My Journey at InfoQ and QCon, and a Look into the Editorial Model
I've been part of the InfoQ community for almost 10 years and have learned a lot about technology journalism, product positioning, and building relationships.
I’ve mentioned my affiliation with InfoQ.com and the QCon software development conference communities several times in these newsletters. Looking back, I see that joining the InfoQ team was a key inflexion point in my career, and this helped greatly in my transition from writing code full-time to other work that I now enjoy doing.
As part of my work writing news at InfoQ and assembling tracks at QCon, I learned a lot of skills related to technology journalism, positioning product launches, crafting effective press releases, and building beneficial relationships across all parties involved. I’ve recently taken part in a Q&A with the InfoQ marketing team and wanted to share a few highlights from this and provide more context through the lens of my current roles in DevRel and product marketing.
Why I joined the InfoQ news writing team
There are two primary reasons why I joined the InfoQ editorial team. First, I wanted to learn more about technologies and improve my related writing and communication skills. Second, I heard that InfoQ editors get free access to the fantastic QCon software development conferences in exchange for writing news coverage and volunteering to help in other ways at the events! I had attended several QCon events courtesy of the larger enterprise companies I initially worked with, and I always learned so much and enjoyed getting access to the amazing people who were part of this community. I was keen to ensure I could attend even if the startups I had begun to enjoy working with couldn’t afford to send me!
I signed up to begin training as an InfoQ editor in late 2014, and the rest, as they say, is history. I’ll shout out to one of my early mentors, Ben Evans, who introduced me to the InfoQ team and laid the foundations for me to join this community. Richard Seroter, Laurie Nyveen, and Charles Humble provided early news writing training and continued guidance over the years. I owe a lot to these folks!
I can confidently sit here now and say that all of my InfoQ goals were fulfilled several times over. I learned so much about technologies I never would have encountered otherwise. I met and interviewed amazing people, many of whom I now consider friends and business connections, and my communication skills improved by an order of magnitude.
Gamekeeper turned poacher? Looking at systems from all perspectives
I’m sure many of you have heard of the cliched phrase, “poacher turned gamekeeper”, where someone whose behaviour becomes the same as that he or she previously opposed, i.e. instead of hunting animals, someone takes the role of protecting animals. I often talk about flipping this statement with my journey into developer relations, product marketing, and technical go-to-market. Given my early InfoQ experience, I could almost be a “gamekeeper turned poacher”.
The analogy isn’t exact, as I still perform both roles (being very careful to approach challenges wearing the correct hat!), and I’m not particularly opposed to anything other than ensuring fake or poor-quality news doesn’t get published. However, in the hundreds of news pieces I wrote for InfoQ, I quickly learned what developers really cared about with technology news and what made a good product launch. I also learned to pattern match on potential scams, spin, or low-value “smoke and mirrors” news. All of this helped me greatly when I made a career change towards go-to-market roles and began positioning products, talking to industry analysts, and creating press releases.
Lessons from The Wizard of Oz: Look behind the curtain to develop empathy
You will frequently find me quoting lessons from stories I love, such as the phrase “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” in The Wizard of Oz. I’ve frequently found that when you do pay attention to the people (and system) “behind the curtain”, you will learn a lot. For example:
In my postgraduate studies, I started grading undergraduate coursework, and it immediately became obvious how to format work to gain the highest chance of scoring well. If only I had learned this before graduating from my undergraduate degree, lol!
When I started reviewing technology conference CFPs, I quickly learned to pattern match what made a good (and bad!) proposal. The combination of training from various organizers — shout out to Devoxx, O’Reilly, and QCon! —and seeing what proposals were successful helped me understand how to craft an effective CFP.
Because of my work reviewing press releases and related technology news and interviewing industry experts at InfoQ, I learned how to build appropriate relationships, position products effectively, and write good technical content and product launch material that spoke to both software developers and technology journalists.
I’m sure the astute amongst you think the above points are all focused on empathy, and I agree. The key point I’m attempting to make is that sometimes we all need to try new things and act from a different perspective in order to cultivate empathy.
Read more in the InfoQ marketing newsletter!
If you would like to know more about my journey within the InfoQ team or want to understand more about how the editorial side of InfoQ and QCon work, check out my recent Q&A: “By Practitioners for Practitioners: A Look Inside the InfoQ & QCon Editorial Model.”
I hope this post has helped shed some light on how my various experiences have helped shape my skills over the years. As a shameless plug, I offer advising services to startups seeking to bootstrap their product marketing and developer advocate teams.
Let me know if you would like more content like this. And don’t forget to subscribe! I’m aiming to share a post every two weeks or so.