Cassidy Williams

I'm Cassidy, I teach coding and create fun videos on the internet. AMA 👇

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Hi there! My name is Cassidy and I'm the Director of Developer Experience at Netlify. Previously, I worked at React Training, CodePen, Amazon, and Venmo. I run a weekly newsletter and often make silly videos on the internet, love teaching, help people become better coders! You might have seen me in Glamour Magazine or the Big Dream documentary a few years back, or more recently you might have seen my Scrabble keyboard project in a couple of dozen different publications! Happy to answer any questions on topics around front-end web dev, developer relations, jokes, social media, running a newsletter, or live streaming. AMA 👇
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Ash Pinkman [✖‿✖]
Hey Cassidy How to you push the idea of Develop Experience in your companies ? I'm trying to promote the idea of having a better DX at mine, but I'm not sure how to sell it yet. What are some key points that could help me bring the idea of DX as something we actually need today ? Also, you and your content are awesome !!
Cassidy Williams
@val_pinkman If your customers are developers, you need to care about their experience. Just like how user experience specialists are important for products to work well, developer experience specialists are important if you want developers to work well with your APIs/SDKs/platforms!
Ash Pinkman [✖‿✖]
@cassidoo thanks for answer ;)
Mehdi Benadel
Space or Tabs ? 😬
Cassidy Williams
@mehdi_benadel That depends 😉
Rob Cameron
What's involved in the role of a Dev Experiencer? What kind of decisions regarding the product and/or its documentation are you making on a daily basis?
Cassidy Williams
@cannikin Hey! My day-to-day varies a lot. Sometimes it's a lot of coding, sometimes it's a lot of meetings, sometimes it's a day of writing, sometimes it's a day of speaking, and sometimes it's a combo of all of the above! It's definitely a "jack of all trades" kind of role. On documentation, our team does weekly rotations where one of us works with our documentation team to both help improve the docs website, as well as help refine wording and code samples. As for the product, we have regular meetings with both engineering and product management teams about our learnings, and advise on decisions. We're regularly "developer 0" for new features as well, where if we find a bug or something weird in something that hasn't been released publicly yet, we talk it out with them so that we can have something very vetted once it goes public.
Joost Jansky
Hi Cassidy, great to see you here! Are you working a new product?
Cassidy Williams
@jamifyjs Hey! Gosh, I always am, but pretty much everything right now is very much works-in-progress. I want to get on the micro-SaaS train and try releasing some small ones, but most things are half-written... so hopefully I'll have a better answer for you later 😅
Joost Jansky
@cassidoo sounds good! Looks like there is something cooking ;-) Psst...
Daniel Uhl
Hi Cassidy, I want your job! How can I start down that career path at my current 3000 engineer company?
Cassidy Williams
@daniel_uhl I'd say to start working in public! Share your learnings, even if they feel embarrassing, and give back as much as you can. That pays dividends!
HeJ
Hey Cassidy :) Any tips for those want to get a job abroad(English-speaking country)?
Cassidy Williams
@lee_hee_jae I have a whole guide on this! cass.run/gig As for specifically a job abroad, I admit I don't have a lot of experience in this area, so I don't know if I'll be very helpful for you. I've heard good things about https://www.remote.io/ though!
HeJ
@cassidoo wow cass.run/gig looks really good. I've heard that site, I should check it out. Thanks
K. Anthony
As a relative newbie to the industry, practice is really important and side projects are one great method of doing that. How do you pick which side projects to pursue and how to you organize your time so you finish and release them?
Cassidy Williams
@anthkris This can really vary from person to person. I tend to pick a project that interests me (and that kind of scares me, because I don't fully know how I'll implement it), and try to work on it after work. I've found though that often when the work day is busy, I don't have much energy to work afterwards on my projects, so I'll often switch to working a little bit before the workday starts. It really depends on you!
fernandocomet
I am a Code teacher also, I am interested in teaching methodology, any recommended post? Thanks!
Cassidy Williams
@fernandocomet Hmm, I admit I don't have a post on hand! That being said, I recommend watching other teachers to see which styles you might want to adopt. That really, really helped me develop my own teaching style.
Timotius Sitorus
Waddup Cass, 1) What did you go for Halloween this year? 2) Have you ever had to turn down a job offer for a company you really liked?
Cassidy Williams
@timsitorus1 ayyyy friend! 1) ...I admit I didn't dress up 😶 I wanted to but was very indoors watching TV instead hahaha. 2) I have, oh man. I actually turned down CodePen at first before actually working for them. I realized my mistake very quickly and went back asking them to take me back a few months later! There have been other companies too where I genuinely really like the people, but the fit just hasn't been right at the time. I've definitely tried to keep in touch with those places though, in case something ever changes.
Vivian Vosu
Hi Cassidy, Have you ever developed a game?
Cassidy Williams
@vivian_vosu I haven't but I would LOVE to. Truly a dream that I just haven't made time for yet!