title: How to Explain Your Products to Developers

slug: explain-products-developers

meta: Talk slides, notes and more resources for a technical talk on developer marketing for tech products, by Matt Makai.

category: post

date: 2018-05-25

modified: 2018-05-25

newsletter: False

headerimage: /img/visuals/talk-header.jpg

headeralt: Comment bubble with code representing a technical talk-based blog post.

This blog post contains the slides along with a loose transcript and

additional resources from my talk on appropriately marketing products to

software developers that was given at

[Silicon Valley Bank](https://www.svb.com/) during

[Ubiquity.VC](http://www.ubiquity.vc/)'s summit for founders, investors and

technical advisors on May 24, 2018.

Links to learn more about the concepts presented in this talk can

be found in the sidebar and at the bottom of this page.

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/01-explain-products.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Title slide for this talk on Explaining Products to Developers.">

Hey folks, my name is [Matt Makai](/about-author.html). I serve the

[Developer Network](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF129ioe8kc) at

[Twilio](https://www.twilio.com/). We've talked a lot today about making the

real world programmable. We ask "what if we could modify the real world using

GitHub and Jira?" When we succeed in creating programmatic access to the

physical world, what then? Is that the end goal?

No, that's only the beginning. We need developers to use that new

capabilities and code with it. How do you get developers to adopt

what you are creating? That is a large question so I am going to zoom

in on just one small slice of developer relations that kicks off the

whole adoption process but that unfortunately I see upwards of 90% of

companies completely screw up: how to explain your product to

developers.

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/02-matt-makai-bio.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Bio information slide for Matt Makai.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/03-show-it-live.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Fred Wilson quote on showing rather than telling.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/04-demo.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Demo slide for transitioning into a live-coded demo.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/05-phone-api.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Twilio 2008-2011 had only the phone calling voice API.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/06-story-arc.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Story arc visual.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/07-sms-2011.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Twilio added an SMS API in 2011.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/08-more-products.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Eventually you expand your product lines or features within a product.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/09-devangelism.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="You as a founder, or as an investor who work with founders must be the chief evangelist for your product.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/10-be-specific.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="The earlier you are, the more specific you need to be about what problem you solve.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/11-refine-growth.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Refine the message as you grow, or your industry grows.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/12-rehearsal.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="No demo fails because you rehearse constantly.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/13-your-message-to-devs.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Your message to developers.">

...

<img src="/img/180526-explain-product/14-thank-you.jpg" width="100%" class="shot rnd outl" alt="Thank you slide.">

That's all for today. My name is [Matt Makai](/about-author.html)

and I'm a software developer at [Twilio](/twilio.html) and the

author of [Full Stack Python](https://www.fullstackpython.com/).

Thank you very much.