Outcome engineering, AI hit pieces, and the end of the backlog
Outcome engineering, AI hit pieces, and the end of the backlog  
Podcast: Dev Interrupted
Published On: Fri Feb 20 2026
Description: Is the traditional engineering backlog officially a thing of the past? Andrew and Ben explore the principles of outcome engineering and how continuous productivity is permanently changing how software gets built. They also examine a busy week of industry news, from Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI to the amusing and bewildering story of a hit piece written by an autonomous AI agent. Finally, the hosts break down the existential crises of Gemini 3 Pro inside a virtual village and why Meta product managers are rebranding themselves as AI builders.Follow the show:Subscribe to our Substack Follow us on LinkedInSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelLeave us a ReviewFollow the hosts:Follow AndrewFollow BenFollow DanFollow today's stories:OpenAI's acquisition of OpenClaw signals the beginning of the end of the ChatGPT eraAn AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on MeOutcome EngineeringThe Drama and Dysfunction of Gemini 2.5 and 3 ProSeveral Meta employees have started calling themselves 'AI builders'OFFERS Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free. Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era. LEARN ABOUT LINEARB AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production. AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance. AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil. MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.