by David I | Sep 11, 2017 | Developer Marketing, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Webinar |
Today more than 80% of developers belong to one or more developer programs. Sixty-two percent of developers, in a recent Evans Data Developer Program research survey, say they don’t use APIs that aren’t supported by a Developer Relations program. What motivates a developer to want to adopt a particular technology or tool? What motivates them to recommend and/or buy a technology, tool, framework, etc.?
The answers to these questions are crucial to the success of API marketing efforts. In order to sell a product, companies must be able to first, reach developers, second, provide a clear and unique message that emphasizes the particular value and functionality of their tool or platform, and finally, convince developers that these offerings can benefit them and/or the company they work for. Knowing what the primary influences are in the developer world is critical.
Evans Data reaches out to its global developer panel to produce two annual tactical marketing reports: Developer Marketing Survey Report and Developer Relations Survey Report. The Developer Marketing Survey contains software developers’ attitudes about marketing tools and programs used to promote and sell products to them. This report provides invaluable insight for your developer marketing campaigns. The Developer Relations Survey examines issues and elements of developer programs. This report provides invaluable insight for your developer program and advocacy.
There are many aspects related to a developer’s API adoption and a company’s decision to open their APIs to developers. These aspects can include: API features, Documentation, Developer Support, Reasons for joining and staying in a program, ROI and Developer Program Measurement, Developer Outreach, Training, Spurring Participation, Developer Resources, and App Stores.
In this DevRelate webinar, you’ll learn about the many aspects of successful API adoption, developer program features and developer marketing best practices that lead to a successful partnership between your company and developers.
Agenda
- Developer adoption motivations
- Developer recommendation/purchase motivations
- Aspects of successful API adoption
- API Features and Developer Marketing Best Practices
- Q&A
Dates/Times
Thursday, September 28, 2017
- 7am PDT (Santa Cruz) | 9am CDT (Chicago) | 10am EDT (New York) | 2pm GMT | 3pm BST (London) | 4pm CEST (Frankfurt)
- 10am PDT (Santa Cruz) | 12noon CDT (Chicago) | 1pm EDT (New York) | 5pm GMT | 6pm BST (London) | 7pm CEST (Frankfurt)
- 1pm PDT (Santa Cruz) | 2pm CDT (Chicago) | 3pm EDT (New York)
- 5pm PDT (Santa Cruz) | 8am CST (Beijing Friday, September 29) | 10am AEST (Sydney Friday, September 29)
Register Now to Reserve your Seat: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/rt/6630659132606705922
Note: The webinar repeats on multiple days and times. Choose the date and time that fits your schedule.
Who Should Attend
- Managers & Directors of Developer Programs
- Technology & Developer Advocates
- Business Development Managers & Directors
- Product Marketing Managers & Directors
- Marketing Managers
- Product Managers
- Research Managers
- Corporate Communications Managers
- Heads of Developer Marketing
- ANYONE who deals with developers!
Note: The webinar repeats on multiple days and times. Choose the date and time that fits your schedule.
Presenter
David Intersimone “David I”, Vice President of Developer Communities, Evans Data Corporation
by David I | Sep 5, 2017 | Developer News, DevRelate |
Evans Data put out a press release on August 23, 2017 that reported results of a recent cloud development survey. The report showed that almost half of all developers working in and/or deploying to a Cloud are deploying and delivering environmental configurations as instances of immutable architecture (46%) in development testing and production, with only slightly less (42%) doing the same with microservices according to Evans Data Corp’s newly released Cloud Development Survey.
In addition to those currently delivering environmental configurations as immutable architectures an additional 37% are experimenting with this technology but haven’t put it into production yet. As for microservices, an additional 34% are evaluating and 15% expect to experiment with microservices in the next year.
“There’s an obvious affinity between microservices and immutable architecture,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data. “Containers in general as well as microservices can embrace immutability which enhances reliability and reduces the dependence on heavy weight installers and configuration management software. The developers are telling us the time for this evolution has come.”
The survey also showed that the most common types of applications that are containerized are Business to Business applications, followed by backend development, and while the vast majority of those who use containers use some kind of orchestration tools, the orchestrator that most use is the one that ships with the container software they use.
VMware, Pivotal, Google jointly announce PKS (Pivotal Container Service)
I attended VMWare’s recent VMWorld 2017 conference in Las Vegas. During the Tuesday morning keynote, Pat Gelsinger (VMware CEO), Michael Dell (Dell Technologies Chairman and CEO), Rob Mee (Pivotal CEO) and Sam Ramji (Google Cloud VP) were on stage to announce that the companies are working together to simplify the creation, deployment, orchestration and management of containers at enterprise scale.
Their work will allow enterprise developers to integrate “production ready” VMware vSphere, Google Container Engine, Bosh, Kubo and Kubernetes. During the keynote it was also announced that VMware and Pivotal were joining the Cloud Native Computing Foundation at the platinum level. Pricing and Availability information from the VMware press release: “PKS is expected to become available in calendar Q4 2017. Pricing details to be released upon general availability.”
Evans Data Cloud Development Survey 2017, Volume 1
The survey of developers currently developing in or deploying to the Cloud was fielded in June 2017 and provides a margin of error of 4.4%. The full 187 page report includes sections on Cloud Developer Demographics, Migrating to a Cloud, Containers, DevOps and the Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Mobile IoT and the Cloud, Security and Governance, and much more!
See the complete Table of Contents and Methodology here: Table of Contents
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
by David I | Aug 29, 2017 | Conference, Developer Marketing, Developer Relations, DevRelate |
I am a speaker at the API World 2017 conference taking place in San Jose California September 23-28, 2017. The Conference, run by DevNetwork, is the world’s largest vendor-neutral API conference and expo, organizing the API Economy. API World is dedicated to the mission to be independent and facilitate connections, knowledge, trust and business within the developer community of API providers and consumers.
Ten Developer API Success Factors for your Developer Marketing and Developer Relations Program
My talk takes place on Wednesday, September 27 from 11:00am – 11:50am. I am part of the API World API Marketing track during the conference.
Today more than 80% of developers belong to one or more developer programs. Sixty-two percent of developers, in a recent Evans Data Developer Program research survey, say they don’t use APIs that aren’t supported by a Developer Relations program. What motivates a developer to want to adopt a particular technology or tool? What motivates them to buy?
The answers to these questions are crucial to the success of API marketing efforts. In order to sell a product, companies must be able to first, reach developers, second, provide a clear and unique message that emphasizes the particular value and functionality of their tool or platform, and finally, convince developers that these offerings can benefit them and/or the company they work for. Knowing what the primary influences are in the developer world is critical.
There are many aspects related to a developer’s API adoption and a company’s decision to open their APIs to developers. These aspects can include: API features, Documentation, Developer Support, Reasons for joining and staying in a program, ROI and Developer Program Measurement, Developer Outreach, Training, Spurring Participation, Developer Resources, and App Stores.
In this API World session, you’ll hear about the many aspects of successful API adoption, developer program features and developer marketing best practices that lead to a successful partnership between your company and developers.
Evans Data Tactical Marketing Reports
In creating my API World talk I will be using developer focused research that is included in this year’s Evans Data “Developer Marketing Survey 2017” and “Developer Relations Survey 2017“.
Stop by and Say Hello
During API World, I will also be roaming around the conference and exhibit hall. It will be awesome to see all of the companies that are providing APIs for developers to use. If you have time, stop by my talk and say hello.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
by David I | Aug 11, 2017 | Developer Marketing, Developer Outreach, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Webinar |
As part of my August 2017 DevRelate webinar, “Developer Marketing & Developer Relations – Similarities & Differences“, August 8 & 10, I’ve put together additional background research and information about several high level aspects for each team member. In this blog post I am focusing on the audiences, metrics and ROI. Take a look at each of the aspects and let me know what you think about the details related to your own experiences and knowledge of industry experts you interact with.
Audiences
What are the audiences that Developer Marketing and Developer Relations team members focus on? In creating the documents, messages, presentations and preparations for meetings, there are many audiences that will be targeted. In my years as a developer, manager, executive and advocate, I have talked to customers at all levels of their organization. I’ve given presentations to focused audiences and also larger diverse audiences. Here is a list of common audience members that Developer Marketing and Developer Relations members talk with, present to and write for.
- C-Level
- Division/Department Manager
- Technical / Development Manager
- Project Lead / Team Leader
- Developer / Software Engineer
- Software Architect
- Researcher
- Product/Marketing Manager
- Business Development
- ISV
- OEM
- Students
- Hobbyist/Tinkerer/Maker
- Thought Leaders
- Authors
- Editors
Metrics and ROI
Measuring everything that Developer Marketing and Developer Relations team members do is key to constantly improving outreach, messaging, lead generation and enhancing a company’s top and bottom line. Some metrics and ROI measures are direct and straightforward. Other metrics and ROI measures are harder to directly attribute to specific events, content generated and interactions. Several sure ways to track more results is by coding everything via calls to actions at conferences, meetups, hackathons, meetings, presentations, panels, etc. Adding short URLs for follow up activities, codes to include in product orders, and spaces to tell everyone what why a developer made a decision, purchased a product, attended a follow on event will help add to your metrics and ROI calculations. Here are several metrics and ROI measures that Developer Marketing and Developer Relations team members should track.
- Leads
- Revenue (Direct/Indirect)
- Developer Satisfaction
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Market Share/Growth
- Technology/Product Adoption
- Product Quality/Improvements
- Developer Retention/Renewals
- Content Creation
- Followers/Likes/Reposts/Retweets
- Developer Credibility
Additional Webinar Information and Links
You can find additional links and information for the webinar at https://www.devrelate.com/devmktg-devrel-infolinks/.
How do you Measure Developer Marketing and Developer Relations activities, time spent, and budget spend?
Send me an email with additional metrics and ROI measures that you use to track your successes, improvements and things to fix. If you have additional developer focused audiences, pass them along as well.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
by David I | Aug 10, 2017 | APIs, Developer Community, Developer Relations, DevRelate, Programming, Tools |
More than 80 percent of developers tell Evans Data, in the Developer Relations Program Survey 2017, that they belong to one or more developer programs (free and/or paid). A majority of developers have consistently told Evans Data that they won’t use a product, service, platform, API, device, framework, library and other technologies if there isn’t an associated active developer community. The top reasons for joining and staying with a technology and a developer community are included in “The Four T’s”: technical support, technical information, training and tools. Being a part of a thriving developer community, developers tell Evans Data that there are three primary benefits that they report to their executives and managers: time saved, increased productivity and improved quality.
Time Saved
When your developer program provides great documentation, getting started guides, step by step tutorials, sample template projects, pre-built client and server libraries, videos, and code snippets programmers can save time learning your APIs, building applications and reusing code. In the Evans Data Developer Relations Survey 2017, more than three quarters of developers report that they save time because of their membership. The savings amount to being able to get more work done each week. Being able to access latest updates, bug fixes, and workarounds allows developers to avoid wasting time trying to track down a known problem. Talking with other developers in program forums and newsgroups can also save hours of wasted time that others have already incurred.
Increased Productivity
Using great tools, SDKs and content helps developers streamline their design, development, testing and deployment work. Leveraging the work done by your R&D team and developer advocates to help community members results in increased productivity for themselves and their teams. In my years of experience and with feedback from community members, it always helps to have someone show you the best practices and how to(s) for a technology allowing you to focus on what makes your solution unique to your company’s business. Copying sample code and reusing libraries and frameworks also saves time that can be used to work on other development projects.
Improved Quality
One of the best measures of developer program membership, according to developers in the recent Evans Data Developer Relations Program survey, is the improvement in the quality of their code. We know that developers write code. At the same time, developers also read code. Being a part of a developer program allows developers to avoid worst practices, talk with other developers about how to performance tune code, find and create workarounds for issues, write unit and system tests, use audits and metrics tools to identify code smells, and more. Hearing about development problems and solutions from other developers in community forums, in articles and on webinars helps another developer avoid the same problems, traps and pitfalls. Being able to access a bug tracking database on a developer program site will lead to better quality products being built by your customers and your own R&D teams.
Additional Benefits Heard from your Community Members?
Do you have additional developer benefits that you’ve heard from your developer community members? Send me an email with your list.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
by David I | Aug 9, 2017 | APIs, Cloud Computing, DevRelate, Programming |
When a developer’s app is built using one or more remote services and a problem occurs, users will start reporting a problem. Users will not necessarily know what is causing the problem. It could be issues with a cloud based service’s API, a cloud storage system or a bug in the software. How can your app know what the problem? Developer programs that provides services and APIs should also provide a live, frequently updated status page. Providing status APIs and pages allows the software, developers, partners, ISVs and even end users to track down problems. Ultimately the solution to any problem is the responsibility of the app developer (and company) regardless of where the fault is. Well designed and implemented developer programs should provide an API to check status and receive notifications for apps to fail-over, recover, fail gracefully and display problem information and solutions to users.
Developer System Status Pages
Here are a few developer program system status pages that I’ve found in my research and assessments. Some sites also provide APIs, feeds and subscriptions to program and API status information.
Status Page Hosting and API services
Altassian, for example, provides to customers a status page hosting service and API. You can find details of the developer service at https://www.statuspage.io/. Here is a list of some of the companies that use the hosting and API service:
3rd Party Status Check Sites
There are several 3rd party status check sites that monitor popular sites and provide an edit box to input a URL. You can use these services to see if another site/service is up or down. Some, like DownDetector, provide APIs (for a fee) to check on service status.
Do you provide a service status page and status API as part of your developer program?
If you have your developer service status and API, send me an email with additional information and the links to the status page and API.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
