{"slug": "adopting-the-product-operating-model-at-priceline", "title": "Adopting the product operating model at Priceline", "summary": "Priceline adopted a product operating model to improve developer experience and organizational efficiency, moving away from a project-based approach. CTO Sejal Amin and Senior Director Pedro Gutierrez discussed how DX metrics and developer feedback uncovered bottlenecks, leading to cross-functional teams and greater autonomy. The transformation helped Priceline adapt to AI-driven software development.", "body_md": "Listen and watch now on ** YouTube, Apple, and Spotify**.\n\nIn this episode of the Engineering Enablement podcast, I sit down with Sejal Amin, Chief Technology Officer at Priceline, and Pedro Gutierrez, Senior Director of Software Engineering, to discuss how Priceline adopted a product operating model and the role developer experience played in making that transformation successful.\n\nWe explore why the company moved away from a project-based approach, how DX metrics and developer feedback helped uncover organizational bottlenecks, and why a phased rollout, clear communication, and empowered engineering managers were critical to building trust and improving developer experience. We also discuss creating a dedicated developer experience team, lessons learned throughout the transformation, and how Priceline’s product operating model has helped the organization adapt to AI-driven software development.\n\n**Some takeaways: **\n\n**Developer experience as a driver of organizational change**\n\n**Developer experience data can reveal organizational problems that traditional engineering metrics miss.** At Priceline, DX signals uncovered organizational bottlenecks—including handoffs, dependencies, and team friction—that ultimately led the company to adopt a product operating model.**Developer experience should be treated as a strategic capability, not just an engineering metric.** Rather than measuring developer satisfaction in isolation, Priceline used DX insights to guide structural changes that improved autonomy, delivery, and engineering culture.\n\n**Adopting a product operating model**\n\n**Reducing dependencies gives teams greater ownership.** Priceline shifted from a project-based organization to cross-functional product teams, reducing handoffs and giving teams the people and capabilities needed to own outcomes end to end.**Autonomy requires visibility into team health.** DX metrics gave engineering managers a clear view of the obstacles affecting their teams, allowing them to improve local workflows while staying aligned with broader organizational goals.\n\n**Turning developer feedback into action**\n\n**Developer experience surveys should lead to action—not just measurement.** Managers reviewed survey results, completed a triage process, created quarterly action plans, and measured whether those improvements had an impact in the next survey cycle.**Small workflow improvements can have an outsized impact.** DX data helped teams reclaim focus time, identify tooling regressions after migrations, surface cross-team dependencies, and address day-to-day friction before it became systemic.\n\n**Building trust in developer experience metrics**\n\n**Clear communication is essential for adoption.** Leaders consistently reinforced that DX metrics existed to improve teams rather than evaluate individuals, helping build confidence in the process from the outset.**Trust grows when developers see meaningful change.** Acting on feedback quarter after quarter encouraged greater participation, strengthened psychological safety, and made developer experience part of the organization’s culture.\n\n**The evolving role of engineering managers**\n\n**Engineering managers became owners of developer experience.** Managers were expected to understand DX data, improve their team’s DXI each quarter, and make developer experience part of their regular operating rhythm.**Developer experience became part of everyday engineering leadership.** DX metrics were discussed openly in all-hands meetings and other forums, making developer experience a visible measure of organizational health rather than a one-time initiative.\n\n**Preparing engineering organizations for AI**\n\n**AI changes where bottlenecks occur—not whether they exist.** As AI accelerated code generation, Priceline used its product operating model and developer experience data to identify where constraints had shifted and respond accordingly.**A strong operating model helps organizations adapt to AI.** Autonomous teams, continuous measurement, and visibility into developer workflows allowed Priceline to embrace AI while continuing to improve flow across the software development lifecycle.\n\n**In this episode, we cover:**\n\n([00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w)) Intro\n\n([01:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=67s)) Meet Sejal Amin and Pedro Gutierrez\n\n([01:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=107s)) How Priceline’s developer experience journey began\n\n([04:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=295s)) Lessons from Priceline’s first developer experience surveys\n\n([06:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=415s)) How DX improved Priceline’s developer experience surveys\n\n([09:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=587s)) Identifying the causes of organizational slowness\n\n([12:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=753s)) How the product operating model changed the way Priceline works\n\n([14:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=850s)) Priceline’s phased rollout with DX\n\n([18:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=1094s)) How DX insights drove organizational changes\n\n([19:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=1173s)) Why Priceline improved developer experience before org change was complete\n\n([22:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=1338s)) How clear communication builds trust\n\n([24:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=1465s)) Early results from Priceline’s Core Four\n\n([25:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=1538s)) Creating a culture of continuous feedback to build trust\n\n([27:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=1660s)) What has changed in the engineering manager role\n\n([30:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=1810s)) Resources for learning about the product operating model\n\n([32:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=1960s)) What Pedro learned from implementing DX\n\n([34:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=2091s)) The developer experience team\n\n([35:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=2159s)) How AI tools have impacted Priceline’s teams\n\n([37:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=2240s)) How the product operating model supports AI-driven development\n\n([39:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-O1wrEjx6w&t=2353s)) Final advice for engineering leaders\n\n**Where to find Sejal Amin:**\n\n• LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sejal-amin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sejal-amin)\n\n**Where to find Pedro Gutierrez:**\n\n• LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedro-gutierrez-b6605422](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedro-gutierrez-b6605422)\n\n**Where to find Justin Reock:**\n\n• LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinreock](https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinreock)\n\n**Referenced:**\n\n• [Measuring developer productivity with the DX Core 4](https://getdx.com/research/measuring-developer-productivity-with-the-dx-core-4/)\n\n• [Transformed: Moving to the Product Operating Model (Silicon Valley Product Group)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119697336?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/adopting-the-product-operating-model-at-priceline", "canonical_source": "https://newsletter.getdx.com/p/adopting-the-product-operating-model", "published_at": "2026-07-10 15:38:54+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-17 09:20:59.006654+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Priceline", "Sejal Amin", "Pedro Gutierrez", "YouTube", "Apple", "Spotify"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/adopting-the-product-operating-model-at-priceline", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/adopting-the-product-operating-model-at-priceline.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/adopting-the-product-operating-model-at-priceline.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/adopting-the-product-operating-model-at-priceline.jsonld"}}