How We Improved the Development Experience for our Client Developers

This post details the initiative to upgrade client developer machines to Apple silicon, which resulted in a 43% overall improvement in build times, with specific gains of up to 50% for Android builds and 40% for iOS builds. The upgrade was justified by both performance improvements and financial analysis, showing a break-even period of approximately three months and potential cost savings of up to 36% per team. The rollout involved a distributed-first strategy, prioritizing new joiners and current employees with older hardware, and managing complex logistics across 11 countries. Post-upgrade surveys indicated over 90% positive ratings for productivity perception and development experience.