unicorns metrics and hotsauce - lessons about evangelism from the yahoo! developer network

Unicorns, Metrics and Hot SauceTom Hughes-Croucher

2010 Developer Relations Conference

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Yahoo! Developer Network

• 2 years

• Technical Evangelist

Speaking

• May/June 3 continents 4

countries

• Spoke at least 3 times/month

in 2009

Who

Meeting developers on their home turf

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• Short YDN Update

• Unicorns

• Metrics

• Hot Sauces

• Key Take Aways

Overview

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A Very tiny YDN Update

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Yahoo Developer Network (YDN)

• Open Source

• Developer Tools

• Data Services

Yahoo! Open Strategy (YOS)

Open Strategy :: Applied

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• YUI

• Hadoop

• Traffic Server

• Apache

• PHP

• Perl

• MySQL

YDN :: Open Source

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• YSlow

• Pipes

• Blueprint Mobile Widgets

YDN :: Developer Tools

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• YQL

• Address Book

• Flickr

YDN :: Data Services

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YOS :: Technology Stack

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• SQL-like syntax

• Allows you to query (SELECT), filter

(WHERE) and join (IN) data across

WebServices.

• Self Describing - SHOW, DESC table

• Public / Private Data

• Bindings for many YDN APIs

• Can query external structured data (USE)

• http://developer.yahoo.com/yql

Yahoo! Query Language (YQL) - SELECT * FROM internet

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Unicorns

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Developer Mindset

• Developers have their own sub-culture• This doesn’t mean you have associate

your brand with it• Understanding “memes” allows you to

communicate better

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Pitch what people are interested in

• Do I sell:– “An overview of Yahoo YQL Javascript” or – “Apps from Space!!!11!”

• Not all memes are funny– In 2009 anything related to HTML5 was hot– iPad v. Adobe makes HTML5 hotter– Cloud Computing, Mobile, etc

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Most talked about slide in “Apps from Space!!!11!!!”

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Task List for Unicorns

1. Is this a topic developer care about directly?

2. If not, can I align it with a topic developers

care about?

3. Have I communicated this in a way

developers can get excited about it?

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Developers Are Smart

• They certainly think they are smarter than Joe Six-pack (and probably are)

• They might think they are smarter than you (if they aren’t don’t let it show)

• Developers pride themselves on their smarts

• That means they are trying to catch you out

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Developers can smell a rat

• Ego-less is important• Sell your message authentically

– Do stuff yourself– Don’t pitch things “made by my colleague” if

you can’t talk about them• Don’t be afraid that you are selling• Don’t be confused about your gift of value

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Metrics

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Measurement Myths

• “You can’t measure Developer Evangelism it’s not a science”

• “You can’t measure the impact of marketing”

• “We don’t know how developers feel about us”

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Choose the right proxies

• Developer sentiment• Social networks

• Developers talk to their friends• They talk in public

• Online stuff is fairly easy to measure• Page Views• SDK Downloads• API Usage

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Social Networks

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Which social networks?

• Thought leadership• Proggit (Reddit Programming)• Hacker News

• Broad sweep• Twitter• Digg• Facebook

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Pitfalls

• Not all developers are created equal• Web developers more social• Application/Backend developers less

social• “Neutral” metrics are better

• Metrics you can affect leads to ‘chasing KPIs’

• Your only affect on social networks is your out-reach

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Continuous Improvement

• Use metrics to• Identify your best engagement topics• Best external partners• Best times of day/week to post content• Best places to meet your audience• Effectiveness on bottom line of outreach

• E.g. 100 tweets = 3 API signups

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Hot Sauce

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Par it down

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Par it down

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Yahoo is HUGE

• You can sell the kitchen sink, or:• You can sell to needs• Even if you have the kitchen sink

• Once people buy your brand then you can quit selling and just supply

• Selling against needs is a clearer message which builds brand

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Find your Hot Sauce

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• YQL allows access to all of my APIs

• YQL integrates with my interface toolkit YUI

• YQL integrates with everyone else’s interface

toolkits

• jQuery, Dojo, Ruby on Rails, etc

• YQL has an amazing demo

• “If YQL is so great maybe YDN have other

great stuff”

• Use your hot sauce to start cross selling

• Use it to build your brand

YQL is my hot sauce

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YQL is my hot sauce

Brand Build

Cross sell

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Don’t sell everything sell what’s important

• Pick your top hand full of products• Create a name for those• Make sure they are critical to developers• Make it easy for developers to self-serve

other 2nd-tier products

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Key Take Aways

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• Developers have their own culture. Respect that.

• Measure everything. Keep only what works.

• Identify your best products and make your own hot sauce

Take Aways

Thank YouQuestions?

croucher@yahoo-inc.com