Jennifer Marsman, developer Evangelist at Microsoft

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If you like this episode and are planning an internal hackathon (or thinking about sponsoring one) - work with me!


Shownotes!

  • Brief overview of your background

    • started on the product team

    • was a software dev just out of college

    • 5 years wanted to move back to Michigan with husband (to raise kids where they are from :)

  • Brief overview of your product

    • windows phone / windows OS

    • Azure - cloud computing solution

    • Microsoft Mobile Services

      • It is BaaS (backend as a service) supports Windows and Linux

      • databases - supports hadoob, mongodb, mysql, etc

      • languages - python, java, ruby, node.js, etc

    • Bizspark for startups

      • you get free credits (for startups only, no consultants!!)

      • get access to whole suite of software licenses for microsoft products  

  • What does a dev evangelist do?

    • get paid to play with tech

    • opportunities include speaking at conferences, going to user groups, blogging, tweeting, etc

    • Take feedback from front lines (even if it’s bad) and bring back to product team

      • MSFT does this through connect.microsoft.com

      • best if a dev evangelist can get feedback ASAP

    • it’s great to make the product dev cycle more effective if not faster

      • concrete example - Azure Active Directory had a code snippet (online sample) which wasn’t working correctly - when Jen and the team found and corrected the issue

    • Organize cool events -

      • brought a high decision maker for visual studio on a multi-state road show (“product team tour”)

      • Jen learned that 2 weeks is too long, 1 week is a better duration to shoot for

      • 3 meetings per day, and a user group at night

  • Work style of a dev evangelist

  • How long have you been running your Dev Evangelism program

  • What is an API or product (not your own) that you love?

  • What is your favorite hackathon format?  

    • Competitive - pitch for big prizes (Salesforce, Disrupt, AT&T)

    • Collaborative - science fair expos, finalists demo (MLH)

    • Themed - (Space Apps)

    • All formats have their place - it’s important that there is an option for every developer

    • Interesting to explore serious issues (civic, etc) with technology but also the ones that are just plain fun (like Comedy Hack day) have their place

  • Detroit tech scene -

  • Tell me about a great event you’ve been to in the past year

  • Throw a hackathon vs sponsor one - Which choice is better for a company who wants to get involved?

    • A major tenet of evangelism is meet people where they are, so you should sponsor first …

    • You’re out of your tree if you want to throw a hackathon before having been to a few

    • (John helps hackathons with organization/sponsors - hit me up!)

    • It makes sense to throw your hackathon if it has a theme

  • Do you think hackathons will play a role in the future of education?

    • Going to hackathons really helps your career!

    • Technical screening - Jen has asked “what is the hardest problem you’ve had to solve?” - she hears the same answer over and over (taken from CS term projects) - when a hackathon goer talks about something they’ve built they immediately stand out

    • Dave and others have started businesses and gotten jobs at hackathons

  • Where do the you see the dev evangelism scene evolving to?

    • There is a split between wide reach and deep reach evangelists (‘consumer” vs “enterprise”)

    • MSFT would like to expand their Student and Startup programs

    • Getting an email from someone you’ve helped is the greatest feeling in the world

    • Many big projects inside of companies are bottom-up, begin as hacks - having a wide awareness of your service makes it more likley that your software gets ‘locked in’ at an enterprise level

  • Anything (product, API, idea) you want to plug?

  • Is there anything I forgot to ask that I should have?