How Pega Blueprint Changes Who Builds Software

AI is cranking out more code than ever, but that doesn’t mean teams are shipping the right outcomes. From PegaWorld, I sat down with Steph Lewis, Senior Director of Community Developer Programs at Pega Systems, to unpack what’s actually changing for developers, architects, and business stakeholders as AI, agents, and LLMs reshape enterprise delivery. 

We get specific about the Solution Designer role Steph helped build and why it’s showing up now. We talk about Pega Blueprint as a practical way to turn business ideas into a live application earlier, and how that changes the skills teams need across low-code development, workflow automation, and digital transformation. Steph explains why the goal never changes (delivering value), but the day-to-day work does, especially as “hands-on keyboard” tasks shrink and the need to challenge AI outputs grows. 

A big thread is the human edge: judgment, creativity, and the discipline to align what you build with what stakeholders truly need. We dig into the skills gap Steph sees most often, why workshops and real conversations beat passive training, and what sits behind eye-catching outcomes like 80% of projects going live in 90 days. We also zoom out to what Steph wants for the developer community over the next year: guiding architecture decisions, placing Pega in the right spots, and incorporating other agents only when it makes sense. 

If you care about modern software delivery, developer enablement, and the real-world impact of AI on building systems, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a review with your take: what “human skill” will matter most as AI becomes default?

Transcript

Cold Open And Audio Jokes

SPEAKER_00 0:04

You guys should have a sitcom, you know.

unknown 0:08

You would agree. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Um do we have anything else to tell them? I don't have any message. We're good? Yeah, I think we're good. So ready moves.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Okay.

Live From PegaWorld Blockbuster Day

SPEAKER_00 0:17

And we are at Pega World Blockbuster Day, and I'm really excited to wrap up today and the event with Steph from Pega Systems. Steph, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:25

I'm great. How are you, Ann?

SPEAKER_00 0:26

I'm doing great. Really excited for this week, for this day, uh, as a new Pega World attendee.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Yes, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

I had a lot to discover. Before that, how do you introduce yourself and your role and how do you describe Pega Systems?

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Sure.

Steph’s Role Building Practitioner Community

SPEAKER_02 0:40

So Steph Lewis, Senior Director of Community Developer Programs, which basically means I am building a community of practitioners using Pega, making sure that we ensure their success via forums, blog posts, videos, and helping build advocates for Pega so that they can tell our story to their organizations.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Brilliant. And tell me about the solution designer role, something you were instrumental in building.

Why The Solution Designer Role Exists

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yes. What is it? How does it work? And why now?

SPEAKER_02 1:08

I'm really excited. I'm going to kind of start with why now because we've had the traditional roles ever since I think the 80s when we first kind of rolled these out. And we've always talked about and tried to build, you know, we started with DCO, which is design capturing objectives, I think we called it. Basically, we started, you know, really with the technology trying to do what Blueprint actually now can finally do, where you're able to sit down with business people and have business people actually take their ideas and start to build out a live application. But what's really critical in that piece is understanding what Blueprint can do, so that you're building the right thing, but then marrying that with your domain expertise and really unleashing that power. And so we can finally now have solution designers with a tool at the same time. So I think that it's really important because the technology is a point where we can now officially change the roles and the skill sets of people being able to use that tool and being able to provide people a path, a clear path for their own individual career development.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Brilliant. I love that take. And just to insert, try not to tap on the desk. Oh, okay. I think it might interrupt the audio. I'm just guessing, but I'm not sure. So we'll just do that.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Yep, I talked in my hands, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Um no clapping either. I'm that's an inside joke. Um so refining what it means to be a developer, that's a pretty bold, ambitious statement. Uh, how do you think about that?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Um I think that it is how I think about it is AI is I would say that's a really big question. Um very big.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

It's a very big question. But well, let's talk about what's actually changing about the job of uh being a developer.

What AI Changes In Daily Development

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Day to day.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Day to day. So I think day-to-day, the end objective should not change. The end objective should be you want to deliver value for your stakeholders. I think the how what it means to be hands-on keyboard is really changing, right? I think that the skill set that are gonna become more important or what was discussed this morning is going to be the challenging of what AI is producing. It's going to be those judgment calls, it's going to be lining up what was built with the value that you're trying to deliver. So I think the skill set that's really changing is that judgment piece that we haven't talked a lot about in the developer community before because it's all been technical, it's all been about the task, and it really hasn't been about making sure it's the connection to the business. And I think that's really what we're seeing now with these tools.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Oh, that's really interesting.

Humans As The Differentiator In AI

SPEAKER_00 3:51

And everyone's talking about AI writing code, writing more code, uh token maxing, token economics. Um, but PEGA seems to be doubling down on humans.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

What does that mean in this uh hype era of AI coding?

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Um that the humans are the differentiators, right? Because to your point, anybody can build anything now, but it's then you can build it and I can build it. So what's the difference? Right. And I think that's why we're doubling down on the human element because that's going to become more important and that's the differentiator. And something that I've been thinking about a lot is that what AI is doing is it's freeing us up to be able to concentrate more on what we individually bring to the table, our creativity. It's almost, I was talking to uh a BA who's now a solution designer, and he's like, you know, being a developer, like what I build my application, that's my art. Right. And so he's like, now I can actually be freed up to put more of the creativity into my art form rather than just spending all of my time on the actual hands-on keyboard tasks.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Wow, that's amazing. I love that. And you're you talk a lot about training and enablement and skills and the skills gap.

The Skills Gap Stakeholder Alignment

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

In particular, where do you see some of the skills gaps and how are you trying to close those?

SPEAKER_02 5:00

I see the skills gap in getting alignment with the stakeholders and always coming back to that. Again, like not just focusing on the thing that I'm trying to build, but the alignment up front. And that's what we're doubling down on. And it's through not just online courses, it's through workshops, through having those real conversations. I think those are going to be more important than ever because of that judgment and that discipline. It's the human skills that are going to become that are more important. So it's that's why we're doubling down on the workshops. Yes, of course, the technical enablement, but then also the forums, the discussions, the videos to actually really learn from people that are doing that.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

I love that. Learning and people, that that's refreshing.

Blueprint Methodology For 90 Day Launches

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Um, I see you're uh seeing 80% of projects going live in 90 days. That's a huge number. What separates the teams and processes behind hitting that goal and not?

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Um, it's really the methodology. So it's the blueprint delivery methodology and it's the discipline. So it's having the right people with the right skills, knowing how to take it from ideation all the way to production, having that methodology in mind from the get-go and following it.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Yeah, that that's huge. And you also have uh, you know, business people, analysts, and other roles becoming solution designers. That's an interesting career arc. Yep. What does that look like? Uh what's that path in your experience so far?

SPEAKER_02 6:20

In my experience so far, I think there's kind of almost two different types of solution designers. Um, because you will hear some people say, and I believe this, anybody can be a solution designer. You can. You can go into Blueprint and you can go be a solution designer, Evan. You can go do that right after that. I'm sure you all want to do that. But that's a little bit different than solution designers on a project that are ensuring that what you build is going to that high fidelity that can then go into Infinity Studio. So I think that's there is a little bit of a nuance there of what it means to be a solution

Community Feedback And Lightning Speed Progress

SPEAKER_02 6:48

designer.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

And uh, it's really interesting because you're so ahead of the curve, but by talking to this community, what are some of the signals you're getting from them, the feedback you're getting from them? And uh how far ahead of the marketplace do you think you are in terms of all the insight and feedback you're getting from the community? That must be quite an advantage, competitive advantage and differentiator.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

I think it is. I think we're far ahead because we listen to our community members. So I think the other thing that we have to our advantage is we have people that have staked their career on Pega already for 30 years, right? Sure. And we are still embracing them and bringing them along for the ride because they're critically important for this next generation, the whole player coach thing that we talked about this morning as a really important model that we're able to utilize because of our thriving community.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

That's great. Uh and and you've been at Pega for 10 plus years?

SPEAKER_02 7:39

15 years.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

15 years, fantastic. Um, what feels genuinely different now about this moment in time versus all the trends and opportunities you've seen the over the past 15?

SPEAKER_02 7:52

I well, in definitely the pace. What we saw on stage didn't exist two months ago. Of course, yeah. Right? So I think the pace, and again, we've said this before, but I really am seeing it that we were built for this. The fact that we could do this in two months, we've had the center art architecture, we've had the openness, but now to actually truly embrace what's going on with all of the agents, with all of LLMs, and put that into the hands of both uh business people and real technical developers, I see that as a change, but also not that big because we've been talking about it for a long time. That makes sense, but just embracing it at lightning speed, and obviously the tools themselves are just Yeah, it's it's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

It's it's incredible to watch. And you know, if you were to fast forward a year from now, what are you hoping for for the developing community, developer community?

A One Year Vision For Developer Leadership

SPEAKER_00 8:46

What are you aspiring to?

SPEAKER_02 8:48

I'm hoping that they are able to guide organizations helping make the right architecture decisions, which means putting Pega at the right place and then incorporating other agents when it is necessary, not just being able to build them, but really guiding um organizations for those architecture decisions.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Well, you make it sound so simple. I know onwards and upwards. I can't wait to see it next year.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Yep, me

Wrap Up And Thanks

SPEAKER_02 9:10

too.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Thanks so much. Thanks for watching. Great.