Be Useful — And Pivot: Cory House on Specialization, AI, and Staying Valuable

Inside Microsoft’s Secret to Scaling New Ideas W/ Taylor Black

What does it really take to turn bold ideas into real impact inside one of the world’s largest technology companies? In this episode of Engineering in the Loop, Alec Harrison sits down with Taylor Black, Director of AI & Venture Ecosystems in the Office of the CTO at Microsoft, to unpack how internal incubators actually work — and why most innovation efforts fail before they ever ship. Taylor leads Microsoft’s internal incubation studio, where early-stage, high-risk ideas are tested, validated, and scaled into products capable of generating hundreds of millions — and eventually billions — in revenue. Unlike traditional startups, these ventures must meet Microsoft-scale expectations while navigating enterprise constraints, long buying cycles, and strategic alignment across product groups. In this conversation, we cover: * What makes an idea “Microsoft-sized” (and why most aren’t) * How internal incubators de-risk innovation before product teams invest * Why $1B in revenue within five years is the bar — not the exception * The biggest mistakes founders make when starting companies * When not to take venture capital (and why most founders do it too early) * How AI agents will reshape work far beyond chat interfaces * Why the future may include one-person billion-dollar companies Whether you’re an engineer, founder, product leader, or innovation executive, this episode offers a rare, inside look at how venture-style thinking works inside a global enterprise — and what you can learn from it.

AI, Turkey, and Catching Up

In this episode Alec and Brian talk about AI, turkey, and AI turkey?

From 11 Nested For-Loops to AI-Driven Engineering — A Conversation with Zure CEO Sakari Nahi

Alec welcomes Sakari Nahi, CEO of Zure, for a fun and thoughtful discussion that spans 25 years of tech evolution. Sakari shares how a single C# book jump-started his career, why he left a job he didn’t love to found a cloud-native consultancy, and what it’s like building a people-first engineering culture across multiple countries. The two dig into real AI use cases that actually work today—vector search, customer service automation, field-tech knowledge retrieval—and explore how spec-driven development and tools like GitHub Copilot are transforming the way teams build software. They also get honest about shadow IT, geopolitics affecting cloud decisions, the future of Power Platform, and why AI feels “magical” even without AGI. Whether you’re a developer, leader, or just AI-curious, this episode is packed with relatable stories and practical perspectives.

Be Useful — And Pivot: Cory House on Specialization, AI, and Staying Valuable

Cory House (Pluralsight/DomeTrain author and principal at ReactJS Consulting) shares the story of going “all-in” on JavaScript/React and how that focus grew into a successful independent consulting and training career. We dig into the tradeoffs of deep specialization vs breadth, how to spot real opportunities, and the “two-way door” idea for tech career moves. Cory also walks through his current pivot: using AI as a developer accelerator (how teams use it, where it helps most, what to watch out for) and how experimentation today — while tooling is cheap and rapidly evolving — is valuable. Along the way we surface mindset lessons (Cal Newport, Carol Dweck), how to balance giving away content vs paid courses, and practical tips for auditors/consultants trying to scale their impact. Guest: Cory House — https://www.bitnative.com/ · Consulting & training: https://www.reactjsconsulting.com/ · Courses: Dometrain (TypeScript: Getting Started / Deep Dive) · YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@housecor · X: https://x.com/housecor · GitHub: https://github.com/coryhouse · DevOpsDays Des Moines (speaker): https://devopsdays.org/events/2025-des-moines/welcome/ · Podcast: https://eitl.ai/podcast/ · Books: So Good They Can’t Ignore You (Cal Newport), Mindset (Carol Dweck)

Certs, Copilot, and Code: From Microsoft Learn to Speech-to-Infrastructure

Alec Harrison and Brian Gorman return from a short break to talk all things certifications, Copilot, and the curious evolution of learning with AI. Alec shares his experience taking Microsoft’s new Applied Skills exams for Copilot Studio, while Brian gives some veteran insight into two decades of Microsoft certifications and how the new role-based system compares. They debate whether AI tools are replacing junior engineers, discuss what makes modular Infrastructure as Code essential, and riff on the future of “speech-to-IaC” — where voice meets automation. Plus, Brian shares his own upcoming video course and gives pragmatic advice for anyone chasing their next cert. 👉 Explore Microsoft Learn’s Applied Skills here: https://learn.microsoft.com/credentials/applied-skills 🎧 Listen, comment, and tell us: Is modular Bicep overkill, or best practice? #EngineerInTheLoop #Azure #AI #Copilot #MicrosoftLearn #Bicep #Terraform #Certifications