This week we're joined by Dana Lawson, CTO at Netlify. We talk about her journey from the US Army to leading engineering teams at companies like GitHub, New Relic, and now Netlify. We discuss Netlify's evolution from JAMstack to AI-powered developer tools, including Agent Runners and their MCP server. We also explore the concept of "Agent Experience" (AX) as a new paradigm alongside UX and DX, and how hiring practices are evolving in the age of AI.

Netlify: https://www.netlify.com/
Agent Experience Hub: https://www.netlify.com/agent-experience/
agentexperience.ax: https://agentexperience.ax/
Agent Runners: https://www.netlify.com/platform/agent-runners/
Netlify MCP Server: https://docs.netlify.com/build/build-with-ai/netlify-mcp-server/
Dana on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dglawson/
Dana's LeadDev Profile: https://leaddev.com/community/dana-lawson
Dana's UXDX Profile: https://uxdx.com/profile/dana-lawson/

00:00:00 Introduction
00:05:20 Transition to Leadership
00:10:03 Netlify's Evolution and Future
00:30:14 Architectural Practices and Intuitive Systems
00:32:57 Netlify's AI Offerings and Agent Runners
00:42:38 MCP Servers and Creating Seamless AX
00:45:37 Evolving Hiring Practices in the AI Era

devtools-fm

Dana Lawson, CTO at Netlify, discusses her unconventional path into tech through the US Army, the evolution of Netlify from Jamstack to AI-powered deployment, and the concept of "agent experience" as a new paradigm alongside developer and user experience. She introduces Netlify's Agent Runners feature that enables rapid iteration by integrating coding agents directly into the deployment workflow, allowing non-technical users to make changes through AI prompts. The conversation covers how AI is reshaping developer roles, hiring practices, and the expanding definition of who can build software.

Dana Lawson - Netlify