Introducing metrics to an engineering organization with Lena Reinhard

Lena Reinhard has been a software engineer, a cofounder, and a vice president of engineering, including leadership stints at Travis CI and CircleCI.

These days, she’s an engineering leadership coach and consultant. On today’s episode, Rebecca and Lena talk about those experiences, and how they’ve shaped Lena’s perspective of engineering management and managing with metrics.

Find the transcript at: https://www.unblocked.fm/episodes/lena-reinhard-introducing-metrics-to-an-engineering-organization

Timestamps (00:00) Introductions (00:49) How Lena accidentally got into tech from a finance background (02:33) Lena’s current role as an engineering leadership coach (03:00) What drew Lena into developer tools (05:10) Maintaining situational awareness as a leader of a large engineering organization (06:15) The two purposes of engineering metrics (12:20) How Lena helps engineering organizations drive visibility (17:19) Leading indicators to a visibility problem (21:23) Introducing engineering metrics in a low-trust environment (27:25) How (not) to roll out a metrics program (28:25) The failure mode in running employee engagement surveys (30:37) Lena’s biggest learnings in rolling out metrics programs (36:16) How to get in touch with Lena

Where to find Lena • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenareinhard/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lrnrd

Where to find Rebecca • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rmurphey/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmurphey

Links and mentions • Lena's website: https://www.lenareinhard.com/ • What engineering metrics should I use? A guide for engineering managers, directors, and leaders: https://www.lenareinhard.com/articles/what-engineering-metrics-should-i-use-a-guide-for-engineering-managers-directors-and-vps • How to roll out and use engineering metrics successfully: https://www.lenareinhard.com/articles/how-to-introduce-engineering-metrics-successfully