About the Author

John Macias has spent over two decades in software development, witnessing firsthand the evolution from waterfall to agile, from monoliths to microservices, and now from traditional development to AI-augmented engineering.

Throughout his career, John has worn many hats: developer, tech lead, engineering manager, and product leader. This diverse experience gave him a unique perspective on the "broken telephone" problem that plagues software organizations—the gap between what customers need and what developers build.

The Journey to This Book

The idea for "The Broken Telephone" emerged from years of frustration watching great ideas get lost in translation. John observed how the proliferation of intermediary roles—Product Owners, Business Analysts, Project Managers—often added more noise than signal to the development process.

When AI coding assistants arrived, John saw an opportunity. Not to replace developers, but to remove the barriers that kept them from understanding and solving customer problems directly. This book is the culmination of that insight.

Writing With AI

True to the book's thesis, John wrote "The Broken Telephone" using AI assistance throughout the process. From research synthesis to draft generation to editing, AI tools helped accelerate every phase. The book itself is proof that the transformation it describes is already underway.

Connect

John welcomes conversations about the future of software development, product engineering, and AI transformation.