Engineering Enablement by Abi Noda

Mike Fisher, the former CTO at Etsy, spearheaded a multi-year developer experience initiative aimed at improving developer happiness and efficiency during his time at Etsy. Here, he shares the story of that initiative, including the pillars of the program and the investment that went into it. Towards the end of the conversation, Mike also shares his perspective on measuring developer productivity.

Discussion points:
  • (1:31) What was happening at Etsy when Mike joined 
  • (4:08) The scaling challenges Etsy faced
  • (6:08) Deciding on the term “developer experience” 
  • (9:35) Whether developer experience is a new approach
  • (11:24) The pillars of Etsy’s DevEx initiative 
  • (15:49) Converting the length of time required for this initiative
  • (18:11) The investment allocated to the initiative 
  • (20:04) Talking about the ROI of devex initiatives 
  • (22:50) Who was actually leading this work
  • (24:37) Etsy’s experience with platform teams 
  • (30:42) Advice for leaders championing DevEx initiatives
  • (34:45) Framing the conversation about getting budget for a DevEx initiative
  • (37:45) How leaders can address the efficiency conversation
  • (42:00) Measuring productivity 
  • (45:49) The “experiment velocity” metric 
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Mentions and links:
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Creators & Guests

Host
Abi Noda
Abi is the founder and CEO of DX (getdx.com), which helps engineering leaders measure and improve developer experience. Abi formerly founded Pull Panda, which was acquired by GitHub.

What is Engineering Enablement by Abi Noda?

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.