Engineering Enablement by Abi Noda

In this episode, Abi Noda speaks with Gilad Turbahn, Head of Developer Productivity, and Amy Yuan, Director of Engineering at Snowflake, about how their team builds and sustains operational excellence. They break down the practices and principles that guide their work—from creating two-way communication channels to treating engineers as customers. The conversation explores how Snowflake fosters trust, uses feedback loops to shape priorities, and maintains alignment through thoughtful planning. You’ll also hear how they engage with teams across the org, convert detractors, and use Customer Advisory Boards to bring voices from across the company into the decision-making process.

Where to find Amy Yuan: 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-yuan-a8ba783/

Where to find Gilad Turbahn:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giladturbahn/

Where to find Abi Noda:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abinoda 

In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Intro: an overview of operational excellence
(04:13) Obstacles to executing with operational excellence
(05:51) An overview of the Snowflake playbook for operational excellence
(08:25) Who does the work of reaching out to customers
(09:06) The importance of customer engagement
(10:19) How Snowflake does customer engagement 
(14:13) The types of feedback received and the two camps (supporters and detractors)
(16:55) How to influence detractors and how detractors actually help 
(18:27) Using insiders as messengers
(22:48) An overview of Snowflake’s customer advisory board
(26:10) The importance of meeting in person (learnings from Warsaw and Berlin office visits)
(28:08) Managing up
(30:07) How planning is done at Snowflake
(36:25) Setting targets for OKRs, and Snowflake’s philosophy on metrics 
(39:22) The annual plan and how it’s shared 

Referenced:

Creators and 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.