Block identifies 500k+ hours of reclaimable developer time with DX

Block is an ecosystem of brands focused on economic empowerment that includes Square, Cash App, TIDAL and Spiral. Over the past 15 years, the company has grown to over 4,000 engineers managing thousands of interconnected software systems. As the company has scaled, engineers have faced increasing friction from redundant tools, sprawling workflows, and the challenges of navigating complex systems—leading to lost engineering time.

Block’s leadership recognized the need to reduce inefficiencies but lacked the data to pinpoint where time was being lost. “We knew we were losing time, but we didn’t have the clarity to act on it,” says Azra Coburn, Head of Developer Experience at Block. “It was hard to know what the biggest bottlenecks actually were.”

Instead of diverting engineers to build an internal solution, Block turned to DX to uncover bottlenecks and measure engineering friction. “The data gave us a level of clarity we never had before,” Coburn explains. “It became obvious where our teams were losing time, and we could act quickly to address it.”

With DX, Block found over 500,000 hours of reclaimable developer time annually. Leadership used this data to prioritize investment in what mattered most:

• Local development environments: Build times were slow, and engineers faced delays setting up and iterating on local environments.

• CI build and test delays: Long-running CI pipelines and flaky tests disrupted developer workflows.

• Redundant tools and workflows: Teams were duplicating efforts with overlapping systems that didn’t scale effectively.

  “The biggest value has been DX’s ability to surface where we can make the most impact…these improvements helped us move faster without sacrificing quality or focus.”

  Azra Coburn, Head of Developer Experience, Block

“The biggest value has been DX’s ability to surface where we can make the most impact,” says Coburn. “We’re a large organization, but these improvements helped us move faster without sacrificing quality or focus.” Resolving these friction points lets developers focus on meaningful work, like building impactful features and refining systems.

Going forward, DX is how Block will measure and drive engineering excellence. Their results show that even large, complex engineering organizations can sustain velocity as they grow, supported by clear data to address inefficiencies.