D2L chooses DX for developer productivity insights

D2L, creators of Brightspace, a leading LMS for online learning and teaching, relies on its platform engineering team to empower product teams to deliver quickly and reliably. But understanding developers’ deeper challenges was difficult without clear data. The team was generally aware of issues, but they struggled to prioritize them, especially during major platform initiatives. Their goal was to improve developer experience even while overhauling significant parts of their developer platform.

“We had talked about getting a product to keep a pulse on our engineering group for a long time,” says Matt Pinelli, Senior Engineering Manager at D2L. Without a structured way to collect feedback, the team often relied solely on quantitative data, which could lead decisions astray. “If you don’t have both self-reported and system-based metrics together, it’s very hard to get the full picture,” Pinelli explains.

“If you don’t have both self-reported and system-based metrics together, it’s very hard to get the full picture.”

Matt Pinelli, Senior Engineering Manager, D2L

This need for deeper insights led D2L to evaluate several solutions. Many tools focused on visualizing metrics from GitHub and Jira but treated developer experience data and sentiment as secondary. D2L chose DX because it aligned with their developer-centric approach and offered unique capabilities. “We found that the other vendors looked at qualitative data as an afterthought,” says Pinelli. “Whereas DX puts qualitative data at the forefront and uses quantitative data to give you more context.”

“We found that the other vendors looked at qualitative data as an afterthought, whereas DX puts qualitative data at the forefront and uses quantitative data to give you more context.”

Matt Pinelli, Senior Engineering Manager, D2L

With DX, D2L gained a clear understanding of developer productivity. They found bottlenecks in onboarding friction across team workflows, which enabled the platform team to address root causes instead of symptoms. As a result, new developers ramp up faster, and existing teams experience fewer delays, improving delivery speed without sacrificing reliability.

DX is now a cornerstone of how D2L’s platform initiatives support developers. The platform team uses it to evaluate progress, fine-tune support strategies, and align improvements with both immediate needs and long-term goals. By embedding DX, D2L has optimized the developer experience and built a strong foundation for scaling good engineering practices.

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