Using Kindor to understand how your engineers compare to others

Jun 6, 2025

Introducing Contribution Scores and Individual Benchmarking

Over the past few months, we’ve focused on one recurring question from tech leaders:

“How do I really know if my engineers are doing well?”

You might be tracking PRs, tasks, or even sprint completion. But eventually, someone asks:

“Is this good?”
“How does this compare to others?”
“Are we overstaffed?”
“Should this person get a promotion?”
“Why do other companies seem to d__eliver more with fewer people?”

These are fair questions, but almost impossible to answer with internal metrics alone.

That’s why we built two key capabilities inside Kindor:

Contribution Scores – standardized indicators that summarize how contributors are working across key dimensions
Benchmarking Dashboards – ways to compare people across your org, role, title, and the broader Kindor Universe

With these tools, you get a complete and objective view of individual impact with data, not opinions.

What are Contribution Scores?

Contribution Scores are multidimensional metrics that show how someone is performing in a specific aspect of engineering work.

They’re updated monthly based on real activity, and follow a percentile model:

A score of 90 means the contributor performed better than 90% of peers in that category (within your organization or the Kindor Universe).

Scores are calculated across 7 core dimensions:

Score	What it captures
Coding	PR cycle time, rework, breadth of languages/repos, PR size, type of work
Code Reviewing	Volume of reviews, comment depth, pickup time, review-to-creation balance
Task Completion	Tasks closed, story points, complexity, work type, cycle time
Completion Rate	On-time completion of sprints, tasks, and epics
Task Management	How well a contributor uses due dates, estimates, and project structure
Tech Support	Support-related tasks and ticket resolution
Meeting Load	Hours spent in meetings per week (not a score, but tracked for context)

If someone doesn’t engage in an area (e.g. doesn’t review PRs), the score is marked as “N/A”.

You can view these scores over time to identify trends and patterns.

How benchmarking works

We don’t just stop at scores. We also help you understand how those scores compare to others.

Each contributor can be benchmarked in 3 ways:

Against your own organization
Against the Kindor Universe (an anonymized dataset of similar companies using Kindor)
Against same role or title inside your organization for a deeper view

⚠️ Note: These comparisons are shown independently. For example, you can compare someone against “Backend Engineers in your org” or “Kindor Universe overall,” but not “Backend Engineers in the Kindor Universe.”

The Benchmark List: a fast way to find signals

Want to quickly assess how your team is doing? Head to the Scores & Benchmark section.

This dashboard shows:

List of contributors in your organization with their respective scores
Each person’s percentile vs. your organization or against Kindor Universe
Who’s above or below average in each area
Easy filtering by division or time range

It’s the fastest way for VPs, engineering managers, or HR teams to find high performers or outliers at scale.

The Deep Dive: context when you need it most

For more comprehensive conversations, the Deep Dive view shows a full profile of one contributor:

Individual scores across all dimensions
Score progression and activity trends through time
Comparisons vs. role and title inside your organization
A complete breakdown of what’s driving each score (e.g. PRs,Tasks or time in meetings)

This is especially powerful for:

Performance reviews
Coaching and development
Talent calibration
1:1 conversations backed by real data

Why this matters

When someone says:

“This person should be promoted.”

“Other teams are more efficient.”

“This engineer is underperforming.”

You can now respond with data:

“Here’s how they compare to peers internally and across the industry.”

Kindor helps you:

Make informed, fair decisions
Align expectations between leaders and engineers
Spot hidden talent and at-risk contributors
Scale a healthy, data-driven engineering culture

What you can do next

If you’re already using Kindor:

Explore the Scores & Benchmark to see team-wide signals
Deep Dive for your next 1:1 or review
Start identifying patterns and making proactive decisions

If you’re new to Kindor: Schedule a demo at www.kindor.co

We’ll show you how your organization is performing today, what areas to improve, and how you compare to similar companies in the region.

This is part of our mission to bring clarity, accountability, and improvement to engineering orgs without the guesswork.