Curiosity belongs in the AI-first SDLC

Ted Lasso made this alleged Walt Whitman quote famous. "Be curious, not Judgmental."

Last Week Christine Babowicz and Danny Ahuja made it practical at North Carolina Technology Association (NC TECH)'s Brews + Bytes + Insights event at the Metlife Global Technology Hub.

Christine echoed a sentiment I often laud: Leadership is showing up with good questions, not all the answers. Danny quoted Ted Lasso here and noted that you can only improve upon a task after you truly understand it - by doing it or spending time with those who do.

The more we talk about AI shifting from assisting people to AI acting independently, the more this matters. Requirements, SOPs, even interviews rarely document the whole truth. Immersion is key.

Of course, they're all valuable resources. But often, the important details live between the lines: the exception someone handles without thinking, the calls that never make it into the documentation, and the reason the process looks strange from the outside to begin with. Curiosity uncovers that context.

In a sufficiently complex organization, no single team or role sees the whole picture. Working with stakeholders in each of those silos becomes essential for capturing the whole story, which is necessary when developing AI automation responsibly - something Christine was quick to point out.

Maybe thats the real opportunity in an AI-first SDLC: not just build faster, but learn more deeply - ask better questions, find the missing context, and design with a fuller view of the problem.

AI helps us move really fast. It's up to us to use our curiosity to make sure that speed solves the right problems.

Barbeque sauce.