GROW by Good Combinator

From copilot to autonomous: place your system on the continuum of autonomy. In Lesson 3.5 of GROW Course 3 (Production Agentic Systems), Doug Liles works through it with you. A map for choosing the right autonomy level for a given workflow. What you'll take away - The continuum - Copilot mode - Supervised autonomy Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (3:30) The continuum (7:01) Copilot...

The thin front-end touchpoints that make an agent usable, not just callable. In Lesson 3.4 of GROW Course 3 (Production Agentic Systems), Doug Liles works through it with you. The minimum front-end surface that turns a capable agent into an adopted one. What you'll take away - Usable vs. callable - The thin client - Surfacing state Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (6:01) Usable vs....

Stand up a production FastAPI backend for an agent service. In Lesson 3.3 of GROW Course 3 (Production Agentic Systems), Doug Liles works through it with you. A working FastAPI backend pattern you can extend into a real service. What you'll take away - Why FastAPI - Project layout - Routing and validation Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (6:00) Why FastAPI (12:00) Project layout (18...

Design APIs an agent can actually call: contracts, idempotency, and error surfaces. In Lesson 3.2 of GROW Course 3 (Production Agentic Systems), Doug Liles works through it with you. API design rules that make your service safe for an autonomous caller. What you'll take away - Designing for an agent caller - Contracts - Idempotency Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (5:16) Designing f...

The Python discipline that separates a notebook hack from production agent code. In Lesson 3.1 of GROW Course 3 (Production Agentic Systems), Doug Liles works through it with you. The production-Python habits that keep agent code maintainable under change. What you'll take away - Notebook vs. production - Structure and typing - Errors and retries Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (5:...

Live discovery sim: walk out with a Pyramid memo, a Boundaries Map, and a spec sketch. In Lesson 2.9 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. The Three-Artifact Doctrine, demonstrated end to end on a live discovery simulation. What you'll take away - The simulation setup - Discovery in real time - The Pyramid memo Chapters (0:00) Cold open & t...

Automate vs. human judgment: LoA, HITL/HOTL/HOOTL, and reading deferral signals. In Lesson 2.8 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. A decision frame for what to automate, what to gate, and what to leave to a human. What you'll take away - Levels of Autonomy - HITL / HOTL / HOOTL - Deferral signals Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (7...

Quantify the Cost of Inaction and wield the Scope Knife against gold-plating. In Lesson 2.7 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. A way to size the real cost of doing nothing and a kill-criterion that stops scope creep. What you'll take away - Cost of Inaction - Sizing the status quo - The Scope Knife Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise...

Name the System of Record before you build: the canonical-write and silence tests. In Lesson 2.6 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. Two tests that tell you which system is authoritative — before you wire anything to it. What you'll take away - Record vs. Reference - The canonical-write test - The silence test Chapters (0:00) Cold open &...

Translate business language into Jira-ready specs: user stories, AC, DoD, INVEST. In Lesson 2.5 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. A translation method that turns a sponsor's words into specs engineers can build. What you'll take away - The translation gap - User stories - Acceptance criteria Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (...

Answer first: structure any exec memo with SCQA and the Pyramid Principle. In Lesson 2.4 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. An answer-first memo structure executives can absorb in minutes. What you'll take away - Answer-first thinking - SCQA setup - Building the pyramid Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (6:08) Answer-first thinking...

Break a vague AI strategy into MECE pieces: three levels, twelve leaves, no overlaps.  In Lesson 2.3 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. A MECE decomposition you can run on any fuzzy strategy ask.  What you'll take away - What MECE means - The three-level rule - The max-twelve-leaves rule  Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (7:40)...

Run the 5-Whys ladder on a real claims-denial case and find the problem under the problem. In Lesson 2.2 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. A repeatable discovery-call structure that gets to root cause instead of the stated symptom. What you'll take away - The stated problem - The 5-Whys ladder - BlueRidge claims-denial case Chapters (0:00)...

Why 77% of AI agent pilots die from non-technical causes — and the Soft Stack. In Lesson 2.1 of GROW Course 2 (Discovery & Communication), Doug Liles works through it with you. The five Soft Stack disciplines, framed as engineering work rather than 'people skills.' What you'll take away - Why pilots really die - The five disciplines - Stakeholder Cartography Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the...

The three capabilities — engineer, consultant, product owner — that define an FDE. In Lesson 1.2 of GROW Course 1 (Forward Deployed Engineer Foundations), Doug Liles works through it with you: the Trinity model and an honest self-assessment of where your edges and gaps are. What you'll take away The Trinity model Engineer edge Consultant edge Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (7:00) The Trin...

Land, Expand, Scale, Embed: the loop that turns one pilot into an owned account. In Lesson 1.3 of GROW Course 1 (Forward Deployed Engineer Foundations), Doug Liles works through it with you: the four-stage loop and the signal that tells you it is time to move to the next stage. What you'll take away The four stages Land Expand Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (7:12) The four stages (14:24)...

From signed pilot to Day-2 ownership: the full FDE implementation lifecycle. In Lesson 1.4 of GROW Course 1 (Forward Deployed Engineer Foundations), Doug Liles works through it with you: the end-to-end lifecycle map so you always know which phase you are actually in. What you'll take away The lifecycle map Pilot Build Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (5:40) The lifecycle map (11:20) Pilot (...

Pick the one workflow worth automating first — and ignore the rest. In Lesson 1.6 of GROW Course 1 (Forward Deployed Engineer Foundations), Doug Liles works through it with you: a selection test for the first workflow so you do not boil the ocean. What you'll take away Why narrow wins The selection test Saying no to the rest Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (6:26) Why narrow wins (12:53) Th...

The personal operating system an FDE runs to stay senior at speed. In Lesson 1.7 of GROW Course 1 (Forward Deployed Engineer Foundations), Doug Liles works through it with you: a working set of habits and tooling that keeps you senior as the work accelerates. What you'll take away Why a personal OS Capture and context Tooling and routing Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (6:13) Why a persona...

Put Foundations together: position yourself as an FDE in one artifact. In Lesson 1.8 of GROW Course 1 (Forward Deployed Engineer Foundations), Doug Liles works through it with you: a single positioning artifact that proves you understand the role end to end. What you'll take away The capstone brief Synthesizing the Trinity Your positioning artifact Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (7:00) Th...

Why the best FDEs act like founders inside someone else's company. In Lesson 1.5 of GROW Course 1 (Forward Deployed Engineer Foundations), Doug Liles works through it with you: the ownership posture that separates an FDE from a staff-aug contractor. What you'll take away Owner vs. contractor The founder posture Owning the outcome Chapters (0:00) Cold open & the promise (7:38) Owner vs. contractor...

Why the collapsing cost of intelligence rewrites who builds — and what an FDE actually is. In Lesson 1.1 of GROW Course 1 (Forward Deployed Engineer Foundations), Doug Liles works through it with you: a clear definition of the Forward Deployed Engineer role and the economic shift that created it. What you'll take away The cost-of-intelligence shift What a Forward Deployed Engineer is Why the role...