3523: From Chaos to Clarity, Valiantys on Making AI Work for Developers
Release Date: 12/18/2025
3530: Candy Crush Accessibility Lessons From a 200 Million Player Game
Tech Talks Daily
If you have ever opened Candy Crush over the holidays without thinking about the design decisions behind every swipe, this episode offers a rare look behind the curtain. I sit down with Abigail Rindo, Head of Creative at King, to unpack how accessibility has evolved from a well-meaning afterthought into a core creative and commercial practice inside one of the world’s most recognizable gaming studios. With more than 200 million people playing King’s games each month, Abigail explains why inclusive design cannot be treated as charity or compliance, but as a responsibility that...
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3529: How Ping Identity Sees the Next Chapter of Digital Identity
Tech Talks Daily
What does it actually mean to prove who we are online in 2025, and why does it still feel so fragile? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Alex Laurie from Ping Identity to talk about why digital identity has reached a real moment of tension in the UK. As more of our lives move online, from banking and healthcare to social platforms and government services, the gap between how identity should work and how it actually works keeps widening. Alex shares why the UK now feels out of step with other regions when it comes to online identity schemes, and how heavy reliance on...
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3528: How Boomi Thinks About Scaling AI Without Losing Control
Tech Talks Daily
What does it really mean to keep humans at the center of AI when agentic systems are accelerating faster than most organizations can govern them? At AWS re:Invent, I sat down with Michael Bachman from Boomi for a wide-ranging conversation that cut through the hype and focused on the harder questions many leaders are quietly asking. Michael leads technical and market research at Boomi, spending his time looking five to ten years ahead and translating future signals into decisions companies need to make today. That long view shaped a thoughtful discussion on human-centric AI, trust versus...
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3527: How AWS Is Building Trust Into Responsible AI Adoption
Tech Talks Daily
What does responsible AI really look like when it moves beyond policy papers and starts shaping who gets to build, create, and lead in the next phase of the digital economy? In this conversation recorded during AWS re:Invent, I’m joined by Diya Wynn, Principal for Responsible AI and Global AI Public Policy at Amazon Web Services. With more than 25 years of experience spanning the internet, e-commerce, mobile, cloud, and artificial intelligence, Diya brings a grounded and deeply human perspective to a topic that is often reduced to technical debates or regulatory headlines. Our discussion...
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3526: TinyMCE and the Human Side of Developer Experience
Tech Talks Daily
What does it really mean to support developers in a world where the tools are getting smarter, the expectations are higher, and the human side of technology is easier to forget? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Frédéric Harper, Senior Developer Relations Manager at TinyMCE, for a thoughtful conversation about what it takes to serve developer communities with credibility, empathy, and long-term intent. With more than twenty years in the tech industry, Fred’s career spans hands-on web development, open source advocacy, and senior DevRel roles at companies including...
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3525: iBanFirst and the Shift Toward Specialist Fintechs for Global Payments
Tech Talks Daily
What does it really take to build a fintech company that quietly fixes one of the most frustrating problems SMEs face every day? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Pierre-Antoine Dusoulier, the Founder and CEO of iBanFirst, for a candid conversation about entrepreneurship, timing, and why cross-border payments have remained broken for so long. Pierre-Antoine’s story begins in London, where his early career as an FX trader felt like a compromise at the time, yet quietly gave him a front-row seat to inefficiencies most people accepted as normal. That experience...
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3524: Trust, Verification, and Ownership in the Age of AI, with eSentire’s Alexander Feick
Tech Talks Daily
What happens when artificial intelligence moves faster than our ability to understand, verify, and trust it? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Alexander Feick from eSentire, a cybersecurity veteran who has spent more than a decade working at the intersection of complex systems, risk, and emerging technology. Alex leads eSentire Labs, where his team explores how new technologies can be secured before they quietly become load-bearing parts of modern business infrastructure. Our conversation centers on a timely and uncomfortable reality. AI is being embedded into workflows,...
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3523: From Chaos to Clarity, Valiantys on Making AI Work for Developers
Tech Talks Daily
How much value do your developers actually get to deliver in a typical week, and how much of their time is quietly lost to meetings, context hunting, and process drag? I’m joined by Phil Heijkoop, Global Practice Head of Developer Experience at Valiantys, for a conversation that cuts through the hype surrounding AI and asks a harder question about why so many engineering teams still struggle to see meaningful returns. Phil argues that most organizations are only unlocking a small fraction of a developer’s true contribution, not because of a lack of talent, but because process drag...
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3522: Building the Future of Money at Gnosis With Dr. Friederike Ernst
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3521: What ABB Is Seeing Across Global Industrial Energy Systems
Tech Talks Daily
In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I’m joined by Stuart Thompson, President of ABB’s Electrification Service Division, to explore the intersection of industrial sustainability, energy security, and cutting-edge technology. As industries face growing energy demands and climate targets, Stuart explains how companies can modernize their infrastructure to drive efficiency, reduce carbon footprints, and stay ahead of the energy curve. Navigating the Industrial Sustainability Challenge We start by addressing the urgent need for industries to rethink their energy and carbon...
info_outlineHow much value do your developers actually get to deliver in a typical week, and how much of their time is quietly lost to meetings, context hunting, and process drag?
I’m joined by Phil Heijkoop, Global Practice Head of Developer Experience at Valiantys, for a conversation that cuts through the hype surrounding AI and asks a harder question about why so many engineering teams still struggle to see meaningful returns.
Phil argues that most organizations are only unlocking a small fraction of a developer’s true contribution, not because of a lack of talent, but because process drag slowly squeezes out deep, focused work. AI, he explains, does not fix this by default. Without the right foundations in place, it simply accelerates the wrong work at scale.
We explore the long shadow cast by the “move fast and break things” mindset and why that philosophy becomes risky inside regulated, enterprise environments where resilience and trust matter more than speed alone. Phil shares what he sees when organizations chase shiny new tooling while ignoring technical debt, unclear standards, and fragile workflows.
From protecting uninterrupted time for deep work to automating manual friction points and setting shared guardrails, he outlines how teams can realistically unlock three to five times more output before AI even enters the picture. Only then, he says, does AI act as a multiplier rather than a source of chaos.
The conversation also digs into developer experience as a business lever, not a perk, and why leadership clarity, cultural trust, and consistent standards matter as much as tooling choices. We discuss the growing risks in the software supply chain, the sustainability of open source dependencies, and what recent high-profile retirements signal for enterprise teams that depend on them.
If AI is accelerating your organization in the wrong direction, what foundational changes would you need to make today to ensure it amplifies value instead of friction, and how honest are you willing to be about what is really slowing your teams down?
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