The Power of DX: How Skip Pay Creates a Developer-Friendly Ecosystem

Leading organizations increasingly recognize Developer Experience (DX) as a strategic priority. Among them, Skip Pay differentiates itself by balancing two key priorities: delivering exceptional service to their customers while simultaneously optimizing their internal development processes for maximum efficiency.

One of them is Skip Pay.

Skip Pay is a fintech startup that simplifies payments and shopping. It offers "buy now, pay later" options, a user-friendly credit card, and smart shopping services like automatic insurance and extended warranties. 

Skip Pay shows how investing in Developer Experience pays off: their balanced focus on customer solutions and internal workflows creates a platform that appeals to both external partners and their own engineering team.

Skip Pay's view of the developer experience

We asked Skip Pay the following questions:

1. How do you define "good Developer Experience", and what specific elements do you prioritize to achieve it in your company?

We approach Developer Experience from two distinct angles. The first focuses on what we offer to our customers. Our entire IT team at Skip Pay shares the belief that it all comes down to first impressions when someone opens our documentation. We constantly ask ourselves: Can developers quickly find what they need? Is the content easily searchable through Google? Is support readily available?

The second aspect concerns internal development. Here, it's about finding the right balance between output, quality, and developer satisfaction. Developer Experience positively contributes to developer satisfaction through the company's internal tools, documentation, and processes.

2. Can you walk us through the key steps or strategies your team employs to make your platform or service intuitive and accessible for external developers/tech customers?

We believe the most crucial factor is familiarity - ensuring our systems align with what developers might have encountered elsewhere. We approach Developer Experience with the same principles that guide User Experience (UX) design, recognizing that developers are users too.

3. Have you ever personally encountered a situation where you decided against using a particular service due to poor Developer Experience?

While we haven't personally decided against a service because of poor Developer Experience, we've noticed that in some cases, we did regret having given certain services a chance despite spotting DX challenges in the beginning. This insight helps us understand the importance of making a strong first impression when it comes to our own services.

4. How do you approach Developer Experience within your own development teams?

We maintain a robust internal development environment through internal libraries. These extend beyond just the software we develop - we've created tools specifically designed to help the development process itself. This comprehensive toolkit helps streamline our development workflows and improve team efficiency.

5. In the spirit of continuous improvement, are there areas in your Developer Experience that you've identified as needing enhancement?

We continuously work on improving our development processes. Currently, we're focusing on enhancing the efficiency of our code review process. One specific improvement we're planning to implement soon is the introduction of merge trains within GitLab, which will help streamline our development pipeline.

6. What tangible benefits has your company seen as a result of prioritizing good Developer Experience?

We have seen significant benefits from our focus on Developer Experience:
- Reduced integration times for partners
- Positive impressions of our developer portal
- Increased success in attracting new partners

The combination of faster integration times and a well-received developer portal has proven to be a valuable asset in our partner acquisition efforts.

Conclusion

Skip Pay shows how paying attention to both external and internal developer needs can really boost business. They make sure external developers feel right at home with their tools, while giving their own team solid internal processes to work with - it's a win-win for everyone. And it's working: they're getting partners on board faster and attracting new ones more easily, proving that good DX is worth the investment.

They're not stopping there, either. They keep looking for ways to make things better, like improving their code review process. This kind of forward thinking, plus their practical approach to DX, shows that Skip Pay really gets it - they understand that great developer experience is key to success in today's tech world.