This is a weekly podcast focused on developer productivity and the teams and leaders dedicated to improving it. Topics include in-depth interviews with Platform...
Getting Airbnb’s Platform team to drive more impact: Reorganizing, defining strategy, and metrics
In this episode, Airbnb Developer Productivity leader Anna Sulkina shares the story of how her team transformed itself and became more impactful within the organization. She starts by describing how the team previously operated, where teams were delivering but felt they needed more clarity and alignment across teams. Then, the conversation digs into the key changes they made, including reorganizing the team, clarifying team roles, defining strategy, and improving their measurement systems. Mentions and linksFollow Anna on LinkedInFor A deeper look into how our Engineers and Data Scientists build a world of belonging, check out The Airbnb Tech BlogDiscussion points:(0:00) Intro(1:40) Skills that make a great developer productivity leader(4:36) Challenges in how the team operated previously(10:49) Changing the platform org’s focus and structure(16:04) Clarifying roles for EM’s, PM’s, and tech leads(20:22) How Airbnb defined its infrastructure org’s strategy(28:23) Improvements they’ve seen to developer experience satisfaction(32:13) The evolution of Airbnb’s developer experience survey
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32:58
You have developer productivity metrics. Now what?
Many teams struggle to use developer productivity data effectively because they don’t know how to use it to decide what to do next. We know that data is here to help us improve, but how do you know where to look? And even then, what do you actually do to put the wheels of change in motion? Listen to this conversation with Abi Noda and Laura Tacho (CEO and CTO at DX) about data-driven management and how to take a structured, analytical approach to using data for improvement.Mentions and Links:Measuring developer productivity with the DX Core 4Laura’s developer productivity metrics courseDiscussion points:(0:00) Intro(2:07) The challenge we’re seeing(6:53) Overview on using data(8:58) Use cases for data-engineering organizations(15:57) Use cases for data - engineering systems teams(21:38) Two types of metrics - Diagnostics and Improvement(38:09) Summary
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39:09
Leveraging sentiment data, driving org-wide action, and executive engagement
In this episode, David Betts, leader of Twilio’s developer platform team, shares how Twilio leverages developer sentiment data to drive platform engineering initiatives, optimize Kubernetes adoption, and demonstrate ROI for leadership. David details Twilio’s journey from traditional metrics to sentiment-driven insights, the innovative tools his teams have built to streamline CI/CD workflows, and the strategies they use to align platform investments with organizational goals.Mentions and links:Find David on LinkedInMeasuring developer productivity with the DX Core 4Ask Your Developer by Jeff Lawson, former CEO of TwilioDiscussion points:(0:00) Introduction(0:49) Twilio's developer platform team(2:03) Twilio's approach to release engineering and CD(4:10) How they use sentiment data and telemetry metrics(7:27) Comparing sentiment data and telemetry metrics(10:25) How to take action on sentiment data(13:16) What resonates with execs(15:44) Proving DX value: sentiment, efficiency, and ROI(19:15) Balancing quarterly and real-time developer feedback
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24:33
Rethinking developer experience at T-Mobile: DevEx vs devprod, exec buy-in, and developer self-service
Chris Chandler is a Senior Member of the Technical Staff for Developer Productivity at T-Mobile. Chris has led several major initiatives to improve developer experience including their internal developer portal, Starter Kits (a patented developer platform that predates Backstage), and Workforce Transformation Bootcamps for onboarding developers faster.Mentions and links:Follow Chris on LinkedInMeasuring developer productivity with the DX Core 4Listen to Decoder with Nilay Patel.Discussion points:(0:47) From developer experience to developer productivity(7:03) Getting executive buy-in for developer productivity initiatives(13:54) What Chris’s team is responsible for(17:02) How they’ve built relationships with other teams(20:57) How they built and got funding for Dev Console and Starter Kits(27:23) Homegrown solution vs Backstage
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31:56
DX Core 4: 2024 benchmarks
In this episode, Abi and Laura dive into the 2024 DX Core 4 benchmarks, sharing insights across data from 500+ companies. They discuss what these benchmarks mean for engineering leaders, how to interpret key metrics like the Developer Experience Index, and offer advice on how to best use benchmarking data in your organization. Mentions and Links:DX core 4 benchmarksMeasuring developer productivity with the DX Core 4Developer experience index (DXI)Will Larson’s article on the Core 4 and power of benchmarking dataDiscussion points:(0:42) What benchmarks are for(3:44) Overview of the DX Core 4 benchmarks(6:07) PR throughput data (11:05) Key insights related to startups and mobile teams (14:54) Change fail rate data (19:42) How to best use benchmarking data
This is a weekly podcast focused on developer productivity and the teams and leaders dedicated to improving it. Topics include in-depth interviews with Platform and DevEx teams, as well as the latest research and approaches on measuring developer productivity. The EE podcast is hosted by Abi Noda, the founder and CEO of DX (getdx.com) and published researcher focused on developing measurement methods to help organizations improve developer experience and productivity.