The "everyone codes" era was part of Braze's early culture and for a lot of orgs, has felt like something you couldn't get back. Our SVP of Engineering Brian Wheeler on why Braze in 2026 has proven that wrong.
In the very early days of Braze, we used to say everyone needed to know how to code. The whole team was deeply technical, and it felt like everyone - not just engineering - was scripting something all the time. There was real power in that. Everyone could create leverage for themselves, and everyone could more deeply understand the technical needs of our customers. That culture is incredibly hard to scale. The systems around people got more complex, making DIY coding just a bit harder. Roles demanded deeper expertise, making DIY coding just a bit harder. The team stayed highly technical, but the "we all code stuff" bond slowly weakened. AI has brought back the day-one, everyone-codes mentality. People in every role are coding, prototyping, and solving things with automation. In 2014 the whole company was talking about how to write email HTML and prototype mobile apps. In 2026 everyone is talking about skills and prompts and background agents. Today I went to an architecture review for a project that came from outside of engineering - the first time that has happened in a long time. It was genuinely valuable, it pushed our toolchain to be better, and it was incredibly exciting. We're all builders again, and I love it.