This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Thanos Diacakis about how teams often struggle with software delivery. He proposes a shift in mental models and a four-step framework to systematically improve software development by focusing on bottlenecks, balancing different types of work beyond just feature delivery, and investing 20-30% of effort in improving how the team works.Read a transcript of this interview: http://bit.ly/4gxwKNbSubscribe to the Software Architects’ Newsletter for your monthly guide to the essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies:https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter Upcoming Events:InfoQ Dev Summit Munich (October 15-16, 2025)Essential insights on critical software development priorities.https://devsummit.infoq.com/conference/munich2025QCon San Francisco 2025 (November 17-21, 2025)Get practical inspiration and best practices on emerging software trends directly from senior software developers at early adopter companies.https://qconsf.com/ QCon AI New York 2025 (December 16-17, 2025)https://ai.qconferences.com/QCon London 2026 (March 16-19, 2026)https://qconlondon.com/The InfoQ Podcasts: Weekly inspiration to drive innovation and build great teams from senior software leaders. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:- The InfoQ Podcast https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/ - Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture - Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/ Follow InfoQ:- Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@infoq - X: https://x.com/InfoQ?from=@ - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/infoq/- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InfoQdotcom#- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/infoqdotcom/?hl=en- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/infoq- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/infoq.comWrite for InfoQ: Learn and share the changes and innovations in professional software development.- Join a community of experts.- Increase your visibility.- Grow your career.https://www.infoq.com/write-for-infoq