Even the sniffles can help you build trust with developers.

It’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere. That means cold weather and, sometimes, colds.

Both Proctor and Gamble have my number, because we get Puffs with Lotion. It just feels better on my nose and I don’t care if advertising convinced me.

But my friend Bill did text me a photo of his box of Kleenex®—yep, the official trademarked brand.

Weird to text facial tissue? Maybe, but there was a point. Here’s that photo:

You’ll have to take my word that it’s Bill’s box, because he didn’t write his name on it. Because who does that?

The box has a notebook motif, so maybe it’s just the design. Or maybe the ad wizards at Kimberly-Clark really expect somebody to get out a Sharpie (oops, somebody else’s trademark) and stake their claim.

Nevertheless, it’s not how I use Kleenex and it struck Bill as strange, too.

You don’t want developers to look at your efforts with skeptical eyes. If something doesn’t seem quite right—like a name tag on a Kleenex box—that may be enough to keep them from exploring your product.

Your marketing, messaging, and documentation are all opportunities to build credibility with a developer audience.

But they can just as easily work the other way. These sorts of mistakes remind me of the Steve Buscemi “Fellow Kids” meme:

From the jump, it just rings untrue.

You want to avoid these moments with developers. Show you understand their problems. Ensure that the way you describe potential solutions makes sense in their world.

Recently, we ​consulted with a client​ and helped them avoid one of these mismatched perspective situations.

It came up naturally, on a monthly strategy call. It had nothing to do with the content we were writing, but it felt good to help them dodge one.

When you understand the developer point of view, you won’t be like the guy in the “Music⚡Band” shirt. Or whoever decided we should write our names on our Kleenex now.