Measure developer experience with Typo

A software development team is critical for business performance. They wear multiple hats to complete the work and deliver high-quality software to end-users. On the other hand, organizations need to take care of their well-being and measure developer experience to create a positive workplace for them.

Otherwise, this can negatively impact developers’ productivity and morale which makes their work less efficient and effective. As a result, disrupting the developer experience at the workplace.

With Typo, you can capture qualitative insights and get a 360 view of your developer experience. Let’s delve deeper into it in this blog post:

What is developer experience?

Developer experience refers to the overall experience of developer teams when using tools, platforms, and services to build software applications. This means right from the documentation to coding and deployment and includes tangible and intangible experience.

Happy developers = positive developer experience. It increases their productivity and morale. It further leads to a faster development cycle, developer workflow, methods, and working conditions.

Not taking care of developer experience can make it difficult for businesses to retain and attract top talent.

Why is developer experience beneficial?

Developer experience isn’t just a buzzword. It is a crucial aspect of your team’s productivity and satisfaction.

Below are a few benefits of developer experience:

Smooth onboarding process

Good devex ensures the onboarding process is as simple and smooth as possible. It includes making engineering teams familiar with the tools and culture and giving them the support they need to proceed further in their career. It also allows them to know other developers which can help them in collaboration and mentorship.

Improves product quality

A positive developer experience leads to 3 effective C’s – Collaboration, communication, and coordination. Adhering to coding standards, best practices and automated testing also helps in promoting code quality and consistency and catching and fixing issues early. As a result, they can easily create products that meet customer needs and are free from errors and glitches.

Increases development speed

When developer experience is handled carefully, team members can work more smoothly and meet milestones efficiently. Access to well-defined tools, clear documents, streamlined workflow, and a well-configured development environment are a few of the ways to boost development speed. It lets them minimize the need to switch between different tools and platforms which increases the focus and team productivity.

Attracts and retains top talents

Developers usually look out for a strong tech culture so they can focus on their core skills and get acknowledged for their contributions. A good developer experience results in developer satisfaction and aligns their values and goals with the organization. In return, developers bring the best to the table and want to stay in the organization for the long run.

Enhances collaboration

Great developer experience encourages collaboration and effective communication tools. This fosters teamwork and reduces misunderstandings. Through collaborative approaches, developers can easily discuss issues, share feedback, and work together on tasks.

How to measure developer experience with Typo?

Typo helps with early indicators of their well-being and actionable insights on the areas that need attention through signals from work patterns and continuous AI-driven pulse check-ins on the experience of the developers.

Below is the process that Typo follows to gain insights into developer experience effectively:

Step 1: Pulse surveys

Pulse surveys refer to short, periodic questionaries used to gather feedback from developers to assess their engagement, satisfaction, and overall organizational health.

Typo’s pulse surveys are specifically designed for the software engineering team as it is built on a developer experience framework. It triggers AI-driven pulse surveys where each developer receives a notification periodically with a few conversational questions.

We highly recommend doing surveys once a month as to keep a tab on your team’s wellbeing & experiences and build a continuous loop of feedback. However, you can customize the frequency of these surveys according to the company’s suitability and needs.

And don’t worry, these surveys are anonymous.

Step 2: Developer Experience analytics

Based on the responses to the pulse surveys over time, insights are published on the Typo dashboard. These insights help to analyze how developers feel at the workplace, what needs immediate attention, how many developers are at risk of burnout and much more.

Below are key components of Typo’s developer experience analytics dashboard:

DevEx Score

The DevEx score indicates the overall state of well-being or happiness within an organization. It reflects the collective emotional and mental health of the developers.

Also known as the employee net promoter score, this score ranges between 1 – 10 as shown in the image below. It is based on the developer feedback collected. A high well-being score suggests that people are generally content and satisfied while a low score may indicate areas of concern or areas needing improvement.

Response Rate

It is the percentage of people who responded to the check-in. A higher response rate represents a more reliable dataset for analyzing developer experience metrics and deriving insights.

This is a percentage number along with the delta change. You will also see the exact count to drive this percentage. It also includes the trend graph showing the data from the last 4 weeks.

It also includes trending sentiments that show you the segregation of employees based on the maximum re-occurring sentiments as mentioned by developer team.

Heatmap

In this section, you can slice and dice your data to deep-dive further on the level of different demographics. The list of demographies is as follows:

Designation
Location
Team
Tenure

Burnout Alerts

Typo sends automated alerts to your communication to help you identify burnout signs in developers at an early stage. This enables leaders to track developer engagement and support their well-being, maintain productivity, and create a positive and thriving work environment.

Typo tracks the work habits of developers across multiple activities, such as commits, PRs, reviews, comments, tasks, and merges, over a certain period. If these patterns consistently exceed the average of other developers or violate predefined benchmarks, the system identifies them as being in the burnout zone or at risk of burnout. These benchmarks can be customized to meet your specific needs.

Developer experience framework, powered by Typo

Typo’s developer experience framework suggests to engineering leaders what they should focus on for measuring the dev productivity and experience.

Below are the key focus areas and their drivers incorporated in the developer experience framework:

Key focus areas

Manager support

It refers to the level of assistance, guidance, and resources provided by managers or team leads to support developers in their work.

Sub focus areas	Description	Questions
Empathy	The ability to understand and relate to developers, actively listen, and show compassion in interactions.	Do you feel comfortable sharing your concerns or personal challenges with your manager? Do you feel comfortable expressing yourself in this space? Does your manager actively listen to your ideas without judgment?
Coach and guide	The role of managers is to provide expertise, advice, and support to help developers improve their skills, overcome challenges, and achieve career goals.	Does your manager give constructive feedback regularly? Does your manager give you the guidance you need in your work? Does your manager help you learn and develop new skills?
Feedback	The ability to provide timely and constructive feedback on performance, skills, and growth areas helping developers gain insights, refine their skills, and work towards achieving their career objectives.	Do you feel that your manager’s feedback helps you understand your strengths and areas for improvement? Do you feel comfortable providing feedback to your manager? How effectively does your manager help you get support for technical growth?

Developer flow

It is a state of optimal engagement and productivity that developers experience when fully immersed and focused on their work.

Sub focus areas	Description	Questions
Work-life balance	Maintaining a healthy equilibrium between work responsibilities and personal life promotes well-being, boundaries, and resources for managing workload effectively.	How would you rate the work-life balance in your current role? Do you feel supported by your team in maintaining a good work-life balance? How would you rate the work-life balance in your current role?
Autonomy	Providing developers with the freedom and independence to make decisions, set goals, and determine their approach and execution of tasks.	Do you feel free to make decisions for your work? Do you feel encouraged to explore new ideas and experiment with different solutions? Do you think your ideas are well-supported by the team?
Focus time	The dedicated periods of uninterrupted work where developers can deeply concentrate on their tasks without distractions or interruptions.	How often do you have time for focused work without interruptions? How often do you switch context during focus time? How often can you adjust your work schedule to improve conditions for focused work when needed?
Goals	Setting clear objectives that provide direction, motivation, and a sense of purpose in developers’ work, enhances their overall experience and productivity.	Have you experienced success in meeting your goals? Are you able to track your progress towards your goals? How satisfied are you with the goal-setting process within your team?

Product management

The practices involved overseeing a software product’s lifecycle, from ideation to development, launch, and ongoing management.

Sub focus areas	Description	Questions
Clear requirements	Providing developers with precise and unambiguous specifications, ensuring clarity, reducing ambiguity, and enabling them to meet the expectations of stakeholders and end-users.	Are the requirements provided for your projects clear and well-defined? Do you have the necessary information you need for your tasks? Do you think the project documentation covers everything you need?
Reasonable timelines	Setting achievable and realistic project deadlines, allowing developers ample time to complete tasks without undue pressure or unrealistic expectations.	Do you have manageable timeframes and deadlines that enhance the quality of your work? Are you provided with the resources you need to meet the project timelines? How often do you encounter unrealistic project timelines?
Collaborative discussions	Fostering open communication among developers, product managers, and stakeholders, enabling constructive discussions to align product strategies, share ideas, and resolve issues.	Are your inputs valued during collaborative discussions? Does your team handle conflicts well in product meetings? How often do you actively participate during collaborative discussions?

Development releases

It refers to creating and deploying software solutions or updates, emphasizing collaboration, streamlined workflows, and reliable deployment to enhance the developer experience.

Sub focus areas	Description	Questions
Tools and technology	Providing developers with the necessary software tools, frameworks, and technologies to facilitate their work in creating and deploying software solutions.	Are you satisfied with the tools provided to you for your development work? Has the availability of tools positively impacted your development process? To what extent do you believe that testing tools adequately support your work?
Code review	Evaluating code changes for quality, adherence to standards, and identifying issues to enhance software quality and promote collaboration among developers.	Do you feel that code reviews contribute to your growth and development as a developer? How well does your team addresses the issues identified during code reviews? How often do you receive constructive feedback during code reviews that help improve your coding skills?
Code health	Involves activities like code refactoring, performance optimization, and enforcing best practices to ensure code quality, maintainability, and efficiency, thereby enhancing the developer experience and software longevity.	Are coding standards and best practices consistently followed in the development process? Do you get enough support with technical debt & code-related issues? Are you satisfied with the overall health of the codebase you’re currently working on?
Frictional releases	Streamlining software deployment through automation, standardized procedures, and effective coordination, reducing errors and delays for a seamless and efficient process that enhances the developer experience.	Do you often have post-release reviews to identify areas for improvement? Do you feel that the release process is streamlined in your projects? Is the release process in your projects efficient?

Culture and values

It includes shared beliefs, norms, and principles that shape a positive work environment. It includes collaboration, open communication, respect, innovation, diversity, and inclusion, fostering creativity, productivity, and satisfaction among developers.

Sub focus areas	Description	Questions
Psychological safety	Creating an environment where developers feel safe to express their opinions, take risks, and share their ideas without fear of judgment or negative consequences.	Do you feel that your team creates an atmosphere where trust, respect, and openness are valued? Do you feel comfortable sharing your thoughts without worrying about judgement? Do you believe that your team fosters a culture where everyone’s opinions are valued?
Recognition	Acknowledging and appreciating developers’ contributions and achievements through meaningful recognition, fostering a positive and motivating environment that boosts morale and engagement.	Does recognition at your workplace make you happier and more involved in your job? Do you feel that your hard work is acknowledged by your team members and manager? Do you believe that recognition motivates you to perform better in your role?
Team collaboration	Fostering open communication, trust, and knowledge sharing among developers, enabling seamless collaboration, and idea exchange, and leveraging strengths to achieve common goals.	Is there a strong sense of teamwork and cooperation within your team? Are you confident in your team’s ability to solve problems together? Do you believe that your team leverages individual expertise to enhance collaboration?
Learning and growth	Continuous learning and professional development, offering skill-enhancing opportunities, encouraging a growth mindset, fostering curiosity and innovation, and supporting career progression.	Does your organization encourage your professional growth? Are there any training programs you would like to see implemented? Does your organization invest enough in employee training and development?

Conclusion

Measuring developer experience continuously is crucial in today’s times. It helps to provide real-time feedback on workflow efficiency, early signs of burnout, and overall satisfaction levels. This further identifies areas for improvement and fosters a more productive and enjoyable work environment for developers.

To learn more about DevEx, visit our website!