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Why developers need marketing now more than ever | GlueCon 2019 | Claire Giordano

Why developers need marketing now more than ever | GlueCon 2019 | Claire Giordano

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.

Citus Data

May 23, 2019
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  1. @clairegiordano
    WHY
    DEVELOPERS
    NEED MARKETING,
    NOW MORE THAN EVER
    Claire Giordano
    @clairegiordano @citusdata @microsoft

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  2. @clairegiordano
    CONUNDRUM
    In creating
    this talk, I ran
    into a
    conundrum
    @clairegiordano

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  3. @clairegiordano
    If developers really
    need marketing,
    why disparage
    marketing so
    much?
    @clairegiordano

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  4. @clairegiordano
    It’s 2019 & we all support Diversity & Inclusion. Right?
    @clairegiordano

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  5. @clairegiordano
    EXCEPT
    NOT FOR
    MARKETING
    @clairegiordano

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  6. @clairegiordano
    Why doesn’t
    inclusiveness apply
    to marketers?
    @clairegiordano

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  7. @clairegiordano
    Why doesn’t
    inclusiveness apply
    to marketers?
    Is it OK that it
    doesn’t?
    @clairegiordano

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  8. @clairegiordano
    Developer > Engineering Manager
    Product Manager > Product Marketer
    Hi, 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

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  9. @clairegiordano
    @clairegiordano
    I ran across this tweet from
    Matt Asay before I submitted
    my talk proposal to Gluecon,
    and it reinforced the need to
    have this conversation.

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  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.

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  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

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  12. @clairegiordano
    People form “Tribes” around shared interests

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  13. @clairegiordano
    If we’re not careful, tribes can also build walls
    between groups // Who does that hurt?

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  14. @clairegiordano
    Have you ever
    sworn at the
    complete & total
    stupidity of the
    driver next to
    you?
    @clairegiordano

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  15. @clairegiordano
    @Clairegiordano
    ?
    @clairegiordano

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  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

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  17. @clairegiordano
    DO DEVELOPERS
    HATE MARKETING?
    qYES
    qNO
    @clairegiordano

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  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

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  19. @clairegiordano
    MAYBE DEVELOPERS
    HATE
    BADMARKETING?
    qYES
    qNO
    @clairegiordano

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  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?

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  21. @clairegiordano
    “BUT THEY’RE
    NOT TECHNICAL”
    @clairegiordano
    There’s been a lot of conversation the last 6
    months about “gatekeeping” and keeping
    people (including marketing folks) from
    having a seat at the table. Who gets hurt by
    this? Do our users pay the price?

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  22. @clairegiordano
    @clairegiordano

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  23. @clairegiordano
    @clairegiordano

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  24. @clairegiordano

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  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.”

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  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

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  27. @clairegiordano
    12-year-old-me says
    thank you to
    designers of this
    beautiful
    Sunfish.
    Source: www.laserperformance.us @clairegiordano

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  28. @clairegiordano
    I think we have something to learn
    from these sailboat racers.

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  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.

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  30. @clairegiordano

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  31. @clairegiordano

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  32. @clairegiordano
    When you race sailboats, every role matters

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  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

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  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.

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  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.

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  36. @clairegiordano
    People whose
    preferred
    programming
    language is
    English
    bring you
    the power
    of persuasion
    HT Dormain Drewitz, Monktoberfest 2018
    @clairegiordano

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  37. @clairegiordano
    A positive 1st
    impression on
    website colors your
    users’ experience
    that comes after…
    @clairegiordano

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  38. @clairegiordano
    Good product
    marketers bring a
    ton of empathy to
    the table
    Source: Gapingvoid Creative Design Group
    @clairegiordano

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  39. @clairegiordano
    @clairegiordano
    Documentation is one of the BEST forms of marketing. Here is a screenshot from Heroku’s
    Dev Center, known for their developer-friendly documentation.

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  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?

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  41. @clairegiordano
    Can I use math to persuade you
    that it’s worth
    welcoming marketing
    into your boat?
    @clairegiordano

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  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?

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  43. @clairegiordano
    Thank You
    @clairegiordano
    @citusdata @microsoft

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