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Rob Yates

I write about running a software factory: how we set up coding agents at Grove, what they need from a spec, and how we check what they build.

Fifteen years in AI, including leading more than 180 engineers as Watson Assistant scaled to hundreds of millions of users.

1 post since November 2026

Posts by Rob

  • Five steps of the software factory as boxes of different heights: the what, coding agents, testing, PR review and product review. One stream of work runs through all of them, only as tall as the shortest box. PR review is the shortest and caps the stream; the what and testing are close behind. Coding agents has the most room. The stream is labelled throughput.

    Building with agents · 9 min read

    Grove’s software factory

    Coding agents sped up the writing of code, not the factory. Below we outline the main bottlenecks we have seen and what we have done to mitigate them.

More from the blog

  • A card headed What and why, with four people beside it, above a dark panel headed How, with one person and plan mode on. An arrow runs from what and why down to how.

    Building with agents · 4 min read

    Claude Code plan mode isn’t a full plan

    Plan mode in your coding agent plans how to build, not what you’re building or why. Don’t wing it in Claude Code or Cursor. Plan the what and the why first.

    Blake McGregor ·

  • A feature PRD beside three project plans. Each project listed in the PRD leads to its own plan, made of outcomes, rules and UI.

    How we work · 6 min read

    A PRD template for coding agents

    The typical PRD was written for a team that talks. For coding agents, keep it for the whole feature, then break it into small projects. PRD template included.

    Blake McGregor ·

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