Maximizing Developer Effectiveness

January 11, 2021

#19 – January 11, 2021

this week's favorite

In this article, the first of a series, I introduce a framework for maximizing developer effectiveness. Through research I have identified key developer feedback loops, including micro-feedback loops that developers do 200 times a day. These should be optimized so they are quick, simple and impactful for developers. I will examine how some organizations have used these feedback loops to improve overall effectiveness and productivity.

What follows are a few lessons I learned in my (ongoing) stint as the acting Product Design Manager for CI/CD. Eventually, I aim to become a manager again, and I hope to remember these lessons and learn even more.

At Dropbox, we view incident management as a central element of our reliability efforts. Though we also employ proactive techniques such as Chaos engineering, how we respond to incidents has a significant bearing on our users’ experience. Every minute counts for our users during a potential site outage or product issue.

The systems we build are composed of many pieces. From mobile apps, to domains, to user journeys. How should we slice up the system and divide responsibilities among teams in our organisation?

Have you presented to company executives about a key engineering initiative, walking into the room excited and leaving defeated? Maybe you only made it to your second slide before unrelated questions derailed the discussion. Maybe you worked through your entire presentation only to have folks say, "Great job," and leave without any useful debate. Afterward, you're not quite sure what happened, but you know it didn't go well.

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