Progressive Delivery

AI kicked my SaaS the Human Connection Moat For thirty years, the "build versus buy" debate was the persistent game of tetherball in the CTO’s office. It was a rational, if often heated, accounting exercise. On one side: the allure of ultimate control—software tailored perfectly to your unique business logic, free from the constraints of a vendor’s roadmap. On the other: the pragmatic realization that recreating wheels is a waste of talent.

AI kicked my SaaS

the Human Connection Moat For thirty years, the "build versus buy" debate was the persistent game of tetherball in the CTO’s office. It was a rational, if often heated, accounting exercise. On one side: the allure of ultimate control—software tailored perfectly to your unique…

Dampening the Jerk: Why AI-Powered e13n is good for UX We’ve all felt it. You wake up, open an app you use every day, and suddenly the "Buy" button is gone, replaced by a "Shopping Bag" icon buried in a sub-menu. Or perhaps the checkout flow you could navigate in your sleep now requires three extra clicks. In physics, the rate of change in acceleration is called Jerk.  In software development, Technological Jerk is that jarring, motion-sick feeling users experience when the product changes faster than their ability to adapt.

Dampening the Jerk: Why AI-Powered e13n is good for UX

We’ve all felt it. You wake up, open an app you use every day, and suddenly the "Buy" button is gone, replaced by a "Shopping Bag" icon buried in a sub-menu. Or perhaps the checkout flow you could navigate in your sleep now requires three…

A short video describing the essentials of Progressive Delivery as a concept.

A short video describing the essentials of Progressive Delivery as a concept.

How to Sunset a Feature (and Keep Your Users) When we talk to teams about Progressive Delivery they are often most interested in learning how they can move faster without introducing technological jerk for their users. They want to innovate, but realize they also want to build the right thing for the right people at the right time.  We love this.  However it's also worth mentioning there is an upside down world to product delivery.

How to Sunset a Feature (and Keep Your Users)

When we talk to teams about Progressive Delivery they are often most interested in learning how they can move faster without introducing technological jerk for their users. They want to innovate, but realize they also want to build the right thing for…

Navigating the Tech Jerks of 2025: A Snapshot of Acceleration in Action We’ve always been fascinated by the concept of the “tech jerk”—that sudden, often uncomfortable change in the acceleration of a product or service that disrupts the user’s experience. Borrowed from physics, where jerk describes a change in acceleration (think of a lurching elevator or a car braking too hard), the term perfectly captures how poorly managed technological change can leave users feeling disoriented, frustrated, or even abandoned.

Navigating the Tech Jerks of 2025: A Snapshot of Acceleration in Action

We’ve always been fascinated by the concept of the “tech jerk”—that sudden, often uncomfortable change in the acceleration of a product or service that disrupts the user’s experience. Borrowed from physics, where jerk…

The Progressive Delivery Manifesto One of the interesting problems of being immersed in something for years is that it feels really obvious to you. The curse of knowledge is real. So we were really excited to give a talk at IT Revolution's conference, the Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit. It gave us a chance to lay out our vision of what Progressive Delivery is, and what it may be in the future.

Video and transcript of our talk from ETLS, on the basic concepts of Progressive Delivery, radical delegation, and adding users to the DevOps loop.

The Progressive Delivery Manifesto One of the interesting problems of being immersed in something for years is that it feels really obvious to you. The curse of knowledge is real. So we were really excited to give a talk at IT Revolution's conference, the Enterprise Technology Leadership Summit. It gave us a chance to lay out our vision of what Progressive Delivery is, and what it may be in the future.

Video and transcript of our talk from ETLS, on the basic concepts of Progressive Delivery, radical delegation, and adding users to the DevOps loop.

Alone or Lonely? When we're making software, it's easy to have our hearts and minds focused on The Next Thing, the new hardware that will support it, the rate of adoption. But it's worth remembering that you may have devoted customers who are not going to install your new things right away. They're worth listening to.

Alone or Lonely?

When we're making software, it's easy to have our hearts and minds focused on The Next Thing, the new hardware that will support it, the rate of adoption. But it's worth remembering that you may have devoted customers who are not going to install your new things right away.…

Alone or Lonely? When we're making software, it's easy to have our hearts and minds focused on The Next Thing, the new hardware that will support it, the rate of adoption. But it's worth remembering that you may have devoted customers who are not going to install your new things right away. They're worth listening to.

Alone or Lonely?

When we're making software, it's easy to have our hearts and minds focused on The Next Thing, the new hardware that will support it, the rate of adoption. But it's worth remembering that you may have devoted customers who are not going to install your new things right away.…

Why Progressive Delivery Demands a Frictionless Developer Experience We're deeply invested in the future of software development, specifically how we can deliver exceptional value to users while minimizing risk. That's why we're excited about Dr. Nicole Forsgren and Abi Noda’s new book, Frictionless: How to Outpace Your Competition in the AI Era.

Why Progressive Delivery Demands a Frictionless Developer Experience

We're deeply invested in the future of software development, specifically how we can deliver exceptional value to users while minimizing risk. That's why we're excited about Dr. Nicole Forsgren and Abi Noda’s new book,…

Customization Complications On the surface, letting people have all the customizations anyone has ever asked for seems like a great way to get alignment with what they want. They'll just use the things they need! And maybe they want something they haven't thought to ask for. But that's just the first thought, because the more options a piece of software has, the more work it takes to understand it, and the faster the users need to accept change. The interface gets cluttered. Then it gets horrendous. Then it looks like the administration view of Jira.

Customization Complications

On the surface, letting people have all the customizations anyone has ever asked for seems like a great way to get alignment with what they want. They'll just use the things they need! And maybe they want something they haven't thought to ask for. But that's just the…

Customization Complications On the surface, letting people have all the customizations anyone has ever asked for seems like a great way to get alignment with what they want. They'll just use the things they need! And maybe they want something they haven't thought to ask for. But that's just the first thought, because the more options a piece of software has, the more work it takes to understand it, and the faster the users need to accept change. The interface gets cluttered. Then it gets horrendous. Then it looks like the administration view of Jira.

Customization Complications

On the surface, letting people have all the customizations anyone has ever asked for seems like a great way to get alignment with what they want. They'll just use the things they need! And maybe they want something they haven't thought to ask for. But that's just the…

Progressive Delivery on AgileLnL The following is a transcript from the video. The transcript has been edited for easier reading and organization. Mark (Host): Okay, well thank you everybody for coming today. This is going to be very exciting. Adam is here; he's going to be talking about progressive delivery. Adam's worked with a number of startups and also worked at GitHub, and he can tell you more of the things he's done.

Adam Zimman had a great time talking all things Progressive Delivery on AgileLnL. Check on the recording and the transcript:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/_kIZFI5QJkk?si=27jyylu5M2T9pJPC The following is a transcript from the video.

How feedback loops power progressive software delivery | Datadog Learn how feedback loops powered by observability and automation help developers and platform engineers ship features faster and with greater reliability.

@datadoghq.com we see you. We like what you’re doing.

www.datadoghq.com/blog/feedbac...

@monkchips.com @wiredferret.bsky.social @kimmykimkimber.bsky.social and I would welcome your support.

Vote in the DevOps Dozen! It's beeeeeeeen ONE WEEK since our BOOK RELEASE. (Did I give you an earworm? Please join me in my suffering) We have been nominated as a finalist in the DevOps Dozen competition, along with a strong slate of other new books. We hope you'll vote here on the book that you've gotten the most value from or even the one you're most excited to read, and we…

Vote for us in the DevOps Dozen awards!

@progressivedelivery.com is a finalist in the DevOps Dozen Awards 🎉🤩. This is a community award, so we’d 🧡 your vote!

Read the 📙, cast your 🗳️: apino_techstronggroup_com-dot-mmemails.appspot.com/em_I1fgimEAb...

The Progressive Delivery book released today!
We're very much like proud parents, and we want to show you why.

There I fixed it

The future is now… BOOK LAUNCH DAY BOOK LAUNCH DAY BOOK LAUNCH DAY BOOK LAUNCH DAY BOOK LAUNCH DAY BOOK LAUNCH DAY BOOK LAUNCH DAY

celebrate with friends.

"Art goes into shipping early and often, art that has, until now, been passed on as folklore and campfire stories. _Progressive Delivery_ brings the art of responsibly shipping early and often into the daylight.. Software serves people, not the other way around, & _Progressive Delivery maps out how." -- Kent Beck, author of _Test-Driven Delivery_

TOMORROW IS THE DAY! You'll be able to read/listen to Progressive Delivery at long last.

Want to hear from someone who has already read it? What about our own @kentbeck.com ?

Preorder page: progressivedelivery.com/pre-order-pr...

Consent of the Upgraded Software users, especially in the enterprise, are a captive audience, until they aren't. How do we respect their experience and their capacity to consent?

Swearing at software is a kind of voice command. If only the product team could hear it.

Change comes for us all.

As builders we need to work to reduce the technological jerks for our users, regardless of the century they identify with.

Merry Meet: Monktoberfest and Book Launch Don't let anyone tell you creative collaboration requires co-presence. Last week was the first time in at least 7 years that all four Progressive Delivery authors were in the same place at the same time. In that time, we identified a pattern happening in the world, named it, honed our understanding, and wrote a whole book about it. The Progressive Delivery book releases in just under a month (

Here are some of the things we learned during this project, about each other and about making a book.

A white woman wearing a purple shirt and blue jeans, presenting at a tech conference

Sarah Hines is up. It's been 8 years since she last presented at monktoberfest, an all time classic talk. She is presenting on resilience today. This talk is excellent. Rehearse Recovery, not panic.

Celebrate boring deploys. Amen.

Progressive Delivery Audiobook Sample YouTube video by IT Revolution

If you have trouble sitting down to read work-related books, may I suggest audiobooks?

Here's a sample of the upcoming Progressive Delivery book.

youtu.be/nCySyDppqLU?...

Pre-order here: progressivedelivery.com/pre-order-pr...

DORA and Progressive Delivery The DORA 2025 report covers the second year of the AI revolution, and what it means for organizational transformation. This post is the Progressive Delivery take-aways.

DORA and Progressive Delivery

The DORA 2025 report covers the second year of the AI revolution, and what it means for organizational transformation. This post is the Progressive Delivery take-aways.

Progressive Delivery starts with abundance In a pervasive software world, the problem for both companies and users is not a lack of data, it’s a lack of metadata handles that allow us to manipulate the data in a useful and usable way.

Progressive Delivery starts with abundance

In a pervasive software world, the problem for both companies and users is not a lack of data, it’s a lack of metadata handles that allow us to manipulate the data in a useful and usable way.

The books are real! Advance copies of the Progressive Delivery book have arrived, and they smell like the start of school and learning cool new stuff.

The books are real!

Advance copies of the Progressive Delivery book have arrived, and they smell like the start of school and learning cool new stuff.