1.
@clairegiordano
WHY
DEVELOPERS
NEED MARKETING,
NOW MORE THAN EVER
Claire Giordano
@clairegiordano @citusdata @microsoft

2.
@clairegiordano
CONUNDRUMIn creating
this talk, I ran
into a
conundrum
@clairegiordano

3.
@clairegiordano
If developers really
need marketing,
why disparage
marketing so
much?
@clairegiordano

4.
@clairegiordano
It’s 2019 & we all support Diversity & Inclusion. Right?
@clairegiordano

5.
@clairegiordano
EXCEPT
NOT FOR
MARKETING
@clairegiordano

6.
@clairegiordano
Why doesn’t
inclusiveness apply
to marketers?
@clairegiordano

7.
@clairegiordano
Why doesn’t
inclusiveness apply
to marketers?
Is it OK that it
doesn’t?
@clairegiordano

8.
@clairegiordano
Developer > Engineering Manager
Product Manager > Product MarketerHi, I’m Claire—and I’m a
Principal PM Manager
at Microsoft, by way of the
recent Citus Data acquisition,
where I was VP of Marketing.
@clairegiordano @citusdata @microsoft
Sun Microsystems
Citus Data > Microsoft
Applied Math / Computer Science

9.
@clairegiordano
@clairegiordano
I ran across this tweet from
Matt Asay before I submitted
my talk proposal to Gluecon,
and it reinforced the need to
have this conversation.

10.
@clairegiordano
“ We live in an Internet age, which means we
live in an age mostly built by engineers-
ergo, we live in a very engineer-centric
world.
And what engineers love to tell us is that
marketing shouldn’t matter. Only the
product should matter. If you need
marketing, that’s only because you haven’t
designed the product well enough.
This is what we call “Window dressing
marketing”. Marketing as an appendage.
Marketing as an afterthought. Marketing
that doesn’t matter, in other words.
And that’s what most marketing is. And
most of it is quite rightly ignored.
I don’t know about you, but we can’t afford
to have marketing that’s ignored. Our
marketing has to matter. Our marketing has
to get people to care, or else we're out of
business.Source: Gapingvoid Creative Design Group
The day after I submitted my Gluecon talk proposal,
this Gapingvoid newsletter landed in my inbox.
Further reinforcing the need to talk about this.

11.
@clairegiordano
In researching this talk, I discovered this 2018 Velocity NYC keynote by
Michael Bernstein. Turns out lots of us are having the same conversation!
@clairegiordano

12.
@clairegiordano
People form “Tribes” around shared interests

13.
@clairegiordano
If we’re not careful, tribes can also build walls
between groups // Who does that hurt?

14.
@clairegiordano
Have you ever
sworn at the
complete & total
stupidity of the
driver next to
you?
@clairegiordano

15.
@clairegiordano
@Clairegiordano
?
@clairegiordano

16.
@clairegiordano
@Clairegiordano
1
1. Is there a bias against
marketing?
2. Are there lessons for
us in sailboat racing?
3. Why do we
(developers) really
need marketing?
@clairegiordano

17.
@clairegiordano
DO DEVELOPERS
HATE MARKETING?
qYES
qNO
@clairegiordano

18.
@clairegiordano
DO DEVELOPERS
HATE THESE THINGS?
qYES
qNO
blogs documentation
video how-to’s
t-shirts
stickers?
conferences
downloads
reddit
stackoverflow
google search@clairegiordano

19.
@clairegiordano
MAYBE DEVELOPERS
HATE BADMARKETING?
qYES
qNO
@clairegiordano

20.
@clairegiordano
Sign up for our newsletter and
we'll send you a great set of
content each month, no spam,
no marketing, just interesting
content.
“
qYES
qNO
@clairegiordano
Does the question above promulgate bias against marketing?
Does this question implicitly equate marketing with spam?

21.
@clairegiordano
“BUT THEY’RE
NOT TECHNICAL”
@clairegiordano
There’s been a lot of conversation the last 6
months about “gatekeeping” and keeping
people (including marketing folks) from
having a seat at the table. Who gets hurt by
this? Do our users pay the price?

22.
@clairegiordano
@clairegiordano

23.
@clairegiordano
@clairegiordano

24.
@clairegiordano

25.
@clairegiordano
Have you ever
anonymized the work of
an individual by referring
to them as a group? E.g.
“I can’t believe what
marketing said…”
@clairegiordano
It’s a lot easier to build walls and to devalue the work of other
teams when you don’t think of the other teams as individuals
but rather as amorphous groups, like “marketing.”

26.
@clairegiordano
@Clairegiordano
1. Is there a bias against
marketing?
2. Are there lessons for
us in sailboat racing?
3. Why do we
(developers) really
need marketing?
2
@clairegiordano

27.
@clairegiordano
12-year-old-me says
thank you to
designers of this
beautiful
Sunfish.
Source: www.laserperformance.us @clairegiordano

28.
@clairegiordano
I think we have something to learn
from these sailboat racers.

29.
@clairegiordano
Skipper (or Helmsman, or Driver), and Bowman, and Main Trimmer, and Trimmer for Jib and Spinnaker:
all have an important role to play. The team communication & collaboration wins or loses the race. There
is no room in a winning boat for walls, divides, and disparagement.

30.
@clairegiordano

31.
@clairegiordano

32.
@clairegiordano
When you race sailboats, every role matters

33.
@clairegiordano
@Clairegiordano
1. Is there a bias against
marketing?
2. Are there lessons for
us in sailboat racing?
3. Why do we
(developers) really
need marketing?
3
@clairegiordano

34.
@clairegiordano
If you build it, they will
NOTcome
@clairegiordano
Apologies to the movie Field of Dreams, but
build it, and they will NOT come. There is real
work to tell the story about how you can help
users—and to help users to discover your
offering.

35.
@clairegiordano
“MARKETING IS
MORE IMPORTANT THAN CODE IN THE
ADOPTION OF SOFTWARE.”
—Michael Bernstein, Velocity NYC 2018
@clairegiordano
This is the bold claim made by Michael in his Velocity NYC keynote. Is it true? I do
love the quote. But based on the sailing example, marketing & product &
engineering & docs all need to be in the boat together.

36.
@clairegiordano
People whose
preferred
programming
language is
English
bring you
the power
of persuasion
HT Dormain Drewitz, Monktoberfest 2018
@clairegiordano

37.
@clairegiordano
A positive 1st
impression on
website colors your
users’ experience
that comes after…
@clairegiordano

38.
@clairegiordano
Good product
marketers bring a
ton of empathy to
the table
Source: Gapingvoid Creative Design Group
@clairegiordano

39.
@clairegiordano
@clairegiordano
Documentation is one of the BEST forms of marketing. Here is a screenshot from Heroku’s
Dev Center, known for their developer-friendly documentation.

40.
@clairegiordano
Database constraints
in Postgres: The last
line of defense
Data has a certain gravity and inertia. Once it’s stored
it’s not likely to be actively moved or frequently
modified. At least not for your one source of truth.
Protecting that data and ensuring it’s both safely stored
but also correct is worth the time investment because of
the value it has.
Going further, your database schema and models are
going to change far less than your application code.
Because it changes less frequently the case
By Will Leinweber
➜ CITUSDATA.COM/BLOG
READ OUR
BLOGS?

41.
@clairegiordano
Can I use math to persuade you
that it’s worth
welcoming marketing
into your boat?
@clairegiordano

42.
@clairegiordano
1.01365 = 37.8
0.99365 = 0.03
Source: https://tomtunguz.com/1-01365-37-7/ @clairegiordano
Love this blog post from Tomasz Tunguz (Redpoint) about the impact of getting 1% better
every day (or declining by 1% every day.) What if you all embraced your need for marketing
every day over the next year?

43.
@clairegiordano
Thank You
@clairegiordano
@citusdata @microsoft