As PMs, we’re obsessed with the end-user, and for good reason. We champion their needs, map their journeys, and build products to solve their problems. But we often overlook a critical user segment whose experience directly impacts our success: our own development team.
Slow builds, flaky testing environments, cumbersome deployment processes, and poor internal documentation aren’t just ‘engineering problems’—they are user experience failures. This friction, often bundled under the umbrella of Developer Experience (DevEx), is a direct tax on your team’s velocity and innovation.
Investing in internal tooling and streamlining workflows isn’t just ‘overhead’ or ‘keeping engineers happy.’ It’s a strategic investment in your company’s ability to ship high-quality products faster. When developers can focus on solving customer problems instead of fighting their tools, the entire product organization wins. Treating your internal platform as a product, with developers as your users, can be one of the highest-leverage things you do.
How do you balance prioritizing developer-facing improvements with the relentless demand for new customer features?