CodeStock

Codestock 2017 Day 1 Notes

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Keynote – Hadi Hariri from Jet Brains, “The Silver Bullet Syndrome”

Shawn Wildermuth, “Being a Better Developer: Learning Skills that are not on Your Resume

  • twitter: @shawnwildermuth
  • http://wilderminds.com
  • Skills developers should have:
    • Communication:
      • Are you listening, or just waiting your turn to talk?
      • Active Listening: “The skill of building understanding, trust, and rapport by becoming a better listener in order to actually hear what other people are saying”
        1. Restating
        2. Summarizing
        3. Reflecting
        4. Encouraging
        5. Silence
        6. Validation
        7. Speaking from the “I” instead of the “you”
      • Are you being heard?
        • Is writing or speaking better?
        • Does your communication address the audience?
    • Working with others
      • Fear is natural.
      • Don’t be controlled by the impostor syndrome, “A psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments, despite external evidence of their competence.”
      • Arrogance is usually a cover for fear. You don’t need to know everything off the top of your head and, it is OK not to know everything there is to know.
      • Developers are hired because of thier skill set, but that is a mistake. Developers are learners, not technicians.
    • Problem Solving
      • Typing (code) is not always the best solution.
      • Follow these non-typing steps to help reach a solution:
        1. Get away from the problem.
        2. Explain the problem to a non-developed (rubber duck/teddy bear)
        3. Reproduce the problem outside the working project.
    • Remember to always have fun.

Kristina Hardin from Clayton Homes, “Details of Design: The Fine Art of Designing Web Experiences”

(Kristina will provide slide on request)

  • twitter: @kristinadutton
  • Color Theory
    • The Color Wheel
      • A visual representation of color relationships.
      • Primary, Secondary, Tertiary colors
    • Color Harmony
      • Arranging color so that it is pleasing to the eye
      • The extremes of boring and chaos should be avoided.
    • Color Context
      • How colors behave in relationship to each other
      • The emotional implication of color usage.
    • Typeography –  the style and appearance of printed matter.
      • Legibility
      • Readability
      • The art of aranging words
      • Choosing a typeface. Consider:
        • Size
        • Body font should be 10 or 12px minimum
        • Contrast
        • Hierarchy and scale
        • Measure and space
        • Leading (the vertical space between lines)
        • Kerning (the space between letters)
    • Microcopy
      • The craft of words, at the micro level. Consider the text of:
        • Buttons, error messages, validation messages, confirmation messages.
        • Words matter. think about voice and tone of everything.
  • Book suggestions:
    • Kate Keifer Lee, “Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose”
    • Heydon Pickering, “Inclusive Design Patterns”

Brandon Bruce from Cirrus Insight, “How to get to Minimum Viable Product”

  • bbruce@cirrusinsight.com
  • twitter: @cirrusisight
  • Cirrus Insight is a connector between Salesforce and email/calander clients that enables sales people to use Salesforce by using the tools they already know how to use, Outlook and Gmail. The platform also provides extensive reporting capabilities.
  • Cirrus Insight has a company lunch every Friday. It is open to the public, just inform Brandon that you wish to attend and you are invited.
  • Getting to MVP:
    1. Sell first, Then Build
      • Sales are like hacking, Most of the work is not technical, it is social.
      • Call everyone, all the time. Email, LinkedIn, meet in person.
      • Don’t pitch the idea, Ask why, why, why. Figuring out the problems of your customer helps you to understand how your idea could help them solve their problems and customizes the pitch on the fly.
      • Ask if they want to see a demo. No matter what they say, schedule a demo anyway.
    2. Get help from others.
      • Others can provide specific help, general help is hard. (do you know a good lawyer, accountant, supplier?)
      • You have to be the overall expert in your industry.
      • Stay friends with the competition. Don’t give away trade secrets, but sharing experiences is almost always fruitful. Very few people are jerks, and it is better to find out who they are. Those who don’t share back are the jerks.
    3. Ship it.
      • Ship first, ask questions later.
        • Be first to market. Software that is 80% complete and being sold is better than software that is perfect and has no sales, because:
        • You will get feedback before your competition.
        • Be accessible to your customer base so you can get feedback from the users
    4. Repeat 1-3. There are unlimited opportunities to improve.