How Doppler scaled engineering with stakeholder-driven workflows

In a recent fireside chat, Doppler’s engineering, design, and product leaders—Nick Manoogian, Laney Fisher, and James Heimbuck—explored Doppler’s evolution in managing product development and engineering workflows. They shared insights into Doppler’s shift from agile sprints to a more adaptable, stakeholder-driven process focusing on efficiency, transparency, and alignment with business goals. Here’s a summary of key takeaways from the conversation.

Early challenges: Agile process to bottlenecks

Doppler initially operated using an agile sprint model, which drove fast execution but often resulted in missed goals and shifting priorities. This caused frustration as product demands evolved, making sprint goals harder to meet. To address this, the team adopted a more flexible, Kanban-style approach, aligning work closely with business needs so priorities could shift more fluidly.

Stakeholder-centric approach to resource allocation

As Doppler’s team expanded, so did the need for clear resource allocation. Doppler pinpointed key teams—engineering, design, product, and growth—that required dedicated time to tackle technical and product demands. With the new approach, each team can make a case for their top projects, allowing for flexible shifts in engineering focus. This ensures everyone contributes effectively to business goals without getting stuck in prioritization conflicts.

"We're trying to optimize for a broader idea called 'maximum sustainable velocity.' This is the idea that the engine should be able to keep running at its current speed indefinitely... engineers feel empowered, they’re working hard, they’re energized, but not to the point where it couldn’t go on forever."

Empowering engineering teams and reducing UX debt

Laney, Doppler’s Head of Design, shared how moving to a more collaborative model helped the design team secure the resources they needed to tackle UX debt. Now, Doppler’s process includes a set design allocation for crucial UI/UX improvements, even when they don’t have an immediate ROI. This setup highlights the importance of UX for overall product quality and user satisfaction, helping Doppler scale quickly while keeping the user experience consistent and high quality.

“We all know what the business goals are, and we know why we're working on everything. So I have no problem either asking for more points or giving up points to whoever needs them, depending on what we're actually trying to focus on.”

Key lessons and ongoing adjustments

Refining Doppler’s allocation process—particularly through “bucket sizing”—helps balance big projects and quick bug fixes. The team regularly adjusts bucket sizes based on project speed and business goals, allowing engineers to work autonomously while staying on track with priorities.

In this fireside chat, the Doppler team underscored their focus on continually improving workflows and supporting teams across product, design, and engineering. Their experiences offer useful insights for any organization aiming to scale efficiently while balancing flexibility, transparency, and alignment with strategic goals.

Watch the fireside chat for the complete discussion, and check out our blog post for a deeper dive into how we fixed the backlog process.