Measuring Developer Experience Impact with Cost to Serve

Discover how Amazon measures and improves developer experience at enterprise scale in this interview with Jim Haughwout, VP of Software Builder Experience at Amazon. Drawing from Amazon's retail business expertise, Jim reveals how the "cost to serve" metric transforms developer productivity measurement by focusing on system-level efficiency rather than individual performance. Learn how Amazon balances developer autonomy with standardization, implements tension metrics to prevent gaming, and leverages AI to re-imagine software development workflows. This essential discussion provides practical frameworks for quantifying developer experience improvements and connecting them directly to business value, from deployment automation to AI-assisted development at scale.