From Rockets to Roadmaps: An Engineer's Guide to Product Success | Sift Stack’s Austin Spiegel

What’s the secret to building better products? Letting engineers drive the vision. This week, host Ben Lloyd Pearson interviews Austin Spiegel, co-founder and CTO of Sift Stack, who previously spent years leading engineering teams at SpaceX. Austin reveals how SpaceX"s unique engineering culture, which eliminated the product management layer,  influenced his approach to building Sift Stack, including the implementation of a forward-deployed engineering team. Learn how this approach leads to faster development cycles, happier customers, and more innovative products. Austin also argues that we"re entering a new era where the most valuable engineers aren"t just skilled coders, but also savvy business thinkers. He believes that as software development becomes easier due to the proliferation of AI, engineers who can connect their technical expertise with a deep understanding of customer needs and market trends will have a significant competitive advantage. Show Notes:2025 Engineering Benchmarks Insights WebinarRead The secret to better products? Let engineers drive visionFollow Sift Stack on LinkedIn Support the show: Subscribe to our Substack Leave us a review Subscribe on YouTube Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Offers: Learn about Continuous Merge with gitStream Get your DORA Metrics free forever