2020 is now – finally – hindsight. It was a year of unprecedented disruption – how businesses connected with their employees and customers transformed nearly overnight.

We saw organizations rapidly pivot to remote-first environments, undergoing years’ worth of digital transformation in a matter of months. Time to market was already top of mind for software development teams, but the last year ushered in urgent requests for new functionality to engage with customers and communities digitally. Much of this transformation was supported by developers who became “digital first responders” – helping their organizations become more agile and resilient. Developers moved workloads to the cloud and found new ways to code, collaborate, and ship software faster, from anywhere.

Many of the changes we saw were trends already underway for software development teams, but they accelerated amid the turmoil of the pandemic. As we enter the new year and look forward to recovery, it’s a good time to reflect on these massive shifts and consider the lasting changes they’ll have as we transition back to hybrid work environments. It’s also an opportunity to consider how these changes will affect the future of software development and how we can play a role in building a more resilient future together.