diff --git a/.changes/unreleased/Under the Hood-20240911-192845.yaml b/.changes/unreleased/Under the Hood-20240911-192845.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0c878f7d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/unreleased/Under the Hood-20240911-192845.yaml	
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+kind: Under the Hood
+body: Isolating distribution testing
+time: 2024-09-11T19:28:45.653064-04:00
+custom:
+    Author: leahwicz
+    Issue: "1069"
diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index e4fc66ccc..de08d52b4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ jobs:
           overwrite: true
 
   test-build:
-    name: verify packages / python ${{ matrix.python-version }} / ${{ matrix.os }}
+    name: verify packages / python ${{ matrix.python-version }} / ${{ matrix.os }} / ${{ matrix.dist-type }}
 
     if: needs.build.outputs.is_alpha == 0
 
@@ -174,6 +174,7 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         os: [ubuntu-latest, macos-12, windows-latest]
         python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11", "3.12"]
+        dist-type: ["whl", "gz"]
 
     steps:
       - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
@@ -186,6 +187,7 @@ jobs:
           python -m pip install --user --upgrade pip
           python -m pip install --upgrade wheel
           python -m pip --version
+
       - uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: dist
@@ -194,15 +196,10 @@ jobs:
       - name: Show distributions
         run: ls -lh dist/
 
-      - name: Install wheel distributions
-        run: |
-          find ./dist/*.whl -maxdepth 1 -type f | xargs python -m pip install --force-reinstall --find-links=dist/
-      - name: Check wheel distributions
+      - name: Install ${{ matrix.dist-type }} distributions
         run: |
-          python -c "import dbt.adapters.spark"
-      - name: Install source distributions
-        run: |
-          find ./dist/*.gz -maxdepth 1 -type f | xargs python -m pip install --force-reinstall --find-links=dist/
-      - name: Check source distributions
+          find ./dist/*.${{ matrix.dist-type }} -maxdepth 1 -type f | xargs python -m pip install --force-reinstall --find-links=dist/
+
+      - name: Check ${{ matrix.dist-type }} distributions
         run: |
           python -c "import dbt.adapters.spark"