Vercel reduces cycle times by 43% with DX
5x+ return on investment in DX
Vercel is a frontend cloud platform that enables developers to build, deploy, and manage web applications. With millions of users and a rapidly scaling business, the company depends on its engineering teams to deliver efficiently in a competitive market.
As CEO and Founder Guillermo Rauch explains, “At the stage that we’re in—with over 500 employees and significant maturity in go to market and revenue—engineering velocity is everything. Early stage startups live or die based on product market fit. With scale ups, you live or die by velocity.”
Vercel adopted DX to measure the state of their engineering organization and measure key development workflows. DX combines data from tools like GitHub with qualitative developer feedback, giving Vercel leadership a close-up understanding of productivity across teams.
Rauch explains: “I carry DX insights with me every day. I check in with my leaders and I ask, ‘how is our release velocity?’ It’s been a key part for us in maintaining velocity, but also keeping the sentiment in mind of how our developers are feeling.”
From the start, DX data surfaced a number of bottlenecks and opportunities. For example, data revealed difficulty in their code release process which was hampering velocity. Based on this, Vercel made investments in their CI tooling and release workflows. Within a 12-month span, they were able to significantly accelerate release velocity and lower pull request cycle times by 43%, from 4.6 hours to 2.7 hours on average.
Lindsey Simon, VP of Engineering, explains: “Every time I get information from DX it adds to my understanding of how we’re doing and improving. That’s why it’s so critical to have this system in place—it ensures we’re not just guessing about where the problems are.”
Simon explains, “Without DX, it’s all just vibes. Pinpointing friction in the release cycle led us to invest in Turborepo and Turbopack, which dramatically improved build times and boosted satisfaction. It wasn’t just about speed—it was about ensuring the process felt seamless and empowering for developers.”
And Vercel is continuing to improve engineering velocity in more ways with DX. They’ve also rolled out DX’s Frontline product which equips managers with real-time insights and alerts about delivery. The partnership with DX has reshaped Vercel’s approach to engineering efficiency, enabling faster feature delivery and helping the company maintain its competitive edge.
For more on Vercel’s developer productivity journey, check out our customer video:
