It’s no secret that open source software is an important part of many development teams’ daily workflows. But does that include productivity tools? Oftentimes, development workflows get shoehorned into the same productivity tools used by nontechnical teams—but these tools can be a poor fit for the needs of developers.

Developer productivity metrics are an important part of any engineering team’s growth and improvement; the right metrics can help you better forecast project timelines, understand where to allocate resources, and manage your team’s workload. But measuring developer productivity has been challenging, and, when incorrectly applied, can seem to all but wring every last line of code from overworked developers.

Everyone has experienced it at some point. You’re sure that your teammate shared that key bit of information with you somewhere…but was part of a Jira issue? A comment on a Figma mockup? A long-lost DM between you, your teammate, and someone else a few months ago? If you spend more time hunting down the right information than you do actually using it, you may have a tool overload problem.

When I joined Mattermost at the end of 2019, part of the allure was the unique experience of working at a 100% remote company. Little did I know that within three months, the whole world would lock down and countless companies became remote practically overnight.

Collapsed Reply Threads is our most requested feature ever, with over 2,500 votes on our feature idea forum. Here’s what users are saying: So after a successful beta, we’re excited to launch Collapsed Reply Threads as generally available in Mattermost v7.0. Administrators can now enable Collapsed Reply Threads by default for all users, and we’ve improved server performance to support large-scale deployments.

In an era of remote and hybrid work, keeping your team connected often means relying on a messaging platform. But with so many conversations happening simultaneously, the same channels you rely on to stay in sync can also cause information overload. That’s why threaded messages are one of our most-requested features and one that we’re so excited to finally release in general availability with Mattermost 7.0.

Coming from a traditional office environment, the ways of working tend to approximate in-person rituals. As the common adage goes “we want what we can’t have.” When you’re in the office together, the hierarchy of communication usually goes something like this: in-person > video > audio > text. But when you take a team and spread them across the world, a preference for synchronous, in-person conversations can drastically slow down collaboration.

Your productivity as a developer will influence your career for the rest of your life. If you are more productive then you can learn faster, write code more efficiently and unlock new opportunities for you, from salary increases to becoming a tech lead. And to be a successful developer, you must adopt the best developer tools for a variety of use cases, and let them drive your daily workflow.