A Quick History of Startups
Here’s a quick, oversimplified history of how tech companies have managed their talent:
In the beginning, companies offered equity. In exchange, employees worked night and day, 7 days a week to the point of burnout while neglecting every other aspect of their lives. The workplace environment was demanding and perhaps even toxic, and things weren’t all that efficient. But hey, at least the employees had some equity to show for it.
At some point, equity alone was not enough of a cover-up. So companies started to throw in other in-house perks like office couches, ping pong tables, and fancy coffee machines.
This made things fun for a while, but soon everyone realized that these perks had absolutely nothing to do with the work itself.
The industry began to notice that 1) burnout and toxic environments were bad, and 2) what people really wanted was to actually enjoy the work - not just the office decor or the options package.
And thankfully, this approach is trending in many companies today, and particularly when it comes to developers and development teams.
Developer Experience
As an industry, we’ve coined a new phrase in “Developer Experience”. Employees are expecting environments and tools that will enable them to do their best work. Companies are realizing that there are deliberate steps that can be taken to make the actual work more enjoyable.
Some companies have gone as far as introducing a new Developer Experience function whose sole responsibility is literally to enhance the work experience of the development team.
And other companies (like Livecycle) have actually built their entire products and businesses with the objective to make developers happy. Because happier developers are more creative and more productive. Creativity and productivity then translate into better products and more successful ventures. And better products and more successful businesses are in everyone’s best interest.
At Livecycle, our developer experience advocacy manifests itself in several ways.
First and foremost - our product. The Livecycle platform itself is built to provide developers a better way to communicate and collaborate with other stakeholders in the organization, to reduce workflow friction, avoid unnecessary distractions, and allow the entire team to do their best work. We are part of a new generation of devtools that is striving for excellent developer experience by design.
It’s also part of our company ethos. As we build our own organization and grow our team, we’re exploring new and different ways to make the work more enjoyable for everyone involved.
And finally, we believe that there is a power in numbers. We are aiming to become a hub for discussing and promoting all aspects of developer experience throughout the community. By joining together with other likeminded companies and colleagues from across the industry, we can ensure that great developer experience becomes the standard, and not the exception.
The Dev-X Project
So we are proud to introduce “The Dev-X Project” - a series of features with industry leaders sharing their developer experience insights. In each “episode”, we ask an industry leader 10 interesting questions about DX and collect their responses and insights for you to enjoy and benefit from.
The features will be a lot of fun, so keep an eye on our blog and our social channels, coming soon!
