Thank you, Developer Success Lab

After a life-changing journey building the Developer Success Lab at Pluralsight, the difficult decision was made that it's time to wind the lab down and part ways.

When I came to Pluralsight, I pitched a moonshot idea: What if we did high-quality empirical science for software teams, in the open, and changed the landscape of how developers and organizations understand themselves? Pluralsight believed in me and my vision, and the adventure started.

Building the Developer Success Lab from zero into a world-class research organization will forever remain one of the greatest highlights of my career. It wasn't easy, but every day proved that the impact we were having was industry-changing and necessary. 

Across the conversations, research and stories, our lab played a pivotal role in creating positive change and new understanding in the rapidly evolving Developer Experience space. To say that I am proud of my team would be an understatement. I'm in awe of the impact we had; truly, I believe it's impact that will continue to be felt for generations. With guts, heart, and rigorously compassionate science, we launched research that brought tens of thousands of technologists’ stories into the light and broke ground on crucial mechanisms for software team success.

To my phenomenal colleagues who were impacted: my heart is with you. These moments are bittersweet, because even as we remember all we accomplished, the reality of the situation is difficult to hold. It was an honor and a privilege to lead you and watch you grow into a tremendous world-class team. I know wherever you go, and whatever you do, you'll continue to go forth and achieve great things.

And finally, to you. To the incredible community of developers, technologists, leaders and managers. Most of all, to every participant who trusted me with your experience. I have always seen you as our partners and co-scientists, our most important community. In the beginning I told my team, “We will know we are doing it right when the developers tell us we are doing it right.” How you have lived up to that hope! It is because you shared our work, told your organizations it was important, and came into community with us that this lab was possible. It’s not an exaggeration to say that you have changed my life. Never doubt your humanity. We really magicked up some science together.

While the Lab may not be able to continue, my story is nowhere near done. If anything, it's just beginning. In one of the first talks I gave on our Developer Thriving work I made a bold promise: “What could you do with a psychologist for software teams? Now you have one.” 

I'm excited to see what lies ahead, and I have ambitious goals. If you're curious to learn more about them, please reach out! But for now, I'm looking forward to reflecting, resting, and time with family and friends.

Our fiercely committed lab brought multiple disciplines together to create brand-new methods for every study, and we did it all with the courage to be open: our methods, data and novel science will live on for developers because of our commitment to open science. Research from me, and Principal Scientists Carol Lee, PhD and John Flournoy here: 

Developer Thriving: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10491133

AI Skill Threat: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/2gej5_v2

No Silver Bullets: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.05040

Code Review Anxiety: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10664-024-10550-9

Code Review Anxiety workbook: https://developer-success-lab.gitbook.io/code-review-anxiety-workbook-1

Developer Science Review, and scicomm for software teams: https://dsl.pubpub.org/ 

PS: If you're looking to hire world class talent, I know some brilliant people looking for work now. I would love to connect you to them. Here's my linkedin post, and it would really help us if you'd like and share it. Carol Lee: https://www.carol-s-lee-phd.com/ 

John Flournoy: https://johnflournoy.science/