A Birmingham-based, AI-focused software development company released its platform to the public to help ease challenges for software development leaders.
DevClarity, which was founded in 2023 by Will Blackburn and Peter Inge, is centered around helping software development leaders and engineering managers more easily lead their development teams.
Blackburn and Inge said they designed their platform to target and ease “development fog,” which they explain as a metaphorical shroud that blocks visibility of development teams, contributors and engineering leaders.
Obstacles that these founders say often hinder transparency within software teams are technical complexities, specialized subject matter expertise, rapid technological change and the scattered nature of remote work. While trying to balance these various obstacles, software development leaders are faced with the time-consuming task of trying to assess developers’ progress.
“(Development fog) prevents leaders from gaining a true sense of their team’s progress and potential roadblocks, leading to missed deadlines, decreased morale and costly setbacks,” Blackburn said. “(Engineering managers’) importance is only increasing due to the changes AI is bringing to software development; it’s time we gave them a tool to amplify their impact and to help them share their understanding up the organization.”
Blackburn and Inge said their platform sets itself apart because it’s not built around metrics, but instead leverages AI tuned specifically for the nuances and changing priorities of engineering management.
In order to ensure that their product most effectively eases the challenges of engineering and software development leadership, Inge and Blackburn spent the entire first year of operations hiring independent software development contractors to test it and provide them with feedback.
The DevClarity founders were able to hire these contractors with the $25,000 in non-dilutive funding that they won through the Alabama Launchpad competition in 2023.
“After we completed Launchpad... we realized that we still needed to take a step back and get very clear about our focus and who we were serving,” Blackburn said. “Over the past four months, we've really gotten more clear about our ideal customer and their problems ... because of this, we're now seeing great usage from our early customers.”
Part of the platform launch will involve Inge and Blackburn producing guides, thought pieces and hands-on demos to better equip engineering leaders to enhance visibility and effectiveness with their leadership. Users of DevClarity will also be invited to join a community of development leaders who share experience and best practices with each other.
“Dev leaders need more guidance, not more metrics,” Inge said. “By providing clear visibility into individual developers, we’re helping leaders cut through the haze, optimize their leadership practices and drive higher output across their teams.”
