Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
The Art of Building Developer Tools
Search
Samuel E. Giddins
March 06, 2015
Technology
0
57
The Art of Building Developer Tools
Samuel E. Giddins
March 06, 2015
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Samuel E. Giddins
See All by Samuel E. Giddins
Funding Ruby Infrastructure as a Non-Profit
segiddins
0
7
Evolution of Rails within RubyGems.org
segiddins
0
13
The Challenges of Building a Sigstore Client from Scratch
segiddins
0
73
Keeping the Gems Sparkling
segiddins
0
51
A Survey of RubyGems CVEs
segiddins
0
47
Handling 225k requests per second to RubyGems.org
segiddins
0
80
State of the RubyGems 2023
segiddins
0
110
Building Broken Gems
segiddins
0
80
Switching Disciplines as a Tech Lead
segiddins
0
41
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
ライブサービスゲームQAのパフォーマンス検証による品質改善の取り組み
gree_tech
PRO
0
520
allow_retry と Arel.sql / allow_retry and Arel.sql
euglena1215
1
150
開発者を支える Internal Developer Portal のイマとコレカラ / To-day and To-morrow of Internal Developer Portals: Supporting Developers
aoto
PRO
1
150
ヘブンバーンズレッドのレンダリングパイプライン刷新
gree_tech
PRO
0
530
「魔法少女まどか☆マギカ Magia Exedra」の必殺技演出を徹底解剖! -キャラクターの魅力を最大限にファンに届けるためのこだわり-
gree_tech
PRO
0
530
Nstockの一人目エンジニアが 3年間かけて向き合ってきた セキュリティのこととこれから〜あれから半年〜
yo41sawada
0
200
『FailNet~やらかし共有SNS~』エレベーターピッチ
yokomachi
1
200
データアナリストからアナリティクスエンジニアになった話
hiyokko_data
2
410
エラーとアクセシビリティ
schktjm
0
930
5年目から始める Vue3 サイト改善 #frontendo
tacck
PRO
3
180
Platform開発が先行する Platform Engineeringの違和感
kintotechdev
2
190
生成AI時代のデータ基盤設計〜ペースレイヤリングで実現する高速開発と持続性〜 / Levtech Meetup_Session_2
sansan_randd
1
130
Featured
See All Featured
Agile that works and the tools we love
rasmusluckow
330
21k
Building a Modern Day E-commerce SEO Strategy
aleyda
43
7.5k
Measuring & Analyzing Core Web Vitals
bluesmoon
9
580
Docker and Python
trallard
45
3.5k
Facilitating Awesome Meetings
lara
55
6.5k
The Power of CSS Pseudo Elements
geoffreycrofte
77
5.9k
Intergalactic Javascript Robots from Outer Space
tanoku
272
27k
Chrome DevTools: State of the Union 2024 - Debugging React & Beyond
addyosmani
7
840
Thoughts on Productivity
jonyablonski
69
4.8k
Git: the NoSQL Database
bkeepers
PRO
431
66k
Principles of Awesome APIs and How to Build Them.
keavy
126
17k
Raft: Consensus for Rubyists
vanstee
140
7.1k
Transcript
The Art of Building Developer Tools
Samuel Giddins Realm
None
LLVM I couldn’t do my job without it.
None
What do these projects, and countless others, have in common?
None
Developer Tools
How we get from point A to point B. Every
day.
My Projects
None
None
None
None
Each is a different kind of tool
How can I make these things?
1. Find something that’s missing from your workflow 2. Build
it 3. Build it in such a way others can use it 4. Receive feedback 5. Ignore 70% of it 6. Have a thick skin 7. Keep on improving
Is this something I want to do?
Maybe Don’t rush into it. It’s a lot of work,
and you won’t succeed unless it’s a project that makes you happy.
Is there a real problem space here? Can someone in
my position provide a solution?
Think risk vs. reward. Think about access. Think about time.
Does my experience leave me ready to solve this problem?
—Is it general? —Is it in-depth? —Is it unavoidable?
! Great
! Great Go Forth and Build
None
Solve a small, difficult problem first. Do it better than
anyone ever has before.
Document it up the wazoo. Both header docs and ‘guides’.
Yes, you need both.
Initial traction comes easier the more focused your solution is.
Once you have an audience, start spreading out. Find the
ancillary problems, and solve them one at a time.
As your project grows, it will lose people. Not everyone
loves a monolith. So try and make sure the things you bolt on both belong and don’t take over.
On the negative side
There Will Be Issues
There Will Be Insults
There Will Be Holy Wars
everything is terrible, nothing works, people are horrible, and there
will be cool people doing awesome things on a regular basis — André Arko
Ignore All of That (If you want to)
Above All, Have Empathy
You’re asking a fellow developer to spend their most precious
resource on something you built. It’s an honor. It’s a heavy responsibility.
Conclusion
Conclusion Let’s go and build some cool stuff.
Available now on Speaker Deck. https://speakerdeck.com/segiddins/the-art-of- building-developer-tools
None
Samuel Giddins Realm @segiddins