web Dev Challenge, joins Kent to discuss: His background in engineering, developer relations, and open-source at companies like IBM, Gatsby, and Netlify. The Web Dev Challenge, a fast-paced, team-based competition that brings developers together to solve unique coding challenges in just four hours. The free Epic Web Conf hackathon happening the day before the conference, where attendees can join the challenge, build something cool,...
Feb 13, 2025•18 min•Season 6Ep. 23
In this conversation, Ryan Florence, co-creator of Remix and React Router, joins Kent to talk about the evolving landscape of web development. He shares insights on: The motivation behind moving core Remix features into React Router. The rising importance of AI-driven development and how it affects frameworks. Betting on the web platform as a long-term strategy for performance, portability, and future-proofing applications. How Remix is being reimagined with a focus on web-native capabilities. T...
Feb 12, 2025•23 min•Season 6Ep. 22
Annie Sexton joins Kent to talk about her upcoming talk at Epic Web Conf, JavaScript: The Origin Story. In this discussion, she shares her love for history and why documenting the evolution of programming languages is so important. They dive into: The rushed creation of JavaScript and how it shaped the language. Competing languages of the era and how JavaScript won out. The unexpected ways JavaScript evolved into a web powerhouse. Why software history often gets overlooked and why it matters tod...
Feb 11, 2025•9 min•Season 6Ep. 21
Zackary Jackson joins Kent to discuss his upcoming talk at Epic Web Conf, Epic Federation: Scaling Web Infrastructure. As an expert in large-scale web architecture, Zack has helped build critical tools like Module Federation and RSPack, both of which power ByteDance’s global infrastructure. In this conversation, Kent and Zack cover: The challenges of managing thousands of developers and repos across multiple teams. Why ByteDance chose to build its own bundler in Rust instead of adopting an exist...
Feb 09, 2025•16 min•Season 6Ep. 20
Aaron Francis joins Kent to discuss his talk at Epic Web Conf, Epic Bets: Practical Tips for Betting on Yourself. In this conversation, Aaron reflects on his non-traditional path into tech, his experience being laid off, and how he prepared himself to be resilient in the face of career uncertainty. He shares insights on why developers should focus on skill stacking, personal branding, and long-term sustainability in their careers rather than chasing trends. Kent and Aaron also explore: How to fu...
Feb 08, 2025•11 min•Season 6Ep. 19
Fran Zekan, an engineer from Croatia with experience in hardware, robotics, and web development, joins Kent to discuss his talk, Shipping Reusable Full-Stack Components . Fran explains how React Server Components (RSCs) allow developers to build truly self-contained, reusable full-stack features—something that has long been a staple in the Rails ecosystem with Rails Engines. In this conversation, Fran and Kent discuss: How RSCs simplify full-stack development by eliminating the need for multiple...
Feb 07, 2025•15 min•Season 6Ep. 18
Josh Cirre, a developer advocate and content creator, joins Kent to discuss his talk at Epic Web Conf: "Learning-Driven Development." Josh shares his philosophy on learning by doing—where the best way to master new technologies is by applying them to real-world projects rather than passively consuming tutorials. Josh and Kent discuss: The importance of curiosity in learning and how small observations can spark deeper exploration. Why focusing on what you want to build rather than what you want t...
Feb 06, 2025•17 min•Season 6Ep. 17
In this episode, Kent is joined by Kira Corbett, an AI-focused developer educator with deep experience in robotics, simulation, and human-computer interaction. Kira discusses her background in building real-world systems and how her transition to web development has shaped her approach to optimizing user experiences. Her talk at Epic WebConf, "Building an AI Assistant to Deliver Your Best Presentations," explores how AI can enhance communication skills, streamline productivity, and create better...
Feb 05, 2025•11 min•Season 6Ep. 16
Taylor Desseyn, VP of Global Development at Torque.dev and host of the Guidance Counselor 2.0 podcast, joins Kent to discuss his role as an emcee at Epic WebConf and the importance of networking in tech. Taylor shares insights on how developers can maximize their time at conferences, from preparing in advance to actively building meaningful connections. Taylor emphasizes the value of in-person events, explaining how they provide an opportunity to deepen online relationships, connect with industr...
Feb 04, 2025•12 min•Season 6Ep. 15
Mark Techson, a developer advocate at Google working on Angular, joins Kent to discuss the intersection of AI and developer productivity. His Epic WebConf talk, "Beyond Code Assist: Driving Impact as a Next-Gen Developer," explores how developers can go beyond using AI for simple code assistance and instead integrate AI into their workflows to accomplish more. Mark emphasizes that the world of software development is evolving, and AI tools are becoming integral to the way we work. He shares insi...
Feb 03, 2025•10 min•Season 6Ep. 14
Shruti Kapoor, a frontend engineer at Slack and an Epic Web instructor, joins Kent to dive into the intricacies of accessibility in web development. With over a decade of experience, Shruti has dedicated herself to educating developers on building accessible and inclusive applications. Her Epic WebConf talk, "Building Accessible Web Apps," will focus on real-world accessibility challenges, showcasing a live demo where she transforms a web app to improve usability for all users. She emphasizes ho...
Feb 02, 2025•11 min•Season 6Ep. 13
Eva Ferreira, a frontend engineer, educator, and design systems expert, shares insights into what makes or breaks a design system. As a tech lead at Mable and a long-time web development instructor, Eva brings years of experience building UI components, optimizing accessibility, and implementing robust frontend architectures. Her talk at Epic WebConf, "Bulletproof Design Systems," dives into the biggest challenges teams face when adopting a design system. She covers topics like onboarding new us...
Feb 01, 2025•10 min•Season 6Ep. 12
Eve Porcello, an experienced educator and speaker, shares her insights on AI-powered presentation tools and communication skills for developers. With years of experience teaching JavaScript, React, and GraphQL, Eve now focuses on how AI can assist in learning, teaching, and public speaking. Her Epic WebConf talk, co-presented with Kira Corbett, explores the development of an AI assistant to enhance presentation delivery. They’ll showcase AI-powered tools like ml5 for voice recognition and intera...
Jan 31, 2025•12 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Jared Forsyth, a front-end infrastructure engineer at Khan Academy, shares insights into type inference and programming language design. With nearly a decade of experience working with React and React Native, Jared has a deep appreciation for tooling and developer experience. His Epic WebConf talk, "Hindley and Milner Walk Into a Bar," will break down type inference algorithms and how they improve developer ergonomics by reducing the need for excessive type annotations. Jared and Kent discuss th...
Jan 30, 2025•10 min•Season 6Ep. 10
Madison Kanna, a full-stack developer and community builder, shares her insights on the importance of learning out loud and building an authentic personal brand. In her Epic WebConf talk, “Why You Should Learn Out Loud in 2025,” Madison emphasizes the growing need to differentiate yourself in an AI-driven world by sharing your work and building genuine connections. She discusses her experiences as a full-stack developer using TypeScript and Python, as well as her journey running coding communiti...
Jan 29, 2025•12 min•Season 6Ep. 9
