Building a High-Performance Engineering Culture
How we transformed a struggling engineering team with high turnover into a stable, high-velocity unit.
01The Challenge
The founders were frustrated by a lack of visibility into what engineering was doing. Deadlines were constantly missed, and developer turnover was high. They didn't know if they had the right people in the right seats, or if their expectations were unrealistic.
- High Developer Turnover
- Missed Deadlines
02The Strategy
Culture isn't just about perks; it's about clarity and impact. I established clear engineering metrics (DORA) to make performance visible and objective. I mentored the lead engineer to step up into a management role and restructured the hiring process to test for "product-mindedness," not just coding skills.
Key Interventions
DORA Metrics
Started tracking Deployment Frequency and Lead Time to Change to baseline performance.
Hiring Pipeline
Created a standardized interview rubric to reduce bias and identify culture-add candidates.
Career Ladders
Defined clear growth paths for engineers so they knew how to advance without leaving.
03The Results
The transformation was palpable. Deployment frequency tripled as the team gained confidence. Most importantly, we retained 100% of key talent over the next year, and the founders finally felt they had a partner in engineering rather than a black box.