Is your development team a strength or a weakness?

In our latest Digital Leadership Briefing, we unpacked the reality of dev team performance – and how to measure, improve and advocate for it.

If you lead a development team, you've probably faced this moment: you're in a boardroom, surrounded by dashboards and metrics from sales and marketing, but when it comes to engineering, things go quiet. Not because nothing's happening – but because no one's quite sure how to measure what matters.

That's the challenge we tackled in our recent webinar with Alex Harris, CEO of the performance analytics platform Adadot. The session was packed with practical insights, but here's what stood out most for dev teams.

Data isn't just for managers. It's for developers, too.

A key takeaway? Development teams should embrace metrics – and that starts with transparency.

Rather than tracking lines of code or pushing vanity metrics, the Adadot platform empowers developers with insights into their focus time, collaboration patterns, and even "glue time" – the often invisible hours spent helping others, unblocking issues and mentoring teammates.

By making this data visible to the team, not just leadership, you get a virtuous cycle: awareness drives better habits, and better habits drive better output.

Performance is a team sport – and needs the right signals

Code is just part of the picture. Most developers spend less time writing it than you think. The rest? Meetings, planning, reviews, support.

So if you're only measuring code output, you're missing the real health signals. The platform pulls data from GitHub, Jira, Slack, Google Workspace, and more to provide the whole picture – from blocked pull requests to excessive context-switching.

And this isn't about surveillance. It's about balance. The best teams aren't the ones sprinting at full speed 24/7 – they're the ones who know when to breathe, collaborate and focus. Good data makes that visible.

Glue time isn't wasted time

We loved this reframing from Alex: "Glue time is what makes it all come together."

It's the one-on-one support. The code review discussions. The mentoring moments. Often dismissed as distractions, these interactions are actually where bugs are prevented and culture is strengthened.

But glue time has to be deliberate. Too many ad hoc interruptions kill focus time. Using the right tools, you can protect the deep work that creates great code and the collaboration that keeps the team moving.

Better data = Better conversations

If there's one reason to invest in dev metrics, it's this: you can finally advocate for your team with confidence.

Whether it's pushing back on unrealistic delivery dates, making a case for more headcount, or proving the value of your QA process – good data turns gut feel into action.

As Alex said, "Momentum matters more than perfection." If your team is improving, reducing bottlenecks, and increasing collaboration – that's the story your data should tell.

Start simple. Stay human.

Want to measure what matters? Start where no one else is looking: at the human signals behind the metrics. Combine data with conversations. Use it to nudge, not police. And always link back to the bigger picture.

When your dev team is set up to thrive, the rest of the business moves faster, smoother, and stronger.

Adadot