Hatica 2022: A Year in Review

Each year is a box full of new challenges and new opportunities and  2022 was no stranger to the fact. At Hatica, we can definitely call 2022 as the launching pad of all our goals, and commitment to the cause we stand for- helping engineering teams pursue excellence without hassle.  

A few years ago, when I was brainstorming engineering analytics with Haritabh, my co-founder at Hatica - we had only imagined the idea and the product to be super useful for engineering teams across the globe. And why not! There had been no such thing that could give an engineering leader a holistic perspective about their teams, projects, progress and its success! 

We realized patterns within engineering teams, independent of size, or product they were building- The leaders were struggling to keep their developers happy and satisfied, and on the other side, devs felt alienated from their own work. We hit the market in 2020 and our product has been an instant hit with the engineering teams since Day1. Engineering leaders starting their day with Hatica dashboards and we love that!

No wonder, Hatica bagged the High Performer title under the G2 Winter Report 2023 (read more here) with #1 rating for Likelihood to Recommend in the Software Development Analytics tool category. And what makes me beam with happiness is the Users Love Us badge (that we received along with) - a direct testament of our product capabilities and how much users love using our product. Sigh!

But, let me tell you it’s not been a cakewalk. 2022 has been monumental in shaping who we are today, what we have achieved and where do we go on from here. Let me break this Year in Review into smaller sections to your interest:

1. The Cool Features Hatica Launched
2. The Interesting Customers We onboarded
3. Hatica’s Hall of Fame: Awards and Recognition
4. Team Stories & Well Being
5. Hatica Fun Facts 
6. Key Learnings
7. The Roadmap Ahead 

The Cool Features Hatica Launched

From our early days at work (even before Hatica was conceptualized), we knew that developer happiness was a challenge, and every engineering team had some foundational bottlenecks to resolve. While we, as engineers, knew the pressing need of introducing developer analytics, there were not enough options in the market. That’s how Hatica came into the picture. 

Hatica didn’t just address the elephant in the room- measuring developer productivity, or engineering blockers, but also helped set the narrative around developer analytics, and why every engineering team should be using them. Developer analytics is not just about running behind a single metric, be it PRs merged, or cycle time, but giving a 360 degree view of how things are moving in the software development life cycle. 

This year, we added some super cool functionalities so teams have greater visibility into workflows, with data-driven actionable insights. With the Activity log and Cycle Time dashboard, engineering managers can get an aggregated view of not only work items, but the velocity at which the projects are moving.

On the other hand, the resource allocation dashboard that you see here helps executives to realize the business impacts of work done by engineering teams.  The metrics helps leaders optimize engineering spends by visualizing breakdown of resources and efforts spent across streams: bugs vs features vs storypoint completion vs KLTO.  

Here you see a detailed view of the well-being dashboard, essential to create a full productivity profile for your developers. The collaboration metrics are meant to promote deep work using maker time, while reducing meeting fatigue, and chronic burnout tendencies among developers. A healthy workforce has always been a prerequisite to sustainable productivity.

Another cool feature we added to our product stack was Async check-ins, based on the changing work dynamics across the globe. This is my personal favorite. With Hatica check-ins, managers can conduct async standups, and be in loop of team’s well-being, daily work items, and dev satisfaction, without interrupting your developers. I have been actively promoting them inside Hatica for hassle-free coordination amongst various teams and team members.  

With Hatica’s engineering analytics efforts, our users have been able to record 50% improvement in their cycle time, shortened pickup time, with project deliveries accelerating to 2x of their current pace. What’s more is our users have successfully followed the healthy industrial threshold: PR sizes within 300LoC, and consistent checks to ensure PRs are not merged without a review. All in an effort to bring about engineering excellence.

2022 has been a joyful ride in terms of work done by teams that trusted us. This year, Hatica processed 2M+ PRs, and 4.5 million+ commits.  And December isn’t over yet, there’s more to come. For us, a great product can only be built when customers are in sync with our details, vision, and what we are offering and that is how we have ended up onboarding customers across the globe.

The Interesting Customers We Onboarded

We hit the commercial market in 2020, and have seen fruitful growth ever since. Today, our customers span across 5 continents- from North America, to Australia, Eurasia, and South America. However, we are just getting started.

What makes us beam with joy is the diversity of customers that have put their trust in us. From Edtech, to EVs, automation to streaming platforms, and MedTech, Hatica has made its place within all engineering teams, big or small, co-located, or hybrid. 

All our efforts towards building a better user experience have been appreciated by global industry leaders across platforms. 

Hatica’s Hall of Fame: Awards and Recognitions

Hatica got a good year start with Inc42 picking us up for their May Cohort. We were recognized under the 30 Startups To Watch list by the media platform. Moreover, December has been a month of fortitude for us. While we have only put our focus into bettering our users’ lives, sometimes small tokens of appreciation become our testimonials that we are moving into the right direction. 

We recently got recognized as a High Performer in the Software Development Analytics Category under the G2 Winter Report 2023. Looking back, Hatica has been a consistent High Performer for not just the 2023 cohort, but 2022’s Fall, Summer and Spring’s reports as well. 

On top of it, Hatica has also been ranked: #1 for Productivity Updates, Ease of Use, Price, Meets Requirements, Likelihood to Recommend, Testing Integration, Data Context and Analytics and Trends. G2’s recognition showcased our powerful product capabilities and added to our vision of creating data-driven workplaces. Capterra too, took note of the work we have been doing and recognized Hatica as Best Value and Best Ease of Use in their 2022 report. 

Besides, Hatica bagged the Quality Choice Award and Happiest Users Award from Crozdesk, and Best Feature Set and Best Relationship Summer 2022 Award from TrustRadius in their Summer cohort. Along with this, we have also been part of various VC reports throughout the year. Lightspeed Ventures recognized Hatica as a generational devtool, with added focus on developer productivity. 

Bessemer Ventures has also mentioned Hatica as a growing, geo-agnostic dev planning software, supporting software development.

A successful product can only be created by an engaged, and spirited workforce. At Hatica, we are creating one such team, every day. 

Team Stories & Well-Being

Hatica was always meant to be a distributed, and async team with added focus on growth, and well-being. After grappling with pandemic for over a year, we were sure to create a remote-first culture that thrives on understanding what our team wants to build an excellent product. After case studying all successful remote teams, talking to industry experts, and consuming hours of content on people management, our eureka moment came. 

We realized that to make remote teams work, it is important to keep them happy, help them figure out blockers, and become leaders, and not just employees- something incorporated in our product philosophy equally. We strive for excellence and traits, and not just skills. 

Hatica had its first workation this year at Goa- a beachy, surreal place, ideal for both activities: creating memories and introspecting your product roadmap.  With time, we have grown fonder of each other, and the vision we are building together. Our Hatica fun facts are a testimonial to the statement. (Btw, stay tuned to know where Hatica is headed to for workation in 2023! 😛)

Hatica Fun Facts

Key Learnings

• Engineering teams are moving beyond simple metrics to track progress, or measure productivity. A few years ago, engineering analytics revolved around DORA, now the entire conversation has shifted towards more inclusive solutions, combining well-being, dev workflow, rather than chasing only quantifiable metrics. 

• We’re increasingly seeing customers who have dabbled in some engineering metrics, mostly via Google Sheets and wanted a more comprehensive solution that takes into account all aspects - Git, PM, IM, and CI/CD.

• Improved visibility helps EMs become people’s managers, reducing team friction and communication debt between the two-tiers. 
  Hatica is facilitating data-driven discussions in our customers teams where leaders use dashboards, rather than anecdotal points to identify bottlenecks and ensure process improvement.

The Roadmap Ahead 

We don’t just believe in creating a productive team, but purposeful, satisfied, and happy engineers as well. While we consistently improvise on our roadmap to incorporate user needs, our core vision stays the same- leveraging engineering analytics to boost developer productivity, and well-being. 

Hatica is working to bring out newer project metrics, around cost optimization, real-time alerts and setting up course corrective measures, etc. Currently, Hatica supports 25+ connectors, we are looking to double the number by next year.

We started with 2 members during the pandemic, and have grown into a team of 30+ members within 15 months. Suffice to say, 2022 was a year of engineering innovation for Hatica; and we expect nothing less from 2023. We aim at building Hatica as the engineering leader’s go-to platform to drive data-driven conversations and engineering excellence. 

Signing off for 2022! Hope you have a wonderful time with your friends and families and Happy New Year in advance!

Naomi Chopra

Co-Founder, CEO

Hatica