The McKinsey Developer Productivity Debate (#147)

The debate on measuring developer productivity has arrived - and it’s here to stay. On this week’s episode of Dev Interrupted, cohost Conor Bronsdon welcomes LinearB cofounder & CEO Ori Keren and Kelly Vaughn, Director of Engineering at Spot AI, to offer their critiques of a debate that has captured the attention of the engineering community: can you measure developer productivity? Consulting giant McKinsey published an article that ignited a firestorm, prompting industry leaders Kent Beck and Gergely Orosz to counter with a detailed 2-part response via the Pragmatic Engineer. Believing the industry to be at a crossroads, Ori and Kelly combine forces to offer their perspective on the debate, sharing why it’s an opportunity for dev teams everywhere to “roll out metrics the right way.” 0:00 Introduction 2:15 Initial reaction to the article from McKinsey 10:35 Highlights from the Orosz & Beck response 12:30 What Orosz & Beck missed 21:30 Opportunity to educate the community 25:30 What's best for the engineering community 31:30 How to have this conversation with CEOs & CFOs 36:00 Why this discourse is "exactly what we needed." Check out the new Dev Interrupted website ►► https://linearb.io/dev-interrupted/podcasts Read in-depth articles and gain insights from our favorite speakers ►► https://devinterrupted.substack.com/ Want to improve your engineering team? Get LinearB free for your team ►► https://linearb.io/ #mckinsey #developer #productivity