Four Ways to Become a Better Developer
Working at a design company as a developer can be super fun. I’ve worked in different kinds of teams, and I want to share a few tips I’ve learned along the way.
“I want to do X; is that possible?”
“Yes!” is always the right answer.
“I want to do [fill in blank]. Is that possible?” Beware, this is a deceptive question asked by designers. It’s loaded, and usually the designer is unaware what it means.
Okay, so, the answer is always yes.
Before I explain why: The designer knows the brand they’re working on. Their goal is to make the brand consistent and keep the brand positioned for future growth. If they see something new on the platform they design for and it fits, they’ll want to do it. And they should.
Designers, When you’re asking this question — “Is it possible?” — you may not realize it, but you’re calling into question your developer’s skills. Unbundling the question, you’re asking, “I’ve seen this before, but can you do this? Do you have the talent to do this?”
Developers, whenever a designer calls into question your skills as a developer, confidently say yes. Straight up front if you have to. If you know there are caveats to the execution be sure to point them out. But assure them it can still be done. For example,
Designer: “I designed the news singles to have multi-column paragraphs like this site. Is this possible?”
If you don’t know how:
Developer: “Yes! Absolutely. I’m not sure how yet, but I’ll figure it out.”
OR, if you know what support looks like:
Developer: “Yes. Since we support IE9 still, it will not work in that browser. It will look like a normal paragraph, which is an acceptable fallback.”
Like I said, the designer understands the client’s brand. If they believe the fallback is reasonable, they’ll say okay. Otherwise, you two will collaborate on a solution.
Bottom line: They’re really asking if you’re lazy. Front and do it.
Managing Your Ego.
Saying, “we can do that” to everything can lead to having a big ego. Remember, you’re actually saying, “I’m that talented.” A good developer isn’t narcissistic. Everyone manages their ego in different ways. Here’s how I do it.
One way I manage my ego is by sharing my mistakes. Or by being upfront if I don’t understand something. I am never above admitting confusion or if I straight-up got something wrong. I’m skilled but I’m not perfect. Reminding myself out loud, in front of others, keeps my ego in check.
Another way I keep my ego in balance is by focusing on others, lifting other people up. In college, I co-ran an art collective. We worked with people to help them try new ways to express themselves. I directed three projects where the results were people felt elevated about themselves and their work. That art collective eventually became Hubdia; A social platform focused on all kinds of people making different stuff. I figured out how to do it on a larger scale using technology. I still try to collaborate with different people so I can elevate them over myself. Volunteering for an organization that aligns with your professional goals helps too, which is I serve on the AIGA Nebraska board. If you’re interested in joining, email me!
Mindfulness is a good way to manage ego, too. A code school here in Omaha, Nebraska (And now Lincoln!) actually teaches code with mindfulness through yoga. They bake consideration into their students, and it pays off.
Another way to become more mindful is by diving into art or other intellectual interests like psychology, philosophy, or history. Literature allows you to explore psychology and philosophy. And non-fiction literature lets you peek into all three.
Bottom line: Working for other people is a good way to manage ego. Exposing your flaws and talking about your mistakes is a good way to manage ego. And being mindful of how you treat people is effective as well. Do what floats your boat!
The difference in programming and coding.
Be a programmer.
Programming and coding are used synonymously. As developers, we go back and forth between doing these throughout the work day.
Coding is task work.
Coders need managers. Coders don’t create logic in the application. Coders work on specific parts of applications. Coders don’t introduce new technologies.
Programming is high level work.
Programmers delegate. Programmers can translate business goals into logic within code. Programmers introduce new technologies.
Bottom line: Be powerful! Don’t just code — program too! It’s all about balance.
Follow people, not industries.
It’s crucial to keep up on changes in our industry and people are behind those changes. I follow people I can learn from. Here’s a list of people to follow, and what they’re doing. (No one is endorsing this article or any thoughts in it, this is just a tiny list of people I personally totes love):
- Tobias van Schneider, a designer, on AIGA NY, past work at Spotify and Semplice Labs.
- Yan Zhu, a security person who’s AWESOME and does a lot, recently left Yahoo! and is one of the first people at a new company called Brave, making the internet faster and safer, who’s CEO is…
- Brendan Eich, the person who created Javascript, founded the Mozilla project and foundation.
- Mark Nottingham, who chairs the HTTP working group. He’s one of the many leads on the design of HTTP/2 and other technologies.
- aloria, who does security at Tumblr.
- Scott Hanselman, works on the Azure Cloud for Microsoft.
- Scott Schiller does front-end at Slack.
- i am kortney, COO at bsmdot.co, an education company.
- makenova, A developer in OKC.
- Kylie Jack, a designer and developer.
- Nitasha Tiku, senior writer at Buzzfeed covering technology.
- Jafar Husain, tech lead at Netflix.
- Jessica Rose, developer, awesome person.
- Web Smith, great business guy, works at uncrate.
- Benedict Evans, tech, mobile, and media at Andreessen Horowitz.
- Ethan Marcotte, designer and developer, came up with responsive web design.
- Timothy B. Lee, senior editor at Vox, covers technology.
- Jonathon Colman, UX and content strategy at Facebook.
- Stewart Butterfield, Slack CEO.
- Murat Pak, amazing developer who is responsible for the beautiful archillect twitter bot.
- Adam J. Kurtz, an awesome designer from NY.
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William is a developer at Grain & Mortar, serves as Director of New Media on AIGA Nebraska, and Tweets like mad.
