1.
Because We All Learn
Things Differently
Tomomi Imura (@girlie_mac)
#DevRelSummit Supporting Diverse Developers

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@girlie_mac
Tomomi Imura
Slack
@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac
2017
2016
2014
2012
2010
Slack API
Nexmo API
PubNub API
HTML5 & Windows Mobile
webOS Mojo.js / Enyo.js

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@girlie_mac
#DevRelLife

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@girlie_mac
Globetrotting
(ooh yeah!)

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@girlie_mac
#RealDevRelLife

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@girlie_mac
× Create awareness
× Give inspiration
× Outreach
× Engineering
× Dev product feedbacks
× Create developer ecosystem
× Improve developer experiences
× Support
× Developer education etc.

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@girlie_mac
Creating
instructional
materials for
developers

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@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac
Goal
Make it easy for developers to
understand the (APIs | SDKs | tools |
platform | technology) to build (apps |
services)

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@girlie_mac
How/Where Do
Developers Learn?

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@girlie_mac https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018

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@girlie_mac https://www.slashdata.co/reports/reach-web-developers

14.
What? not 100% devs read docs!?
“RTFM!!!”
Read the F-ing Manual! or maybe docs
are not the best approach for
everybody...

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@girlie_mac
How do people
learn most
efficiently?

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@girlie_mac
General Learning Styles
VARK Model Theory - Fleming and Mills (1992)
Visual
Auditory
Read/Write
Kinesthetic

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@girlie_mac
Visual (V)
Prefers the depiction of information in
maps, diagrams, charts, graphs, flow
charts, and all the symbolic arrows,
circles, hierarchies and other devices
http://vark-learn.com/introduction-to-vark/the-vark-modalities

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@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac
Auditory (A)
Prefers information that is “heard or
spoken.”
They learn best from lectures, group
discussion, radio, email, using mobile
phones, speaking, web-chat and talking
things through.
http://vark-learn.com/introduction-to-vark/the-vark-modalities

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@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac
Read/Write (R)
Prefers information displayed as
words.
This preference emphasizes text-based
input and output – reading and writing
in all its forms but especially manuals,
reports, essays and assignments.
http://vark-learn.com/introduction-to-vark/the-vark-modalities

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@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac
Kinesthetic (K)
Perceptual preference related to the
use of experience and practice
(simulated or real).
Either through concrete personal
experiences, examples, practice or
simulation.
http://vark-learn.com/introduction-to-vark/the-vark-modalities

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@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac
Applying the theory
for developers

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@girlie_mac
Visual

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@girlie_mac
Effective Elements
for Visual Learners
★ Diagrams
★ Images
★ Screenshots
★ GIF animations
★ Videos
★ Screencasts

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@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac

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@girlie_mac
Amazon Alexa
Tutorials w/ a lot of
screenshots & diagrams

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@girlie_mac
Nexmo: Tutorials w/ flows & diagrams

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@girlie_mac
Adafruit
Lots of photos &
visual helps

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@girlie_mac
Auditory

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@girlie_mac
Effective Elements for
Auditory Learners
★ Lectures
★ Conferences
★ Meetups
★ Videos
★ Webinars / Livecast
★ Podcasts
Serverless Chat Bots with Slack & Google Cloud

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@girlie_mac
Microsoft
Channel 9

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@girlie_mac
Unity
Course on Udemy

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@girlie_mac
Read & Write

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@girlie_mac
Effective Elements for
Read/Write Learners
★ Docs
★ Written tutorials
★ Technical articles
★ Books
★ Source code (maybe)
★ Forums / Slack groups (maybe)

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@girlie_mac
Kinesthetic

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@girlie_mac
Effective Elements for
Kinesthetic Learners
★ Real-life coding experiences
○ online (from code samples)
○ in-person
★ Workshops / Labs
★ Hackathons
★ Interactive docs & tutorials

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@girlie_mac
Stripe: Interactive tutorials

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@girlie_mac
Recycling Content
Code once & create a few learning materials
Code samples
★ README.md (Doc)
★ Written tutorial
★ Video tutorial
★ Webinar
★ Talk / Presentation
★ Workshop

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@girlie_mac
Cats ?

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@girlie_mac
Cats & Technology
HTTP Status Cats (http.cat)

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@girlie_mac
Cats & Technology - Raspberry Pi KittyCam

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@girlie_mac
Git purr

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@girlie_mac
Diverse
Audiences

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@girlie_mac
Developer Diversity
★ Gender, race, age...
★ Cultural background
★ Academic background - CS or not?
★ Coding proficiency / experiences
★ Industry - Software, hardware, non-tech
like finance, medical, government...
★ Language - both code & spoken!

50.
@girlie_mac
Content Checklist
❏ Don’t bias! Be inclusive!
❏ “Developer” is not “he”
❏ Avoid [US]-centric cultural references
❏ Newbie friendly content
❏ Support more langs - JS, Python, Ruby...
❏ Nice-to-have: Localized content

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@girlie_mac
A diverse DevRel team
inspires diverse developers!

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@girlie_mac
Not lost in translation
Reaching broader audiences & communities
Multi-lingual DevRel
members and/or
community members
Helen in Taipei
Tomomi in Tokyo

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@girlie_mac
But the reality is...
× Hard to hire multilingual people
× Can’t translate docs because-
× hard to find technical translators
× may lose the brand tone of voice
× losing timeliness
× the docs are updated too frequently
× No budget 💸

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@girlie_mac
Something to Try
In budget-conscious ways

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@girlie_mac
Get helps from Local
Companies & Community
at regional meetups and events:
★ Community members - e.g. local JS
meetup organizers & speakers
★ Partners
★ Customers

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@girlie_mac
Accessible Video Content
Take advantage with YouTube features:
★ Closed-caption
★ Translations
★ Localization meta data

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@girlie_mac
Closed Captions

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@girlie_mac
Translations

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@girlie_mac
Community-Driven
Translations

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@girlie_mac
Editable Content
Dev.Opera

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@girlie_mac
Japan Dev
Community
Interesting
Facts
bonusslides!

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@girlie_mac
📅 Dev conferences on weekend
Engineers can’t take day off on weekdays
🍣 Food served in the end of an evening meetup
Hungry developers
📣 Auld Lang Syne means GTFO!
Meetups & Conferences

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@girlie_mac
📚 Kawaii swags & self-publishing manga
🐸 Anime costumes
👼 Impersonations & “Characters”
Anime & Kawaii

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@girlie_mac https://twitter.com/kintonedevjp/status/1048724598815043585

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@girlie_mac
W3C Developer meetup
in Tokyo

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@girlie_mac https://ameblo.jp/memasite/entry-10914407296.html

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@girlie_mac
GitHub
Kawaii is the key to
success in Japan
…maybe?

68.
@girlie_mac
Thank you!
@girlie_mac
BY-SA

69.
@girlie_mac