# Should we focus on developer experience or developer productivity?

DevFeed: [Should we focus on developer experience or developer productivity?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/should-we-focus-on-developer-experience-or-developer-productivity-39896.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://mende.io/blog/developer-experience-developer-productivity/>)

Author: tobi@techunicorn.builders (Tobias Mende)

Published: 2022-02-26T12:57:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Tobias Mende](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/tobias-mende.md>)

Topics: [Developer experience](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/developer-experience.md>), [developer-productivity](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/developer-productivity.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>)

Tags: [culture-developer-productivity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/culture-developer-productivity.md>), [developer-experience](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer-experience.md>), [developer-productivity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer-productivity.md>), [employee-motivation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/employee-motivation.md>), [experience](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/experience.md>), [metrics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/metrics.md>), [motivation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/motivation.md>), [productivity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/productivity.md>), [software-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-development.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that developer experience should take priority over developer productivity metrics. It distinguishes experience, which focuses on developers' well-being and working conditions, from productivity or effectiveness, which emphasizes outcomes such as speed, quality, and other KPIs. It contends that excessive metric-driven pressure can reduce motivation and that addressing poor developer experience is a better path to productivity.

## Source excerpt

Should we focus on developer experience or developer productivity? When talking about developer experience, there are a couple of other names thrown into the conversation that all kind-of mean the same, but IMHO have a slightly different touch / focus and can be perceived quite differently.