I’ve been on enough airplanes that one was bound to be struck by lightning.

I used to travel a lot for business, especially to the Bay Area. One thing I learned the hard way is that San Francisco Airport is often closed for fog. Sometimes I’d have a flight delayed for hours and instead talk my way onto a flight to Oakland because it’s just a short BART ride to San Francisco.

After a while, I just started booking Oakland flights so I wouldn’t have to worry about the delays and cancellations.

But a lot of the flights to Oakland were smaller planes—two seats on each side of the aisle, shorter, and some of them still had propellers.

I was wedged into one of these tiny planes, my spot directly facing the flight attendant’s jump seat. He was a tiny man with gray hair, a look reminiscent of Henry Gibson from Laugh-In:

(before my time, but I’ve watched a lot of Nick at Night).

Since the plane was so small, all we could do was stare at each other.

I got out a book and notepad to distract me. And I needed the diversion, because there was a storm outside the window over Oakland. The little plane bumped around uneasily.

That’s when I heard a deafening boom and saw a bright flash of lightning. The fuselage shook. My eyes darted immediately to Henry in front of me.

He calmly waved two hands and said, “It’s just lightning. It happens all the time.”

I watched the person next to me take their phone out of airplane mode and start sending texts. The plane was still bumping and bouncing along through the storm.

Henry reached over his shoulder and picked up the phone that connected him to the cockpit. He said very few words and placed it back on its cradle. He made another gesture with his hands, as if to say, “We’re fine.”

Minutes later, our wheels bumped safely on the tarmac. It was one of those landings where everybody claps. Clearly the whole plane was a little tense about our approach to the airport.

But I had Henry directly in my eyeline the whole time. If he wasn’t worried, I wasn’t worried.

I’ve been on a lot of flights, but not nearly as many as Henry. This was not his first lightning strike.

If you want to build developer trust, you need partners who have been there, too.

Even if you have a lot of experience with technical audiences, another set of eyes can help you avoid common mistakes or even to wave off those “emergencies” that happen all the time.

Here are some ways to help you make a safe landing with developers:

• Hire product marketers and other team members that have lived your developer problems
• Have conversations with developers to better understand their perspective
• Partner with someone like EveryDeveloper who can keep you objective

If you want to safely navigate the stormy skies of developer marketing, see ​how we can help you build trust with your technical audience​.

Safe travels!