We all want to know if our engineering teams are effective. So, we turn to frameworks like DORA and SPACE, tracking everything from deployment frequency to lead time. But a growing conversation in the industry is asking a tough question: are we measuring activity instead of impact?
The core critique is that these metrics show how fast we’re building, but not if we’re building the right thing. A high deployment frequency is great, but it’s a vanity metric if those deployments don’t move the needle on customer satisfaction or revenue. The real goal isn’t just shipping code; it’s creating economic value.
This shifts the focus back to the fundamental role of product management. Before we can measure the value of what’s built, we must first deeply understand what our users actually need. Centralizing customer feedback and research becomes paramount, ensuring that every engineering cycle is aimed at a genuine, valuable problem. At Leera.io, we believe that connecting development effort directly to validated user needs is the only way to truly measure productivity.
While DORA metrics have their place for monitoring process health, they shouldn’t be the primary measure of an engineering team’s success. True productivity is about efficiently delivering value, not just code.
How does your organization balance measuring engineering activity versus customer and business impact?