Jeff Lawson, developer turned CEO of Twilio (one of Bloomberg Businessweek's Top 50 Companies to Watch in 2021), creates a new playbook for unleashing the full potential of software developers in any organization, showing how to help management utilize this coveted and valuable workforce to enable growth, solve a wide range of business problems, and drive digital transformation. From banking and retail to insurance and finance, every industry is turning digital, and every company needs the best software to win the hearts and minds of customers. The landscape has shifted from the classic build vs. buy question, to one of build vs. die. Companies have to get this right to survive. But how do they make this transition? Software developers are sought after, highly paid, and desperately needed to compete in the modern, digital economy. Yet most companies treat them like digital factory workers without really understanding how to unleash their full potential. Lawson argues that developers are the creative workforce who can solve major business problems and create hit products for customers—not just grind through rote tasks. From Google and Amazon, to one-person online software companies—companies that bring software developers in as partners are winning. Lawson shows how leaders who build industry changing software products consistently do three things well. First, they understand why software developers matter more than ever. Second, they understand developers and know how to motivate them. And third, they invest in their developers' success. As a software developer and public company CEO, Lawson uses his unique position to bridge the language and tools executives use with the unique culture of high performing, creative software developers. Ask Your Developer is a toolkit to help business leaders, product managers, technical leaders, software developers, and executives achieve their common goal—building great digital products and experiences. How to compete in the digital economy? In short: Ask Your Developer.

Lawson, software developer turned CEO of Twilio, creates a new playbook for unleashing the full potential of software developers in any organization, showing how to help management utilize this coveted and valuable workforce to enable growth, solve a wide range of business problems, and drive digital transformation.

It’s been said that software is eating the planet. The modern economy—the world itself—relies on technology. Demand for the people who can produce it far outweighs the supply. So why do developers occupy largely subordinate roles in the corporate structure? Developer Hegemony explores the past, present, and future of the corporation and what it means for developers. While it outlines problems with the modern corporate structure, it’s ultimately a play-by-play of how to leave the corporate carnival and control your own destiny. And it’s an emboldening, specific vision of what software development looks like in the world of developer hegemony—one where developers band together into partner firms of “efficiencers,” finally able to command the pay, respect, and freedom that’s earned by solving problems no one else can. Developers, if you grow tired of being treated like geeks who can only be trusted to take orders and churn out code, consider this your call to arms. Bring about the autonomous future that’s rightfully yours. It’s time for developer hegemony.

Learn what you need to succeed as a developer beyond the code. The lessons in this book will supercharge your career by sharing lessons and mistakes from real developers. Wouldn’t it be nice to learn from others’ career mistakes? “Soft” skills are crucial to success, but are haphazardly picked up on the job or, worse, never learned. Understanding these competencies and how to improve them will make you a more effective team member and a more attractive hire. This book will teach you the key skills you need, including how to ask questions, how and when to use common tools, and how to interact with other team members. Each will be presented in context and from multiple perspectives so you’ll be able to integrate them and apply them to your own career quickly. What You'll Learn Know when the best code is no code Understand what to do in the first month of your job See the surprising number of developers who can’t program Avoid the pitfalls of working alone Who This Book Is For Anyone who is curious about software development as a career choice. You have zero to five years of software development experience and want to learn non-technical skills that can help your career. It is also suitable for teachers and mentors who want to provide guidance to their students and/or mentees.

CSS3 is behind most of the eye-catching visuals on the Web today, but the official documentation can be dry and hard to follow and browser implementations are scattershot at best. The Book of CSS3 distills the dense technical language of the CSS3 specification into plain English and shows you what CSS3 can do right now, in all major browsers. With real-world examples and a focus on the principles of good design, it extends your CSS skills, helping you transform ordinary markup into stunning, richly-styled web pages. You'll master the latest cutting-edge CSS3 features and learn how to: –Stylize text with fully customizable outlines, drop shadows, and other effects –Create, position, and resize background images on the fly – Spice up static web pages with event-driven transitions and animations –Apply 2D and 3D transformations to text and images –Use linear and radial gradients to create smooth color transitions –Tailor a website's appearance to smartphones and other devices A companion website includes up-to-date browser compatibility charts and live CSS3 examples for you to explore. The Web can be an ugly place—add a little style to it with The Book of CSS3.

Increasingly, business leaders are either looking to start a new developer program at their company or looking to increase the impact of their existing DevRel program. In this context, software developers are finally recognized as legitimate decision makers in the technology buying process, regardless of the size of their organization. New companies are appearing with the sole purpose of making tools for developers, and even companies whose primary focus was elsewhere are waking up to the developer opportunity. Even as the need and demand for DevRel has grown, there are still re-occurring challenges for DevRel leaders. It is these challenges that this book addresses, covering all aspects of a DevRel program. It is an essential reference to professionalize the practice of developer relations by providing you with strategic, repeatable, and adoptable frameworks, processes, and tools, including developer segmentation and personas, and developer experience frameworks. In Developer Relations, you’ll find the answers to the following questions: How do we convince stakeholders to support a program? How do we go about creating a program? How do we make developers aware of our offer? How do we stand out from the crowd? How do we get developers to use our products? How do we ensure developers are successful using our products? How do we measure success? How do we maintain the support of our stakeholders? After reading this book you’ll have a clear definition of what developer relations is, the type of companies that engage in DevRel, and the scope and business models involved. What You Will Learn Discover what developer relations is and how it contributes to a company’s success Launch a DevRel program Operate a successful program Measure the success of your program Manage stakeholders Who This Book Is For Those interested in starting a new developer program or looking to increase the impact of their existing one. From executives to investors, from marketing professionals to engineers, all will find this book useful to realize the impact of developer relations.

"Two thumbs up" —Gregory V. Wilson, Dr. Dobbs Journal (October 2004) No one can disparage the ability to write good code. At its highest levels, it is an art. But no one can confuse writing good code with developing good software. The difference—in terms of challenges, skills, and compensation—is immense. Coder to Developer helps you excel at the many non-coding tasks entailed, from start to finish, in just about any successful development project. What's more, it equips you with the mindset and self-assurance required to pull it all together, so that you see every piece of your work as part of a coherent process. Inside, you'll find plenty of technical guidance on such topics as: Choosing and using a source code control system Code generation tools--when and why Preventing bugs with unit testing Tracking, fixing, and learning from bugs Application activity logging Streamlining and systematizing the build process Traditional installations and alternative approaches To pull all of this together, the author has provided the source code for Download Tracker, a tool for organizing your collection of downloaded code, that's used for examples throughout this book. The code is provided in various states of completion, reflecting every stage of development, so that you can dig deep into the actual process of building software. But you'll also develop "softer" skills, in areas such as team management, open source collaboration, user and developer documentation, and intellectual property protection. If you want to become someone who can deliver not just good code but also a good product, this book is the place to start. If you must build successful software projects, it's essential reading.