Pendo

Good engineers, albeit very junior (even at the senior eng level).

The shift in engineering focus toward JIRA tickets per employee has massively hurt engineering. Engineers are clearly being seen as interchangeable cogs in the JIRA factory, and so that’s how they’re measured. But good products are made through trust, letting engineers plan and execute projects as they see fit. This shift signals a low-trust environment. It's especially detrimental for actually good engineers who want to focus on meaningful, strategic work rather than being shuffled random tickets.

Much of engineering leadership is older than the developer population, and as a result, many implement outdated engineering management techniques that are known to fail. This approach feels like a cry for help, either because they are 1) too lazy to measure productivity and impact in a more nuanced way, or 2) they genuinely believe this will help the company, which is even worse.

Promotions often reflect favoritism rather than merit. If you're not in the right circles (like the book club), the path to advancement is unclear and the goalposts shift constantly. Engineering managers in this environment tend to follow orders rather than advocate for their teams or challenge decisions that don’t serve the broader engineering organization.

Start actually treating engineers as creators and trust them to build good solutions alongside product. JIRA metrics create a low trust environment. You will be left with only mediocre engineers that are just rule-followers.

This is the behavior that is rewarded and it is why your product is getting its lunch ate by competitors. Engineering leadership needs a complete refresh top-down. CTO is checked out which is disappointing since he was the one bright spot in the leadership team.