Um hi everyone. I'm Yanina and I work uh at JetBrains. And uh today um I wanted at JetBrains as a developer experience and search lead, and today I'm going to talk about human motivation.

And I would love you to remember just three words of this talk.

Uh autonomy, competence, relatedness to others. Uh and if perhaps you had any concerns about the title of this talk, I hope this this guy has just relieved them.

Uh well, I will speak on behalf of myself and of my colleague Olga Lvova.

We are originally researchers with a strong background in cognitive psychology and organizational psychology. Uh uh we have worked in academia for a couple of decades before.

Now we work at JetBrains and we conduct research about developers as human beings uh and study their productivity and experience.

We are not engineers, but we are experts in the way humans are functioning. And uh we know how engineers feel and what they think about their jobs.

Uh and we analyze and interpret this data. So today I will share part of the things that really excite me uh about studying developers as human beings.

Uh well, improving software developers' productivity has become an issue recently crucial for business uh and many companies invest in uh uh efforts and resources in enhancing productivity and understanding what factors to prioritize uh and if possible with the shortest time and least money.

Uh And I will talk about the main factors that really enhance developers' productivity and satisfaction. Uh please raise your hands. Let's get introduced to each other.

Raise your hands if you're a developer. Thank you. Very many people who if you're a manager of developers.

Uh, nice to meet you. If you're a manager of managers, quite a few. Thank you. We're a very diverse audience, and I hope after this talk, each of these groups, every of you will get something interesting and inspiring.

Well, productivity has become a buzzword. Vendors work to enhance productivity in their products. Research is aiming to find factors that correlate with productivity, and new productivity frameworks are getting introduced.

And still, productivity as a phenomenon is quite vague, and I wouldn't dare to give you a definition, actually, if you ask me.

Uh, technical people, engineers, choose some metrics, some proxies that seem to be reliable because most of all and most often they are quantitative and measurable.

And if these metrics are objective, that's why we tend to trust them. They are the low-hanging fruit that we can easily grasp.

But in this chase for objective metrics that seemingly measure developer productivity, the idea of a developer as a human being is often missing.

Just like a human figure is missing in this painting by Pablo Picasso, which is titled Accordionist.

And let us not forget that all managers are still working with people, at least for now, while developers are still human beings.

That's why if you want to build an efficient and stable developer team, you need to know the key factors of human productivity.

Here's the simple formula: Productive humans are motivated humans. I think many of you have experienced that.

It's as simple as that, and we are going to disclose a few important drivers of human motivation. So, let's figure out together what drives human motivation and also how can we influence developer productivity not only from a tools-based perspective.

I firstly cover the theory behind people's motivation and how it leads to productivity.

I will then show how this can be applied to the context of software developers. And of course, I will mention AI.

How can I avoid it? And as a takeaway, you will get some guidelines on how to influence developer productivity from a human-centered perspective.

And I will also show you the examples of questions to capture this human side of motivation.

And if you like, you could include them in your company's, you know, surveys or in any kind of everyday conversation that you have with your peers, managers, or direct reports.

Have you ever thought why people do what they do? Actually, research shows that people have two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

Extrinsic motivation is usually well known and recognized. It depends on external factors such as rewards and punishments. People encounter it all the time starting from their childhood.

I bet you remember your school grades system, rewards and prizes that you get for your achievements. As an adult, you get your salary, your bonuses, your promotions.

These are also examples of extrinsic motivation. And by the way, when every speaker asks you to rate their talk because in return you can get a prize, it's also an example of extrinsic motivation, of course, but it's not enough.

There is intrinsic motivation. It's much more interesting.

for us. It's much more subtle and complex. It comes from within the individuals and it's driven by internal factors such as enjoyment, curiosity, or a sense of fulfillment.

It refers to activities for which the motivation lies in the behavior itself.

It can be sports, musical instruments playing, video gaming, and sometimes your job if it really moves you.

Both types of motivation work. However, intrinsic motivation is more often overlooked, or at least used in organizations, and it's much harder to manage.

And from the measurement perspective, it is far away from any kind of tool-related observability, unfortunately. As any kind of psychological thing, it's very hard to observe.

At the same time, intrinsic motivation is crucial for knowledge workers, developers, and their managers, because your work is mostly complex and challenging.

Although we need to admit that a good salary and rewards are still working for us, they are important, otherwise we wouldn't come to work, right?

But in order to prevent demotivation and burnout in knowledge workers, we have to always bear in mind not only extrinsic motivation, which is easily measured and managed, but also the more subtle and I would say more elusive intrinsic motivation.

That is why we will focus on it a bit more.

Intrinsic motivation: three important words. Autonomy, competence, relatedness to others. All humans, including engineers, have these three basic psychological needs.

It's an axiom. If you want to boost the intrinsic motivation of engineers, just fulfill these three basic psychological needs.

I can go away. Just fulfill them. It's clear, it's the takeaway. Or at least ensure you are not overlooking them.

Many studies show, I think this is an important slide. Many studies show that the fulfillment of these needs promotes job satisfaction, engagement, overall well-being, and thus leads to more productive human beings, more productive behavior, and better performance.

Everything I have just mentioned is described in the self-determination theory.

Self-determination theory was formulated in the '70s and '80s by the American psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan.

Since the moment it has been proposed, it stays the most fundamental, most comprehensive, and what is important, evidence-based theory of motivation.

You must have heard about Maslow's pyramid of needs, you know? But unfortunately, I have to admit as a psychological researcher, it has very little real-life evidence.

It was proposed a hundred years ago thanks to Maslow, but this one for psychology is much younger and really based on evidence-based research.

This theory helps understand why we do what we do. And now let's dive into these three basic psychological needs described in this theory.

So, autonomy. It refers to the need for humans to feel a sense of volition and authorship and choice in their actions.

It is when people perceive their behaviors as self-directed and in accordance with their values and interests. In other words, people need to feel that they have freedom in their actions and are the agents of their own behavior as opposed to being a pawn of extrinsic, you know, pressures or other people's games or external pressures and other people's games.

If you want to feel what autonomy means, you may answer some questions that Olga and I have prepared for you.

And maybe you will get some insights about your own autonomy levels.

Do you feel you can be yourself at work? Do you feel that your job tasks are in line with what you really want to do?

Do you feel free to do your job the way you think it could best be done? Another need is the need for competence.

Competence is the need to feel that you are effective and capable in achieving goals, and you're able to demonstrate and develop your expertise.

In other words, people need to feel that they are effective and able to use and develop their skills. And here again, we have three example questions.

You can feel what competence is. Do you feel that you have the skills and resources needed to perform your job effectively?

Do you feel that you are able to apply your knowledge and skills to make meaningful contributions?

Do you feel that your job tasks and responsibilities align with your skills and strengths? And last but not least is the need for relatedness to others.

Relatedness refers to the need to feel connected and appreciated by others. It's when people experience a sense of belonging and support.

In other words, people need to feel that they are seen, valued, and needed by the people who share the same values, goals, and mindset.

And one more time, take a moment to answer the questions. Do you feel supported and valued by your colleagues and manager?

Do you feel like you belong to your team or organization? Do you receive feedback or recognition that you are doing a good job?

And by the way, now that you know what these needs are about, take a moment to ask yourself, fulfillment of which need is the most crucial for productivity?

Take a moment to make a choice, and we will get to remember it, and we will get to it later.

Um, when engineers, as any human beings, uh, understand the worth and purpose of their jobs, feel ownership and autonomy in carrying them out, and receive clear feedback and support, they are likely to become motivated and have greater levels of satisfaction, engagement, and well-being.

And as a result, they are more productive. And now, let's discuss how all of these can be applied to the field of software development.

Uh, a great amount of research has been done around self-determination theory, motivation at work, organizational psychology.

Uh, we know that people who get these three basic needs fulfilled um do experience higher performance and uh, higher productivity and overall well-being.

Uh, but it has very little been studied in the context of uh, technical companies and software development.

Uh, at the same time, um, a few colleagues from the industry, researchers from technical companies uh, who study developer productivity, have indirectly touched upon these uh, three basic psychological needs in their research.

And I will mostly describe factors of productivity for developers now.

Um, at least uh, from the point of view that those developers, individual contributors, have been studied. Uh, then I will also share some facts about managers, or developers, team leads, productivity engineers, CTOs, because we at JetBrains had a chance to survey our users and other professional developers to get this data.

So, there is a study published by colleagues from Google in 2021, "What predicts software developers' productivity." They surveyed 622 developers across three companies about various productivity factors and self-reported productivity.

If you're interested, you can download the article to go deeper.

They found that the factors that most strongly correlate with self-reported productivity among developers were non-technical factors, such as job enthusiasm, peer support for new ideas, and receiving useful feedback about job performance.

Let's look at these factors in more detail. It might be surprising that all these factors are non-technical, but now we know a little bit more about human motivation, and all these results are not so surprising for us.

Right? Does it feel reasonable? All three factors can be mapped onto the self-determination theory dimensions. We suggest, Olga and me, that when people fulfill their needs for autonomy and competence, in other words, when they achieve results in the way they believe is the best way for them, they are likely to be enthusiastic about their job.

Those who get useful feedback about their job performance are likely to feel related to their colleagues and feel competent.

You can recall the last time that somebody told you you did a great job. I bet it felt like very, you know, um, you must have felt smart, successful, and capable of doing great things.

Just being told that you did a great job.

Those who are supported for their ideas feel autonomous, competent, and connected with their colleagues because their initiative is still seen, valued, and appreciated.

Another study was conducted by our colleagues from Microsoft Research. They aimed to figure out which social and technical factors impact job satisfaction and perceived productivity.

So, colleagues made a very extensive analysis of many literature points and theories and came up with the factors, both technical and social, that might influence developers' job satisfaction and productivity.

And then, they asked developers to rate those factors on their importance and how satisfied they are with these factors in their current jobs. They found out top factors for perceived productivity: a good manager, feeling productive, being fairly rewarded, and having a positive team culture.

And we again see these are social factors.

There were technical factors, but they didn't even get to the top. It's again social factors that help people feel more productive.

We can map these factors onto the three basic psychological needs. Take a moment to look closely at our analysis and interpretation.

And you see, if our colleagues from different companies do their research not bearing in mind this self-determination theory, actually, it turns out that these needs are still shining through the other factors in the result.

And I would like you to take a look at extrinsic motivation.

It also works. People need to feel really, you know, fairly rewarded. You need to get your salary, but you need to feel that your salary really relates to your impact and that it really helps you feel competent.

Um, and now, let's dive into a more holistic way of measuring developer productivity. It'll be a little bit more complicated.

Uh, the SPACE framework. Uh, it is one of the most respected frameworks for assessing developer productivity. It is multifaceted, and it includes both technical and non-technical factors of productivity.

You might have heard—has anyone heard about it? Can you raise your hands, please?

The 3 Words That Secretly Drive Developer Productivity & Motivation • Yanina Ledovaya • GOTO 2025

GOTO gathers the brightest minds in the software community to help developers tackle projects today, plan for tomorrow and create a better future.

Learn from thought leaders and innovators with top-rated videos released daily, and at our year-round conferences, masterclasses and meetups.

Get started: https://gotopia.tech

GOTO is produced by Trifork, a leading full-service supplier of high-quality, custom-built applications and end-to-end solutions.

GOTO YouTube Channel Code of Conduct: https://blog.gotocon.com/yt-coc


The 3 Words That Secretly Drive Developer Productivity & Motivation • Yanina Ledovaya • GOTO 2025

Scripts