Customer Obsessed Engineering | Zac Beckman | Substack

How to use a playbook

Even engineering teams need a playbook, just like a sports league or an elite operations unit. Here’s how having a playbook transforms your team.

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Staying productive by taking time to recuperate

Mar 12, 2024 • Zac Beckman

Why being a hero isn’t great – Don't stagger from crisis to crisis, be a leader!

Dec 24, 2023 • Zac Beckman

I can predict the success or failure of any project (and so can you)

Sep 18, 2024 • Zac Beckman

The balancing power of TDD: finding the sweet spot between design and testing

May 20, 2025 • Zac Beckman

The Delivery Playbook

3.6 Specification

Before coding we need to make sure our design has enough fidelity. Specification is about adding those details, the happy paths as well as the failure…

Jan 28

Engineering models eliminate mistakes & complexity, ensure better testing & reliability, and improve collaboration & understanding.

Dec 29, 2025 • Zac Beckman

How to use a playbook

Even engineering teams need a playbook, just like a sports league or an elite operations unit. Here’s how having a playbook transforms your team.

Aug 14, 2025 • Zac Beckman

3.4 Tactical event storming

Tactical event storming adds fidelity to your business processes and event maps. It extends your "line of sight" down into the technical design while…

Jul 3, 2025 • Zac Beckman

3.3 Identify product increment

Choosing what to build next is often hard. How do you balance a small, fast-moving feature with making a big impact? How can it be “feature complete…

May 22, 2025 • Zac Beckman

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Elevate Your Career

How to fix a $25 bug before it becomes a $37,500 problem

Stop debugging and start designing by "shifting left" with BDD. It's not about testing. It's about feedback loops and thinking clearly about intent…

Jan 24 • Zac Beckman

Transform your standups and retros: intention matters more than status updates

Do you try to skip your standup? Or feel like retros are a waste of time? Then your team isn’t doing it right. Here's my formula for giving your team…

Jan 14 • Zac Beckman

Data pipelines are really cool. But also, really hard to build.

Data pipelines pose challenges we should all master. They push the limits on design, architecture, performance and even predicting the future.

Dec 3, 2025 • Zac Beckman

Why only testing use cases just isn’t enough; here’s how to do it right

Traditional unit tests are setting you up for production failures. Here's a path to a better launch experience: use property-based testing to build…

Sep 22, 2025 • Zac Beckman

8 ways you'll distinguish yourself and achieve more

8 tips for outperforming and excelling in everything you do — learned from a lifetime of working in tech, living, and being human.

Aug 26, 2025 • Zac Beckman

Design Thinking

Part 3: Refining our data pipeline architecture to solve a few hidden challenges

Ensuring scalability, reliability and responsiveness pose interesting problems in distributed architecture. Here’s how to build a forward-looking…

Jan 8 • Zac Beckman

Part 2: Steel thread first: a practical data pipeline architecture

Learn how to build a sound data pipeline architecture, from the ground up, using an iterative approach that ships fast and scales.

Dec 22, 2025 • Zac Beckman

Data pipelines are really cool. But also, really hard to build.

Data pipelines pose challenges we should all master. They push the limits on design, architecture, performance and even predicting the future.

Dec 3, 2025 • Zac Beckman

If you’re not using “declarative teams," you have only an illusion of control

Shifting from "how to do it" to "what’s the outcome" transforms your productivity, reduces complexity, and makes your systems reliable.

Aug 31, 2025 • Zac Beckman

DevSecOps

Why you need a Zero Trust Architecture (and how to get one)

Shifting from “trust but verify” to simply “never trust, always verify” is the only safe path. Here’s why, plus, a step-by-step plan to get it done.

Apr 17, 2025 • Zac Beckman and Will Yang

Ephemeral environments are the best way to fight “‘waste gremlins”

Save yourself from hundreds of hours of unnecessary work and headaches. Ephemeral environments are the key.

Nov 17, 2024 • Zac Beckman

Planning ahead with an AI readiness plan: How AI will impact software development and security

The upsurge in AI tools is changing software development. But is it for the better, or the worse? This detailed plan makes sure your team, your Delivery…

Nov 1, 2024 • Zac Beckman

When should you think about security?

Security doesn't have to be a pain. Don't put your whole project in jeopardy. Adopt a "security first" mindset from day one with this 3 step plan.

Sep 27, 2024 • Zac Beckman

Passing Thoughts

What happens when the next developer has to understand your AI code?

This study into the long-term cost of AI-driven development reveals some surprising findings. Most other studies only examine short-term outcomes. But…

Jan 30 • Zac Beckman

Happy holidays, good luck, don't work too hard

Burnout is a thing. Don't forget to recharge.

Dec 14, 2025 • Zac Beckman

How simplicity & flexibility give you leverage. Plus, "safe AI practices."

Creating code that's a multiplier, making you move faster, is your key to success. That's the convergence of simplicity & flexibility. Plus, Zach Daniel…

Jul 31, 2025 • Zac Beckman

AI “solution” exposes millions of personal information records

An AI chatbot's inadequate security implementation went into production, putting at risk the personal information of millions of McDonald's job…

Jul 21, 2025 • Zac Beckman

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Recent posts

What happens when the next developer has to understand your AI code?

This study into the long-term cost of AI-driven development reveals some surprising findings. Most other studies only examine short-term outcomes. But…

Jan 30 • Zac Beckman

3.6 Specification

Before coding we need to make sure our design has enough fidelity. Specification is about adding those details, the happy paths as well as the failure…

Jan 28

How to fix a $25 bug before it becomes a $37,500 problem

Stop debugging and start designing by "shifting left" with BDD. It's not about testing. It's about feedback loops and thinking clearly about intent…

Jan 24 • Zac Beckman

Transform your standups and retros: intention matters more than status updates

Do you try to skip your standup? Or feel like retros are a waste of time? Then your team isn’t doing it right. Here's my formula for giving your team…

Jan 14 • Zac Beckman

Customer Obsessed Engineering

Customer Obsessed Engineering

Elevate your career, execute with confidence, and build your customer obsessed mindset. Advice from an ex-Accenture Director, startup veteran, CTO.

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