Fast Forward: Deploying our best selves, to build the future of developer communities.

FAST FORWARD
DEPLOYING OUR BEST SELVES,
TO BUILD THE FUTURE OF DEVELOPER COMMUNITIES.
DevRelCon SF
April Sixteenth • Two-Thousand Sixteen
Tim Falls • VP, Community
Keen IO • tf@keen.io • @timfalls|
Thanks for the kind introduction. And thanks to Josh for setting the stage by catching us up with the history of developer relations, so that I can take the
baton and move forward by looking at our future.

FAST FORWARD
DEPLOYING OUR BEST SELVES,
TO BUILD THE FUTURE OF DEVELOPER COMMUNITIES BUSINESS.
DevRelCon SF
April Sixteenth • Two-Thousand Sixteen
Tim Falls • VP, Community
Keen IO • tf@keen.io • @timfalls|
…not only the future of developer communities, but the future of business.

Me?
So, I’ll start with a little bit about me, to establish some intimacy.
I like to divide life into work/play, so here are a few fun facts about me:

PLAY
Past passions:
- the sport of wrestling (for 20+yrs, through university)
- traveling non-stop, because community (still like to travel, but not non-stop)
Present passions:
yoga and meditation
pitbulls and advocacy for the breed
capes
MOVIES!
(sure I like movies, but I’m no “buﬀ;” I mostly include this to help the rest of my talk make sense😜 )

DID Y’ALL HERE ABOUT SNAPCHAT?
It’s kinda the best thing on the internet today :P

WORK
farmer
mover
manufacturer
[grad school: MBA]
Techstars
Sendgrid
Keen IO

You?
ENOUGH ABOUT ME. What about you?
Who’s title includes:
- evangelist? advocate? community?
- someone aspiring to have one of those titles
- someone looking to hire one of those people?
- who likes string cheese?
- who writes code?
- who doesn’t write code?
- who’s lives in the Bay Area?
- who ﬂew in for this?
- shout out your home city, if you think you came from the farthest place!
…Okay, now we know a little bit about each other. Let’s move on!

Storytime!
I’m gonna tell a story that starts on an airplane (imagine that, right?)
…so I was ﬂying home from London, when I realized I made a big mistake. I’d booked my 2-week wonderfully unplugged vacation in Costa Rica right on
top of this conference.
I was faced with the decision: speech or beach?
As you can see, I’m here now. (and don’t worry - that Costa Rica thing will happen in a few weeks.)
When this realization hit me, I was ﬁrst amused, then frustrated, then annoyed, and that eventually gave way to a little bit of anger (which subsided to
sadness.)
Instead of making a decision on what to do at that time, I closed the laptop, got my early-delivered special meal (#protip), and turned on the movies.

The movie I watched on that flight was The Big Short.
It tells a story based on real events about how profit/$$$, can lead to humans doing stuff that stands to hurt other people. It’s really disturbing.

By the #s:
According to the Department of Labor,
~8.7 million jobs were shed from Feb 2008 to Feb 2010,
GDP contracted by 5.1%.
Unemployment rose from 4.7% in Nov 2007 to peak at 10% in Oct of 2009.

The next week, back at home in SF, I watched another movie: The Revenant
The Big Short is a modern-day story, enabled by technology, which is obviously relatable to us - especially because most of us remember experiencing
it.
Unfortunately, these proﬁt-driven disasters have been happening for centuries.
The Revenant is also based on true events. It is a story told at the beginning of the Industrial Age. Instead of subprime loans, they were selling furs.

In 1823 , as Europeans traveled across America to kill beavers, so that rich people could have fancy fur hats. In the course of this, Native Americans were
displaced and slaughtered - literally.
Side note: this may seem much less relatable to us, but it shouldn’t, because similar things are happening today (see: tar sands in Canada)
But, I digress..

To bring my point home, let me get back to that trip to Costa Rica.
In dealing with this mistake, I had to call to and reschedule my ﬁght. As you might imagine, it wasn’t as easy and painless as I’d hoped…
I spoke with the airline representative, and quickly learned that a) they’d made a mistake and b) their mistake added another $150 fee to the $400 in
fees they were trying to charge me for changing the booking. 😕

I tried to reason with the customer service rep, but soon found myself in all too familiar situation — the person on the other end of the line suddenly
sounds like a robot. She’s repeating herself over and over. It sounds as if she’s reading from a script. No matter what I say or ask, she just says, “ I’m
sorry, sir, but…”
Corporations like the one that employed this person put structural restrictions around their employees, preventing them from being human and making
decisions and acting in the best interest of their customers. Employees have been stripped of their personal agency. The procedural limitations around
them are such that a customer service agent seems to believe (maybe they know) that they can’t truly help a customer beyond the standard operating
procedures. They can’t use their best judgment and make a decision; they can only transfer you to their supervisor who is always in a meeting. So they
resort to this roboticism (I’m coining this term, btw.)
I’m sure everyone in this room has experienced something similar - with an airline, a cell phone provider, a cable company, etc. These situations are
completely baﬄing and leave me sad and empty and questioning the future of humanity.
Luckily, there is a competing force that is much bigger…

?
We are at an amazing and important moment in time and space. The industrial age has come and gone. The Digital Revolution has begun and given
birth to the Information Age.
We are here. Meow. And in front of us is a big question mark. But we’re moving forward along that timeline, and our movement is characterized by
signiﬁcant change…

Industrial
Revolution
?

Industrial
Revolution
/—Industrial Age—/
?

Industrial
Revolution
/—Industrial Age—/
Digital
Revolution
?

Industrial
Revolution
/—Industrial Age—/ /—Information Age —/
Digital
Revolution
?

Industrial
Revolution
/—Industrial Age—/ /—Information Age —/
Digital
Revolution
😻 ?
WE ARE HERE.
MEOW.

EVIDENCE OF CHANGE…
And there is much evidence this change - both in the present and future.
For example:
1) HR Departments are “rebranding” to People Teams.

HR People
For example:

HR PeopleHR People
For example:

HR PeopleHR People
…
2) And private equity ﬁrms are beginning to focus on their investment in the people within their portfolio companies as much as the businesses
themselves.

HR PeopleHR People
Private Equity ﬁrms invest in companies
…
themselves.

HR PeopleHR People
Private Equity ﬁrms invest in companiesPrivate Equity ﬁrms invest in companies
…
themselves.

HR PeopleHR People
Private Equity ﬁrms invest in people.
…
themselves.

HR PeopleHR People
Private Equity ﬁrms invest in people.
US!
…
3) And the biggest sign of change: US — the community builders, evangelists, and advocates.
The fact that we exist is a huge and clear indication that business leaders are changing their worldview - from one that dismisses the well-being of the
people they touch (community, customers, employees), to one that has that same well-being at the forefront of its concerns. We represent companies
that believe in fostering a healthy community and that doing so is imperative to their business’s success.

This is a paradigm shift of great proportions.
And this shift creates great opportunity.
And this opportunity brings with it great responsibility.

a paradigm shift

an opportunity
a paradigm shift

an opportunity
a paradigm shift
a responsibility

an opportunity
a paradigm shift
a responsibility
BIG
^
^
^
To be sure, all of these things are BIG.

Should
Must
So, on that timeline, we stand at a crossroads. Where there are plenty of things that we could or should do, and a few things that we must do.
And I believe that WE are uniquely positioned to embrace the opportunity. And that we MUST assume some level of responsibility.

WE are uniquely positioned to embrace the
opportunity.
Should
Must

WE are uniquely positioned to embrace the
opportunity.
WE must assume some level of responsibility.
Should
Must

WHY US?
Here’s why we must help guide this movement forward - especially in its most formative stages.
- number of developer evangelists, advocates, community pros
- the powerful companies behind us, with resources of capital, technology, and inﬂuence

WHY US?
Titles*
Evangelist: 29,160
Advocate: 287,761
Community: 824,270
Developer Evangelist: 3,152
Developer Advocate: 2,044
Developer Community: 11,348
*Source: LinkedIn
Here’s why we must help guide this movement forward - especially in its most formative stages.
- number of developer evangelists, advocates, community pros
- the powerful companies behind us, with resources of capital, technology, and inﬂuence

WHY US?
16,544
1,141,191
Titles*
Evangelist: 29,160
Advocate: 287,761
Community: 824,270
Developer Evangelist: 3,152
Developer Advocate: 2,044
Developer Community: 11,348
*Source: LinkedIn
At the high end, there’s over a million of us. At the low end, almost 17 thousand of us (just on LinkedIn.)

And we have great reach! Any one of us could write an article or build a hack that gets to the front of Hacker News tomorrow. From there it could easily
go upstream to TechCrunch. And from there, it could just as quickly move to mainstream in the New York Times. And now we’re reaching millions if not
billions of people. That’s real reach, which enables real inﬂuence.

Industrial
Revolution
/Industrial Age//Information Age/
Digital
Revolution
😻
🚀
So, again, we’re at this place in time and space moving along our timeline. And we have an opportunity to steer our rocket ship in the future full of
companies who are human; companies full of people who care about the other people they work with and aﬀect; businesses that behave with empathy
and compassion toward the communities they impact.
A future where the companies that fail to cultivate healthy relationships within their community also fail to stay alive.

The rest of this talk is about how we can bring our best selves to this adventure, which will be challenging to say the least…

And to make the rest of this journey more fun, we’ll stick to our movie theme, only this time with a ﬁlm this crowd might relate to a little more than the
others I mentioned…
Enter: STAR WARS CRAWL
It is a period of transition. A shift is happening, toward a more human approach to business. We must prepare ourselves to seize this moment of
opportunity and restore freedom to the galaxy.
(watch video here: https://youtu.be/TYZEtMF1PU4)

We’re just about ready to shift into hyperdrive and take this ship forward…

ENGAGE HYPERDRIVE?
We’re just about ready to shift into hyperdrive and take this ship forward…

ALMOST. BUT FIRST…
But ﬁrst, some Jedi training…

INTROSPECTION
I ask for your participation once again, but no need to raise your hands. Just think inside your head. The following questions are meant to encourage you
to be introspective, asking yourself “why?”
Why are you here today at this conference on Saturday?
…is it because your boss asked you to be here?
…because you wanted to come learn more about your craft?
…because you think it will help you achieve some metrics to which your team has been held accountable? (eg, recruits, brand/product awareness,
signups)
…is it because you knew you’d get to see a bunch of old friends and meet new ones?
And why are you in this role? Whatever role you’re in, whatever title you have, why is that you? Why have you chosen this path at this point in your
career/life?
…is it because of chance? right place/right time? (that’s part of why I’m here, I think)
…because you were meant to be part of this movement? (also, part of why I’m here, I think)
…because you were tired of writing code every day and wanted to get out of the oﬃce more often?
…is it because you’ve always wanted to travel the world, and the military seemed like an inferior option?
…or maybe, simply, because you love to help people and feel the feeling of knowing you just made someone else’s life more enjoyable, more fun, and

INTROSPECTION
WHY’S & I’S
?
I ask for your participation once again, but no need to raise your hands. Just think inside your head. The following questions are meant to encourage you
to be introspective, asking yourself “why?”
Why are you here today at this conference on Saturday?
…is it because your boss asked you to be here?
…because you wanted to come learn more about your craft?
…because you think it will help you achieve some metrics to which your team has been held accountable? (eg, recruits, brand/product awareness,
signups)
…is it because you knew you’d get to see a bunch of old friends and meet new ones?
And why are you in this role? Whatever role you’re in, whatever title you have, why is that you? Why have you chosen this path at this point in your
career/life?
…is it because of chance? right place/right time? (that’s part of why I’m here, I think)
…because you were meant to be part of this movement? (also, part of why I’m here, I think)
…because you were tired of writing code every day and wanted to get out of the oﬃce more often?
…is it because you’ve always wanted to travel the world, and the military seemed like an inferior option?
…or maybe, simply, because you love to help people and feel the feeling of knowing you just made someone else’s life more enjoyable, more fun, and

I probably wouldn’t be too far oﬀ, if I guessed that this room’s collective answer to those Q’s encompassed all of those answers and many more.
What’s really important as we move forward: the motivations behind your answers to those questions (and others) and how close to your heart you
hold each one of those motivations.
This will inﬂuence the way you interpret the rest of my message today and the way you apply it in your life/work next Monday and going forward.

Ok, now we’re ready to kick it in to overdrive!

POV —> ACTION —> BENEFITS
Hit it, Chewie!

Of course, we’ll need some lightsaber crystals (and maybe a dependable droid) by our side. These crystals: a set of tools to help us navigate the
unknown universe of tomorrow’s corporate world.
My 3 lightsaber crystals for you, on your journey…

"The crystal is not, by itself, the power
source of the weapon.
…for a Jedi, the lightsaber becomes more: it
is a manifestation of a Jedi's connection to
the Force."
Of course, we’ll need some lightsaber crystals (and maybe a dependable droid) by our side. These crystals: a set of tools to help us navigate the
unknown universe of tomorrow’s corporate world.
My 3 lightsaber crystals for you, on your journey…

1
Your ﬁrst crystal:
Eﬀective communication
Without a doubt, we need to be better at expressing what we do and why we do it.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
1
Your ﬁrst crystal:
Eﬀective communication
Without a doubt, we need to be better at expressing what we do and why we do it.

Eﬀective communication must be mastered in both one to one environments … and one to many.

Eﬀective communication must be a two-way road:
- it’s not only about how you communicate to others, but also how you receive and interpret signals from others
- eg, avoiding pitfalls: cognitive distortions (i.e., jumping to illogical conclusions, in the absence of context)

Quantitative
7%
8%
10%
11%
29%
35%
Additionally, eﬀective communication must speak to multiple audiences in diﬀerent ways:
1) It must be quantitative, so that those who speak the language of numbers can understand

Qualitative
…
2) It must also be qualitative, so that those who prefer the language of anecdotes can reach a point of understanding.

Tell a story with both numbers and words. Get creative, and achieve a balance - formulate your communication based on an understanding of your
audience.
They goal is to communicate so well to others, that they can eﬀectively re-communicate it to their an audience of their own.

E.G., ESTABLISH FILTERS
Example: at Keen, our sales team asked, “How do we approach sales in a community-minded way?”
Instead of trying to tell them how to do their jobs, we encouraged them to apply the ﬁlters of Humanness, Helpfulness, and Honesty (truth
+transparency) to all of their communications/interactions with prospects and customers.

E.G., ESTABLISH FILTERS
Human
Helpful
Honest (transparent)
Example: at Keen, our sales team asked, “How do we approach sales in a community-minded way?”
Instead of trying to tell them how to do their jobs, we encouraged them to apply the ﬁlters of Humanness, Helpfulness, and Honesty (truth
+transparency) to all of their communications/interactions with prospects and customers.

2
Your second crystal:
Participation & Inclusion

PARTICIPATION:
ENCOURAGE & ENABLE IT!
INCLUSION:
ENSURE IT!
2
Your second crystal:

PARTICIPATION
Participation is about involving in community efforts your coworkers — namely those who are not on the evangelist/advocate/community team.
This tactic strongly complements effective communication, by facilitating the first-hand experience of community-building. This experience is perhaps
the best way for someone to fully understand what you do and why you do it.

E.G., PARTICIPATION
AFTER DARK WITH KEEN IO
EXPLORATORIUM
Example: Keen IO night at the Exploratorium.
We took ~100 community members to a science museum in SF. With only 3 community team members in town, we need to enlist other Keenies to
participate and engage with our guests. 15-20 employees came out and did just that. And they experienced for themselves, what we do and why we do
it.

INCLUSION
Inclusion (for the purposes of this conversation) is about ensuring involvement from all walks of life within your community.
- this a necessary/critical part of the shift
- it’s happening throughout society, slowly but surely
- we must blaze the trail forward and set an example for the business world
- right now, our industry is not doing so hot in this category, but we can
In order for healthy inclusion to be the norm, we must be mindful and put forth a real, conscious eﬀort. It will require lots of self-awareness, mindfulness,
and intentional, deliberate behavioral adjustments.

E.G., INCLUSION
“First SV talk I've attended with an all female
panel where the topic isn't women about
women in tech #datainformed #babysteps”
Because talking the talk isn’t enough, I wanted to show an example of the walk being walked:
This is from a meetup at Keen IO HQ in SF. SJ, from our community team, is very diligent and intentional in ensuring that women are included in our
events. Though she didn’t try to make this panel an all-women panel, it turned out that way. And this is a quote from from one of the attendees of that
meetup.

3
Your third crystal:
Begin within yourself.
This might strike you as a selfish thing, especially since our position (and thus our tendency) is one of selflessness. But, it’s not.
In order to go out be a shining, positive light in the world, we must first focus on being our best and most nourished selves. We can’t do our job -
helping others - if we haven’t first helped ourselves.

BEGIN WITHIN
3
Your third crystal:
Begin within yourself.
This might strike you as a selfish thing, especially since our position (and thus our tendency) is one of selflessness. But, it’s not.
In order to go out be a shining, positive light in the world, we must first focus on being our best and most nourished selves. We can’t do our job -
helping others - if we haven’t first helped ourselves.

Our self-care must focus equally on both physical well-being and mental hygiene. We often forget both, but as a society we much more neglect the
latter (mental hygiene.)

physical well-being

physical well-being
+
mental hygiene

Let’s face it, we can be a woeful bunch 🙄 I’m guilty as much as the next person, and we are such with good reason.
But, there’s a Tibetan Buddhist philosophy that could be useful for us in these times of self-pity, and goes something like this:
Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.
eg, the pain of traveling 75% of the time sometimes just comes with the territory, but the amount of time/energy we spend suffering from that is up to
us — we can reframe our suffering from the weekend we worked or our lack of sleep; we can plan differently (eg, always non-stop if possible/no
layovers; saying NO to the opportunity to which you just “can’t” say NO, and/or simply not dwelling on it and instead focusing on the amazingness that
came along in balance with that pain.

pain is inevitable

suﬀering is optional
pain is inevitable

Humans are capable of being self-aware, which gives us the capacity to be introspective, which (when practiced) leads us to be more mindful of our
presence and impact on the world around us. This is a magical set of super powers, which we should recognize and employ in the best, most positive
ways possible.

Self-awareness
ways possible.

Self-awareness
👇
Introspection
ways possible.

Self-awareness
👇
Mindfulness
👇
Introspection
ways possible.

Introspection Happy Hour
Self-care can happen through community, too:
Introspection doesn’t have to happen in a room by yourself; it can happen within a communal environment (eg, in the oﬃce)
Example: Introspection Happy Hour — we do this at Keen every Thursday afternoon - at the oﬃce for our SF team, and on a Google Hangout for all our
remote folks. We break into small groups and share our feelings and emotions with each other. Wanna try it? Come on by and experience this with us!

We are human.
(Know it. Believe it.)

We are human.
Humans are capable of so much.
(Even shaping the future of business)

Some say,
our potential is without limit.
We are human.
Humans are capable of so much.
(Even shaping the future of business)

Remind you of anyone? 😉
Recognize it, then do everything you can to realize it.

We have been chosen by our companies/employers/teams to represent the humanness behind the businesses.
With suﬃcient self-care, self-discovery, and self-actualization, we can become the best version of ourselves. Only by being our best selves can we go out
into the world and spread the positive energy we mean to share. And only with that positive energy can we be maximally eﬀective in playing our role in
the business’s success.
Isn’t it amazing and aren’t we privileged for this reality? That the better we treat ourselves, the better we’ll be at our jobs, and the more successful our
companies will be today/tomorrow.

/Information Age/
Digital
Revolution
😻
🌌
To recap the ﬂight path for this impending journey into our future:
- A movement is happening, and we’re part of it.
- The opportunity to guide this change is immense, as is the importance of its guided direction
- WE are uniquely well-positioned to seize this opportunity and help shape the future of business.
As seen in the history of developer relations, we embarked upon this path a long time ago. We know that it’s a path of empathy and compassion and
care for the people and communities we touch. We know that it’s much diﬀerent than the path that far too many modern corporations are following:
that which dismisses, neglects, and even harms the communities they touch and the lives they impact.

/Information Age/
Digital
Revolution
😻
🚀
🌌
To recap the ﬂight path for this impending journey into our future:
- A movement is happening, and we’re part of it.
- The opportunity to guide this change is immense, as is the importance of its guided direction
- WE are uniquely well-positioned to seize this opportunity and help shape the future of business.
As seen in the history of developer relations, we embarked upon this path a long time ago. We know that it’s a path of empathy and compassion and
care for the people and communities we touch. We know that it’s much diﬀerent than the path that far too many modern corporations are following:
that which dismisses, neglects, and even harms the communities they touch and the lives they impact.

In order to seize this opportunity and take on this responsibility and create the future we wish for ourselves and others, we must use our power crystals.
These three are only a start; we’ll need powers down the road…

1
Eﬀective Communication

1
2

3
Begin Within
1
2

HUMAN companies
The resulting beneﬁts:

HUMAN companies
HEALTHY workplaces

HUMAN companies
HEALTHY workplaces
HAPPY people

The resulting beneﬁts (cont’d):

Sustainable success

Sustainable success
Fulﬁlling lives/careers

Sustainable success
Fulﬁlling lives/careers
Balanced societies

If that’s not enough, we’ll have a dance party with Ewoks in the treetops!

Credits where credits are due:

LET’S DISCUSS!
@TimFalls (on all the things)
tf@keen.io
timfalls.community

Bonus notes:
What is your meditation?
- it’s about training your brain. exercising your mind, practicing.
- throughout our lives, we’ve developed certain neural pathways in our brains - they (subconsciously) determine how we view people, how we react to
triggers/situations, etc
Over time, you can form new pathways, through conscious efforts. Being intentional with this practice/training will lead you to be a better version of
yourself, allowing you to go out and be a more positive energy in the world, thus positively affecting those around you.
In a job like ours, where we’re meant to go out and help others. Doesn’t it just make sense that we prepare ourselves to do that by helping ourselves
first?
We have a job that is largely characterized by selflessness. We want to do the best by them; and in order to do so, we must do best by ourselves first…

Fast Forward: Deploying our best selves, to build the future of developer communities.

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