Abi ( @abinoda ) is the CEO and co-founder of DX, the world's first developer experience management platform. He was previously the CEO and founder of Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub in 2019. At GitHub he led research collaborations with Dr. Nicole Forsgren, McKinsey, and Microsoft Research, which was the impetus for founding DX. "Oftentimes, organizations that are larger that get started with these types of measurements in their framework, they're really surprised. They realize that, 'Oh man, there's all these opportunities we didn't even realize and developers are telling us these are the most important things. These aren't the things we're working on and we need to shift our focus.' So, I think there's a huge opportunity to refocus by getting a holistic picture of the developer experience.”
- Abi Noda
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Join us this August 30-31 at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco
SHOW NOTES:
- The background behind Abi’s developer productivity research & why it matters (2:50)
- The evolution of measuring developer productivity (5:50)
- Moving beyond output metrics to DORA (and how that fell short of solving engineering measurement problems) (7:43)
- Challenges, drawbacks, and limitations to current measurement approaches (like DORA & SPACE) (11:51)
- What is the SPACE framework & how it manifests in eng orgs (15:14)
- Distinction between measuring the notion of productivity vs. focusing on measurements that improve productivity (17:07)
- Overview of Abi’s new DevEx framework & examples of it in use (19:52)
- Recommendations for frontline managers, ICs, engineers, etc. to apply the DevEx framework (22:26)
- How DevEx uncovers blind spots (like requirements quality) (24:21)
- When engineering orgs should consider separating out productivity (27:44)
- Strategies for broad-scope leaders to apply the DevEx framework (29:21)
- Using local teams to address specific DevEx issues (31:30)
- Why the VP of Eng / org leadership’s values drive developer experience (33:00)
- Tips for implementing the DevEx framework as a startup vs. mature company (35:06)
- How Abi is incorporating DevEx strategies into his own company @ DX (37:47)
- What positive developer experience looks like within an eng team (39:35)
- The most important step a team w/o a DevEx team can take (41:29)
- Rapid fire questions (43:17)
LINKS AND RESOURCES
- Abi’s new DevEx whitepaper - “DevEx: What Actually Drives Productivity” by Abi Noda, DX, Margaret-Anne Storey, University of Victoria, Nicole Forsgren, Microsoft Research, Michaela Greiler, DX
- Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind - The first book to deal with the problems of communicating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public, Positioning describes a revolutionary approach to creating a "position" in a prospective customer's mind-one that reflects a company's own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of its competitors.
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/ Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/ Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/ 
