Work experience

This section explores the day-to-day work experience of software developers — the activities, practices, and environments that shape how developers spend their time and the quality of their work life. For engineering leaders, tech leads, and development managers, understanding these aspects is crucial to fostering teams that are both productive and satisfied.

The Developer Experience survey evaluates ten key dimensions of work experience, each representing an important aspect of developer worklife. By addressing these areas holistically, organizations can create environments where developers thrive professionally while delivering exceptional results.

In this section

Coding

Frictionless coding flow represents the ideal state where developers can write, test, and deploy code with minimal interruptions or technical barriers. Our research shows that organizations that invest in optimizing the coding experience see significant gains in both productivity and developer satisfaction.

"I created an internal platform specifically to reduce friction in our workflow. Rather than needing to configure settings in six different places, now you just push to a repository and everything is automatically set up for you."

Platform Engineering Lead

Deep Work

Deep work time — the ability to focus without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks — is essential for complex software development. Our interviews reveal that protecting time for deep work remains a significant challenge in many organizations, yet it's crucial for both quality outcomes and developer wellbeing.

"The most challenging situation for a developer is being in a constant state of interruption where they never have sufficient time to complete their work."

Senior Engineering Manager at a Fortune 500 company

Context Switching

Excessive context switching is consistently identified as one of the most significant drains on developer productivity and satisfaction. Our research explores the causes of frequent task switching and presents strategies for creating more focused work environments.

"Context switching takes a heavy toll on developers. Every time we change tasks, it requires minimum 20 minutes to regain our focus and flow. If this happens five times throughout the day, that's almost two hours of productivity lost."

Engineering Manager

Learning

A strong learning culture is characterized by psychological safety, knowledge sharing, and an emphasis on continuous improvement. Organizations that excel in this dimension typically report higher rates of innovation and more effective problem-solving.

"We reserve time on Fridays for knowledge gathering, where we explore and experiment with new technologies. We've discovered that when someone asks a related question later in the week, it takes about 45 minutes less to understand the context because we've already familiarized ourselves with it."

Engineering Leader

Experimenting

Organizations that allocate time for experimentation create space for innovation and continuous improvement. Our research shows that teams with dedicated time to explore new approaches often develop better solutions and remain more engaged.

"One of the major challenges for experimenting is the constant pressure and lack of time."

Engineering Director

On-call Practice

Effective on-call practices balance system reliability with developer wellbeing. Our research indicates that organizations that thoughtfully structure on-call rotations, provide adequate support, and maintain reasonable workloads see fewer incidents of burnout and better service quality.

"An effective on-call system needs to be equitable, well-distributed among team members, have a defined escalation process, provide appropriate compensation, and above all, shouldn't overwhelm the individuals involved."

VP of Engineering at a SaaS company

Productivity

Developer productivity goes far beyond the volume of code produced. Our research explores how organizations can create environments that enable developers to make meaningful contributions efficiently while maintaining high levels of quality and sustainability.

"Productivity extends far beyond the volume of code written. The real questions are: Are you addressing the correct problems? Is your approach sustainable? Are you focusing on work that truly makes a difference?"

Engineering Leader

Satisfaction

Developer satisfaction with tools and practices serves as a holistic indicator of developer experience quality. Our research shows that organizations with high developer satisfaction scores typically enjoy better retention, higher engagement, and ultimately better business outcomes.

"I'm passionate about my work."

Developer Experience Lead

Empowerment

Developer empowerment refers to the degree of autonomy and influence developers have over their work. Organizations that balance strategic direction with developer agency tend to foster more innovative solutions and higher levels of commitment.

"Being able to influence what I create and my approach to building it transforms the experience from feeling like a mere code executor to feeling like a valued team member. This level of autonomy enhances both my job satisfaction and the quality of our results."

Senior Developer

Documentation

Effective documentation serves as the foundation for efficient software development. Our research indicates that organizations with comprehensive, accessible, and up-to-date documentation experience fewer bottlenecks, smoother onboarding, and more efficient knowledge transfer.

"Our current roadmap includes developing structured documentation for teams. While each team maintains their own documentation, what we really need are clear, standardized procedures and a centralized portal where all tools and processes are easily accessible."

Engineering Lead

Key insights for engineering leaders

Across all dimensions of work experience, several patterns emerge that are particularly relevant for engineering leaders:

1. Balance is critical — Teams need both collaborative time and deep focus time, both structure and autonomy, both stability and space for experimentation.

2. Small changes yield large results — Even modest improvements in areas like reducing context switching or protecting deep work time can produce outsized gains in productivity and satisfaction.

3. Measurement drives improvement — Teams that regularly measure developer experience through surveys and other feedback mechanisms consistently outperform those that rely on assumptions.

4. Cultural factors matter as much as technical ones — The psychological safety to learn from mistakes, the empowerment to influence priorities, and the satisfaction with practices all have profound impacts on engineering outcomes.

Getting started

By applying the insights from this section, engineering leaders can create environments where developers do their best work while maintaining sustainability and satisfaction — ultimately delivering better software and business results.

For detailed guidance on each aspect of work experience, explore the dedicated chapters linked above.