Design Thinking: How do you design developer programmes?

Tech talks, hackathons, webinars, workshops... With so many ways to engage with developers, how do you decide on how and what to do in order to achieve specific goals? In this talk, I will share a process to creating developer programs, inspired by the design thinking methodology. Then, I will walk you through this methodology by designing a program aimed at increasing gender diversity in tech.

You will walk away with a framework to start thinking about how you can design developer programs for fun and profit.

I first presented this as a keynote at DevRelCon London 2019: https://london-2019.devrel.net/speaker/elisha-tan/index.html

Transcript

1. @elishatan
   Design Thinking:
   How do you design
   developer programmes?
   Elisha Tan, Founder
   TechLadies
   @elishatan
   

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2. @elishatan
   Design Thinking:
   How I got my shit
   together.
   Elisha Tan, Founder
   TechLadies
   @elishatan
   

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3. @elishatan
   • Introduce myself
   • Programme design thinking framework
   • How to use framework
   agenda
   

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4. @elishatan
   • Graduated with a Psychology degree
   • Learned coding from the community
   • Launched and failed said startup
   • Where are all the women?
   • Started TechLadies!
   • Build dev communities for fun and profit
   Hi, my name is Elisha
   Check out my
   mad tech skills yo
   

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5. @elishatan
   TechLadies is a community-led initiative for
   women to connect, learn, and grow
   in the tech industry.
   @elishatan
   

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6. @elishatan
   ~4000 members in Asia
   2 physical chapters
   >500 ladies trained
   >10 ladies in engineering roles
   @elishatan
   

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7. @elishatan
   TechLadies Bootcamp
   

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8. @elishatan
   Networking events?
   Hackathons?
   Mentorship?
   Workshops?
   Stuff for girls?
   tech talks?
   Create products for startups?
   Agile?
   PM bootcamp?
   

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9. @elishatan
   There’s got to be a better way to design
   programmes for developers!
   

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10. @elishatan
    Product design thinking process
    is well-defined
    

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11. @elishatan
    Credits: Smashing Magazine
    product Design thinking
    

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12. @elishatan
    How might we adapt the product design
    thinking for programmes?
    

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13. @elishatan
    Vision
    Why is it important that
    we do this?
    Understand
    What problem we are
    solving?
    Define
    Who are we solving
    the problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our
    idea work?
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    Programme Design thinking: 6-Step Process
    

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14. @elishatan
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our idea
    work?
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    Programme Design thinking step 1: Vision
    Vision
    Why is it important that
    we do this?
    

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15. @elishatan
    vision
    Why are you doing this?
    What are your goals?
    What are the desired outcomes?
    

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16. @elishatan
    Metrics
    • impressions
    • signups
    • downloads
    • sentiment
    • attendees
    • mailing list
    • jobs created
    • MAU/DAU
    • ARPU
    • adoption
    • commits
    • PRs
    • interviews
    • people trained
    

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17. @elishatan
    We aim to increase
    women’s participation by creating opportunities
    for women in the tech industry.
    @elishatan
    

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18. @elishatan
    Let's build a bootcamp!
    vision: Create opportunities that increase women’s participation in tech.
    

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19. @elishatan
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our idea
    work?
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    Vision
    Why is it important that
    we do this?
    Programme Design thinking step 2: understand
    Understand
    What problem we are
    solving?
    

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20. @elishatan
    understand
    What is the problem?
    How are people solving the problem now?
    Why are the current solutions inadequate?
    

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21. @elishatan
    research
    • Online
    • Talk to ”competitors”
    • Participant Observation
    • Surveys
    • Interviews
    • Focus Groups
    • Experiments
    • Secondary Data Analysis
    

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22. @elishatan
    

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23. @elishatan
    research
    • Not everyone learns to become software engineers
    • Hard to stay disciplined learning from online sources
    • Workshops don’t go in-depth
    • “Free” leads to low completion rates
    • Programming bootcamp requires people to quit their jobs
    

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24. @elishatan
    Let's build a bootcamp!
    vision: Create opportunities that increase women’s participation in tech.
    understand: Market gap exists for women who want to switch careers.
    

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25. @elishatan
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our idea
    work?
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    Vision
    Why is it important that
    we do this?
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Programme Design thinking step 3: define
    Define
    Who are we solving
    the problem for?
    

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26. @elishatan
    define
    Who is the target audience?
    What are their dreams and challenges?
    Where can you reach them?
    

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27. @elishatan
    • Name
    • Photo
    • Bio
    • Demographics: Age, sex, income, location
    • Personality Traits
    • Motivations
    • Goals and frustrations
    • Preferred social media channels
    • Tech skill
    • Myers-Brigg personality types
    • Hobbies and interests
    • Education level
    • Job responsibilities/duties
    • Shopping and product research habits
    Credits: xtensio
    User persona
    

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28. @elishatan
    TechLadies.co
    

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29. @elishatan
    • Clara Cheung
    • 32 year old
    • Currently works full-time in a non-tech
    industry
    • Wants to make a career switch into the
    tech industry
    • Not formally trained in CS
    • Unable to quit her job to join a
    programming bootcamp
    • Learning programming online (books,
    MOOC) and workshops, but need
    something more intensive
    • Uses Github, Stack Overflow
    user persona
    

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30. @elishatan
    Let's build a bootcamp!
    vision: Create opportunities that increase women’s participation in tech.
    understand: Market gap exists for women who want to switch careers.
    Define: Women, without formal CS education, who are actively trying to
    switch careers into tech.
    

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31. @elishatan
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our idea
    work?
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    Vision
    Why is it important that
    we do this?
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Programme Design thinking step 4: ideate
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    

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32. @elishatan
    Ideate
    What are all the possible ideas?
    Which is the “best" idea?
    What idea gives you the shortest feedback loop?
    

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33. @elishatan
    ideation methods
    • Encourage a brain dump of ideas then vote
    • Everyone writes an idea down and have the team evaluate/add onto
    an idea
    • Each participant brainstorms individually and merge all the ideas
    into one large idea map.
    

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34. @elishatan
    deriving the best idea
    • Help women become software engineers
    • Learn by doing
    • Create a real product, not small prototypes
    • Something more intensive than workshops
    

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35. @elishatan
    TechLadies Bootcamp is a 12-week part-time accelerated
    learning programme designed to help women with some
    basic programming background become professional
    programmers. Ladies are guided by industry experts to create
    products for non-profit organizations.
    

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36. @elishatan
    Let's build a bootcamp!
    vision: Create opportunities that increase women’s participation in tech.
    understand: Market gap exists for women who want to switch careers.
    Define: Women, without formal CS education, who are actively trying to
    switch careers into tech.
    Ideate: Paid part-time programming bootcamp building products for NGOs.
    

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37. @elishatan
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our idea
    work?
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    Vision
    Why is it important that
    we do this?
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Programme Design thinking step 5: test
    Test
    How well does our
    idea work?
    

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38. @elishatan
    test
    What is the best way to test this?
    What are the risks involved?
    What did you learn?
    

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39. @elishatan
    testing methods
    • Solicit feedback from users
    • Run a small event
    • Create a prototype
    • Call it a pilot
    

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40. @elishatan
    

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41. @elishatan
    

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42. @elishatan
    • It works! 30% of graduates found software
    eng jobs and internships
    • Secret sauce? Objective + Structure +
    Community
    • People want to help but need direction
    Lessons learned
    

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43. @elishatan
    Let's build a bootcamp!
    vision: Create opportunities that increase women’s participation in tech.
    understand: Market gap exists for women who want to switch careers.
    Define: Women, without formal CS education, who are actively trying to
    switch careers into tech.
    Ideate: Paid part-time programming bootcamp building products for NGOs.
    Test: Yay it worked!
    

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44. @elishatan
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our idea
    work?
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    Vision
    Why is it important that
    we do this?
    Understand
    What is the problem we
    are solving for?
    Define
    Who are we solving the
    problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our idea
    work?
    Programme Design thinking step 6: leverage
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    

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45. @elishatan
    leverage
    What other value can you extract?
    What other goals can you achieve?
    What momentum can you continue?
    

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46. @elishatan
    • Marketing: Create content
    • Comms: Supplement narrative
    • Product: Drive adoption and feedback
    • Social good: Contribute back to society
    • Continuity: Plan for succession, fund other activities
    • Innovation: Source for new ideas
    What to leverage for?
    

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47. @elishatan
    supporting growth
    • Surface new ideas to grow TechLadies
    • Contribute as mentors, coaches, and
    speakers
    • Inspire fellow community members
    

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48. @elishatan
    Let's build a bootcamp!
    vision: Create opportunities that increase women’s participation in tech.
    understand: Market gap exists for women who want to switch careers.
    Define: Women, without formal CS education, who are actively trying to
    switch careers into tech.
    Ideate: Paid part-time programming bootcamp building products for NGOs.
    Test: Yay it worked!
    leverage: Invite grads as speakers, mentors, and organisers.
    

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49. @elishatan
    Putting in all together
    

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50. @elishatan
    Vision
    Why is it important that
    we do this?
    Understand
    What problem we are
    solving?
    Define
    Who are we solving
    the problem for?
    Ideate
    How can we solve this
    problem?
    Test
    How well does our
    idea work?
    Leverage
    How can we maximise
    benefits?
    Programme Design thinking: 6-Step Process
    

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51. @elishatan
    “I felt extremely lost after being
    expelled from a Masters programme
    two years ago. My self-confidence
    was at an all-time low.
    Today, I am here standing up again to
    pursue my new-found dream.”
    Oon Xin Tian
    Software Engineer, Airhost
    @elishatan
    

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52. Keep in touch!
    @elishatan
    
    elisha@techladies.co
    

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