On episode 92 of o11ycast, Ray Myers joins Ken and Jess to explore how observability, reliability engineering, and formal software engineering practices are becoming even more important as AI coding agents take on larger roles in development. Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for established engineering disciplines, Ray argues that techniques like continuous delivery, testing, specifications, and formal verification provide the confidence needed to safely harness AI-generated code.
On episode 91 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Jess Kerr sit down with Janaki Vivrekar. Janaki shares how Amplitude is building AI-powered analytics agents, why evaluation frameworks are becoming essential to AI product development, and how teams can use observability techniques to improve agent performance over time. The conversation explores eval-driven development, production feedback loops, and the challenges of helping AI systems reason about complex business data.
On episode 90 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Jessica “Jess” Kerr speak with Cory Ondrejka. Together, they unpack the rise of agentic AI, the shifting identity of software engineers, and the growing importance of measuring real-world impact. Cory shares his concept of Outcome Engineering and how teams can adapt to a world where building is fast but validation is everything.Come find the Honeycomb team at O11yCon on May 21st!https://events.honeycomb.io/o11yConSF2026Use discount code SFCast2026 for 20% off
On episode 89 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Charity Majors are joined by Bryan Cantrill. They dive into the origins of observability, the realities behind AI productivity gains, and the tension between cloud convenience and infrastructure control. The discussion highlights how major tech shifts often look obvious only in hindsight.
On episode 88 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Jessica Kerr speak with Charity Majors about the shifting role of observability in modern software development. From AI-assisted instrumentation to reducing developer cognitive load, the episode examines how teams can move from reactive monitoring to continuous learning. It’s a deep dive into observability as a sense-making practice, not just a tooling problem.
On episode 87 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Jessica Kerr sit down with Lada Kesseler to explore how experienced engineers can work effectively with AI coding assistants. They discuss why AI feels like a fast, noisy black box, and how patterns like semantic zooming, feedback loops, testing, and observability can help developers stay in control. This episode is a deep dive into using AI without sacrificing clarity, quality, or trust.
In episode 86 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Jessica Kerr sit down with Amarilis Campos from Nubank. They explore how Brazil’s largest digital bank uses observability to build resilience and autonomy at scale. Amarilis shares how Nubank’s culture of “acting like owners, not renters” and its journey from metrics and logs to tracing with Honeycomb helped the company grow to over 100 million customers.
In episode 85 of o11ycast, Dr. Cat Hicks unpacks AI’s impact on software teams from a psychological and social-science perspective. Along with Ken, Jess, and Austin, she explores how AI magnifies long-standing tensions between solitary and collaborative models of development, and how fears about AI often reflect deeper issues like undervaluing collaboration or having unrealistic productivity expectations. The discussion also explores empathy, theory of mind, and pluralistic ignorance, highlighting why developers may prepare more for AI than for each other.
In episode 84 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Martin Thwaites welcome Maddy Montaquila, lead PM for .NET Aspire at Microsoft. This episode dives into the "magic" of Aspire, exploring how it streamlines the developer experience from frictionless app startup to telemetry-rich development. Discover how Aspire makes telemetry a first-class citizen, simplifying debugging and enhancing observability for modern applications.
In episode 83 of o11ycast, the Honeycomb team chats with Dan Ravenstone, the o11yneer. Dan unpacks the crucial, often underappreciated, role of the observability engineer. He discusses how this position champions the user, bridging the gap between technical performance and real-world customer experience. Learn about the challenges of mobile observability, the importance of clear terminology, and how building alliances across an organization drives successful observability practices.
In episode 82 of o11ycast, Ken and Jess chat with Morgante Pell, the visionary behind Grit, an AI-powered agent designed to automate developer toil and technical debt. The discussion covers the evolution of AI in coding, the challenges of building and deploying AI agents, the future of combining code awareness with production awareness, and Grit’s acquisition by Honeycomb.
In episode 81 of o11ycast, Charity Majors and Martin Thwaites dive into a lively discussion with Hazel Weakly and Matt Klein on the evolving landscape of observability. The guests explore the concept of observability versioning, the challenges of cost and ROI, and the future of observability tools, including the potential convergence with AI and business intelligence.
In episode 80 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Jessica Kerr chat with Kent Beck about the emerging world of AI-assisted coding. Beck shares his experiences with "augmented coding," discussing the benefits, challenges, and the evolving relationship between developers and AI agents. They explore how these tools are changing software development practices and what it means for the future of coding.
In episode 79 of o11ycast, Hamel Husain joins the o11ycast crew to discuss the challenges of monitoring AI systems, why off-the-shelf metrics can be misleading, and how error analysis is the key to making AI models more reliable. Plus, insights into how Honeycomb built its Query Assistant and what teams should prioritize when working with AI observability.
Episode 78 of o11ycast examines the world of OpenTelemetry Transformation Language (OTTL) with Tyler Helmuth and Evan Bradley, the maintainers behind this innovative framework. Discover how OTTL enables powerful telemetry data transformations, its practical applications, and what lies ahead for OpenTelemetry's transformative ecosystem.
In episode 77 of o11ycast, Charity, Martin, Ken, and Jess welcome Jeremy Morrell to talk about OpenTelemetry, the future of observability, and how small teams can get started. Jeremy shares stories of debugging breakthroughs, adopting standards, and building tools that help engineers focus on what matters.
In episode 76 of o11ycast, Jessica Kerr and Martin Thwaites speak with Andrew Keller, Principal Engineer at ObservIQ, about the evolving world of telemetry and observability. They explore the role of OpenTelemetry, the groundbreaking Open Agent Management Protocol (OpAMP), and how open standards are shaping the future of data pipelines. Learn how ObservIQ’s innovations help standardize telemetry collection and empower organizations with dynamic, scalable tools for managing their observability ecosystems.
In episode 75 of o11ycast, Daniel Ravenstone and Adriana Villela dive into the challenges of adopting observability and OpenTelemetry in modern organizations. From breaking down vendor loyalty to getting developers to see the value of instrumentation, they explore how to foster a culture of curiosity and collaboration to make observability a core part of development.
In episode 74 of o11ycast, Liudmila Molkova unpacks the importance of semantic conventions in telemetry. The discussion highlights the challenge of agreeing on naming conventions, the role of working groups in maintaining these standards, and the potential for future integration with AI technologies. Liudmila underscores the importance of a shared, vendor-agnostic approach to telemetry, enabling smoother interoperability across platforms.
In episode 73 of o11ycast, Jessica Kerr, Martin Thwaites, and Austin Parker speak with Animesh Koratana, founder and CEO of PlayerZero, about the future of observability with AI. Discover how PlayerZero leverages LLMs to democratize institutional knowledge, improve software quality, and make problem-solving more accessible to all engineers.
Episode 72 of o11ycast explores the world of mobile observability with Hanson Ho, Android Architect at Embrace. Hanson unpacks how mobile's diverse device landscape impacts data collection and performance monitoring, the role of OpenTelemetry in simplifying these challenges, and the importance of tailoring observability strategies to real-world user experiences. Join hosts Charity, Jess, and Austin for this insightful examination of an often overlooked observability niche.
In Episode 71 of o11ycast, Jessica Kerr and Austin Parker sit down with Shir Chorev to delve into the nuances of incorporating Generative AI into applications and testing the outcomes. Shir shares her journey from a data scientist to founding Deepchecks, driven by her vision to enhance the quality and reliability of machine learning and AI in real-world scenarios. Gain valuable insights on how LLMs are reshaping the development landscape, making advanced projects more accessible, and strategies for mitigating adversarial use cases. Whether you're in DevOps, infrastructure, or just passionate a
In episode 70 of o11ycast, Jess and Martin speak with Dan Gomez Blanco of Skyscanner. Dan shares his expertise on evangelizing better observability practices at Skyscanner and offers insights from his experience on the OpenTelemetry governance committee. Discover how observability can minimize organizational costs, the future of auto-instrumentation, and valuable advice on detecting and avoiding over-instrumentation. Plus, learn about the importance of tail sampling and OpenTelemetry’s semantic conventions.
In episode 69 of o11ycast, Jess and Martin speak with Charles Herring of WitFoo. Together they dive deep into the world of cybercrime investigations. Discover the intricate processes of data collection and analysis in the realm of cybersecurity, all while balancing the imperative of cost-effectiveness and citizen privacy.
In episode 68 of o11ycast, Jess and Martin speak with Michele Mancioppi of Dash0. This talk examines what it takes to make observability more accessible to non-experts in the space. Additional topics explored include the differences between monitoring and observability and Michele's shift from staff engineering to product management.
