Many in today’s developer world look down on marketing. I mean, after all, the marketing team is usually “not technical.” And they’re not developers. It’s 2019 and while we try to promote inclusiveness of all types, inclusiveness doesn’t seem to apply to marketers. Why? Is that OK? Who does that hurt? I grew up in engineering and spent the first 15 years of my career as a developer or an engineering manager of some type. So now that I’m in marketing, it surprised me when one of my engineering colleagues blurted out “But it’s a technical conference!” when he learned one of my talks was accepted to a technical conference.
This keynote is about why developers really need marketing. About how good marketing managers can make it so visitors to your website don’t leave empty-handed, confused about what your technology actually does or why it matters. About how the ability to translate technology into what-users-actually-care-about can make your project be the one that takes off. About why Dormain Drewitz said at Monktoberfest: “I work in product marketing. My preferred programming language is English.” Finally, this talk explores how to be sensitive to the bias against marketing that pervades some of our teams—and how to instead embrace teamwork best practices employed by sailors, where everyone in the boat has an important role to play if you are to win the race.
8. @clairegiordano
Developer > Engineering Manager
Product Manager > Product MarketerHi, I’m Claire—and I’m a
Principal PM Manager
at Microsoft, by way of the
recent Citus Data acquisition,
where I was VP of Marketing.
@clairegiordano @citusdata @microsoft
Sun Microsystems
Citus Data > Microsoft
Applied Math / Computer Science
10. @clairegiordano
“ We live in an Internet age, which means we
live in an age mostly built by engineers-
ergo, we live in a very engineer-centric
world.
And what engineers love to tell us is that
marketing shouldn’t matter. Only the
product should matter. If you need
marketing, that’s only because you haven’t
designed the product well enough.
This is what we call “Window dressing
marketing”. Marketing as an appendage.
Marketing as an afterthought. Marketing
that doesn’t matter, in other words.
And that’s what most marketing is. And
most of it is quite rightly ignored.
I don’t know about you, but we can’t afford
to have marketing that’s ignored. Our
marketing has to matter. Our marketing has
to get people to care, or else we're out of
business.Source: Gapingvoid Creative Design Group
The day after I submitted my Gluecon talk proposal,
this Gapingvoid newsletter landed in my inbox.
Further reinforcing the need to talk about this.
11. @clairegiordano
In researching this talk, I discovered this 2018 Velocity NYC keynote by
Michael Bernstein. Turns out lots of us are having the same conversation!
@clairegiordano
16. @clairegiordano
@Clairegiordano
1
1. Is there a bias against
marketing?
2. Are there lessons for
us in sailboat racing?
3. Why do we
(developers) really
need marketing?
@clairegiordano
18. @clairegiordano
DO DEVELOPERS
HATE THESE THINGS?
qYES
qNO
blogs documentation
video how-to’s
t-shirts
stickers?
conferences
downloads
reddit
stackoverflow
google search@clairegiordano
20. @clairegiordano
Sign up for our newsletter and
we'll send you a great set of
content each month, no spam,
no marketing, just interesting
content.
“
qYES
qNO
@clairegiordano
Does the question above promulgate bias against marketing?
Does this question implicitly equate marketing with spam?
25. @clairegiordano
Have you ever
anonymized the work of
an individual by referring
to them as a group? E.g.
“I can’t believe what
marketing said…”
@clairegiordano
It’s a lot easier to build walls and to devalue the work of other
teams when you don’t think of the other teams as individuals
but rather as amorphous groups, like “marketing.”
26. @clairegiordano
@Clairegiordano
1. Is there a bias against
marketing?
2. Are there lessons for
us in sailboat racing?
3. Why do we
(developers) really
need marketing?
2
@clairegiordano
29. @clairegiordano
Skipper (or Helmsman, or Driver), and Bowman, and Main Trimmer, and Trimmer for Jib and Spinnaker:
all have an important role to play. The team communication & collaboration wins or loses the race. There
is no room in a winning boat for walls, divides, and disparagement.
33. @clairegiordano
@Clairegiordano
1. Is there a bias against
marketing?
2. Are there lessons for
us in sailboat racing?
3. Why do we
(developers) really
need marketing?
3
@clairegiordano
34. @clairegiordano
If you build it, they will
NOTcome
@clairegiordano
Apologies to the movie Field of Dreams, but
build it, and they will NOT come. There is real
work to tell the story about how you can help
users—and to help users to discover your
offering.
35. @clairegiordano
“MARKETING IS
MORE IMPORTANT THAN CODE IN THE
ADOPTION OF SOFTWARE.”
—Michael Bernstein, Velocity NYC 2018
@clairegiordano
This is the bold claim made by Michael in his Velocity NYC keynote. Is it true? I do
love the quote. But based on the sailing example, marketing & product &
engineering & docs all need to be in the boat together.
40. @clairegiordano
Database constraints
in Postgres: The last
line of defense
Data has a certain gravity and inertia. Once it’s stored
it’s not likely to be actively moved or frequently
modified. At least not for your one source of truth.
Protecting that data and ensuring it’s both safely stored
but also correct is worth the time investment because of
the value it has.
Going further, your database schema and models are
going to change far less than your application code.
Because it changes less frequently the case
By Will Leinweber
➜ CITUSDATA.COM/BLOG
READ OUR
BLOGS?
41. @clairegiordano
Can I use math to persuade you
that it’s worth
welcoming marketing
into your boat?
@clairegiordano
42. @clairegiordano
1.01365 = 37.8
0.99365 = 0.03
Source: https://tomtunguz.com/1-01365-37-7/ @clairegiordano
Love this blog post from Tomasz Tunguz (Redpoint) about the impact of getting 1% better
every day (or declining by 1% every day.) What if you all embraced your need for marketing
every day over the next year?