Software engineering has developed powerful tools for observability, data management, and continuous testing,

but hardware engineering has largely not kept pace. The feedback loops, tooling, and infrastructure

that software engineers take for granted simply do not exist in most hardware programs.

Nominal is a data platform built to help hardware organizations move at the

same speed as software teams. It manages the hardware data supply chain end-to-end, from ingesting

high-frequency sensor data off physical assets to enabling real-time control room monitoring,

post-test analysis, and simulation correlation. Jason Hawke is the co-founder

and CEO of Nominal, and he has a background spanning distributed data systems at Palantir and

Cloud Infrastructure at Vercell. In this episode, Jason joins Kevin Ball to discuss why

hardware engineering has lagged so far behind software in tooling and

observability. The unique data challenges of working with high-frequency time series sensor data,

how nominal handles both real-time control room workflows and post-test analysis,

why AI agents are transforming software development but have not yet made the same leap in hardware,

and what it would take to close that gap. Kevin Ball, or K. Ball, is the vice president of

engineering at Mento and an independent coach for engineers and engineering leaders. He co-founded

and served as CTO for two companies, founded the San Diego JavaScript meetup, and organizes the

AI inaction discussion group through latent space. Check out the show notes to follow Kball

on Twitter or LinkedIn or visit his website, k to the show.

Thanks for having me, Kevin.

Yeah, I'm excited.

It's going to be fun to talk with you because this subject area of hardware and hardware testing is like a slant for me.

It's like real close to what I do,

...