What to Read Before 2020: The Best DevTools Content from the Heavybit Library

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  Ashley Dotterweich
  

Whether you’ve got a long plane, train or car ride home for the holidays, or if you’re just ready to take a breather, the end of the year is a great time to catch up on the best articles, podcasts and talks from the year. Check out our picks for the best devtools content in the Heavybit library from 2019 below:

Our Best DevTools Blog Posts of 2019:

Dear Founders, Start with Messaging

The best time to figure out your messaging was yesterday. The next best time is right now — so make messaging a priority project for 2020. Heavybit’s own Dana Oshiro shares two solid messaging frameworks and a high-level process for navigating the sometimes-daunting process of drafting and iterating your own messaging framework.

Kwan Hierarchy of Product Needs: The 4 Levels of Product Managers

For growing teams, making the right product hire can make all the difference. But from PM to VP — how do you know which hire is the right one for you, right now? In this article, Product Maestro’s Connie Kwan shares how to think about hiring product managers for various needs. Whether you’re hiring now or somewhere down the line, Connie’s advice can help you understand how to think more strategically around product management decision-making.

Security Questionnaires: The VRA Two-Step

As we learned at DevGuild: Enterprise Security, communicating your organization’s security strategy is nearly as important as implementing that strategy in the first place. Unfortunately, security questionnaires and VRAs sit at the intersection of necessary (for closing big deals) and time-consuming tasks for most organizations. George Chamales’ post on the VRA Two-Step provides a framework that streamlines the process of completing security questionnaires so you can build trust without wasting time.

Collaborating with Developer Relations Series

Now more than ever, Organizations in the developer tools space have a dedicated Developer Relations team (or person). But the role is still being defined, and it’s not always clear how to get the most impact out of your DevRel team. Orbit co-founders Josh Dzielak and Patrick Woods partnered up to create this three-part series on Collaborating with Developer Relations. Dig into the series to learn how DevRel can partner with Marketing, Sales and Product teams to increase each team’s impact.

Our Best DevTools Podcast Episodes of 2019:

High Performance Dev Ops, o11ycast

As the shape of technical teams has changed over the years, so have the skillsets needed to build and sustain a high-functioning team. Jez Humble has literally written the book on DevOps — several, in fact. In this episode of o11ycast, he chats with Charity and Rachel about his recent collaboration with Nicole Forsgren, The 2019 Accelerate State of DevOps Report. Listen to the episode for insights about the traits that top-tier DevOps teams have in common, and why emotional intelligence is more important than ever for technical teams.

JAM Performance, JAMstack Radio

Brian Douglas’ JAMstack Radio has showcased a wide range of guests this year, discussing everything from emerging tools in the JAMstack to their favorite down-time “picks”. In this episode, Devlifts founder J.C. Hiatt joins Brian to dive into what Devlifts’ backend-free stack looks like in practice. Check it out for a look under the hood at how leveraging the right infrastructure and tooling enables Devlifts to stay ultra-lean.

The Evolution of Local vs. Remote Teams

As of 2019, nearly two-thirds of companies allow for some amount of remote work — and that number is growing fast. Paul Biggar and Edith Harbaugh share their experiences (both good and bad) working on distributed teams, and how their perspectives have changed on the value of remote work over time. Whether you’re part of a distributed or remote team, considering transitioning your team to the model, or just interested in the ins and outs of collaborating remotely, Paul and Edith’s conversation is a valuable listen.

Our Best DevTools Speaking Sessions of 2019:

Michael Dearing on Executive Communication

Everyone has been subjected to (or been the sender of) an unintentionally long-form email that doesn’t quite get its point across. In this Speaker Series session, Michael Dearing revisited his talk on Barbra Minto’s SCQA method for effective communication. His tips for implementing the SCQA method in a variety of scenarios can help teams — especially distributed ones — spend less time trying to be understood and more time getting things done.

Build vs Buy: Turning Critics into Champions

You’ve launched a great product — how do you get the word out? Edith Harbaugh shares what she’s learned about building an audience from the ground up at LaunchDarkly, and how to sell to a technical audience that would rather create a home-grown solution than buy a product. If you’re struggling to figure out how to expand your reach, combat critics, or build your brand identity, Edith’s advice is a great place to start.

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