Block uses DX Core 4 to define and measure engineering velocity
Block is the fintech innovator behind brands like Square, Cash App, and Spiral. Known for its rapid growth and engineering prowess, Block has scaled to over 4,000 engineers managing thousands of interconnected software systems. As the company has grown, engineering complexity has increased, prompting a renewed emphasis on product velocity as a key to its success.
From executive leaders on down, Block is focused on maintaining the startup-like speed that fueled its growth, even as the company operates at enterprise scale. “Our vision is to make engineering velocity a competitive advantage, enabling us to operate like a startup even at our large scale,” says Azra Coburn, Head of Developer Experience at Block.
To make progress, Block began collecting pull request metrics to identify bottlenecks, but the lack of context made this data difficult to act upon. Meanwhile, each of their business units attempted to capture qualitative data from developers, but design challenges and low response rates made it difficult to trust.
Initially, Block considered developing a better internal solution. It had the engineering talent to do so, but the non-engineering expertise and resource requirements were prohibitive. Creating something as effective DX would have distracted from core priorities and been difficult to scale. Instead, Block chose DX to deliver metrics and feedback from developers inside a flexible platform.
Beyond the data, the DX Core 4 has aligned leaders around a clear framework. This standardized approach allows Block to track trends consistently, benchmark against peers, and effectively communicate across stakeholders. “The DX Core 4 has been powerful for senior leadership communication,” Coburn says. “The DX Core 4 provides us a consistent way to define engineering velocity, explain why it matters to the business, and show how investments in tooling and platforms are paying off over time.”
DX will continue to be a key part of Block’s strategy, uniting leadership and teams around goals for engineering excellence. And as Block grows, they demonstrate that even large, complex organizations can sustain velocity at scale.
