This is Part 1 in our blog series on how the design process works alongside Agile methodology to produce results within an integrated team.Updated 2/5/2026. Originally published 2/2/2024 When it comes to developing new software, not every designer approaches the task the same way. While some use a design thinking approach, looking at the tasks from a user perspective, others use Agile methods, approaching it from an iterative project management standpoint. However, the two approaches are not mutually exclusive. The most successful designers approach their tasks using design thinking which…
Congratulations to Pierce Edmiston and Hugh Sato, our latest recipients of 8th Light’s Beacon Award! Our Beacon Award recognizes team members who exemplify 8th Light's values and inspire us all.Pierce and Hugh represent two different strengths within 8th Light that come together to create meaningful, high-impact work for our clients.Pierce, Sr. Principal Engineer blends scientific rigor with technical and product leadership to turn complex research and modeling into stable, production-ready systems. While Hugh, Principal Designer, elevates that work through a human-centered design lens that…
How to make your customers happy and your engineers even happierIt’s common for monitoring and alerting solutions on production services to be quite chatty, sometimes producing hundreds of notifications per day. There’s a scene in the classic film The Matrix where one of the characters (Cypher) is looking at a screen with green unintelligible code. He’s asked:“Do you always look at it encoded?”He responds by telling Neo he doesn’t see code, just what it represents.After some time in The Matrix like Cypher, in the sea of notifications you understand what they mean and know what is important.…
Why It Matters At 8th Light, we help enterprise teams remove friction, foster alignment, and build tools that scale with confidence. This project exemplifies what happens when human-driven design meets technical rigor: major time and cost savings. By focusing on systems thinking, user needs, and resilient architecture, the organization created a path forward that supports both immediate impact and long-term innovation. This story is one of many showing how that approach delivers lasting results. The Challenge: A Strong System Slowed by Scale A Fortune 100 consumer technology company built a…
Congratulations to Rani Zilpelwar, the recipient of 8th Light’s Quarterly Beacon Award, a peer-nominated honor that celebrates team members who shine light on our core values.Rani is a Software Delivery Lead with over a decade of experience building high-quality software and high-trust teams. This quarter, Rani’s leadership and influence grew significantly beyond her original role with one of the world’s largest entertainment providers. Her ability to build credibility with key client leaders resulted in her being entrusted with new leadership responsibilities, including managing a team of…
Optional Google Analytics helps us understand visits. Microsoft Clarity records masked interactions to improve the site. Optional tools stay off unless you choose them. Privacy details.