Lava Leadership: How Strategic Thinkers Can Drive Change from Below
Discover Lava Leadership: Learn how strategic thinkers can drive organizational change from below. Explore challenges, strategies, and the power of bottom-up innovation.
Writings & Musings
Featured Posts
Funnels or Flywheels: Cross-Functional Alignment in Developer Relations
In the dynamic world of Developer Relations (DevRel), success isn't just about engaging developers—it's about how well your efforts align with and amplify the work of other departments. The key to unlocking DevRel's full potential lies in seamless cross-functional alignment, regardless of whether yo...
Operationalizing DevRel: Countering the YAP Syndrome
In the fast-paced world of Developer Relations (DevRel), there's a phenomenon I like to call YAP - Yet Another Program. It's a challenge that many DevRel teams face as they grow and expand their initiatives. But what exactly is YAP, and how can we counter it? Let's dive in.
A Measured Approach to Top-of-Funnel Alignment
To measure top-of-funnel growth effectively, I've developed a strategy focusing on three key metrics: New Developer Acquisition, Activation Rate, and Time-to-Value. This approach provides insights into developer reach, engagement, and value discovery while aligning efforts across marketing, develope...
Systems Thinking and Invisible Work: Bringing Clarity to DevRel
Discover how systems thinking and recognizing invisible work can transform DevRel teams. Learn to improve reporting, refine roles, and create aligned career paths for greater impact.
Simplifying Decisions: The Drop, Defer, Delegate Method
Discover how the 'Drop, Defer, Delegate' method can transform your decision-making process. Learn to prioritize effectively and boost productivity in fast-paced environments.
Balancing Execution and Communication in Long-Term Product Initiatives
Learn how to balance execution and communication in long-term product initiatives. Insights from some my work on Slack's web presence unification project reveal strategies for maintaining momentum and support throughout multi-phase projects.
The Keystone Paradox: When Being Essential Becomes a Liability
Discover the perils of 'Keystoning' in tech teams, where knowledge hoarding creates single points of failure. Learn to identify keystones, dismantle knowledge silos, and build more resilient, collaborative teams. Essential reading for managers and team members alike.
Theory to Practice: Meeting Learners Where They Are
Dive into the theory-practice spectrum of learning styles and discover how to create developer education that meets learners where they are. From documentation deep-divers to code-first experimenters, learn how to cater to every anyone's learning style.
Unlocking Expert Minds: Eight Patterns for AI-guided Knowledge Capture
Explore eight innovative patterns for capturing specialized knowledge through guided, interactive interviews. These approaches use dynamic questioning and real-time analysis with AI to uncover deep insights, challenge assumptions, and map complex expertise across various fields. Discover how these m...
Democratizing AI: Empowering Creators and Shaping the Future of Innovation
As AI becomes increasingly powerful and pervasive, a crucial question emerges: Who will control this technology and reap its benefits? The answer to this question will have profound implications for innovation, economic opportunity, and the future of work. That's why democratizing AI - making it acc...
YAP (Yet Another Program) Mental Model
The YAP (Yet Another Program) mental model illustrates the challenges faced by cross-functional teams as they increase the number of initiatives or programs they manage.
Gap-filling Expertise with Claude Projects
In the dynamic world of Developer Relations, we often find ourselves at the intersection of multiple disciplines, requiring input and expertise from various teams across the organization. However, the reality is that these cross-functional teams may not always have the bandwidth to provide timely su...
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Asking for Things
As Developer Advocates, a significant amount of our work involves asking people for things. Whether we're trying to get buy-in internally or working on collaborations externally, we're generally in the business of asking. Learn how to get better results from your requests by rethinking the nature of...
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Addressing Product Friction
Over the last three months, we've been developing a framework at Apollo called DX Audits to help us identify, document, report, and address product friction. Our team and company is growing quickly and it was becoming increasingly difficult to address product friction. We wanted a framework that wou...
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Content Creation
Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the idea of having to create that next blog post or YouTube video? Do you find yourself unable to finish things because you're not quite sure when to call it done? Are you adjusting your outlines or talking points on the fly? Learn how to create content more effecti...
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Metrics and Reporting
As developer advocates, avoid becoming extensions of other teams by closely learning metrics: the different types you'll encounter and when to use them, which are trusted and untrusted, and how to build them effectively to support your team's goals.
The Developer Advocate's Guide to Getting Buy-In
There are many reasons that decision-makers may not act upon the feedback we deliver. Still, one thing we can always ask ourselves is, did I get enough buy-in before I asked them to commit? In this post, I'll cover what buy-in is, how it applies to developer advocacy, what skills help the most when ...
Distributing Challenge: On Building Highly Engaged Teams
How many developers do you know who have left their job because either 1) the work is no longer challenging / there is no career growth, or 2) the work is too challenging, and they have no support? Challenge plays an essential role in our happiness.
Impostor Syndrome and the Knowledge Bubble Philosophy
Have you ever said to yourself, I wish I was as smart as that person? I know I certainly have! Impostor syndrome is something that I continue to battle even 10 years into my development journey.