Recently I took part in a community session hosted by SlashData. We reviewed the results from a Q4/2021 survey about developer program strategy. This post is a summary covering a subset of the topics and my thoughts on each. You can learn more about the developer program survey, how to participate, and past results on the Developer Program Survey website. How do program leaders spend their time...
I joined Google in 2018 as a Senior Developer Advocate. Over the past 4 years I founded developer relations for a new product area, was promoted to Staff Developer Relations Engineer, and built a team from scratch. I’ve been a poster boy of Googleyness, referring and recruiting friends, speaking at colleges about my journey to Google, acting as an internal mentor, and participating as a...
I started my career at Google as the founding developer relations team member for a new product called RCS Business Messaging or more commonly referred to as RBM. I was new to Google, new to developer relations, and tasked with figuring out the developer go-to-market and what developer relations and developer experience should mean for this unknown product. This article details how I approached...
People vector created by pch.vector Few people grow up thinking about a career in developer relations. Even those that study computer science are rarely exposed to this world. They are typically thinking about a career as a traditional software engineer or perhaps a product manager. If you’ve found yourself reading this article, I’m willing to bet that you are already working in a technical field...
Website vector created by stories — www.freepik.com In developer relations, we are often a cross-functional team, sometimes seen as a support and amplification mechanism for core teams like engineering and product. A “nice to have”, but not necessarily required component for program success. Personally, I am not comfortable being considered “nice to have”, so how do we change that? We...
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. — Peter Drucker Peter Drucker’s often cited quote is one of the most famous quotes in business and one from my own experience as a startup founder and manager I’ve found to be very true. However, when it comes to developer relations, it is notoriously difficult to measure in part because it’s also notoriously difficult to define. Developer relations...
The developer frustration curve Imagine you’re a developer working at Opentech Corp tasked with adding payment support to your company’s product. You start by doing research on payment processing solutions in order to make a recommendation. You first try out payment processing company XYZ Processing because you’ve seen them around for a long time and you know it’s used by other companies...
For those of us that work in developer relations, we have likely experienced a situation like the following. “Let’s start with a round of introductions. Sean, why don’t you go first?”, says the organizer of the meeting. “Sure thing. Hey there, my name is Sean Falconer and I work in developer relations.” Room full of blank stares. Even in my day job, it’s common to interact with colleagues that...
I’ve told parts of this story in presentations in the past, but this is the detailed version of the key moments throughout my education and career that have led to where I am today. So, how exactly did a kid growing up in small town rural Canada find himself at one of the most influential technology companies in the world? Growing up in Canada’s Chocolate Town I grew up in a small town in Canada...
