I have been busy advocating for the technical community at ForgeRock over the past several months. I would like to share some of the key traits that have helped me become a passionate developer commuity advocate.
1. Empathy
When starting a new job, one of the first things I do is to experience the ‘First Hello World.’ As a self-taught developer, achieving my first ‘Hello World’ is always an exciting milestone. During this journey, I encountered various challenges that I initially thought were unique to me. However, I quickly realized that these challenges were shared by my community.
To gain insights, I conducted surveys and engaged with our technical consultants and sales engineers. This allowed me to understand the community’s journey better. I gathered data and information, which revealed commonalities between my experiences and those of the community. My ability to truly listen and empathize, having gone through the journey myself, helped me better understand and address the community’s challenges.
Tip: Always put yourself in their shoes to understand how it feels!
2. Asking Questions
Asking questions is a powerful way to gain understanding. I consistently ask a variety of questions to collect valuable feedback. Here are some questions and considerations that have helped me uncover the pain points of the community:
- Understanding the community’s journey.
- Evaluating the current on boarding experience.
- Identifying the steps involved in implementing the product.
- Assessing resource requirements.
- Gauging the usefulness of available resources.
- Exploring the value of other resources.
I particularly appreciate open-ended questions, as they provide an opportunity to discover pain points that I may not have personally encountered but are prevalent within the community.
Tip : Always wear the shoes to understand how it feels!
3. Delivering and Gathering Feedback
The final crucial step is to align deliverables with the leadership’s and company’s overarching goals. It is essential to ensure that what you decide to deliver effectively addresses the community’s challenges. Establish a clear roadmap for achieving your goals. While planning and executing initiatives, maintain consistent communication with your community to ensure that your deliverables are valuable.
Track relevant metrics to gauge the success of your initiatives. For instance, if improving engagement is the goal, monitor metrics such as event registrations, attendance, forum activity, survey response rates, and more.
These traits have been instrumental in helping me deliver successful initiatives for my developer community. I receive positive feedback from the community regarding the usefulness of current initiatives and valuable insights about their future needs, which helps inform my strategic roadmaps.
👋 Until next time!