Brian Houck

About

I’m an Applied Scientist at Microsoft focused on measuring and improving developer experience and productivity in large-scale engineering organizations. My work examines how technical systems, workflows, organizational structures, and human constraints interact to shape engineering outcomes. My mixed methods research combines large-scale telemetry analysis, surveys, field experiments, and qualitative studies to identify bottlenecks, tradeoffs, and leverage points in software development.

At Microsoft, I lead research for EngThrive, the company’s central developer experience initiative. In this role, I help define core metrics, design analytical frameworks, generate insights from engineering telemetry, and partner with leaders to drive measurable improvements in engineering effectiveness.

My work is grounded in the view that productivity is a broad and complex problem: outcomes are shaped not only by tools and processes, but also by cognitive load, coordination costs, and environmental constraints. Current research areas include measuring focus and flow, identifying sources of developer toil, and understanding how AI-assisted development changes work patterns, decision-making, and engineering tradeoffs at scale.