Custom DevEx research,
solutions & programs.
Evidence-based. Data-driven.
Fully compiled and ready to run.
Developer Experience, defined.
These days, any discussion on engineering team health and productivity begins with DevEx. But what exactly are we talking about when we talk about DevEx?
We're talking about the sum of the myriad elements that impact the experience of developing software. These elements influence developer happiness, thriving, satisfaction, and productivity, and they include everything from the tools developers use and the processes they follow to how supported and psychologically safe they feel while doing their jobs.
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Large companies are increasingly standing up dedicated DevEx teams tasked with gathering, synthesizing, reporting, and acting on DevEx insights. But these dedicated teams are expensive, and not every engineering organization has the resources for one.
That's where Dev.Executable comes in.
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​Software Engineer & Director of Engineering at an engineering-metrics platform
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Technical Upskilling Specialist at Pluralsight's Technology Center of Excellence
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Principal Developer Experience Engineer and research co-author at the Developer Success Lab
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Head of Developer Experience at a developer-tool startup
What makes me different?
Before my career in tech, I taught English as a Second Language and Academic Writing at Colorado State University. During my time in academia, I conducted classroom-based research on beliefs about language learning interventions, and experimented with strategies to make academic writing instruction more effective and enjoyable for my students.
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I approach all of my work with the scientific knowledge, rigor and ethic I learned while teaching and doing research at the university, as well as the real-world understanding and practicality that I've gained from working as a software practitioner on products designed for software practitioners.
What kinds of work do I do?
​I develop evidence-based research, strategies and programs to help software engineers and their teams thrive. Check out my Services page to get a sense of what I can and love to do, and for examples of my prior work, see my Portfolio page.
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Creativity is our only limit.
Part of the fun for me is getting to apply evidence-based practices to new problems and contexts, so if your team's needs sit anywhere near the intersection of DevEx and my skillset, schedule a consult with me, and we'll work together to design, compile, & run your DevEx program!
I'm Kristen Foster-Marks,
your dedicated DevEx strategist.
Over the last nine years, I've written code across the stack, managed and upskilled teams of software developers, and conducted DevEx research in my roles as: