The rise of developers -- as buyers, as influencers, as a
creative class --
is a direct result of "software eating the world", and of key shifts in IT
from on-prem to cloud & SaaS to
https://a16z.com/tag/the-
api-economy/" target="new">the API economy, where application programming interfaces are essentially
building blocks for innovation. Developers therefore not only play an outsized
role in high-performing tech companies -- but managing and motivating them is
actually critical in ALL companies, since every company is a tech company
(whether they know it or not).
As every industry turns digital, and a company's interface to their customers
IS software, "asking" one's developer is the key to solving business problems
and to thriving not just surviving, argues Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of
cloud communications platform-as-a-service company
Twilio, in his
new
book,
Ask Your Developer: How to Harness
the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century. So in this
episode of the a16z Podcast in conversation with Sonal Chokshi and David
Ulevitch (who previously argued "
the developer's
way" is the future of work),
Lawson shares hard-earned lessons learned, mindsets, strategies, and tactics
-- from "build vs. buy" to "build vs. die", to the art and science of small
teams ("mitosis") -- for leaders and companies of all sizes.
But what does it mean to truly treat developers as creatives within an
organization? What does it mean to be "developer first"? And how does this
affect customers, product, go-to-market? All this and more in this episode.
Read more
The rise of developers -- as buyers, as influencers, as a
creative class --
is a direct result of "software eating the world", and of key shifts in IT
from on-prem to cloud & SaaS to
https://a16z.com/tag/the-
api-economy/" target="new">the API economy, where application programming interfaces are essentially
building blocks for innovation. Developers therefore not only play an outsized
role in high-performing tech companies -- but managing and motivating them is
actually critical in ALL companies, since every company is a tech company
(whether they know it or not).
As every industry turns digital, and a company's interface to their customers
IS software, "asking" one's developer is the key to solving business problems
and to thriving not just surviving, argues Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-founder of
cloud communications platform-as-a-service company
Twilio, in his
new
book,
Ask Your Developer: How to Harness
the Power of Software Developers and Win in the 21st Century. So in this
episode of the a16z Podcast in conversation with Sonal Chokshi and David
Ulevitch (who previously argued "
the developer's
way" is the future of work),
Lawson shares hard-earned lessons learned, mindsets, strategies, and tactics
-- from "build vs. buy" to "build vs. die", to the art and science of small
teams ("mitosis") -- for leaders and companies of all sizes.
But what does it mean to truly treat developers as creatives within an
organization? What does it mean to be "developer first"? And how does this
affect customers, product, go-to-market? All this and more in this episode.
Read less