John Lewis Partnership’s platform engineering team discusses their approach to measuring the real value of their developer platform.

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John Lewis Partnership evolved their approach to measuring developer platform value through three stages: initial lead-time metrics (service creation, onboarding, first customer deployment), DORA metrics for ongoing performance, and ultimately a Technical Health score. They learned that high platform usage doesn't equal high value, and that meaningful measurement requires combining quantitative metrics with qualitative feedback. Key insights include avoiding vanity metrics, focusing on impact over volume (e.g., incident recovery time vs. incident count), and using data to identify friction points that drive platform improvements like automated change management and simplified security processes.

At John Lewis Partnership, measuring developer platform value