Take a glimpse into my world as a developer evangelist
What’s that you ask?
When I introduce myself as a developer evangelist I usually get some pretty interesting reactions. A contemplative silence, a shocked face and fumbled words about bibles are just some of the responses I’ve had.
So what does it actually mean?
There’s a whole team of us at Xero, and we like to joke that we’re the human faces of Xero’s API. But essentially developer relations (also known as ‘devrel’) is at the heart of what we do.
You’ll find developer relations roles in tech companies that have some form of APIs and developer tools like Google, Stripe and of course us here at Xero.
Like many roles, exactly what a job title means varies a lot depending on the business. But in my team, we’re empowered to use our enthusiasm and skills to help grow, educate and support our developer community and app partners.
We essentially act as the connection point between developers or apps and the business. A big part of my role also involves working with potential new app partners and working through the steps to get them certified in our app partner program.
So what does my day look like? The beauty is that no two are the same. Some days my tasks are more technical than others, but I can always guarantee no matter what I’m doing, it will include some form of creative problem solving.
Key things I work on include writing content for blogs and our developer website, engaging with existing apps in our ecosystem, fielding requests from potential new ones, building developer tools like SDKs, attending events, plus so much more.
It’s all talk, talk, talk
One thing I know for certain is that in my role I talk. A lot. And to many different people, across multiple regions. In fact, I probably spend on average 70% of my time talking to people outside of Xero.
Being an evangelist is about creating connections, whether it’s with developers and app partners, within our ecosystem community, or various colleagues from product to sales and comms teams across Xero.
So to be effective, I find communication skills are a must. It’s crucial for me to know who my audience is and how to articulate concepts in the right way for them. And because the audience I speak with is so varied, that includes translating between technical and non-technical lingo.
My foray into public speaking
If you want to engage with the masses, you have to talk to the masses. So public speaking is an inevitable part of developer evangelism and something I’ve learnt to embrace.
I’ve spoken in forums like Xero’s Developer Roadshow which is held in locations across the globe each year as well as other external developer events.
It’s great to have opportunities like this to share learnings with the developer community and peers in similar roles.
If I reflect on my public speaking journey, I’ve been given lots of opportunities to upskill. Starting small and doing presentations internally really helped me grow my confidence.
I’m also a big advocate for inspiring the next generation of young women in tech. I co-founded a women-in-tech group where members can share inspiration and ideas.
Being able to speak in this smaller and safe environment has given me great experience for then moving onto bigger public talks.
Our community is what it’s all about
One of the best things about my role is that it’s all about the community. Not only do I get satisfaction from being able to support and educate our community of developers. But I’ve learnt so much from them as well.
The users of our APIs and developer tools come from all walks of life, in countries all over the world, and they tend to find some pretty quirky and clever ways of integrating with us. And that’s inspiring.
Of course, working with a global community and a global set of colleagues has its challenges. That’s because there are just so many people to interact with across so many locations.
I’m the only developer evangelist in New Zealand and my team is currently split across five time zones. This means I need to be resourceful and organised if I want to talk or ask questions.
Thankfully, it’s made a lot easier with tools like Google Hangouts, Slack and Trello. The thing that has struck me is that if team members put the effort in, then the geographical split becomes a non-issue.
I’ve certainly seen that I can be self-driven and autonomous whilst being collaborative, engaged and connected with my team.
If I was to sum up developer evangelism in three words, I’d say it’s all about education, problem solving and relationships. It’s a busy role, but more importantly, it’s hugely satisfying when I see the amazing things that are happening in our developer community and know that I’m helping them get there.
