I wanted to share with you my takeaways from Heavybit’s DevGuild. It was a great event with over 200 people coming together to focus on developer community-building.
One of the best parts of DevGuild was meeting so many fresh faces who are passionate about Developer Evangelism. Josh Dzielak was the emcee and Tim Falls eloquently gave a talk called, “Measuring developer evangelism…or not!?” Josh always keeps the crowd energized and Tim’s man bun was on point! You can check out all of the talks on Heavybit’s website.
So knowledgeable and full of man-bunly goodness!
Some solid learnings:
- You don’t have to be intimidated or embarrassed about the word evangelism. This word can potentially have some negative connotations but you have control over how you represent yourself. Mainly, you have valuable information to share. Share it with the right people.
- You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
- Don’t just get measurements. Ask why you’re measuring!
- “Many of the things you can count, don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count, really count.”– Albert Einstein
- Don’t underestimate the value of face-to-face interactions to build trust and develop relationships with your network. Building communities is an art. Connect your differences.
- Big NO NO’s: 1. Not knowing your product very well 2. Drinking too much coffee (jitters) 3. Not buying the beer 4. Being a bridge to nowhere
- The red sauce on the veggie platter from Bi-rite is spicy and awkwardly tangy
Plus, the event raised over $2735 for a local charity, the Canon Kip Senior Center {WAAAAPPOOWWW!!!}.
I had a blast meeting other Developer Evangelists and I talked to many people who said that they had to really fight to convince their management team that Developer Evangelism is important and should be invested in. We had some great conversations about metrics and tangible items that you can and cannot measure.
The field of Developer Evangelism is developing very quickly. It’s exciting and it makes all the difference knowing you are part of a team you can trust to represent your product in the very best way! Now go out there and share all that amazing information you have in those beautiful heads of yours.
