Building an Innovation Community

Ideas on how a small group of committed technical folks can build a startup community around them. Presented Saturday, April 4th 2015 in Iowa City.

2. Building an Innovation
 Community Jeff Casimir / @j3 / turing.io
4. Take a Moment
6. Self-Actualization
7. Who do you want to be
   when you grow up?
8. Where do you want to live?
9. What do you want to
 be a part of?
11. The Long Game
12. Most valuable asset?
13. Is it thejob market?
14. Is it thecapital?
15. Is it thebusiness success?
16. Delete them all.
17. It’s the people.
18. Innovation happens
 when you mix
 developers & designers.
19. Forming a 
 culture of collaboration
21. You can too.
23. Becoming a Developer
24. “DO IT BY MY OWN!”
25. I loved video games.
26. I really loved hardware.
27. I knew hardware
    was made by nerds like me.
28. If they could do it,
    I could do it.
29. Step one of becoming
    the person I wanted to be.
30. • Ignition • Deep Practice • Master Coaching
32. Ignition
34. What’s possible
35. Someone you can
    identify with
36. Someone you can
    aspire to become
37. This is why
    diverse voices matter.
40. Ignition is about belief
41. Imitate then innovate
42. Who can be the example?
43. • Meetups • Hack Nights • One-Day Workshops • K-12 Outreach • Brown Bag Lunches
45. Deep Practice
47. “Five Years Experience”
48. Deep practice is not busy.
49. Deep practice is not tiring.
50. Deep practice is difficult.
51. Deep practice pushes limits.
52. You tell your friends about it.
53. Deep practice builds
    scar tissue.
54. It takes 1200 hours to 
 become a developer.
55. • Algorithms • Data Structures • Domain-Specific Challenges • Collaboration • Refactoring
56. But deep practice is
 more than doing the work.
58. Coaching & Feedback
59. 75% Instructive
60. Feedback is purposeful.
61. Your code uses poor naming. specific Your variables should be snake_cased.
62. The ad needs more “pop”. measurable The ad needs to be 
 readable at 1000 feet 
 when printed 12’x12’.
63. This class mixes multiple concerns. actionable Responsibilities need to be 
 extracted into components.
64. Your Backbone app is slow. 
 Rewrite it with Angular. realistic Your app is slow. 
 Add monitoring to find out why.
65. The code you wrote last week
 needs refactoring. timely Your exercise from this morning
 should be refactored.
66. • Specific • Measurable • Actionable • Realistic • Timely
68. Culture of Coaching
69. Igniting 100 people 
 feels great.
70. Coaching 3 people
 changes lives.
71. You put in just
 four hours per week.
72. They put in
 four hours per day.
73. You have three developers
 in a year.
74. But coaches don’t need to be experts.
75. Apprentices can coach after just 300 hours / 10 weeks.
76. Each apprentice can practice through coaching three others.
77. This force-multiplier leads to 40 apprentices in 20 weeks.
78. And over 100 developers in 16 months.
79. Coaching 3 people
 changes lives.
80. Coaching 3 people
 changes communities.
81. Is that who you want to be?
82. Is that where you want to live?
84. In Action
87. turing.io
88. github.com/turingschool
89. “If you can do the job,
 then you should get the job.”
90. TechHire
91. Building an Innovation
 Community Jeff Casimir / @j3 / turing.io Ignition Practice Coaching