How to Improve Developer Experience: 16 Proven Strategies and Methods

It’s widely accepted that providing a high-quality developer experience (DevEx) is critical for healthy, productive, and innovative software development teams. What a “great developer experience” looks like, however, can be a little less clear.

That’s because developer experience involves a bit of subjectivity: Processes that work for one team may not be a good fit for another. The workload that a senior engineer might be comfortable with could be overwhelming for someone more junior. Developer efficiency can’t solely be measured with cut-and-dry engineering metrics like cycle time.

In other words, optimizing for developer experience at your company will require ongoing, concentrated effort to find out what works best for your teams specifically. Read on to discover different ways you can begin experimenting with DevEx at your company.

Why Is Developer Experience Important?

Developer experience (DevEx) refers to the experience developers have at work. That includes how they interact with tools, people, platforms, and processes as they develop software. A high-quality developer experience can improve employee satisfaction and retention, encourage innovation, and drive business outcomes.

Here are a few reasons why you might prioritize developer experience initiatives at your company:

• Leads to happier, more productive development teams: When you optimize the developer experience by removing process friction, equipping teams with the right tools, and giving them a voice, you make it easier for developers to work efficiently and effectively, which often leads to higher job satisfaction.
• Encourages greater employee retention: Many studies show that if developers are unsatisfied with their jobs, they will look for a new one. Conversely, Gartner predicts that companies that prioritize a positive developer experience through formal initiatives will be twice as likely to retain developers.
• Creates an innovation-friendly environment: Overworked and stressed teams often do not have the bandwidth to iterate on new ideas or think creatively. That’s why DevEx is crucial for innovation. Optimizing the developer experience can streamline the entire software development cycle and free up capacity for more innovative projects.
• Creates more efficient teams: By nature, the software development process is complex. A good DevEx helps manage this complexity by streamlining processes, automating tedious tasks, and better managing developer capacity.
• Drives better business outcomes: Generally, a good DevEx makes it easier for developers to deliver high-quality products and features faster and more efficiently. This can improve customer satisfaction, improve time-to-market, and drive revenue growth. Gartner finds that teams with high-quality DevEx are 33% more likely to attain their target business outcomes.

Providing a positive developer experience requires more than the occasional pizza party or performance review. Delivering a high-quality DevEx requires sustained effort. You’ll need to think strategically about removing obstacles, improving processes, and more to find the best ways to help your software engineering teams efficiently build software and drive business success.

16 Strategies for Improving Developer Experience

There’s no magic formula for producing a good developer experience. Experiment with different practices, tools, and methods. Consider some of the following DevEx strategies to get started.

1. Pinpoint Processes to Simplify, Accelerate, and Optimize

A big part of DevEx is simply finding ways to make things flow more smoothly. Take a hard look at existing processes to see where you can optimize to reduce cognitive load and improve developer efficiency. Here are a few ways to begin optimizing your workflows:

• Automate repetitive and manual tasks like securing access to environments
• Identify and streamline handoffs between teams in development processes

2. Establish Quality Standards and Metrics

Set clear quality standards and metrics so that everyone is on the same page on what to work toward. Documented, agreed-upon standards help teams maintain high code quality, reduce bugs, and foster maintainable codebases. Here are a few quality DevEx metrics you might track:

• Code complexity
• Code coverage from automated tests
• Code duplication rates
• Performance benchmarks

3. Minimize Interruptions

Frequent interruptions, such as meetings or Slack pings, can disrupt a developer’s flow state, reducing productivity and increasing frustration. With different practices and boundaries, you can help minimize disruptions for your team so they stay focused. For example, consider these strategies to reduce interruptions:

• Implement “Do Not Disturb” periods for deep work
• Encourage asynchronous communication methods
• Batch meetings and messages to reduce context-switching
• Create dedicated quiet spaces for focused work if in the office

4. Prioritize Collaboration

Collaboration strengthens development teams, improves code quality, and fosters innovation. Engineering leaders should create an environment that encourages teamwork. Here are some best practices that emphasize collaboration:

• Provide a thoughtful system of turning around code reviews, ideally within the same day
• Encourage pair programming and shared code ownership
• Implement tools that facilitate real-time communication and collaboration

5. Identify Friction Points

Poorly written or outdated documentation, slow build and deployment times, and complex configuration processes are common culprits for friction in the software development process. Understanding and resolving common friction points such as these can significantly enhance the developer experience. Here are a few methods for identifying friction points:

• Conduct developer surveys and feedback sessions
• Analyze workflow bottlenecks using usage data and performance metrics
• Host retrospective meetings to discuss pain points and brainstorm solutions

6. Reduce Cognitive Load

Cognitive load directly impacts productivity and developer well-being. Simplifying complex processes allows developers to focus on meaningful work. Here are a few ways to reduce cognitive load:

• Break down large, complex tasks into smaller steps
• Improve clarity and organization of documentation
• Extend expiry periods for system access, reducing the frequency of requesting and waiting
• Provide intelligent tools that assist in development tasks

7. Invest in the Right Tools

Standardizing tools and technologies across teams streamlines collaboration, reduces context switching, and simplifies onboarding for new developers. Standardizing your tools should include auditing your existing tech stack for outdated tools that slow development or frustrate engineers. Instead, prioritize tools that reduce tedious tasks, streamline workflows, and enable better collaboration, such as the following:

• Feature-rich IDEs with AI assistance
• Collaboration platforms for seamless communication and code-sharing
• Automation tools to streamline workflows and reduce manual effort
• Monitoring and debugging tools to quickly identify and resolve issues

8. Systematically Address Technical Debt

Unchecked technical debt can slow down development, frustrate engineers, and decrease code quality over time. Making a concerted effort to proactively manage technical debt can improve long-term productivity. Consider the following tactics:

• Allocate time for regular refactoring and code cleanup
• Prioritize debt reduction in sprint planning
• Use tools and automation to track and manage technical debt

9. Be Observant But Reserve Judgment

Studies show that psychological safety is key to building team engagement, encouraging honest communication, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. As a leader, do your best to create an environment where engineers feel comfortable asking questions, providing feedback, and admitting mistakes. Consider the following:

• Use structured feedback models like the Situation-Behavior-Impact method or Context-Observation-Impact-Next steps (COIN)
• Encourage open discussions around challenges and solutions
• Foster a growth mindset that focuses on continuous improvement rather than criticism

10. Listen to Developer Feedback

Often, it’s best to simply ask developers what they need, rather than guess. Consider creating multiple communication channels so developers feel comfortable sharing insights and concerns in one form or another. Here are a few methods you can use to gather feedback:

• Conduct surveys and questionnaires
• Share the survey results with your teams, and convene brainstorming sessions on how to improve things
• Hold one-on-one meetings and team discussions
• Establish feedback channels in communication platforms like Slack
• Analyze usage data and performance metrics to hold data-backed performance reviews

11. Give Your Developers Autonomy

When developers are free to make decisions, they feel more empowered, engaged, and productive. Look for opportunities where you can grant team members more autonomy in both their daily tasks and career journey. For example, you could do the following:

• Allow developers to choose their tools and technologies
• Encourage participation in decision-making processes
• Give them ownership of their projects and tasks
• Provide flexible work arrangements that support work-life balance

12. Invest in Developer Education

Supporting professional growth helps developers stay current with new technologies and best practices, which can benefit both individuals and your larger team. Consider investing in professional development initiatives, such as:

• Provide access to online courses, books, and training materials
• Encourage participation in conferences, workshops, and industry events
• Create a culture of mentorship and knowledge-sharing within teams
• Support open-source contributions and side projects that help developers expand their skill sets

13. Foster a Culture that Avoids Tech Burnout

Burnout is a persistent challenge in the tech industry, with some companies even rewarding long hours and a work-first mindset. However, unaddressed burnout is bad for both people and businesses. To retain employees and maintain productivity, engineering leaders should instead promote a healthy work culture:

• Encourage work-life balance and realistic expectations
• Raise awareness of mental health and provide support resources
• Offer career growth opportunities and skill development
• Recognize and celebrate team achievements

14. Treat DevEx Like a Product

Developer experience initiatives will struggle if they’re ad-hoc or half-hearted. If you’re genuinely serious about improving DevEx, approach it as a product, with developers as the “users.” Apply product management principles to create a more user-centric DX. For example, try the following:

• Research to understand developer needs and pain points
• Use iterative feedback loops to continuously improve DX
• Apply design thinking principles to enhance usability and efficiency

15. Monitor and Iterate

Developer experience is not a one-time initiative but an ongoing effort. Make sure you track the impact of DevEx strategies and iterate based on feedback and performance. Consider the following:

• Monitor key DevEx metrics and track improvements
• Regularly gather developer feedback to refine strategies
• Continuously adapt processes to meet evolving team needs

16. Consider a Dedicated DevEx Team

A dedicated DevEx team can take ownership of improving the developer experience and ensure it doesn’t fall through the cracks. You can ask a dedicated DevEx team to do the following:

• Conduct research and gather feedback from developers
• Deploy process improvements and best practices
• Advocate for better tools, documentation, and workflows

How to Track Developer Experience

The bottom line is that tracking the quality of the developer experience at your organization requires a multifaceted approach that combines quantitative data with qualitative insights.

Quantitative data can give you insights into where your team is experiencing bottlenecks, whether work is distributed evenly, and where team members are spending their time. You should align metrics with the software development lifecycle (SDLC) to track DevEx throughout the entire development process. Consider automating data collection and integration for streamlined and continuous monitoring.

Qualitative insights can help you keep tabs on more abstract factors that aren’t easily measured with metrics, such as whether developers feel empowered at work or are struggling with burnout. For smaller teams, regular retrospectives with open discussions about pain points and improvement areas can be effective. Larger organizations can leverage focus groups and surveys to gather data on developer satisfaction and identify key concerns.

Go Beyond DORA

Many organizations begin their data-driven journey with DORA metrics. While DORA metrics are useful for measuring productivity, they don’t capture the subjective elements of DevEx. Consider tracking metrics like:

• Time to First Merge: This measures how quickly a developer can get a basic program running in a new environment. It reflects the ease of setup and the clarity of initial instructions. A long time to merge suggests a cumbersome environment that can frustrate developers and slow down onboarding.
• Documentation Completeness: Comprehensive, well-organized documentation is crucial for developers to understand and use tools and APIs effectively. Incomplete or unclear documentation leads to confusion, wasted time, and frustration, directly impacting developer experience. Consider asking about documentation quality in developer surveys.
• Developer Satisfaction Score (DSS): This provides a direct measure of how satisfied developers are with their overall experience. Regularly collecting DSS scores helps identify pain points, track trends in satisfaction, and prioritize improvements.
• Time to Debug/Resolve Issues: This metric reflects the efficiency of debugging processes and the availability of helpful resources. Long debugging times indicate potential issues with tools, software development processes, or support systems, leading to frustration and decreased productivity.
• Onboarding Completion Rate: A high completion rate suggests a smooth and effective onboarding process, which is crucial for new developers to quickly become productive and feel welcome in the team.
• Error Rate/Error Frequency: Frequent errors or system instability can significantly disrupt developer workflows and lead to frustration. Tracking these metrics helps identify problematic areas that need attention to improve stability and developer experience.
• API Usage Volume: High API usage indicates that developers find the APIs useful and easy to use. Low usage may suggest usability issues or a lack of awareness, highlighting areas for improvement in API documentation or design.
• Feature Adoption Rate: This metric reflects how well new features meet developers’ needs and how easy they are to adopt. A low adoption rate may indicate that features are not valuable or are too complex to implement, signaling a need for better design or communication.
• Feedback Response Time: Prompt responses to developer feedback and support requests are essential for a positive experience. Slow response times can lead to frustration and a sense of being unheard, negatively impacting morale and productivity.
• Time to First Contribution of New Hire: This measures how quickly new hires can contribute meaningfully to projects. It reflects the effectiveness of onboarding, the clarity of tasks, and the overall developer experience in enabling new team members to get up to speed quickly.

How Jellyfish Can Help

With Jellyfish, engineering leaders can go beyond productivity metrics to monitor and improve developer experience.

With Jellyfish’s DevEx product, engineering leaders can quantify developer experience with research-backed surveys and insights. Jellyfish DevEx features developer surveys built from research-backed templates for automatic insights into the health of your engineering org by team, role, industry benchmarks, and more.

Read how Clari used Jellyfish DevEx to reach 79% on-time delivery and increase roadmap spend.

In addition to Jellyfish DevEx, Jellyfish’s capabilities as an engineering management platform make it easier for engineering leaders to uncover actionable insights on team health and performance, investment allocations, and project progress – helping you build a more effective engineering organization.

Here are a few ways you can use Jellyfish to streamline the software development process and build a better DevEx at your organization:

Gain Visibility and Insights into Engineering Operations

Jellyfish integrates with your existing systems so you can better understand what teams are working on and how that work aligns with business goals.

• Comprehensive data aggregation: Jellyfish integrates with a wide range of development tools (Jira, GitHub, GitLab, etc.) to provide a holistic view of engineering operations. This eliminates data silos and gives you a clear picture of what’s happening across your development teams.
• Actionable metrics and analytics: Jellyfish goes beyond basic metrics and provides deep insights into developer productivity, workflows, and collaboration patterns. This data helps you identify bottlenecks, optimize processes, and measure the impact of your improvement efforts.
• Customizable dashboards and reporting: Create tailored dashboards and reports to track the metrics that matter most to your organization. This allows you to communicate insights effectively and make data-driven decisions to improve the developer experience.

Optimize Workflows and Collaboration

With greater visibility into engineering operations, you can pinpoint areas for process improvement and find areas for better team collaboration.

• Workflow visualization and analysis: Jellyfish helps you visualize your development workflows, identify bottlenecks, and optimize processes to improve efficiency and reduce friction for developers.
• Collaboration tools and automation: Jellyfish facilitates communication and knowledge sharing among developers, automates repetitive tasks, and streamlines workflows to free up developers’ time for more valuable work.
• Alignment with business goals: Jellyfish helps align engineering work with strategic business objectives, ensuring that development efforts contribute directly to business success and maximize ROI.

Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Business priorities, the software process, and your team are changing all the time. Jellyfish makes it easier to stay on top of changes and operate nimbly.

• Feedback mechanisms: Jellyfish provides tools for gathering feedback from developers, allowing you to understand their needs, identify pain points, and continuously improve the developer experience.
• Data-driven insights: By tracking key metrics and analyzing trends, Jellyfish helps you identify areas for improvement and measure the impact of your efforts.
• Integration with existing tools: Jellyfish integrates seamlessly with your existing development toolchain, allowing you to incorporate developer experience improvements into your existing workflows.

Improve Developer Experience with Jellyfish

Finding that perfect balance of efficient workflows, efficient resource allocation, and team psychological safety to promote a high-quality developer experience can feel like both an art and a science. That’s why Jellyfish is an effective tool: It considers both quantitative and qualitative factors so engineering leaders get a more comprehensive picture of the developer experience.

Are you ready to prioritize DevEx at your organization? Give Jellyfish a whirl.