How to convert 20-year-tenure engineers to AI-native development before deciding who to retrain
alex_verem · x · 2026-10-16
An operating partner shares a playbook for modernizing engineering teams at acquired 20-year-old software companies. Instead of deciding early to retrain, restructure, or replace engineers, they run an AI Velocity Pod (one full-time engineer plus a fractional architect and analyst) that joins the existing backlog and ships on the team's own codebase. Tenured engineers then rotate into the pod one at a time to learn by doing, bringing valuable codebase knowledge. Key claim: you can't judge adaptability until engineers have seen and practiced AI-native development on their own code.
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