The Perfect Metaphor for Developer Productivity at Netflix

[pyrocentury]

The key part to me is this---how do we know how much of the productivity and effectiveness of developers at Netflix is attributed to the work of Kathryn Koehler and her team's initiatives? We can't just gloss over the fact that we all know and that she states in this interview--Netflix hires and retains only top talent. If the members themselves are self-organizing and effective in their own right, then enabling them/getting out of their way is much easier. How much is causation and how much is actually correlation?

Frankly, all the talking points she raises are the same generic truth-ism spewed by a lot of consultants and management that isn't really actionable or effective in and of themselves. What system do you put in place or what would be the approach to achieve effectiveness and productivity when you're operating with more constraints and more variables? What if you can't control the quality of your input--the employees?