Contributing Code Empathetically

Remembering the People Behind Projects.

Given at jQuery Dev Summit 2015.

Transcript

1. Contributing Code
   Empathetically
   

   View Slide

2. Remembering
   People
   Behind
   Projects
   

   View Slide

3. Who Am I?
   

   View Slide

4. Who Am I?
   Nick Hehr
   Empathetic Community Member
   Front-End Developer
   Hoodie Contributor
   

   View Slide

5. View Slide

6. What is Empathy?
   

   View Slide

7. What is Empathy?
   The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
   

   View Slide

8. What is Empathy?
   Seeing the world through the eyes of someone else.

   

   View Slide

9. Breakdown
   • Context
   • Constructive Feedback
   • Communication
   • Caring
   

   View Slide

10. Context
    

    View Slide

11. The internal and external factors that influence
    the decisions we make and actions we take.
    

    View Slide

12. How It Relates
    • No One is Un-Opinionated
    • We All Have Biases
    • Listening is Key
    • “Why?”
    

    View Slide

13. View Slide

14. Set The Example
    

    View Slide

15. Descriptive Descriptions
    • screenshots, animated GIFs, or screencasts
    • the behavior and visuals you expected
    • related issues that would be closed
    • any context/reasoning behind why a change should
    be made
    • notes or concerns while in progress
    

    View Slide

16. Constructive Feedback
    

    View Slide

17. The return of information that helps to
    develop or improve.
    

    View Slide

18. How It Relates
    “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t
    say anything at all.”
    

    View Slide

19. View Slide

20. How It Relates
    “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t
    say anything at all.”
    

    View Slide

21. How It Relates
    “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t
    say anything at all.”
    

    View Slide

22. How It Relates
    “If you don’t have anything constructive to say,
    then don’t say anything at all.”
    

    View Slide

23. • Mutually Agreed Upon
    • Set Up With Expectations
    • In An Open Space
    • Shared With Context
    Constructive Feedback is…
    

    View Slide

24. Example
    Code Reviews
    

    View Slide

25. It is intended to find and fix mistakes
    overlooked, improving both the overall quality
    of software and developers' skills.
    

    View Slide

26. Encouraging
    Constructive Feedback
    

    View Slide

27. View Slide

28. https://github.com/atom/atom/blob/master/
    CONTRIBUTING.md
    

    View Slide

29. https://github.com/hoodiehq/hoodie/blob/master/
    CONTRIBUTING.md
    

    View Slide

30. Communication
    

    View Slide

31. The successful sharing of
    ideas and feelings between people.
    

    View Slide

32. How It Relates
    • What We Say
    • How We Say It
    • Where We Say It
    

    View Slide

33. “I” Statements
    For Giving Constructive Feedback
    For Getting Context
    

    View Slide

34. “You” Statements
    For Getting Context
    For Giving Constructive Feedback
    

    View Slide

35. View Slide

36. How We Communicate
    • General = Slack
    • Standups = Hangouts / In-Person
    • Recorded Discussions = GitHub Issues
    • Long-Form / Async = Email
    

    View Slide

37. https://.slack.com/
    customize/slackbot
    

    View Slide

38. Caring
    

    View Slide

39. To provide the needs of something
    and show interest in it.
    

    View Slide

40. How It Relates
    • Caring is Sharing
    • And Listening
    • And Understanding
    

    View Slide

41. How Much Do You Care?
    

    View Slide

42. Do You Care Enough…
    • To Write A Blog Post?
    • To File An Issue?
    • To Send An Email?
    • To Record A Screencast?
    • To Submit A Pull Request?
    

    View Slide

43. – Yoda
    “Don’t give in to hate. It leads to the Dark Side.”
    

    View Slide

44. Example
    Documentation
    

    View Slide

45. Documentation Matters
    • Wikis
    • Code Comments
    • Styleguides
    • Pattern Libraries
    • README.md
    

    View Slide

46. Exemplifying Caring
    

    View Slide

47. http://hood.ie/community/#contributors
    

    View Slide

48. http://hood.ie/contribute/
    

    View Slide

49. By starting to apply empathy to connect with others
    professionally, we can continue down that path to
    connect with others personally.
    

    View Slide

50. Resources
    

    View Slide

51. http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/practical-empathy/
    

    View Slide

52. http://more-empathy.online
    

    View Slide

53. Thank You
    

    View Slide