Being a developer can be a tough job. A developer will often be an expert at one or more languages, and process driven. Development often a world seen as a black box to the rest of the world. Work goes in, developers do something with it, and a fully working websites /app comes out the other end.

In my first job as a designer / developer one of the first pieces of wisdom I was given is that there are three basic types of person in terms of the web:

The Creative’s / Technical

The Creative’s can produce anything, ranging from graphics to enterprise applications. These types of people, due to their skills often find it hard to communicate ideas at a high level.

The Sellers / Organisers / Promoters

These types of people can sell, they can organise, and they can communicate. Where they fall down is the often lack of technical or design knowledge.

The In-between

This is the most treasured type of person in a company. They understand both the technical and the communication. They act as a bridge between the two sides.

Now as a developer I would say it my personal aim to be the third type. If you can convey complex ideas in a simple manner, and develop ideas to an end product, the world really is your oyster. Below are a few areas in which I think all developers, including myself, sometimes struggle.

Language

Development is complex. It has its own set of terms, phrases and notions of how things work. The development lingo, although completely understandable to a developer is completely alien to most. Take the following paragraph:

We’d use flash mixed with papervision and AMF / CakePHP to provide the data source. Of course this might cause speed issues so we would develop some caching techniques. I saw this prototype on a blog, its not great but I think by refactoring it we could do it.

In comparison to:

It would provide a great user experience. We could make it dynamic so that you can update your products from an admin panel. I have some examples of similar ideas if you would like to see them.

The information the first provides is correct but far too complex. The audience do not want to know how it is done in terms of technology; they want to know what the end product will be and why they should do it. The latter paragraph provides the same basic information but in a language that the non-developers can absorb. They know it can be done, that they can update it easily and that you can show them some decent examples to really push home the sell.

If the audience want to know more they can ask, but if they get overloaded with information it becomes difficult to focus on what you are trying to say.

Understanding

What developers often lack is the understanding of the other areas that surround the development department in the studio. Commonly these consist of three areas: sales, account managers and graphic design

Sales and account managers

Sales and account managers work mainly with the customer. Sales develop an lead or enquiry into business for the company. Once the job is in account managers they proceed to liaise with the client to ensure it runs smoothly…

Graphic Design

Ok, so they are the arty, “I use a Mac and drink frappacino’s” type people apparently. Designers come in all forms truth be told. They want it to look right, to be interesting to the eye, to work with the sites goals and get you there, simply to make an impression. Of course copy helps as well.

Both types are very different people with similar end goals that serve, like a developer, to do the best job they can for their company and client.

In my opinion it is vital that any developer has a fundamental understanding of other departments, processes, and goals that surround them. For myself, this entails reading articles on all manner of subjects like marketing, psychology and design trends. By having a better knowledge a developer can become an asset to other departments.

One of the most successful methods of spreading information that I have found is a weekly digest of “links of interest”.

The list is split into different areas and allows them to pick and choose what they want to read about. Each link is provided with a short sentence of too about why to read it, using the type of language mentioned earlier.

Getting your new skills noticed.

Reading blogs and discovering open source projects to play with, I often get excited and ramble on to anyone who will listen how great this technology could be and how I cant wait to use it. To demonstrate the technology I try to make small prototypes of any new technology I can find. They don’t have to be complicated but perhaps tied into a sellable idea.

Summary

In Summary there are many ways to increase your presence within your workplace. Here are a few that I tend to use:

• Learn what your co-workers do
• Consider your language, and what they want to hear
• Promote new technologies with examples and potential uses.
• Distribute useful information, not just technical stuff.

Well I hope this is useful. It covers some of the subjects I talked about during my picnic @ bamboojuice.

Tags: bamboojuice, career development, ideas, workflow