Detailed Notes
Most businesses are rushing into AI—but most aren’t ready.
In this episode of Building Better Developers, we sit down with Brad Groux to break down why so many AI initiatives fail before they even start. The problem isn’t the tools—it’s the foundation.
We dive into: • Why AI amplifies broken processes • What “start small, think big” really means • Why your domain knowledge matters more than AI expertise • How to prepare your business for real AI success
If you’re trying to adopt AI, this is where you should start.
👉 Key takeaway: Start small, build momentum, and scale intentionally.
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#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Automation #BusinessStrategy #Developers
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Chapters
00:00 Intro 02:30 Meet Brad Groux 06:00 How AI adoption really starts 09:30 Why most companies aren’t ready 12:00 The “start small, think big” mindset 15:00 Domain expertise vs AI expertise 18:00 AI as a business transformation tool 21:00 Closing thoughts
Transcript Text
You're muted, Rob. >> I know. I'm trying to get like six things done here. Sorry. Little scrambly right now. Um, >> it's still early, right? Still early. >> All right. So the way we do this is uh we will get started here in a moment. I will introduce myself, introduce Michael, and uh allow you to introduce yourself. Uh we've always found that works best. And uh we just dive in and do a conversational approach at that point. >> Um let's see. Uh we'll do it'll run about an hour. Uh we'll end up splitting it into two separate uh episodes when all said and done. They'll run about I don't know 20 25 minutes a piece. It'll be towards I guess second half of April about the time that we wrap this one up and um or actually have it live and at that point we'll get you links you can share them out to everybody and we will go from there. Uh questions or comments? >> No. Looking forward to it. >> Mui excellente as they say. You good Michael? >> Yeah. Then here, wh let me run one more thing up. There we go. Put that there. Make sure that I turn off my notifications. >> Oh, good idea. Do that as well. >> Yeah. >> Do not disturb. >> Yep. All right. Okay. So, here we go with a little three, two. Well, hello and welcome back. We are continuing our season where we are talking about moving forward, getting unstuck, forward momentum, all those good things that you want to have at the beginning of a year. Honestly, you want to have them at the end of the year as well, but a great time to uh get ourselves moving. This is the building better developers podcast, also known as developer. I am Rob Broadhead, also known as a founder of developer and a founder of RB Consulting, where we help you with a technology reality check. We help you to sit down before you make that big decision, that big move, and figure out, do you really need to do that right now? Do you maybe need to assess some things? Do you need to get your ducks in a row before you move forward? Good thing and bad thing. Good thing is uh busy times, lots of stuff going on. It is a uh is just that kind of season. We've gotten out of uh January and even February that sometimes are a little slow and things are picking up full speed. Uh the bad side of that is that uh sometimes things get a little scrambly as those that have watched the if you're watching the YouTube you know sometimes that happens for us. But a better thing is is that Michael's going to go ahead and introduce himself. Hey everyone, my name is Mike Malash, one of the co-founders of developer, building better developers. I'm also the founder of Envision Q8 where we build and test custom software that eliminates the bottlenecks so your business runs smoother and grows faster. Uh, good thing, bad thing. Um, kind of the same theme going on. Uh, we've had some interesting weather this year, so I'm in. The bad thing is I'm dealing with the aftermath and trying to get all the erosion repaired from all the wonderful storms we've had. Uh, good thing is hopefully, uh, the contractors we found will be able to get it all restored and fixed up. So going forward, uh, we'll have a nice stable, uh, foundation around our house. >> Stable foundation tends to be a good thing. Uh, unstable foundations, not so much. Uh, today we are back with an interview and we're going to go dive right in and let Brad introduce himself. >> Yeah, the Sable Foundation is a talk that we like to have as well. So, hello everyone. My name is Brad Grew. I'm co-founder and CEO of Digital Meld and host of the Start Small Think Big podcast. And um we talk about on start small think big and with our customers every single day we talk about laying that stable foundation. You there's no point in even trying to get with uh we're an AI and automation a AI and automation agency and there's no point in um even walking down that path until you set that foundation. And so that's where we like to start as well. >> And that is yeah that is a pretty common theme when we talk about AI as one of them is that it's like yeah you can automate the the snot out of your stuff but if it doesn't work in the first place you're just making a broken process move faster. uh break quicker and just become more of a pain than it was in the start. So, how did you dive right in? How did you guys get into your focus on AI? How long have you been doing that as part of helping people do it? >> So, I've I've been and I started my journey um in in career IT like most folks, you know, systems administration, um that kind of thing. Um and then I I became a consultant about 2010 and I I got a job at Microsoft as a PF that's just a premier field engineer. So it's as an enterprise consultant go out on site. I specialized in um in the infrastructure side. So um active directory was my specialty clustering that kind of stuff. Um DNS those things. And then you know I I I kind of saw the writing on the wall. I and I I I kind of transitioned to solutions architecture after that. And so just understanding I always loved developing. I was going to be an engineer you know like I like looking at things from the 30,000 foot view and kind of moving the pieces on the chessboard, right? And so um I I I just kind of saw those things happening. My introduction to AI and automation really started with Microsoft Power Platform. I'm not sure if folks familiar with that, but um used to be called Microsoft Flow, now it's Power Automate. Um I was work trying to get some data out of for Texas Department of Transportation out of one of their main frames from like the 1980s um to a PowerBI dashboard. And so I was like, how do I get this data out of here? And so I was like, oh, I could dump the data to a FTP and then use Power Automate to get it the CSV to a PowerBI dashboard. And that started my journey down AI and automation. So, um I I've been a consultant um for nearly 16 years now, 17 years. Um and I like that because you're it's a new challenge every day, right? And it's something to do every day and and you're helping people and being an evangelist and all those great things. I think you're you're juggling many uh many knives in the air at the same time. So, like I say, you're going to get cut every now and then. And so, um and about two or three years ago, um I I just saw I was like, "Hey, I've been consulting for all these years for people, making a whole heck of a lot of money for other people. Um I think I can do it better." um and I think I could do it um more intimate. We we like being a little white glove service like I give people my cell phone number. You can call me at 2 am if something goes wrong. That kind of thing. And so um started on that journey and then as soon as we started selling or trying to sell AI and automation services to mid-market companies. So we focus on billion dollar and below thousand employee below. They don't have dedicated IT teams. Maybe they have one or two IT guys but most times they have an MSP. It's like how can we even get them prepared for AI whenever they don't have their documents proc their processes documented or they don't have their data um in a centralized repository most times of people's inboxes or share file share folders or stuff like that and so um that's where the podcast idea came along is like hey start small think big um where the everybody all these businesses have the idea of AI um and like revolutionizing their business and to us that's like climbing Mount Everest right um but most of the time we're still stuck on the couch eating Cheetos um so let's go couch 5K will be your sherpa all along the way and eventually hopefully we'll get to that that Everest that is you know fully automating and and integrating AI across your entire your entire business. >> Yeah. And I think that's uh that's a great point because there's AI there's so much uh hype about it and there's so many promises and I think there's they're not unrealistic. There's promises like where it can take us but there's a there's definitely a journey to get there and uh I think too often that people are are sort of sold on what this is where we can go. we can automate it. We've got, you know, low code, no code. We've got all these ways that we can just like snap a finger practically and just like boom, everything's in place. The problem is everything's in place. But if your business is not ready to do it, you're going to struggle with it. I love the start small, think big because I think it's um we talk a lot about like small incremental improvements, getting some momentum, and just like, you know, not trying to take the, you know, eat the elephant in one bite, things like that. Um, but I like how it's also you guys have add sort of the thinking big, it's like let's keep a a big why about it as well. We're still even though we're maybe doing little things, there was definitely a payoff for this uh down the road. Now, how did you how did you get into it? Was this one of these things that came to you as uh as like just an epiphany and in a you know while you were talking one time or thinking about something or is this over time where you sort of built into this and said you know this is like this think small or start small think big is like a really good uh for lack of a better term like a mantra for us to use. >> Um that definitely came later. It was about a year into the the you know again as we were talking to organizations just realizing hey nobody really understands how they're hearing you know leadership at at these mid-market companies are hearing they need to utilize AI or they're going to get left behind. Um and so they're like hey we need help. Um and at the same time they had no idea where to start. And a lots of times people don't even know where to help them start cuz um I tell people all the time like they're the AI experts. If you're in heavy hall trucking, if you're in construction engineering, if you're a welder, if you're like you're an AI expert in your domain, you just don't know it yet. I just know the tools. Like what what makes AI special is the is the context that you give it. And the context you give it is unique to you and your work experience, and your company's work, your company's history. Um that's your secret sauce. Um and I that's my real goal is like trying to teach people is like you can do this. It's it's a journey. We need to be there with you to kind of hold your hand and uh and guide you on that journey. But at the same time, I could never know the ba best way to transform your business with AI. You have to know what that is. And the only way you know what that is is know what the possibilities are. Um, and so changing and that's a different mindset for most folks, right? Cuz like, oh, we just hire it or we hire technologists, they come in, they build a solution for us, and they put us on our path. I'm like, no, this the AI is a completely different. It's a paradigm shift. It's like it it it's you have to change how people think. They have to think automation first. They have to think about what the possibilities could be. They have to think where the integrations could be. Um, and so you it's it's a lot of education and being an evangelist. That's really really what it comes down to. And um, I I just wanted to be a business I like business transformation. That's what we like to call it. Um, because it kind of covers everything. Most of the time when you people are talking about AI, they're really talking about basic automation that's been around for years. Like let's be honest. Um, you know, the the we're still in the AOL days of AI. Like you know, think back to the internet. Like the AOL, like oh, it's transformative. You know, sites like Google will pop up. Um, but we're not to the Wikipedias and the YouTubes and the Facebooks and Instagrams yet of the AI era. So, we're still toddlers in the in the AI era. And so, um, if you start start now, start small and then think big. Hey, where's AI going to be in 5 10 20 years? Is my company be going be prepared as it that evolution comes? That's what we like to think of. Playing the infinite game like if you've ever heard of Simon Synynic's um book, like that's what we like to think about. >> So, I I like that. And boy, I I had not heard of anybody really refer to it as the AOL days of of AI yet. But I think that's really a a good way to look at it is when we started out for some people, they didn't even exist. They weren't alive when AOL came around. But um when we started out, we didn't know what to do. People were just like, you know, they didn't know what search engines were. They really weren't there. They didn't they're just like, "Okay, we're just like it was a it was very simplistic." Uh now, I think AI has moved a lot faster. I think people are starting to realize that they've that yes, there are a lot of people that just use it as a really good search engine. They get deeper results, you know, a little bit different, but I think people are starting to to go there. Um, I really like the idea of you are an expert is I think that's where people sort of miss out. But I think the other step uh what I'm seeing is that there's a difference between being an expert expert and then being able to explain that to somebody else. It seems like that is sort of where we're at right now is that people are starting to understand that they need to somehow get their what's in their head into, you know, the computer into AI to to ask the right questions to set the right context. Um, and how are you are you seeing that? Is that something that you're you're helping customers through as well? >> That's where we start. We start with just having conversations and shutting up and listening. Um, and that's really hard for technologists, right? We think we have all the best answers and we think we know we know all all the answers and um I think the biggest thing for us is um to be empathetic of what problem like we go in what problem you're trying to solve and then we utilize the right tools for that job. the tools may be automation, the tools may just be basic document processing. Um, and so just going in and and listening to people and the big thing I want to hear like if there's leaders out there, um, I want to tell you is like, hey, I love talking to corporate vice presidents and CEOs and CTO's. And at the end of the day, um, AI and automation that's driven right now in these AOL days, it's driven at the boots on the ground. It's driven at the pe people fighting the the fight on the battlefield every single day. Um, and so, so basically you, you know, I I love hearing from you, but like how your business is run and it actually happens at at the ground level. And so those are the people I really want to talk to and just understand what their pain points are. Um, we just turn on, you know, Microsoft Copilot or or Plaude or one of those things and just record a conversation and kind of feed that in. We start with those processes. Your process is documented. Okay, where's their pain point? What's something in which you could automate there? Let's just start there. automating your inbox or automating, you know, um some kind of some some kind of like exception tree or something like that. Like just start really small and then once people start seeing the possibilities, they're going to find out new ways of utilizing AI and automation in their own business sector and our own company that we would have never even dreamed of because we don't live in there. And this is where I think the AI is the carts before the horses. You have guys in Silicon Valley building these big Swiss Army knife solutions, right? Where we think that the the the scalpel catered solution is the real future. the localized model living on a desktop in someone's, you know, someone's someone's uh someone's workshop out in the middle of West Texas or something like that is really going to revolutionize the world. Um especially when you consider, you know, 75% of our economy is medium and small business. And um so unlocking their potential is going to move the needle a lot more than unlocking the potential of these these giant model levels. So for with um so you're talking business years but small business that's an interesting concept there. So like entrepreneurs and developers you know we're out there were you know this is kind of the wild wild west right now. It's like the early days of Java you know uh or even uh XML back in the day when there were no protocols everyone was writing their own thing. I see that today going on with AI it's like everyone's kind of building apps throwing stuff out there but the problem is the direction. Um, a lot of people just don't know where to begin. They don't know how to start. I know you're talking to businesses, but what about the uh developers, people within those businesses? What is some of the um things that you have seen work for them and not work for them to kind of help grow with this AI boom, so to speak? So, you know, I think right now the the real superpower of these models and AI is at the the the single user level, right? Um you we've seen the rise of things like Open Claw and Agentic AI that's happening on people's desktops or people's laptops. Um that can help you and it has with us and I have the the metrics and numbers to prove it. In the last 6 weeks or so, we've we've personally in our organization have 10xed our output of our day-to-day tasks. Um that's coding, that's everything. That's creating PowerPoint presentations. That's literally almost everything we do. Um the problem is that's happening at our desktop levels, right? That's happening specifically for us in our workflows. Um that's where we still are with agent AI and and AI as a whole. Most of the time it's the context of a single person or a single individual. Um how you bring in that that that the context for the organization as a whole that takes everyone rowing in the same direction. And we like to go in and create immediately whenever we we we get with a new client or partner as we like to call them is a a center of excellence. So we create a center of excellence whether it's a data center of excellence or AI center of excellence and we bring in key stakeholders from all over the organization. Um gone are the days of like a VP coming in and dictating that a piece of software is going to be implemented across the organization and then it takes that directive and go push it out in the whole organization. This needs to be a collaborative experience across the entire organization. You need to know how Betty and HR works. You need to know how um you know you need to know how like steven compliance works like all everybody need there needs to be a key stakeholder from everyone to understand like hey how are we going to what's our schemas going to be like for our organization what's our any you know folks that have run out rolled out things like data lake or something that's large um for a whole organization kind of understand that but most mid-market companies or or smaller enterprises they don't really understand that and so um that's again trying to sell to to key stakeholders that hey this needs to be a collaborative experience um and it's not just driving it. It's not just technologist driving it. And for the developer, the individual developer, one of the real pain points too obviously is um you know, how do you introduce these tools? Um and also protect your job, right? Like there's a lot of fear that that's going to happen. And I think I think as long as you you're you stay ahead of that curve. You start small, think big with like how can this help improve you um that it's going to be folks who who do their job and then folks who do their job and utilize AI and that's going to be the differentiator. And um and trying to find that that right balance right now is going to be really key for them. So following along that theme there, so for those that may have already dipped their toe into AI, but there's a lot of people that are still scared of AI or they have just played around with the chat bots or I guess the common phrase you see on all these advertisements online is, you know, everyone's using AI for Google that's over 40, whatever. Um, how would you recommend individuals or even small businesses dipping their toe? How would you recommend them starting small to get into AI if they're not already utilizing it to kind of see how to improve their day-to-day workflow? >> Yeah. The same way I even before AI was the big boom, I just talk to someone and I say, "What's something you do every single day that you wish you could automate?" It's probably five or 10 minutes that just drives you crazy that you wish you could automate away. Start there. And it may not even be AI. it gets you there, but the the thought process should should help trigger some some things once you actually start there. Just, you know, you could use Zapier or Power Automate or something like that to automate your inbox. Like that's not AI, but the the the process and thinking is very similar. Automation and AI to me go hand in hand. I I I use them interchangeably. I I that's why I like using business transformation. You're just transforming the way you've normally done things. Um and so I would really start there. Don't don't try like say like you said earlier um to to eat the whole elephant one bite. you know, it's it's literally one bite at a time. Uh if you have an idea, uh from a developer perspective, I'm sure all all of developers out there listening, you've had an idea that you've wanted to work on at some point. Um you know, and so maybe just take this time to work on something in your spare time. Um you know, project requirements documents, that's where I start with. Um and you don't know how to write a project requirements document, go ask Chacht, hey, I'm trying to build this product. This is what I do. I want to write a project requirements document. Can you ask me qualifying questions and I'll and we'll build it out together and then just start there. And for those that understand where this is going through, Ralph Wiggum, you know, the Simpsons character Claude Claude Code, they came out with a Ralph um looped system that's basically follows project requirements documents. And from that perspective, that's where I would really start from a for a developer as well. Um you know, I think you need to start tinkering if nothing else. I was just talking to some students at Texas&M University the other night. Um and and just challenge them. Hey, over the next 30 days, build something like it's just build something and and and see where it goes. >> Yeah, I love that incremental step, you know, get going, start doing something. Pick uh pick something like you said, you know, a painoint or something that you or something you do every day and just start automating it. Start playing around with it using AI for that. It It's interesting though. Um, I've been using AI for a couple years now and every new tool comes out, it's almost like candy. It's like, oh, what's this? And do you find yourself running into the problem because we are still kind of at that early adoption phase of this where you can go down many rabbit holes. It's like, yeah, you want to start small, but sometimes you just get overwhelmed or you go down too many rabbit holes and you kind of have to pull it back in, reset your focus. Um, what are some of the things you do to kind of avoid that to try to stay, you know, keep things small but keep things moving forward as well as staying a breast of what's new, what's coming out, and all the changes that are constantly happening right now in AI. >> Yeah, I I have some pretty severe ADHD, so that's just something I've always dealt with. Um, like the next shiny thing, oh, squirrel, you know, like like you've ever seen the dog from up, that's me. Um like so I I think at the end of the day you have to again you have to hold yourself accountable. The beauty is you can have these models help say hey send me a reminder tomorrow. Did I finish this? If I didn't you know give me you know say something silly to me or something I I do stuff like that. I build these feedback loops into into my workflows. Um the again talking to some students a few weeks ago you know they were asking it. We've all had that same conversation that analysis paralysis when we build a new project especially developers what framework to use what backend to use what webstack to use like all these other streams. My big thing at the end of the day is like going forward, those tools aren't going to matter. Shut up and build. Um the the models are going to choose whatever is probably the the best stack in that general time frame when you start building that app. And uh again, you can get stuck in that analysis paralysis. And that's something I'm very very guilty of. And so what I've done is I've built a framework of like, okay, when I'm building something, I follow these same six or seven steps. Um I built a a project management dashboard for my AI agents. It's open source. It's called Veraritoss Conbon. Everything I do is in there. And it's not just for coding, but like everything I do is literally driven by a canvan board. And so like I have I like there's something that triggered that dopamine hit every time I close a task. Oh, I did something good. And in the last 7 weeks, I've closed like,00 tasks using that can board and something that I would have never been able to do before. And that it's it's fascinating to see it in real time. And so my thing is just shut up and build at the end of the day. Um I know that's not not always the the best thing to say, but don't don't give in the analysis paralysis. You're going to get left behind. Um because there is going to be some 18-year-old whiz kid out there who know how to use these tools really could really cool is going to put out a you know half a million dollar month vibe coding app and like yes you could have had perfect code. Yes it could like you want to have everything done. I think finding that right balance again I say all I say we're juggling knives every now and you're going to get cut um and just be prepared with um the medkit whenever you are but at the same time like future favors the bold is a saying for a reason. You know the right brothers weren't wearing safety equipment at Kittyhawk, right? So like that's the world we kind of live in now. Um and the AI the big billionaires and trillionaires doing all of this that's and trillion dollar companies doing all this they're flying by the seat of their pants. So why and shouldn't you is the way I kind of see that. >> That's true. And I think it is a little bit of a you know throw everything at the wall and see what sticks kind of approach especially if you're you know billion or trillion dollar company. You can throw a lot at a wall and just you know you can just like just you know flood the market with ideas. Um, but I do like the I think this is very much a time where and it goes back again when the the internet was really starting to like the worldwide web was really kicking in. People just put a you know a web page out there. The the one that I've always thought way back that I think about is the uh the million-dollar web page where he had for every pixel he had a million pixels on the page and every pixel he sold for a dollar uh advertising. And it's like it's it's so almost stupidly simple, but it's just like you get something like that out there, it's like boom, you have an idea, go put it out there. And I think AI is the same thing. I think this is even better is I think what we're seeing with this is that like you said, you can pick whatever stack you want. And honestly, you can actually use AI to flip a stack. If you somewhere down the road were like this is this is bad, you can actually use it and start walking through and flip it to a whole different stack. They may take you a few minutes, but hey, you know, or hours or days, but it is it's like, you know, don't let perfect be the enemy of of good. And I think there's uh I think that's great advice for anybody that wants to figure out like how do I use this AI thing is ju just start pick somewhere. Pick anything. Um, I found that even some of the business I've talked to and some of the owners and and entrepreneurs, it's just like use it for, you know, planning your your weekend with your kids or helping them with their sports or just just pick anything because once you start into those conversations, I think you start learning how to have those conversations. You start realizing what you're dealing with and it's it's like anybody else. You learn how to communicate with somebody by doing it trial and error. you figure out, oh, I didn't specify this right or I can't make this assumption and then the next thing you know, you're you're cruising right along. Now, uh that sort of leads into what do you see as or what do you worry about as being like the mess that we'll end up having to clean up with this? Because there's there's this idea of like if everybody's creating all this stuff, where where do you think or where are you worried that maybe we'll come back out of this in a year or two and people be going, "Oh my gosh, I should have taken care of that while I was creating all that stuff." >> Um, you know, I I think I I I'm I'm an optimist. I'm just an eternal optimist. I think if you use these tools to to free up your time for the menial tasks, you can focus on the more meaningful tasks and the ones that actually move the needle. Um, as an example, you know, I I got and I was talking to a security guy um who has a PhD. He teaches he teaches Texas University the the other night and you know, I've always been an infrastructure guy, so I've always kind of been at odds as security guys like what's the risk versus reward um that friction in corporate, you know, in the corporate world and um I I think again that analysis paralysis can happen at that level too. And for me, I as long as you're doing your due diligence and you have a good framework, much like whenever I go into a client or customer and I'm making sure they're have they have their SOPs and PRDS in place um as as standard operating procedures and project requirements documents that's that developers have a superpower right now and they don't even really think they don't really realize it. I I promise you once I started utilizing agentic AI over the last 2 months or so to the extent of my personal workflows I was doing it for business workflows um I feel like I have superpowers and that sounds hyperbolic it sounds ridiculous but I promise you it's not and developers are the perfect people to embrace this because you already understand the rules of object-oriented programming right you already understand uh process and procedure and you know what a PRD is you know the basics of what this is and you know what these models think like that they think in that manner So you have a superpower now that you may not be utilizing it. Even if you don't want to use it for code because hey you have some highly secure position or it's just not allowed in your organization. Use it for your processes. Use it for your day your your task. Use it for something to to improve your life. And I use I create a PRD for literally everything. Not coding tasks. I create a PRD for um you know for for any kind of process we have. I I create an SOP. SOPs are what I've trained. My model has hundreds of SOPs that it can it can reflect back to. I have an SOP of how I want to create a presentation. I don't use PowerPoint anymore. I have it create presentations as JavaScript and HTML. Um because it knows it can move pixels on the on in HTML and JavaScript a lot better. They can move pixels in PowerPoint. And so I will never use PowerPoint ever ever again. Um and so as an example of like ways that you can utilize these tools now and then I think I saving three or four hours generating a PowerPoint presentation by just having a conversation for 5 or 10 minutes. I could take that time to do the things like, hey, let me double check the security of this code that it wrote for me. Let me make sure that my infrastructure where it needs to be. And so, um, again, I think just people need to rethink how how we process and how we we've been delivering things for years and just turn it on its head. That's a that's funny. That's a it's a little bit of a digressing, but I found the same thing as I was dealing with presentations and stuff like that and, you know, it's like, can you kick it out word? Can you kick it out in PowerPoint? all it PDFs, all this different stuff. >> The level of of professionalism and everything else that I got out of doing web pages instead was so high that I finally say, you know what, I can just take a I'll like give me the web pages. I'll screenshot them and turn them into a PowerPoint slide if I need to. I can find ways to do that. And then of course with the you know with the code, it's a lot easier for you to tweak like you know tweak your text, pull the specific image in, slide some stuff around and it does it so much faster. And that's the stuff that to me as a developer in the background this has always been one of those things that has been frustrating because I wasn't writing code. I was I mean I was but I was like fighting you know pixel perfect alignment on a web page or doing some little minor configuration so that this thing looks exactly the way it should or adjusting the color right so that the color scheme is the same all the way through. You know I've got all the CSS tags properly things like that. These are the This is where I I totally agree with the superpower is I think that the things that it really allows us the things that maybe we're weaker at that that dra hold us back to sort of be removed because now you can like you said you can just like you can lay out SOPs, you can put together PRDS, the things that you do best and just say okay here's the framework now go build it. And that is where we're going to pause. Uh don't worry, we're coming back with round two, episode two, next episode around and uh we get even deeper. Uh this is really a great conversation. There's a lot of great ideas that come out of it. So there's a lot of great ideas that we already had. Uh and we also will be talking challenge and stuff like that. Uh he's got some really good developer specific things that he talks about. So, uh, definitely, you know, be ready, bring notes, and, uh, hopefully you'll be able to be, uh, like some of the things he suggested, maybe by the end of the next episode, you will have already created or gotten well on your way on whatever your next uh, product and project are. That being said, go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time.
Transcript Segments
You're muted, Rob.
>> I know. I'm trying to get like six
things done here. Sorry. Little scrambly
right now. Um,
>> it's still early, right? Still early.
>> All right. So the way we do this is uh
we will get started here in a moment. I
will introduce myself, introduce
Michael, and uh allow you to introduce
yourself. Uh we've always found that
works best. And uh we just dive in and
do a conversational approach at that
point.
>> Um
let's see. Uh we'll do it'll run about
an hour. Uh we'll end up splitting it
into two separate uh episodes when all
said and done. They'll run about I don't
know 20 25 minutes a piece.
It'll be towards I guess second half of
April about the time that we wrap this
one up and um or actually have it live
and at that point we'll get you links
you can share them out to everybody and
we will go from there. Uh questions or
comments?
>> No. Looking forward to it.
>> Mui excellente as they say. You good
Michael?
>> Yeah.
Then here, wh let me run one more thing
up. There we go. Put that there. Make
sure that I turn off my notifications.
>> Oh, good idea. Do that as well.
>> Yeah.
>> Do not disturb.
>> Yep. All right. Okay. So, here we go
with a little three, two. Well, hello
and welcome back. We are continuing our
season where we are talking about moving
forward, getting unstuck, forward
momentum, all those good things that you
want to have at the beginning of a year.
Honestly, you want to have them at the
end of the year as well, but a great
time to uh get ourselves moving. This is
the building better developers podcast,
also known as developer. I am Rob
Broadhead, also known as a founder of
developer and a founder of RB
Consulting, where we help you with a
technology reality check. We help you to
sit down before you make that big
decision, that big move, and figure out,
do you really need to do that right now?
Do you maybe need to assess some things?
Do you need to get your ducks in a row
before you move forward? Good thing and
bad thing. Good thing is uh busy times,
lots of stuff going on. It is a uh is
just that kind of season. We've gotten
out of uh January and even February that
sometimes are a little slow and things
are picking up full speed. Uh the bad
side of that is that uh sometimes things
get a little scrambly as those that have
watched the if you're watching the
YouTube you know sometimes that happens
for us. But a better thing is is that
Michael's going to go ahead and
introduce himself.
Hey everyone, my name is Mike Malash,
one of the co-founders of developer,
building better developers. I'm also the
founder of Envision Q8 where we build
and test custom software that eliminates
the bottlenecks so your business runs
smoother and grows faster. Uh, good
thing, bad thing. Um,
kind of the same theme going on. Uh,
we've had some interesting weather this
year, so I'm in. The bad thing is I'm
dealing with the aftermath and trying to
get all the erosion repaired from all
the wonderful storms we've had. Uh, good
thing is hopefully, uh, the contractors
we found will be able to get it all
restored and fixed up. So going forward,
uh, we'll have a nice stable, uh,
foundation around our house.
>> Stable foundation tends to be a good
thing. Uh, unstable foundations, not so
much. Uh, today we are back with an
interview and we're going to go dive
right in and let Brad introduce himself.
>> Yeah, the Sable Foundation is a talk
that we like to have as well. So, hello
everyone. My name is Brad Grew. I'm
co-founder and CEO of Digital Meld and
host of the Start Small Think Big
podcast. And um we talk about on start
small think big and with our customers
every single day we talk about laying
that stable foundation. You there's no
point in even trying to get with uh
we're an AI and automation a AI and
automation agency and there's no point
in um even walking down that path until
you set that foundation. And so that's
where we like to start as well.
>> And that is yeah that is a pretty common
theme when we talk about AI as one of
them is that it's like yeah you can
automate the the snot out of your stuff
but if it doesn't work in the first
place you're just making a broken
process move faster. uh break quicker
and just become more of a pain than it
was in the start. So, how did you dive
right in? How did you guys get into your
focus on AI? How long have you been
doing that as part of helping people do
it?
>> So, I've I've been and I started my
journey um in in career IT like most
folks, you know, systems administration,
um that kind of thing. Um and then I I
became a consultant about 2010 and I I
got a job at Microsoft as a PF that's
just a premier field engineer. So it's
as an enterprise consultant go out on
site. I specialized in um in the
infrastructure side. So um active
directory was my specialty clustering
that kind of stuff. Um DNS those things.
And then you know I I I kind of saw the
writing on the wall. I and I I I kind of
transitioned to solutions architecture
after that. And so just understanding I
always loved developing. I was going to
be an engineer you know like I like
looking at things from the 30,000 foot
view and kind of moving the pieces on
the chessboard, right? And so um I I I
just kind of saw those things happening.
My introduction to AI and automation
really started with Microsoft Power
Platform. I'm not sure if folks familiar
with that, but um used to be called
Microsoft Flow, now it's Power Automate.
Um I was work trying to get some data
out of for Texas Department of
Transportation out of one of their main
frames from like the 1980s um to a
PowerBI dashboard. And so I was like,
how do I get this data out of here? And
so I was like, oh, I could dump the data
to a FTP and then use Power Automate to
get it the CSV to a PowerBI dashboard.
And that started my journey down AI and
automation. So, um I I've been a
consultant um for nearly 16 years now,
17 years. Um and I like that because
you're it's a new challenge every day,
right? And it's something to do every
day and and you're helping people and
being an evangelist and all those great
things. I think you're you're juggling
many uh many knives in the air at the
same time. So, like I say, you're going
to get cut every now and then. And so,
um and about two or three years ago, um
I I just saw I was like, "Hey, I've been
consulting for all these years for
people, making a whole heck of a lot of
money for other people. Um I think I can
do it better." um and I think I could do
it um more intimate. We we like being a
little white glove service like I give
people my cell phone number. You can
call me at 2 am if something goes wrong.
That kind of thing. And so um started on
that journey and then as soon as we
started selling or trying to sell AI and
automation services to mid-market
companies. So we focus on billion dollar
and below thousand employee below. They
don't have dedicated IT teams. Maybe
they have one or two IT guys but most
times they have an MSP. It's like how
can we even get them prepared for AI
whenever they don't have their documents
proc their processes documented or they
don't have their data um in a
centralized repository most times of
people's inboxes or share file share
folders or stuff like that and so um
that's where the podcast idea came along
is like hey start small think big um
where the everybody all these businesses
have the idea of AI um and like
revolutionizing their business and to us
that's like climbing Mount Everest right
um but most of the time we're still
stuck on the couch eating Cheetos um so
let's go couch 5K will be your sherpa
all along the way and eventually
hopefully we'll get to that that Everest
that is you know fully automating and
and integrating AI across your entire
your entire business.
>> Yeah. And I think that's uh that's a
great point because there's AI there's
so much uh hype about it and there's so
many promises and I think there's
they're not unrealistic. There's
promises like where it can take us but
there's a there's definitely a journey
to get there and uh I think too often
that people are are sort of sold on what
this is where we can go. we can automate
it. We've got, you know, low code, no
code. We've got all these ways that we
can just like snap a finger practically
and just like boom, everything's in
place. The problem is everything's in
place. But if your business is not ready
to do it, you're going to struggle with
it. I love the start small, think big
because I think it's um we talk a lot
about like small incremental
improvements, getting some momentum, and
just like, you know, not trying to take
the, you know, eat the elephant in one
bite, things like that. Um, but I like
how it's also you guys have add sort of
the thinking big, it's like let's keep a
a big why about it as well. We're still
even though we're maybe doing little
things, there was definitely a payoff
for this uh down the road. Now, how did
you how did you get into it? Was this
one of these things that came to you as
uh as like just an epiphany and in a you
know while you were talking one time or
thinking about something or is this over
time where you sort of built into this
and said you know this is like this
think small or start small think big is
like a really good uh for lack of a
better term like a mantra for us to use.
>> Um that definitely came later. It was
about a year into the the you know again
as we were talking to organizations just
realizing hey nobody really understands
how they're hearing you know leadership
at at these mid-market companies are
hearing they need to utilize AI or
they're going to get left behind. Um and
so they're like hey we need help. Um and
at the same time they had no idea where
to start. And a lots of times people
don't even know where to help them start
cuz um I tell people all the time like
they're the AI experts. If you're in
heavy hall trucking, if you're in
construction engineering, if you're a
welder, if you're like you're an AI
expert in your domain, you just don't
know it yet. I just know the tools. Like
what what makes AI special is the is the
context that you give it. And the
context you give it is unique to you and
your work experience, and your company's
work, your company's history. Um that's
your secret sauce. Um and I that's my
real goal is like trying to teach people
is like you can do this. It's it's a
journey. We need to be there with you to
kind of hold your hand and uh and guide
you on that journey. But at the same
time, I could never know the ba best way
to transform your business with AI. You
have to know what that is. And the only
way you know what that is is know what
the possibilities are. Um, and so
changing and that's a different mindset
for most folks, right? Cuz like, oh, we
just hire it or we hire technologists,
they come in, they build a solution for
us, and they put us on our path. I'm
like, no, this the AI is a completely
different. It's a paradigm shift. It's
like it it it's you have to change how
people think. They have to think
automation first. They have to think
about what the possibilities could be.
They have to think where the
integrations could be. Um, and so you
it's it's a lot of education and being
an evangelist. That's really really what
it comes down to. And um, I I just
wanted to be a business I like business
transformation. That's what we like to
call it. Um, because it kind of covers
everything. Most of the time when you
people are talking about AI, they're
really talking about basic automation
that's been around for years. Like let's
be honest. Um, you know, the the we're
still in the AOL days of AI. Like you
know, think back to the internet. Like
the AOL, like oh, it's transformative.
You know, sites like Google will pop up.
Um, but we're not to the Wikipedias and
the YouTubes and the Facebooks and
Instagrams yet of the AI era. So, we're
still toddlers in the in the AI era. And
so, um, if you start start now, start
small and then think big. Hey, where's
AI going to be in 5 10 20 years? Is my
company be going be prepared as it that
evolution comes? That's what we like to
think of. Playing the infinite game like
if you've ever heard of Simon Synynic's
um book, like that's what we like to
think about.
>> So, I I like that. And boy, I I had not
heard of anybody really refer to it as
the AOL days of of AI yet. But I think
that's really a a good way to look at it
is when we started out for some people,
they didn't even exist. They weren't
alive when AOL came around. But
um when we started out, we didn't know
what to do. People were just like, you
know, they didn't know what search
engines were. They really weren't there.
They didn't they're just like, "Okay,
we're just like it was a it was very
simplistic." Uh now, I think AI has
moved a lot faster. I think people are
starting to realize that they've that
yes, there are a lot of people that just
use it as a really good search engine.
They get deeper results, you know, a
little bit different, but I think people
are starting to to go there. Um, I
really like the idea of you are an
expert is I think that's where people
sort of miss out. But I think the other
step uh what I'm seeing is that there's
a difference between being an expert
expert and then being able to explain
that to somebody else. It seems like
that is sort of where we're at right now
is that people are starting to
understand that they need to somehow get
their what's in their head into, you
know, the computer into AI to to ask the
right questions to set the right
context. Um, and how are you are you
seeing that? Is that something that
you're you're helping customers through
as well?
>> That's where we start. We start with
just having conversations and shutting
up and listening. Um, and that's really
hard for technologists, right? We think
we have all the best answers and we
think we know we know all all the
answers and um I think the biggest thing
for us is um to be empathetic of what
problem like we go in what problem
you're trying to solve and then we
utilize the right tools for that job.
the tools may be automation, the tools
may just be basic document processing.
Um, and so just going in and and
listening to people and the big thing I
want to hear like if there's leaders out
there, um, I want to tell you is like,
hey, I love talking to corporate vice
presidents and CEOs and CTO's. And at
the end of the day, um, AI and
automation that's driven right now in
these AOL days, it's driven at the boots
on the ground. It's driven at the pe
people fighting the the fight on the
battlefield every single day. Um, and
so, so basically you, you know, I I love
hearing from you, but like how your
business is run and it actually happens
at at the ground level. And so those are
the people I really want to talk to and
just understand what their pain points
are. Um, we just turn on, you know,
Microsoft Copilot or or Plaude or one of
those things and just record a
conversation and kind of feed that in.
We start with those processes. Your
process is documented. Okay, where's
their pain point? What's something in
which you could automate there? Let's
just start there. automating your inbox
or automating, you know, um some kind of
some some kind of like exception tree or
something like that. Like just start
really small and then once people start
seeing the possibilities, they're going
to find out new ways of utilizing AI and
automation in their own business sector
and our own company that we would have
never even dreamed of because we don't
live in there. And this is where I think
the AI is the carts before the horses.
You have guys in Silicon Valley building
these big Swiss Army knife solutions,
right? Where we think that the the the
scalpel catered solution is the real
future. the localized model living on a
desktop in someone's, you know,
someone's someone's uh someone's
workshop out in the middle of West Texas
or something like that is really going
to revolutionize the world. Um
especially when you consider, you know,
75% of our economy is medium and small
business. And um so unlocking their
potential is going to move the needle a
lot more than unlocking the potential of
these these giant model levels.
So for with um so you're talking
business years but small business that's
an interesting concept there. So like
entrepreneurs and developers you know
we're out there were you know this is
kind of the wild wild west right now.
It's like the early days of Java you
know uh or even uh XML back in the day
when there were no protocols everyone
was writing their own thing.
I see that today going on with AI it's
like everyone's kind of building apps
throwing stuff out there but the problem
is the direction. Um, a lot of people
just don't know where to begin. They
don't know how to start.
I know you're talking to businesses, but
what about the uh developers, people
within those businesses? What is some of
the um things that you have seen work
for them and not work for them to kind
of help grow with this AI boom, so to
speak?
So, you know, I think right now the the
real superpower of these models and AI
is at the the the single user level,
right? Um you we've seen the rise of
things like Open Claw and Agentic AI
that's happening on people's desktops or
people's laptops. Um that can help you
and it has with us and I have the the
metrics and numbers to prove it. In the
last 6 weeks or so, we've we've
personally in our organization have
10xed our output of our day-to-day
tasks. Um that's coding, that's
everything. That's creating PowerPoint
presentations. That's literally almost
everything we do. Um the problem is
that's happening at our desktop levels,
right? That's happening specifically for
us in our workflows. Um that's where we
still are with agent AI and and AI as a
whole. Most of the time it's the context
of a single person or a single
individual. Um how you bring in that
that that the context for the
organization as a whole that takes
everyone rowing in the same direction.
And we like to go in and create
immediately whenever we we we get with a
new client or partner as we like to call
them is a a center of excellence. So we
create a center of excellence whether
it's a data center of excellence or AI
center of excellence and we bring in key
stakeholders from all over the
organization. Um gone are the days of
like a VP coming in and dictating that a
piece of software is going to be
implemented across the organization and
then it takes that directive and go push
it out in the whole organization. This
needs to be a collaborative experience
across the entire organization. You need
to know how Betty and HR works. You need
to know how um you know you need to know
how like steven compliance works like
all everybody need there needs to be a
key stakeholder from everyone to
understand like hey how are we going to
what's our schemas going to be like for
our organization what's our any you know
folks that have run out rolled out
things like data lake or something
that's large um for a whole organization
kind of understand that but most
mid-market companies or or smaller
enterprises they don't really understand
that and so um that's again trying to
sell to to key stakeholders that hey
this needs to be a collaborative
experience um and it's not just driving
it. It's not just technologist driving
it. And for the developer, the
individual developer, one of the real
pain points too obviously is um you
know, how do you introduce these tools?
Um and also protect your job, right?
Like there's a lot of fear that that's
going to happen. And I think I think as
long as you you're you stay ahead of
that curve. You start small, think big
with like how can this help improve you
um that it's going to be folks who who
do their job and then folks who do their
job and utilize AI and that's going to
be the differentiator. And um and trying
to find that that right balance right
now is going to be really key for them.
So following along that theme there, so
for those that may have already dipped
their toe into AI, but there's a lot of
people that are still scared of AI or
they have just played around with the
chat bots or I guess the common phrase
you see on all these advertisements
online is, you know, everyone's using AI
for Google that's over 40, whatever. Um,
how would you recommend individuals or
even small businesses dipping their toe?
How would you recommend them starting
small to get into AI if they're not
already utilizing it to kind of see how
to improve their day-to-day workflow?
>> Yeah. The same way I even before AI was
the big boom, I just talk to someone and
I say, "What's something you do every
single day that you wish you could
automate?" It's probably five or 10
minutes that just drives you crazy that
you wish you could automate away. Start
there. And it may not even be AI. it
gets you there, but the the thought
process should should help trigger some
some things once you actually start
there. Just, you know, you could use
Zapier or Power Automate or something
like that to automate your inbox. Like
that's not AI, but the the the process
and thinking is very similar. Automation
and AI to me go hand in hand. I I I use
them interchangeably. I I that's why I
like using business transformation.
You're just transforming the way you've
normally done things. Um and so I would
really start there. Don't don't try like
say like you said earlier um to to eat
the whole elephant one bite. you know,
it's it's literally one bite at a time.
Uh if you have an idea, uh from a
developer perspective, I'm sure all all
of developers out there listening,
you've had an idea that you've wanted to
work on at some point. Um you know, and
so maybe just take this time to work on
something in your spare time. Um you
know, project requirements documents,
that's where I start with. Um and you
don't know how to write a project
requirements document, go ask Chacht,
hey, I'm trying to build this product.
This is what I do. I want to write a
project requirements document. Can you
ask me qualifying questions and I'll and
we'll build it out together and then
just start there. And for those that
understand where this is going through,
Ralph Wiggum, you know, the Simpsons
character Claude Claude Code, they came
out with a Ralph um looped system that's
basically follows project requirements
documents. And from that perspective,
that's where I would really start from a
for a developer as well. Um you know, I
think you need to start tinkering if
nothing else. I was just talking to some
students at Texas&M University the other
night. Um and and just challenge them.
Hey, over the next 30 days, build
something like it's just build something
and and and see where it goes.
>> Yeah, I love that incremental step, you
know, get going, start doing something.
Pick uh pick something like you said,
you know, a painoint or something that
you or something you do every day and
just start automating it. Start playing
around with it using AI for that. It
It's interesting though. Um,
I've been using AI for a couple years
now and every new tool comes out, it's
almost like candy. It's like, oh, what's
this? And do you find yourself running
into the problem because we are still
kind of at that early adoption phase of
this where you can go down many rabbit
holes. It's like, yeah, you want to
start small, but sometimes you just get
overwhelmed or you go down too many
rabbit holes and you kind of have to
pull it back in, reset your focus. Um,
what are some of the things you do to
kind of avoid that to try to stay, you
know, keep things small but keep things
moving forward as well as staying a
breast of what's new, what's coming out,
and all the changes that are constantly
happening right now in AI.
>> Yeah, I I have some pretty severe ADHD,
so that's just something I've always
dealt with. Um, like the next shiny
thing, oh, squirrel, you know, like like
you've ever seen the dog from up, that's
me. Um like so I I think at the end of
the day you have to again you have to
hold yourself accountable. The beauty is
you can have these models help say hey
send me a reminder tomorrow. Did I
finish this? If I didn't you know give
me you know say something silly to me or
something I I do stuff like that. I
build these feedback loops into into my
workflows. Um the again talking to some
students a few weeks ago you know they
were asking it. We've all had that same
conversation that analysis paralysis
when we build a new project especially
developers what framework to use what
backend to use what webstack to use like
all these other streams. My big thing at
the end of the day is like going
forward, those tools aren't going to
matter. Shut up and build. Um the the
models are going to choose whatever is
probably the the best stack in that
general time frame when you start
building that app. And uh again, you can
get stuck in that analysis paralysis.
And that's something I'm very very
guilty of. And so what I've done is I've
built a framework of like, okay, when
I'm building something, I follow these
same six or seven steps. Um I built a a
project management dashboard for my AI
agents. It's open source. It's called
Veraritoss Conbon. Everything I do is in
there. And it's not just for coding, but
like everything I do is literally driven
by a canvan board. And so like I have I
like there's something that triggered
that dopamine hit every time I close a
task. Oh, I did something good. And in
the last 7 weeks, I've closed like,00
tasks using that can board and something
that I would have never been able to do
before. And that it's it's fascinating
to see it in real time. And so my thing
is just shut up and build at the end of
the day. Um I know that's not not always
the the best thing to say, but don't
don't give in the analysis paralysis.
You're going to get left behind. Um
because there is going to be some
18-year-old whiz kid out there who know
how to use these tools really could
really cool is going to put out a you
know half a million dollar month vibe
coding app and like yes you could have
had perfect code. Yes it could like you
want to have everything done. I think
finding that right balance again I say
all I say we're juggling knives every
now and you're going to get cut um and
just be prepared with um the medkit
whenever you are but at the same time
like future favors the bold is a saying
for a reason. You know the right
brothers weren't wearing safety
equipment at Kittyhawk, right? So like
that's the world we kind of live in now.
Um and the AI the big billionaires and
trillionaires doing all of this that's
and trillion dollar companies doing all
this they're flying by the seat of their
pants. So why and shouldn't you is the
way I kind of see that.
>> That's true. And I think it is a little
bit of a you know throw everything at
the wall and see what sticks kind of
approach especially if you're you know
billion or trillion dollar company. You
can throw a lot at a wall and just you
know you can just like just you know
flood the market with ideas. Um, but I
do like the I think this is very much a
time where and it goes back again when
the the internet was really starting to
like the worldwide web was really
kicking in. People just put a you know a
web page out there. The the one that
I've always thought way back that I
think about is the uh the million-dollar
web page where he had for every pixel he
had a million pixels on the page and
every pixel he sold for a dollar uh
advertising. And it's like it's it's so
almost stupidly simple, but it's just
like you get something like that out
there, it's like boom, you have an idea,
go put it out there. And I think AI is
the same thing. I think this is even
better is I think what we're seeing with
this is that like you said, you can pick
whatever stack you want. And honestly,
you can actually use AI to flip a stack.
If you somewhere down the road were like
this is this is bad, you can actually
use it and start walking through and
flip it to a whole different stack. They
may take you a few minutes, but hey, you
know, or hours or days, but it is it's
like, you know, don't let perfect be the
enemy of of good. And I think there's uh
I think that's great advice for anybody
that wants to figure out like how do I
use this AI thing is ju just start pick
somewhere. Pick anything. Um, I found
that even some of the business I've
talked to and some of the owners and and
entrepreneurs, it's just like use it
for, you know, planning your your
weekend with your kids or helping them
with their sports or just just pick
anything because once you start into
those conversations, I think you start
learning how to have those
conversations. You start realizing what
you're dealing with and it's it's like
anybody else. You learn how to
communicate with somebody by doing it
trial and error. you figure out, oh, I
didn't specify this right or I can't
make this assumption and then the next
thing you know, you're you're cruising
right along.
Now, uh that sort of leads into
what do you see as or what do you worry
about as being like the mess that we'll
end up having to clean up with this?
Because there's there's this idea of
like if everybody's creating all this
stuff, where where do you think or where
are you worried that maybe we'll come
back out of this in a year or two and
people be going, "Oh my gosh, I should
have taken care of that while I was
creating all that stuff."
>> Um, you know, I I think I I I'm I'm an
optimist. I'm just an eternal optimist.
I think if you use these tools to to
free up your time for the menial tasks,
you can focus on the more meaningful
tasks and the ones that actually move
the needle. Um, as an example, you know,
I I got and I was talking to a security
guy um who has a PhD. He teaches he
teaches Texas University the the other
night and you know, I've always been an
infrastructure guy, so I've always kind
of been at odds as security guys like
what's the risk versus reward um that
friction in corporate, you know, in the
corporate world and um I I think again
that analysis paralysis can happen at
that level too. And for me, I as long as
you're doing your due diligence and you
have a good framework, much like
whenever I go into a client or customer
and I'm making sure they're have they
have their SOPs and PRDS in place um as
as standard operating procedures and
project requirements documents that's
that developers have a superpower right
now and they don't even really think
they don't really realize it. I I
promise you once I started utilizing
agentic AI over the last 2 months or so
to the extent of my personal workflows I
was doing it for business workflows um I
feel like I have superpowers and that
sounds hyperbolic it sounds ridiculous
but I promise you it's not and
developers are the perfect people to
embrace this because you already
understand the rules of object-oriented
programming right you already understand
uh process and procedure and you know
what a PRD is you know the basics of
what this is and you know what these
models think like that they think in
that manner So you have a superpower now
that you may not be utilizing it. Even
if you don't want to use it for code
because hey you have some highly secure
position or it's just not allowed in
your organization. Use it for your
processes. Use it for your day your your
task. Use it for something to to improve
your life. And I use I create a PRD for
literally everything. Not coding tasks.
I create a PRD for um you know for for
any kind of process we have. I I create
an SOP. SOPs are what I've trained. My
model has hundreds of SOPs that it can
it can reflect back to. I have an SOP of
how I want to create a presentation. I
don't use PowerPoint anymore. I have it
create presentations as JavaScript and
HTML. Um because it knows it can move
pixels on the on in HTML and JavaScript
a lot better. They can move pixels in
PowerPoint. And so I will never use
PowerPoint ever ever again. Um and so as
an example of like ways that you can
utilize these tools now and then I think
I saving three or four hours generating
a PowerPoint presentation by just having
a conversation for 5 or 10 minutes. I
could take that time to do the things
like, hey, let me double check the
security of this code that it wrote for
me. Let me make sure that my
infrastructure where it needs to be. And
so, um, again, I think just people need
to rethink how how we process and how we
we've been delivering things for years
and just turn it on its head.
That's a that's funny. That's a it's a
little bit of a digressing, but I found
the same thing as I was dealing with
presentations and stuff like that and,
you know, it's like, can you kick it out
word? Can you kick it out in PowerPoint?
all it PDFs, all this different stuff.
>> The level of of professionalism and
everything else that I got out of doing
web pages instead was so high that I
finally say, you know what, I can just
take a I'll like give me the web pages.
I'll screenshot them and turn them into
a PowerPoint slide if I need to. I can
find ways to do that. And then of course
with the you know with the code, it's a
lot easier for you to tweak like you
know tweak your text, pull the specific
image in, slide some stuff around and it
does it so much faster. And that's the
stuff that to me as a developer in the
background this has always been one of
those things that has been frustrating
because I wasn't writing code. I was I
mean I was but I was like fighting you
know pixel perfect alignment on a web
page or doing some little minor
configuration so that this thing looks
exactly the way it should or adjusting
the color right so that the color scheme
is the same all the way through. You
know I've got all the CSS tags properly
things like that. These are the This is
where I I totally agree with the
superpower is I think that the things
that it really allows us the things that
maybe we're weaker at that that dra hold
us back to sort of be removed because
now you can like you said you can just
like you can lay out SOPs, you can put
together PRDS, the things that you do
best and just say okay here's the
framework now go build it. And that is
where we're going to pause. Uh don't
worry, we're coming back with round two,
episode two, next episode around and uh
we get even deeper. Uh this is really a
great conversation. There's a lot of
great ideas that come out of it. So
there's a lot of great ideas that we
already had. Uh and we also will be
talking challenge and stuff like that.
Uh he's got some really good
developer specific things that he talks
about. So, uh, definitely, you know, be
ready, bring notes, and, uh, hopefully
you'll be able to be, uh, like some of
the things he suggested, maybe by the
end of the next episode, you will have
already created or gotten well on your
way on whatever your next uh, product
and project are. That being said, go out
there and have yourself a great day, a
great week, and we will talk to you next
time.