Maximizing Developer Productivity
At a company where developers shape the future, their own day-to-day experience was fractured. Too many tools. Too little clarity. No single place to start. This is the story of how we turned that fragmentation into focus, that finally gave 20,000+ developers what they needed: DevHub.
Summary
What is DevHub?
DevHub is a centralized platform that gives VMware developers unified access to tools, workflows, and resources - tailored to their roles. It's the "command center" for building software at scale.
What is this case study about?
How a top-down optimization goal helped reshape fragmented developer workflows into a role-aware, personalized platform that boosted productivity and cut onboarding time by 80%.
Team
- Engineering: 2 Platform Developers, 6 Service Developers
- Product: 1 Product Manager
- Design: Me (Lead Designer), 1 Senior Designer, 1 Contractor.
My Role
As the Lead Designer, I drove discovery, led design strategy, and worked closely with engineers and service owners to co-create a solution that developers would adopt and love.
Constraints
- Inherited complexity from siloed platforms
- No central UX before this initiative
Impact
- Onboarding time reduced from 3 weeks → <5 days
- +40% tool engagement in 1st quarter
- –15% project turnaround time
- DevHub became a model for platform design across VMware
Hands-on Users
VMware Developers
Needed easy access to tools and services, without searching Slack or Confluence every time.
Developers looking to improve their efficiency
Developers looking to boost their productivity
Engineering Managers
Wanted visibility into team tooling, workflows, and developer onboarding without micromanaging.
Platform Service Owners
Aimed to reduce duplicated effort and streamline the onboarding and maintenance of internal services.
Process
Discovery: Finding the Friction
WORKSHOPS
We kicked off with alignment sessions mapping the stakeholders, pains and goals across the developer ecosystem.
USER RESEARCH
We conducted 12+ user interviews across roles, levels, and teams. Common themes emerged:
- Tribal knowledge ruled: devs used bookmarks, Slack, and old wikis.
- Service duplication was rampant due to lack of visibility.
- New hires were overwhelmed by an 80-page onboarding doc.
“I spend more time looking for things than building things.” – MTS Engineer
AUDIT
A heuristic review of existing portals revealed low usability, overwhelming options, and broken mental models. We needed clarity and cohesion.
Design Strategy
We co-created a prioritized backlog with product and engineering, aligning on way forward. This helped us seamlessly plan to stay ahead of dev by 2 sprints.
Designing for Flow, Not Features
Instead of launching into “design mode,” we prototyped around user intent:
- “I want to start a project.”
- “I need a toolkit for a service.”
- “I want to know what tools I should be using.”
Key Design Features
Role Based UI
Streamlined dashboards per user type
Quick Actions
Common workflows in 1-click reach
Personalization
Let devs pin what they use most
Automation
Microservices that allocated resources on intent
Smart Onboarding
Pre-packaged toolchains to cut ramp-up time
Early Testing and Iterations
Our early concepts revealed a key issue - users found the dashboards overwhelming, with too many options. So, we iterated and introduced role-based filtering and progressive disclosure, leading to:
✔ 30% increase in usability scores
✔ 2x faster path to action for devs
✔ Managers spending less time handholding
“This dashboard finally feels like mine.” – Front-end Developer
Product Highlights
DevHub Dashboard
Unified access to tools, services, and projects — personalized by role.
Quick Actions
Frequent developer tasks surfaced smartly — Git repo creation, CI pipeline setup, and more.
Onboarding Kits
Simplified starter kits for new devs based on their project or tech stack.
Role-Based Recommendations
Services surfaced based on usage patterns and organizational context.
Results
Onboarding Time.
From 3 weeks to <5 days.
Engagement
+40% in 3 months
Efficiency
–15% project turnaround
Duplication
–25% duplicated services
"Having all my tools in one place makes my workday so much simpler." – MTS III Enginner
"DevHub revolutionized our workflow—it's like having a personal assistant for development." – Lead Engineer
“DevHub isn’t just a portal. It’s how I start my day.” – Staff Developer
Learnings
What This Taught Me
- Iterate Early & Often: Engaging users early led to a 30% boost in usability.
- Prioritize Personalization: Tailoring interfaces to user roles maximizes relevance and efficiency.
- Data-Driven Decisions: Leveraging metrics (e.g., 25% reduction in duplication) validated our design choices.
- Foster Co-Design: Cross-functional collaboration ensured comprehensive solutions.
- Communicate Impact: Clear KPIs (e.g., reduced onboarding time, increased engagement) drove stakeholder confidence.
- Cultivate a User-Centric Culture: Listening to user feedback led to meaningful design improvements.
DevHub wasn’t just another tool - it transformed the developer experience at VMware. By reducing inefficiencies, accelerating onboarding, and enhancing workflow clarity, DevHub set a scalable benchmark for global engineering success. - Me!
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