Antoine Boulanger

Engineering operator (Box, Google Spanner, Stripe), YC founder (Okay W20, exit to Stripe). Angel investor in AI, Infra and Dev Tools.

[Okay @OkayHQ]

We have been acquired by Stripe!

https://t.co/K3yAOdqPp0

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@der_mit_ph @nathenharvey @trahec If using Github, you can use Github Actions to record the relationship between commits and PRs at various boundaries (e.g new commit added, merge, etc.)

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@danielbryantuk Slow builds / flaky CI / long code review cycles / noisy pages / too many meetings. More examples here: https://t.co/2rPU4MZ6nv

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

🚀 We just released our plugin for #backstageio , the most popular developer portal platform!

You can now embed your Okay charts in your team/service pages, including DORA Metrics, Incident Dashboards, CI/CD Performance charts, and many more.

#devops #cicd

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@beyang Great article - really believe in feedback loops and focusing on unblocking engineers. The set of metrics to use is highly contextual and cannot be forced into e.g. DORA. You might want to check https://t.co/pZ6c1S4Xk3 and our section in the EE handbook: https://t.co/ApwOuwulJh

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@utsav_sha @beyang @ediardo Ex-devs turned managers, but @tomasrb and I recently put together the following handbook: https://t.co/KKDyipT1Bm. Contributions are welcome since it's open-source.

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

What causes developer survey fatigue?

Lack of follow-up by the leadership.

Surveys are not data gathering tools, they are communication channels - from developers to managers.

If managers don't "answer" with actions, surveys get ignored.

TCP >> UDP 😉

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@GergelyOrosz Examples of such "developer productivity metrics":
- how long do you have to wait on CI
- how long does it take to receive feedback on your PR
- how many recurring meetings do you have to attend
- latency of code search, hot-reload, etc.

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@GergelyOrosz Developer productivity is an outcome of how well the organization functions. It measures manager performance, not developer performance.

The goal of management is to remove blockers such as bad tools or processes, and these problems are measurable

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@rhein_wein @dimiterbak I find it easier to measure bottlenecks / things that are getting in the way of being productive. It also puts the accountability on the leadership, and not on the developer. Meeting load, broken processes, slow tools, etc.

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@dimiterbak @rhein_wein My co-founder and I recently wrote a handbook about this topic: https://t.co/KKDyipT1Bm, the first chapter tries to answer the "definition" question in detail.

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

Managing Time & Interruptions is arguably the most important input to create high performing software teams. Read more at https://t.co/xTDQegYNCr

#engineeringleadership #engops #productivity

[Okay @OkayHQ]

Read and contribute to our new open-source handbook about #EngineeringEffectiveness! https://t.co/uBOS0Xu4hA (Github: https://t.co/Lwaop535BT)

[Okay @OkayHQ]

We raised $4.4M from @kleinerperkins to amplify our momentum and provide engineering effectiveness and visibility to every software company!
https://t.co/uRWAHqrKfg

[Okay @OkayHQ]

Incredibly excited to be partnering with @mParticle !

Okay enables mParticle engineers to find their flow:
https://t.co/x8qOjW485d

[Okay @OkayHQ]

Teaching people — directly and through cultural norms — that they are powerful, not powerless, to change and fix broken processes is key

https://t.co/7V3G5lr2Kz

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

@anjuan We follow this approach at @OkayHQ. I shared some examples at https://t.co/5braTUYbsL. The biggest drags we are seeing are: meeting/interview load, code review practices that introduce too much friction, and after-hours interruptions like noisy pages

[Antoine Boulanger @tonioab]

"Most engineers care deeply about optimization and suboptimal processes can drive them crazy." https://t.co/SoiV50PG4t Library