Building a Site for your

Developer Community

Lauren Cooney

GPM, Web Platform & Standards

Microsoft

lcooney@microsoft.com

www.twitter.com/lcooney

Who Am I?

Not Evil- Microsoft (Web Platform & Standards, Developer Division)- IBM (Apache Geronimo; Info Management CTO Office)- BEA Systems (dev2dev)- Apache Foundation- Eclipse- CodePlex Foundation- Advisory Board, Web2Expo SF

Porter’s 5 Forces?

Cooney’s 5 Forces of Site Community

Dev Community Website

Customer

Clarity

ContentConversation

Connect

#1: Clarity

Why am I building this website? What are my Top Level Goals?

Questions to ask:• What need am I

addressing?• Does my company

already have a site that addresses these needs?

• What results do I want to see?

• How am I going to achieve these goals?

• What does success look like?

#2: Customer

Who is my Target Audience?

Address:• Who is the target

audience?• Is there another

community out there that fits these needs (competitor/partner?)

• Do I partner or do I create my own community?

• What is my differentiator & how do I create that (is there one of value)?

Who is Your Customer?• Customers are different than “target audience.”

• Figuring out your site customer involves segmenting the target audience

• Both of these audiences require different types of content and different types of websites and communication mechanisms

How do I Segment my Audience?Less is More:Tips and Tactics (on the cheap)• Look at competitor sites.

• Data is available on lots of different websites for free or a fraction of the cost of analyst reports/DevTrackers

• Scouring public blogs, wikis, research sites

• Sometimes analysts offer up free reports

•Talking to people in the industry

#3: Content

Content: At the Core of WebsitesWhy Content is so Important:• Content is KING

• Good content is absolutely critical; poor content means you’ll lose customers (no repeat visitors)

• Helps new users or current customers learn about news, new products & information critical

• Important in helping customers build out their skill set

• Core way to get developers plugged in/bought in.

What Content is Good?

What is Good Content?• Less is More (Good Content v Bad Content)

• Developer websites need code

• Interactive content is good (but keep it short & to the point)

• Short Videos• Learning tutorials• Demos• Step by step articles/how to• Interviews with the experts• Blogs• Syndication

How to Get Good Content

Tips & Tricks (on the cheap):• Have a volunteer Editor• Ensure you have company buy-in; ask engineers/product managers to contribute• Ask the community to contribute• Syndication deals• Search for good bloggers

How do I ensure it’s good?• Commenting• Rating ability• Provide editor’s email address (be accessible)

Once You Get the Content

Information Architecture is Critical

#4 Community

Characteristics of Great Community Sites

• Great mechanisms for conversation• Allow for feedback & bi-directional conversations• Employees listen & react• Voting/commenting/rating abilities• Clean UI/easy to use• User Contribution is high • Useful information & code samples

Trying to On Ramp To Our Stuff – Where Do You Start?

How do I onboard the community?

How do I Start to get Noticed?Real World Example (www.microsoft.com/web)

SEO SEO SEO Microsoft SEO Toolkit

Works on bothWindows & Linux Sites!

www.microsoft.com/web/downloads

#5: Connect

ListenListenCritical to have an outlet for community and customers to provide feedback & ask questions

• Newsgroups• Comments sections• Phone number• Email aliases• A real Person

Respond

• People & communities want answers to their questions & comments.

• Provide access to real people

• Increases customer relationship & stickiness to community

• Respond in public if possible; likely other community members have the same questions

Audience Connection Methods

• Pick your methods of communication

• Ensure it scales• Make it easy to

remember/access/push method: user names, links, RSS, ATOM

• Commitment • Be Patient

Provide Personalities• Provide Interesting

Facts/Tidbits/ Information

• What are you doing? • Be polite and

respectful• Take time to

respond• Be relevant; be

credible• HAVE PASSION!

Core Takeaways

Dev Community

Website

Questions?

Lauren Cooney Web Platform & Standards, Microsoft

Follow me on Twitter: @lcooneyEmail me: lcooney@microsoft.com

Thank You!