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Chats with Kent C. Dodds

Kent C. Dodds

Kent C. Dodds chats with developers.

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  • 20 episodes
  • Avg 33 min
  • English

Episodes 20

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  • S7 · E10
    May 20 · 41 min

    Primitives, agent UX, and Executor — product engineering with Rhys Sullivan

    Kent talks with **Rhys Sullivan** about building **Executor** and thinking like a product engineer in the AI-agent era: how to design the right **primitives**, why agent experience is becoming its own product surface, and how to keep quality high when shipping has never been easier. They cover **MCP**, code mode, approvals, workspace scoping, docs and APIs as user experience, and why slowing down can still be the right move even when agents make speed feel free.

  • S7 · E9
    May 13 · 1 hr 11 min

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

    Kent talks with **Alex Hillman** of **Stacking the Bricks** about customer research, product fit, and the kind of product engineering that starts before implementation: understanding who you are serving, what they already believe, and how to make people feel understood instead of sold to. They cover audience selection, observational research, helping in public, aligning your work with customer and business priorities, and why AI makes human judgment, trust, and synthesis more important rather t

  • S7 · E8
    May 6 · 42 min

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

    Kent talks with **Julius Marminge** about building **T3 Code** in the agent-orchestrator wave: why speed still matters, why fast shipping does **not** mean shipping every possible feature, and how product judgment becomes more important as parallel AI workflows make implementation cheap. They dig into **dogfooding**, core-product trade-offs, monetization pressure, customization vs defaults, and how to keep agent-built software maintainable over time.

  • S7 · E7
    April 29 · 56 min

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

    Kent talks with **Jamon Holmgren** about product engineering from a long-running consultancy lens: how working with clients, stakeholders, and non-technical users sharpens your product sense, and why those skills matter even more as implementation gets cheaper with AI. They cover **React Native**, consulting, game design, stakeholder failures, feedback loops, and what software builders need to keep learning as the job shifts up the stack.

  • S7 · E6
    April 22 · 1 hr 16 min

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

    Kent talks with **Don Norman** about why the core work of **product engineering** has not changed: watch people work, treat so-called **user error** as a design problem, and fix root causes instead of blaming symptoms. Don walks through a remarkable arc from electrical engineering and cognitive psychology to **Three Mile Island**, **Xerox PARC**, **Apple**, and the first use of **user experience** in a job title. They talk about timing and failed products, cross-functional product teams, what *

  • S7 · E5
    April 15 · 1 hr 1 min

    Human factors, product debt, and industrial design - product engineering with Will King

    Kent talks with **Will King** about bringing an **industrial design** mindset into software: **human factors**, observing real users, and why good product engineering starts with caring enough to notice what frustrates people. They dig into **product debt**, support as a product superpower, pruning features without breaking trust, and how to use **AI agents** for exploration and critique instead of only faster implementation.

  • S7 · E4
    April 8 · 45 min

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

    Kent talks with **Aaron D. Francis** about **product engineering**: why ticket-taking implementation is losing ground to agents, what a **vertical slice** from UI to database really means, and how Aaron’s desktop app **Solo** came from a painful problem—not a feature spec. They go deep on **scratch-your-own-itch** products, separating agents from dev stacks, **Jobs to Be Done**, why users bring you **solutions** instead of problems, and how empathy (and letting go of “technically correct”) chan

  • S7 · E3
    April 1 · 49 min

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

    Kent talks with **Dillon Mulroy**, Principal Engineer at **Cloudflare**, about **Agent Experience** and dogfooding AI platform work: how Cloudflare closes the loop between builders and customers, why **observability** and support are product superpowers, and how to stay disciplined when agents tempt you to ship huge diffs overnight. They go deep on watching users work, **firehose** social feedback, partnering with support, and why "make pain painful" aligns incentives for better software.

  • S7 · E2
    April 1 · 50 min

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

    Kent talks with **Wayne Allan** (engineer, PM, and consultant) about **product engineering** in practice: why "building the thing right" only matters after you're building the **right thing**, how to shorten feedback loops without six-month research theater, and why falling in love with the **problem** beats falling in love with your **solution**. They cover scrappy validation, talking to sales and support, the **Kano model**, *Crossing the Chasm*, and what changes when shipping gets faster tha

  • S7 · E1
    April 1 · 53 min

    Product sense, restraint, and OpenCode with Dax Raad

    Kent talks with **Dax Raad** about building [OpenCode](https://opencode.ai) in a crowded coding-agent market: why dev tools are still a consumer-style product, how fast shipping can make good products feel worse, and what "product skill" actually looks like when agents remove friction from implementation. They dig into onboarding, progressive disclosure, listening across many user requests for the real pattern, and why slowing down can be the right move—even when competitors ship faster.

  • S7 · E0
    April 1 · 2 min

    Become a Product Engineer - Introducing Season 7

    Kent kicks off **Chats with Kent** season 7: why **product engineering** is the durable skill as AI takes on more implementation, and how this season’s guests will help you move closer to product thinking—empathy, problem clarity, and building the right thing before making it right.

  • S6 · E26
    Mar 10, 2025 · 1 min

    Wrapping up Season 6 of Chats with Kent

    Kent C. Dodds says goodbye for this season of the Chats with Kent podcast. It's all about the speakers at Epic Web Conf 2025.

  • S6 · E25
    Mar 9, 2025 · 13 min

    Of Things Epic: The Principles Behind Great Decisions with Kent C. Dodds

    In this episode, Jason Lengstorf flips the script and interviews Kent C. Dodds about his upcoming talk at Epic Web Conf. Kent shares insights into the decision-making framework behind the Epic Stack and why strong principles matter more than specific tech choices. He explores the importance of making decisions that scale with complexity, avoiding analysis paralysis, and embracing simplicity in software architecture. Beyond the talk, Kent and Jason discuss the value of in-person conferences, how

  • S6 · E24
    Mar 8, 2025 · 12 min

    Epic Image Optimization with Andre Landgraf

    Kent chats with Andre Landgraf about his journey as a web developer, his passion for community building, and his upcoming talk at Epic Web Conf on image optimization. Andre shares insights from organizing All Things Web, a Bay Area meetup that fosters discussions on modern web development. They also discuss his experiences at LinkedIn, his love for Remix, and the lessons learned from building a custom image optimization pipeline. Andre’s talk will dive into the trade-offs of using third-party se

  • S6 · E23
    Feb 13, 2025 · 18 min

    Building, Learning, and Networking with Jason Lengstorf at Epic Web Conf

    Jason Lengstorf joins Kent to talk about his journey in web development, from his early days in agencies to his work at IBM, Gatsby, and Netlify, and now his latest project, CodeTV. He shares insights into the Web Dev Challenge, a fast-paced, high-energy developer show where participants race against the clock to build projects from scratch. Jason will be bringing the Web Dev Challenge to Epic Web Conf, along with an open hackathon for attendees to participate in. He also shares his thoughts o

  • S6 · E22
    Feb 12, 2025 · 22 min

    Remix, React, and the Web Platform with Ryan Florence

    Kent and Ryan Florence dive into the current state and future of Remix, the evolution of React Router, and the web platform’s growing role in modern web development. Ryan reflects on the changes in the ecosystem, the impact of AI, React Server Components, and the move towards standardized web APIs. He also shares insights on his shifting focus, the importance of in-person conferences, and how community-driven relationships have shaped his career. This conversation is packed with candid thoughts,

  • S6 · E21
    Feb 11, 2025 · 9 min

    JavaScript: The Origin Story with Annie Sexton

    Kent sits down with Annie Sexton to explore the fascinating history of JavaScript. Annie, known for her engaging educational content, shares why understanding the origins of the language is essential to fully appreciating its present and future. She discusses how JavaScript evolved from a rushed project in the '90s into the dominant force shaping modern web development. Along the way, they touch on competing technologies, key moments in its adoption, and why preserving the history of software is

  • S6 · E20
    Feb 9, 2025 · 16 min

    Epic Federation: Scaling Web Infrastructure with Zackary Jackson

    Kent chats with Zackary Jackson, an infrastructure architect at ByteDance, about solving large-scale web infrastructure challenges. Zackary shares insights on building RSPack, a Rust-based bundler, and Module Federation, which enables seamless orchestration of distributed applications. They discuss how these technologies help companies like ByteDance scale efficiently, reducing build times, improving product velocity, and solving organizational friction. Zackary also teases exciting advancements

  • S6 · E19
    Feb 8, 2025 · 10 min

    Epic Bets: Practical Tips for Betting on Yourself with Aaron Francis

    Kent chats with Aaron Francis about the power of resilience, adaptability, and taking calculated risks in your career. Aaron shares his journey from accounting to software development, navigating multiple career pivots, and ultimately betting on himself to start his own company. Drawing from his personal experience with job loss and reinvention, he offers practical advice on making yourself less fragile in an uncertain industry. This conversation is packed with insights on skill stacking, career

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes