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A close look at Peloton’s developer experience survey | Thansha Sadacharam (Peloton)

A close look at Peloton’s developer experience survey | Thansha Sadacharam (Peloton)

The Engineering Enablement Podcast 24 May 2023

Episode Description

Thansha Sadacharam, who leads Tech Learning and Insights at Peloton walks us through the journey of building the company’s developer experience survey. She shares what went into the survey’s design, rollout, and maintenance, as well as the different teams involved.


Discussion points: 

  • (1:19) Where the idea for running a developer survey originated
  • (6:36) Advice for other leaders getting buy-in for these initiatives
  • (11:27) The first steps in designing the survey
  • (18:21) How the survey incorporated benchmarking
  • (20:30) Measuring developer satisfaction
  • (22:37) Refining the question items 
  • (25:50) How long the survey was
  • (26:50) What was involved in trimming the questions 
  • (29:28) Writing survey questions 
  • (33:12) How much time was spent developing the survey
  • (35:19) The communication plan for launching the survey
  • (42:05) Driving participation rates  
  • (45:21) Sampling and how often surveys are being sent 
  • (49:21) How the information was presented 
  • (54:10) Feeling nervous about sending out surveys 


Mentions and links

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In this episode Abi speaks with Jelmer Borst, Product Manager for Picnic Technologies’ Platform group. Jelmer explains what the value is of having a PM in an internal-facing team, and shares his process for gathering feedback from developers to understand where they’re experiencing friction.

13 July 2022 34m and


Common pitfalls in adopting engineering metrics | Mojtaba Hosseini (Zapier)

Common pitfalls in adopting engineering metrics | Mojtaba Hosseini (Zapier)

In this interview, Mojtaba Hosseini (Director of Engineering at Zapier) talks about how to approach using metrics, pitfalls teams run into, and the common evolution teams go through as they adopt metrics.

6 July 2022 46m and 3s


Advocating for the voice of the developer | Julio Santana (Workday)

Advocating for the voice of the developer | Julio Santana (Workday)

Julio Santana from Workday shares how he thinks about the ideal scope of a Developer Experience team, getting buy-in for DX initiatives, how his team gathers feedback from developers, and more.

29 June 2022 39m and 26s


Why founding a DevEx team is like starting a startup | Minh Pham, Titus Stone (Ibotta)

Why founding a DevEx team is like starting a startup | Minh Pham, Titus Stone (Ibotta)

In this episode we’re joined by Minh Pham and Titus Stone from Ibotta’s Developer Experience team. You’ll hear their story about how the DX team came into existence, why they view a DX team as a “startup within a startup”, and their vision for what DX at Ibotta will become.

23 June 2022 39m and 29s


The ultimate guide on Engineering Operations | Ryan Atkins (Asana, Stripe, Dropbox)

The ultimate guide on Engineering Operations | Ryan Atkins (Asana, Stripe, Dropbox)

In this episode Abi Noda speaks with Ryan Atkins, Asana’s Head of Engineering Operations. They talk about the role of EngOps and when it’s needed, founding an EngOps team, how these teams work in large companies, and more.

17 June 2022 46m and 39s


Staffing infrastructure teams | Will Larson (Calm, Stripe, Uber)

Staffing infrastructure teams | Will Larson (Calm, Stripe, Uber)

Will Larson, the CTO at Calm, covers a wide range of topics including whether Infrastructure Engineering is chronically understaffed, the role of Eng Ops, how his opinion on the “build vs buy” question has changed, his thoughts on metrics, and more.  Helpful resources: Will's Infraeng book Will's article, Infrastructure planning Will's article, How to invest in infrastructure

8 June 2022 40m and 33s


Supporting autonomous teams | Victoria Morgan-Smith (Financial Times)

Supporting autonomous teams | Victoria Morgan-Smith (Financial Times)

Joining us for this episode is Victoria Morgan-Smith, the Director of Delivery for Engineering Enablement at the Financial Times. Victoria shares some of the tradeoffs in having an autonomous, “you build it, you run it” culture. She also shares how her group equips engineering teams with metrics, best practices, and more. Follow Victoria on LinkedIn

26 May 2022 35m and 18s


What it looks like to hire Engineering Effectiveness too late | Peter Seibel (ex-Twitter)

What it looks like to hire Engineering Effectiveness too late | Peter Seibel (ex-Twitter)

In this episode Abi talks with Peter Seibel. Peter previously was the Director of Engineering for the Democratic National Committee, and before that led Twitter’s Engineering Effectiveness (EE) team. In this interview, Peter reflects on his experience at Twitter, sharing why it’s better to invest in EE early and his vision for how EE teams can fulfill their potential.   Useful links: Follow Peter on Twitter and LinkedIn Read Peter's post about leading Engineering Effectiveness at Twitter: Let a 1,000 Flowers Bloom. Then Rip 999 of Them Out by the Roots

12 May 2022 38m and 20s


Tactics for driving service adoption | Varun Achar (Razorpay)

Tactics for driving service adoption | Varun Achar (Razorpay)

In this episode, Varun Achar (Director of Engineering at Razorpay) explains how the Platform org has grown from a 15-person team owning everything, to 3 separate subteams. He also shares how they think about creating a culture of productivity, and some of the tactics they’ve used for increasing service adoption. Helpful links:  Connect with Varun on LinkedIn Read Varun's blog post, The Platform Engineer

4 May 2022 36m and 41s


How DoorDash’s developer productivity team prioritizes projects | Marco Chirico (DoorDash)

How DoorDash’s developer productivity team prioritizes projects | Marco Chirico (DoorDash)

In this episode, Marco Chirico shares the strategies DoorDash’s Developer Productivity group uses to prioritize their work. He also explains how the Developer Productivity group has evolved over time, and how they measure their success today.   Useful links:  Connect with Marco on LinkedIn Read DoorDash's Engineering blog

20 April 2022 22m and 29s


How GitHub’s developer experience team has evolved | Liz Saling (GitHub)

How GitHub’s developer experience team has evolved | Liz Saling (GitHub)

Liz Saling, Director of Engineering at GitHub, shares the story of how the Developer Experience group was founded and why GitHub paused features for a quarter to focus on making developer experience improvements. Helpful links: Watch Liz’s GitHub Universe talk, “Paying Down Technical Debt” Find Liz on LinkedIn or Twitter Read Liz’s blog at lizsaling.com Read GitHub’s engineering blog

13 April 2022 43m and 6s

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