LOVE your new haircut

Can a faux pas be subtle? Either way, this is one you want to avoid, with developers and your friends.

Let’s say a friend has a new haircut. They hop on a video call, point to their head, and say, “what do you think?” If you’re a good friend, you tell the truth. But there’s really only one “right” answer.

“It’s great! Love it!”

I saw the equivalent recently on the portal of a big company:

Maybe I caught them on the wrong week. But it seems like a waste that the top content on their developer site is a back-pat for their new developer site.

Anyone visiting for the first time doesn’t know you had an old version. Your returning visitors likely have another task in mind. So, the self-referential content serves nobody.

You should still ask developers for feedback. You can find much more engaging methods than “do you like my new haircut/website/feature?” (thanks to my friend Fritz, who I think taught me this lesson—luckily I hadn’t asked about my haircut).

In an effort to avoid this faux pas myself, I haven’t shared something new with you. After wrapping it in this lesson, I hope you’ll forgive me a haircut moment. Here it is, the updated developer experience page.

Previously it included the words I wrote when EveryDeveloper started five years ago. It was far too focused on “Hello World,” that first interaction a developer has with your product. The developer experience starts before that moment. If successful, the developer experience continues long after. Now one of our core pages reflects our philosophy.

Developer experience is foundational, which is why it’s chapter one in my upcoming developer marketing book.

Take a look in the mirror and consider how your product shows up at each developer experience stage. But no need to comment on my haircut.