My coffee order may have embarrassed my friend.

He was beyond excited to meet me at a very fancy coffee shop in my neighborhood.

This place is internationally known. There’s two in the United States: one in Portland, the other in our hipster sibling city of Austin. They’ve been known to sell $150 cups of coffee.

My friend was entirely into the experience:

• He asked about the beans, their origin story and roasting profile
• Then he wanted to know grinds: coarse, fine, even knew the numbering system
• And the filter, the pourover system, the temperature of the water

But it wasn’t over after he ordered. They brought the grounds to the table where he smelled them and he felt them with his fingers.

It was a complete experience. Every choice was intentional, every detail mattered.

By contrast, what I ordered was a little embarrassing. I asked for “coffee.”

I may have chosen a region at random from the menu. I’m sure I told them the size.

And then, of course, the most important part: I wanted my coffee “for here.” Because the key job to be done for that coffee was to buy me a seat so I could connect with my friend.

It’s not that my friend didn’t want to see me. It’s just he also cared about the experience.

This might be where you think I’d transition to ​developer experience​.

While technical content plays an important role here, the experience itself is not (always) the point.

Frequently, we see marketers generalize about content types. Some believe it must include a demo of the product in action. Others think it must cut away all the “fluff” and only show facts. Or we hear that it must be video, or definitely should not be video.

There is no one way or one type of content that’s going to be what every developer wants all the time.

Sometimes they do want an experience. In other situations, you should get straight to the point. And there are times where straight to the point is the experience.

For example, a three-minute video that breaks down all of the most important aspects of a technical topic can be incredibly useful. It may save developers from reading thousands of words (or, let’s be real, skimming the subheadings between those thousands of words).

That same dev may not want to watch a 45-minute, step-by-step unpacking of the latest updates in a programming framework.

So, when marketers ask me questions like, “Don’t developers prefer videos?” my answer is: sometimes.

And “Don’t developers just want the ​plain facts of the docs​?” Again, sometimes.

The job to be done for most technical content is to make sense of complex topics. To educate and inspire developers to take the next step. And that can take the shape of any number of formats.

Sometimes developers want the full coffee experience—complete with bean origin stories and grinding specifications. Other times, they just want a coffee that gets them to the next step.

Your job is to help guide them. What’s your next step on that path?

And do you take room for cream?