How I became a Google Developer Expert for Flutter & Dart

6 min readMay 5, 2023

I have recently been selected for the Google Developers Expert (GDE) program for the technologies Flutter & Dart, and I want to share my journey and experience in depth with you.

To begin with,

What is a Google Developer Expert?

The Google Developer Experts (GDE) program is a recognition and reward program for developers who have demonstrated expertise and leadership in their respective fields. The program is run by Google and recognizes individuals who have a deep understanding of Google technologies and are highly active in the developer community.

GDEs are experts in their respective technologies and are recognized for their contributions to the developer community through speaking engagements, blog posts, open-source contributions, and other activities. The program spans across various technologies such as Android, Cloud, Web, Machine Learning, Flutter, Firebase, and more. GDEs are expected to continue sharing their knowledge and expertise with the community and contribute to the growth of the developer ecosystem.

My journey

The beginning

My journey toward becoming a GDE began with a deep interest in app development using Flutter and Dart. As a software developer with experience in native development and other cross-platform technologies such as React Native, I found Flutter and Dart to be especially fascinating.

There are many differences between developing applications using native technologies versus using cross-platform frameworks such as Flutter. It is true that nowadays the gap has been shortened by the adoption of more declarative frameworks such as Swiftui and Compose. However, by using Flutter and Dart we have a great developer experience and an even better one when you think about the hot reload feature, the tool that saves a huge amount of time. This is why, with Flutter, I was able to find a technology that really allowed me to be productive, learn and try new things as a software engineer.

Meeting the community

I consider myself an introverted person, and as some developers may identify, I enjoy diving deep into the code and trying things, but it originally wasn’t in my nature to share my experience and thoughts globally. Despite that, a really important part of my job at Somnio Software, where I’m CTO & Co-Founder, was to train and mentor Flutter Developers. This was really helpful and gave me a lot of confidence to start sharing my knowledge with the community.

As I delved deeper into Flutter and Dart, I realized that a whole community of developers was just as passionate about these technologies as I was. Always pushing the boundaries of what Flutter and Dart could do.

Having the possibility to see the updates of the framework in real-time, and also the contributions of the enthusiasts, made me realize that I wanted to be part of this community. Learning from other developers and contributing with my own knowledge and expertise. That’s when I first heard about the Google Developer Expert program.

Sharing my knowledge

I started sharing my experience in blogs, posts on social media, my open-source projects on GitHub and BrickHub, and participating in podcasts and lives, among others.

Over time, I started gaining trust and feeling more confident that my experience and knowledge was very valuable for the development community, and even started getting invited as a guest to lives and events as a speaker.

I had the opportunity of being a speaker at major Flutter events such as Flutter Global Summit, and being a guest speaker at Flutter Meetups such as Flutter Medellín, Flutter Buenos Aires, and Flutter Guatemala.

Furthermore, I was a guest speaker at Observable Flutter, a live series organized by the Flutter Team, Humpday Q&A organized by Flutter Community, and Flying High with Flutter Podcast, among others.

I am also an organizer of Flutter Montevideo Meetup, a group that has helped me meet and expand my Flutter network both in Uruguay and globally. I have learned a lot by being a speaker, a moderator, and a panelist sharing my experience with the community.

Lastly, I gave another step and started mentoring Flutter Developers of different levels, from beginning to advanced, both privately and on a very well-known platform called Codementor. This is something I really enjoy, sharing my experience with the technology with others and seeing how they learn and improve their work with the framework.

Collage of me being a speaker at different events

Learning about GDE

Through this journey, I had the amazing opportunity of meeting many referents of the Flutter Community and attending big Flutter Conferences, such as Flutter Vikings in Oslo and Flutter Forward in Nairobi.

I had a blast meeting these professionals and discussing our ideas and best practices of the technology, and an even greater time getting to know what incredible people they are. This way I realized a lot of them were GDE and I started investigating more about the program.

Collage with amazing people from the community

Let’s deep dive in the program:

The Google Developer Experts Program

1. Eligibility criteria

According to Google, this is the exact criteria:

Solid expertise in an area featuring Google technology such as Android, Google Cloud, Machine Learning, Web and more. You do not need a formal education to be considered for the GDE program.
Display significant contributions in the developer community including but not limited to speaking at events, publishing content, mentoring other developers and companies.
Ability to articulate clearly and provide meaningful advice to others.
Must be 18+ years old.
Ability to interview and communicate in English as it’s the official language of the program.

2. Why become a GDE

GDE may have diverse backgrounds and journeys, but they are united by their passion for the technology of their expertise. It is truly beautiful and enriching to exchange experiences with people from all parts of the world.

Google Developer Experts are referents and experts, forgive the redundancy, that enjoy continuous learning, sharing knowledge, and making an impact on the community.

By becoming a GDE, you’ll have the chance to connect with other experts in your field and learn from their experiences. Plus, you’ll not only grow personally by challenging yourself to share your knowledge in different ways, but also by significantly helping developers learn and improve in this technology and expanding this way the possibilities, recognition, and potential of Flutter.

3. How to apply

The steps to entering are 3:

Be recommended by a fellow GDE of your technology. This GDE will send you a form to complete with all your information and contributions.
Community interview. Another GDE will interview you to learn more about you and your contributions to the community.
Final interview. A member of the Google team will interview you to know you as well, but will also focus on the technical level you have of the technology you are applying for.

In case you are admitted, after this you’ll receive a beautiful email that congratulates you for joining the program!