DevX Days | Alyssa Nicoll, Justin Schwartzenberger, & Mike Brocchi | Developer Experience Panel

Developer experience consists of three main pillars: cognitive load, flow state, and feedback loops

Context switching is a major challenge - protect focused work time by:

• Muting notifications during deep work
• Batching communications rather than sending multiple small messages
• Using tools like timers and the Eisenhower Matrix for task prioritization

Documentation should be:

• Simple and scannable
• Goal-oriented rather than documentation for documentation’s sake
• Enhanced with visuals, videos, and examples when helpful
• Maintained in an easily searchable central location

Establish consistent language and patterns across teams to reduce confusion and cognitive load

• Align on terminology between product, engineering, and other teams
• Document architectural patterns and coding standards
• Create glossaries for quick reference

Build in redundancy and share knowledge:

• Avoid single points of failure by expanding code review capacity
• Record videos/documentation to help distribute knowledge
• Consider team impact when making architectural decisions

Be flexible and mindful in communication:

• Respect different time zones and team preferences
• Bundle messages instead of rapid-fire communications
• Include context when requesting help or meetings
• Be willing to temporarily break flow to help others

Use tooling strategically to:

• Maintain focus and track tasks
• Streamline documentation and knowledge sharing
• Reduce friction in development workflows
• Support consistent patterns and practices