The speaker talks about their experience building a Rust tool for network management, called NMS state. They initially started with Python but shifted to Rust due to performance issues and user demand for a binary format. They faced several challenges, including finding libraries for parsing schema and communicating with the kernel, but were able to successfully create a Rust library and command-line tool. Additionally, they created C, Python, and Goland bindings, and reused Python integration tests for the new library. Despite initial doubts, the team found the Rust ecosystem to be well-maintained and supportive.