Introducing sudoHERO

sudoHERO is open as a limited beta to learn from our users: “What can we do to accelerate your development?”

Starting on 31-March-2021, get instant expert advice on Docker-related issues. The first question is free on new accounts.

Our Research Discovered Developer Pain

Over the past several months, the team at sudoHERO spoke to 100s of software developers across more than 20 countries to understand what solutions they use to to solve technical challenges and the pain points experienced when using them. We found that, regardless of how much experience a developer possesses or where he or she comes from, everyone eventually gets stuck on a technical challenge which may take hours or even weeks to solve, leading potentially to thousands of dollars of wasted time and effort.

That path to lost productivity typically begins with a Google search which leads to one or more of following:

• Documentation: The documentation typically describes how a technology operates, but rarely how it interacts with another technology.
• Question & Answer Forums: The large body of knowledge on these sites are a gold mine of information, but have been slowly declining in their usefulness. Less than half of all questions posted on the most popular developer forum had a validated answer in 2020. When developers do ask a question on one of these forums, they can face issues making it a painful experience.
• Blog Posts and Videos: These are great tools to get up to speed on a new technology, but often lack the user’s context or particular edge case needed to solve a specific problem.
• Chat Servers: The “goldilocks” of technical assistance. If few people are online, it can be difficult to find help you with your question. Too many people and your question may scroll into the ether before anyone had a chance to respond. Rarely is it “just right.”

Software developers told us what works best is to connect directly with an expert, share the context of the problem and get personalized assistance. For those who don’t have someone like this to turn to in real life, there are solutions that enable individual help today, but they either require a lengthy vetting process or require you to submit a support ticket and wait.

Find me a HERO, now!

With a clear picture of what doesn’t work well today, we asked developers, “what would be the ideal experience to accelerate your development?” The answer was to have the right expert who could swoop in, just in the nick of time, provide the exact assistance needed, and then move on. What they wanted was a Hero!

With sudoHERO, we’re working to assemble the world’s best experts who are available to answer your call for help at a moment’s notice.

Give it a Try — Starting with Docker Questions

sudoHERO will eventually be the go-to place for a variety of technical questions, but starting Tuesday, 30-March-2021, we will offer the service for a limited set of hours each day for people needing help with Docker related issues. The first question is free on all new accounts.

Current hours of operation (revised with additional time slot):

Why Docker? We wanted to start with a technology that was straightforward, but still presented challenges to its users. We’ve found that while Docker is a DevOps tool, it’s used by many software developers who aren’t intimately familiar with the product and quickly get stuck. When looking for help, our research has found that developers have luck getting help with their issues only 35% of the time on popular online forums and chat communities.

To get started, visit the sudoHERO site during hours of our limited beta, create an account, and ask your question. Confused by container to container communication? Need help with volume mapping? Do you want someone to help you optimize your Dockerfile? We’ll connect you to an expert who can work with you to find a solution. As it’s designed now, sudoHERO works best for quick, straightforward questions that would take an expert 15–20 minutes to answer.