About this episode
The episode discusses Spotify's approach to measuring developer productivity and happiness through various frameworks and tools.
Host and principal engineer Dave Zolotusky talks with Kyle Buttner, a product manager on Spotify’s insights team, to discuss Spotify's journey in measuring developer productivity — from how we evaluate different frameworks (like DORA and SPACE) to what kind of data we collect, to the role Backstage plays in unifying our development practices. Can productivity metrics really draw an accurate picture of your engineering org and show you the way to happier and more productive developers? Learn more about how we measure developer happiness and productivity at Spotify: How Spotify measures the value of Backstage : Read about how Spotify’s frequent and less frequent Backstage users compare across three metrics: developer activity, development lifecycle, and developer retention. (Plus, a bonus metric on retention!) How Backstage Made Our Developers More Effective : Here’s a metric that was starting to scare us: new employees were taking up to 60 days before they made their tenth pull request. Register for the Spotify for Backstage roadmap webinar : Join us on April 30 to learn about our latest tools for improving developer happiness and productivity. Read what else we’re nerding out…
People in this episode
Host: Dave Zolotusky
Guest: Kyle Buttner
Topics covered
- developer productivity
- measuring frameworks
- developer happiness
- Backstage
- engineering practices
Keywords
- developer productivity
- DORA
- SPACE
- Backstage
- developer happiness
- engineering metrics
- Spotify
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Spotify, Spotify’s insights team, Backstage, Spotify Engineering Blog
More episodes of NerdOut@Spotify
- 36: How the BBC Experiments at Scale: Learning Since 1922 · June 11, 2026 · 32 min
- 35: How Huel Experiments at Scale: Beyond A/B Tests · May 28, 2026 · 36 min
- 34: Redesigning our Apple TV App *Release Notes* · March 5, 2026 · 21 min
- 33: Ship Happens (When Agents Code) · January 15, 2026 · 49 min
- 32: ARM-ing Ourselves with Google Axion, Part 2 · November 19, 2025 · 37 min
- 31: ARM-ing Ourselves with Google Axion, Part 1 · October 8, 2025 · 32 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the NerdOut@Spotify podcast page.