Random Observation/Comment #635: Tis the season to be coding!

Reaching 1 Million Devs

Reaching 1 million developers for any platform requires two steps: (1) clear motivations and understanding of the new economics for virality and (2) low friction for getting started to gain platform stickiness.

The first layer of growing attention may be pushed forward by incentive multipliers (e.g. recommendations) for sharing and exposure for additional rewards. In many ways, it’s like the new version of politics and media — it requires media companies to cover interesting stories to form an avalanche of attention. Take advantage of a community’s influencers and highlight the availability of a new market of opportunity.

However, who hasn’t heard of blockchain or Ethereum? Coindesk, Forbes, and Sub reddits cover this enough. Based on the hype cycle, the second layer is much more important.

In the second layer, we understand that developer learning is an investment and therefore requires commitment, intuitive tools, and an awesome/open community. We join groups that motivate us and help us with our journey. The gym membership model needs trainers, special passes, self-staking on progress, and workout friends. The real developers we want of quality are a tide that lifts all boats rather than a competitor dividing up a market. A common vision towards decentralization…

Why this list?

In general, major coding platforms and frameworks that gain adoption and common usage involve (1) motivations for individuals/devs to learn the tools/languages, and (2) companies to take the chance and apply their ideas to their market. The process of brainstorming for this list was based on different personas and ecosystem players.

A. I am a curious developer that stays recent on my skills and looks for new opportunities (e.g. pivot to big data, noSQL, graphQL, mobile dev, etc)

B. I am a start up that has a great idea and has chosen a platform, but needs to augment developers that might be specialized in a particular area

Vetted listing of individuals with specific coding experience that might be interested in working full time Vetted listing of companies that may be specialists with easy to hire pods for augmenting or delivering specified work Marketplace view of other dapps in the ecosystem that might be longer term partners Clear standards for Go-Live such as security audits to provide a level of review prior to deployment — consensys diligence, mythx Leveraging advanced tools and pre-made components to accelerate development — uport, Trustology

C. I am a consulting company that has developers building tools, libraries, and POC projects for clients.

Creation of common design patterns and functionality across multiple use cases Building of reputation around delivering clear value proposition for multiple use cases and large enterprise companies. Publish these as Research reports. Sales enablement training so business development team can recommend specific platforms and services for a given problem Mapping of total expected costs required for ROI — clear business case showing an initial investment to understand the longer term spend and maintenance costs of new technology

D. I am a developer working in an innovation group for an enterprise company looking for ways to apply the technology to a use case that has high probability of getting funded internally

Enterprise-approved developer experience given firewall or app restrictions — tools that integrate with existing pre-approved tools like vscode Internal Hackathon with product line devs and examples to apply technology to their existing in-house solutions Internal job opportunities for enterprise dev to relocate to other positions with higher exposure to interesting projects Consortium wide collaboration of development across industries and competing companies to learn from each other and compare examples

E. I am a business/csuite member of an enterprise organization evaluating different platforms and looking for ways to pivot with new technology

Attend meetups and conferences to better understand the business trends and speak with groups applying the technology to disrupt the industry. Fintech-specific spying is useful for getting out of your bubble Approve budget to build a team or make a broader strategic statement on how this technology can impact your business

~See Lemons Aim for 1 Million!