Help, I'm taking over an award-winning developer program!

Help, I’m taking over an award-winning dev rel program!

Many talks about dev rel programs focus on how to start a program from scratch. It is undoubtedly challenging to figure out where to begin, but what if you’re asked to take over an existing program? And what if this program is award-winning?

In this session, I will dive into the experience of adopting an already living community (GitHub Campus Experts) and what I did to maintain the community experience as that happened.

How do you live up to expectations? How do you gain the trust of your community? What if you feel like an imposter? This talk will cover all these topics to help you take over (new) programs with confidence. And you might not expect it, but there are actually plenty of benefits when it comes to running an existing & successful program.

This presentation will give (future) program managers tips & tricks to handle everything that comes their way with confidence.

Transcript

1. Help! I’m taking over an award winning developer program! DevRelCon London 2019 @lieke2208
2. Content • GitHub Education • GitHub Campus Experts • Taking over the program: ◦ What to focus on first ◦ The best parts • Biggest lesson • Bonus slide (this slide may or may not have dog pictures)
3. “GitHub Education helps students, teachers, and schools access the tools and events they need to shape the next generation of software development.” GitHub Education education.github.com
4. About the program “Become a GitHub Campus Expert with training from GitHub. Learn public speaking, technical writing, community leadership, and software development skills that will help you improve your campus”
6. Taking over the program!
7. OMG, but I’m not Joe!
8. Gaining trust of the community • Get involved • Get to know the members • Take time out of your calendar • Be patient
9. Picking up the program in-flight • Get involved (2x) • Read as much documentation as you can • Take time to get familiar to the processes • Be honest with your community, you’ll notice that you’ll receive a lot of help! • Keep on breathing
10. The good parts
11. The program is already working! And it’s going well! *Yaaay* • Improve the program: what are things YOU want to improve? • For example: ◦ Budget tracking ◦ Sponsorship guidelines ◦ Metrics
12. Set it up for continuous success • Create an onboarding plan • Document everything
13. Summary First things first • Gain trust of the community • Get involved Then... • Improvements • Set it up for continuous success
14. Biggest lesson
15. Don’t underestimate yourself! • There’s no need to be Joe (sorry Joe) • You bring your own expertise, skills and talent • Someone might have set up the program for success, but it needs YOU to grow, to improve and to survive
17. Thank you! @lieke2208