John Lewis increases time spent coding by 26% with DX
10x+ return on investment in DX
John Lewis, a UK-based employee-owned retailer, is known for its curated products and exceptional customer service. Its digital platforms, including e-commerce, mobile apps, and ‘click and collect’ service—ensure the same high standards online and in-store. With over 1,000 developers supporting these platforms, engineering productivity is directly tied to the quality of the customer experience.
Before DX, inefficiencies across teams left developers with limited time for coding and shipping. Challenges included manual release processes, inconsistent build workflows, and excessive meetings. Leadership lacked visibility into these challenges, making it difficult to measure their impact or prioritize improvements. As Rob Hornby, Platform Engineering Lead, explains, “We couldn’t understand how well we were doing as an organization and where we could improve.”
John Lewis turned to DX for clarity. DX surfaced pain across teams, enabling leadership to measure the impact of inefficiencies and prioritize fixes. For the first time, teams could identify blockers and own their results, and leadership could align engineering priorities with business goals. Hornby shares, “Over the last year, DX has become part of daily conversations. Teams use it to focus on challenges and successes, and leadership sees it as a key measure of how well we’re doing.”
By automating workflows, standardizing processes, and reducing meetings, John Lewis increased time spent coding by 26% in just over a year, boosting productivity and developer satisfaction.
“DX gives us that picture of our entire engineering profession and helps us drive good engineering practices,” says Howard Newell, Backend Engineering Lead. Michelle Fitzgerald, Director of Engineering, shares a manager’s perspective, “as an engineering manager, DX helps me see where teams are struggling so I can step in, figure out how to support them, or escalate issues when needed.”
John Lewis plans to scale DX’s impact, using it to maintain velocity and align engineering with business goals. By embedding DX into their culture, John Lewis is streamlining workflows, empowering developers, and achieving measurable results. Hornby captures it well, “The success of DX is that everyone talks about it, from team-level conversations to leadership discussions. It’s become part of how we identify challenges and deliver value.”
For more on John Lewis’ developer productivity journey, check out our customer video:
