Making developer productivity metrics actionable

Bill Doerrfeld | April 25, 2025

The latest edition of DirectorPlus looks at how to turn developer metrics into actual improvements.

Developer productivity metrics are useless if they're just sitting in dashboards. So, how can we use them to direct positive, real-world action?

Had a great conversation with Laura Tacho, CTO of DX, about practical tips. In summary:

💥 You have to actually budget time to respond to the signals you get!

💥 Leaders need to evangelize DevEx, and get executive buy-in.

💥 Focus on granular "improvement metrics" — they're more addressable than lagging indicators, like cycle time.

💥 Flip on failure modes to trigger changes/alerts when things go south.

All this and more in the the latest edition of DirectorPlus for LeadDev.

If you are a director or engineering leader, be sure to subscribe to DirectorPlus for this monthly column in your inbox.

Featured image credit: Kai Dahms

Read: Focus on improvement metrics that actually matter

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