Transforming Dev Practices with Kiro’s Spec-Driven Tools | Nikhil and Richard

The AI Native Dev - from Copilot today to AI Native Software Development tomorrow

Rapid prototyping is fun, but maintaining it? Not so much.
In this episode, Simon Maple is joined by Nikhil Swaminathan, Head of Product and Richard Threlkeld, Principal Engineer at Kiro IDE (AWS), to discuss how spec-driven development moves the focus from writing code to understanding and communicating system behavior, building software that is easy to understand so that developers can maintain code without losing clarity.
They also explore:
• Kiro’s philosophy on spec-driven development
• why specs must be composable documents
• how specs enable better review and reasoning around refactors
AI Native Dev, powered by Tessl and our global dev community, is your go-to podcast for solutions in software development in the age of AI. Tune in as we engage with engineers, founders, and open-source innovators to talk about all things AI, security, and development.
Connect with us here:
1. Richard Threlkeld- https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-threlkeld-ba31aa1/
2. Nikhil Swaminathan- https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilswaminathan/
3. Simon Maple- https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonmaple/
4. Tessl- https://www.linkedin.com/company/tesslio/
5. AI Native Dev- https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ai-native-dev/

Join the AI Native Dev Community on Discord: https://tessl.co/4ghikjh
Ask us questions: [email protected]

Chapters

1. Trailer (00:00:00)

2. Introduction (00:01:06)

3. A stream of consciousness (00:03:25)

4. Specifications (00:08:46)

5. Live demo (00:18:17)

6. Context LSP (00:46:01)

7. Dev touching code? (00:48:18)

8. Spec life cycles (00:49:18)

9. MCP servers (00:50:10)

10. Journey of learning specs (00:52:41)

11. TDD flow (00:55:51)

12. Tasks vs requirements (00:59:35)

13. The next step (01:01:18)

14. Build update (01:05:04)

15. Advice (01:08:03)

16. Outro (01:08:56)