The industry still treats engineers like we are ditch diggers you know that we're doing manual work. We don't have an unlimited capacity to do deep focus work, and more realistically we probably have like four hours a day in us to do really deep work. There isn't an unlimited well to just get all of this done if the metrics that you're kind of looking at are about trying to get the most out of some person. But you have the wrong preconception in your mind that this is about more hours means more output with knowledge work.
Matthew and Luke lead Extend’s Developer Experience team, a team that has approached their work in a way that is more forward-thinking than most. In this episode, they cover how they deliver impact at multiple levels of the organization, their journey with productivity metrics, and how they’ve made DevEx a C-level concern.
Discussion points:
- (1:40) How the DevEx team started and where it fits at Extend
- (5:08) Tradeoffs of DevEx reporting into Platform
- (6:40) The mandate and tasks they focus on
- (12:07) The impact of learning and development efforts
- (16:33) How to drive team-level improvements
- (18:44) Why developer experience is becoming more prevalent
- (26:17) How they made DevEx a C-level concern
- (30:27) Their journey with productivity metrics
- (33:10) Advice for presenting DevEx data to executives
- (34:52) The team’s experience using git metrics tools
- (48:30) Being rigorous in leveraging metrics
Mentions and links:
Connect with Matthew and Luke on LinkedIn
Other podcasts mentioned: Manuel Pais; Peloton’s DevEx survey