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Can’t We All Just Get Along?

12 Ways to Improve The Developer + Account Manager Relationship

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Who’s here?

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What are we talking about?

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Dev & Accounts

• Greater knowledge gap between these teams

than others

• Greater personality gap between these teams

than others

• Greater opportunity for improvement

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Communication

Personalities

Expectations

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Empathize.But first…

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Why did the developer leave

the restaurant?

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Because of the table layout!

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How many account managers does

it take to screw in a lightbulb?

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Is it too late to make the bulb neon?

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Same Team, Man.

Same Team.

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Same projects.

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Same goals.

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Same team.

Different planets?

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AM’s Job

• Schedule

• Scope

• Budget

Developer’s Job

• Build

• Solve

• Make Complex = Simple

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The Conflict.

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AM: “The client wants [insert request].”

Developer: “That will take 1,800 hours and/or is impossible.”

AM: “That’s a terrible solution.”

Developer: “You’re a terrible solution.”

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Tips for Developers(How to help a marketer out)

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Don’t be so logical.

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A developer heads to the grocery store

with a note from his roommate…

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“Get a loaf of bread,

and if they have eggs,

get a dozen.”

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The developer comes home with a

dozen loaves of bread and says..

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“…they had eggs.”

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Sometimes nuance is

lost in translation.

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And sometimes AMs don’t give

developers enough details

to pick up on the nuance.

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So ask the AM:

“Is this really what you’re asking for?”

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Empower your AM.

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AM: “The client wants [insert ill-informed request].”

Developer: “That will take 1,200 hours and/or is impossible.”

AM: “That’s a terrible solution.”

Developer: “You’re a terrible solution.”

Opportunity(to educate the AM)

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Empathize.

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What are the goals?

When is the deadline?

What’s the client situation like?

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No. It’s not your job.

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But it will go a long way.

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Tips for Account Managers(How to make your devs happy)

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Empathize.Involve Devs Early

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Q: How early is too early to bring

a developer into a project?

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A: It’s never too early.

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“I would love a project I know nothing

about dropped in my lap.”

-No One Ever

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Advantages of Early Dev Involvement

• Better scoping

• Ownership from dev

• Less friction during project

• More face time (not kidding)

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Empathize.Care about how

things are made.(Not just how the finished product looks)

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“Just make it do this…”

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If AMs better understood how

projects were built, they could:

• Add more value upfront

• Be more understanding of dev issues

• Better forecast and plan

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Empathize.Don’t pass the stress.

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Account managers are stressed.

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All. The. Time.

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Give your team a protected

space to do their jobs.

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Empathize.Devs Don’t Know Everything.

(And that’s ok.)

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When you ask a dev a question…

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Developers are problem solvers.

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Give them time to research.

Give them all the details about the issue.

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Empathize.Devs aren’t IT.

(Just re-start your computer)

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Seriously. Just re-start it.

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*Pro Tip for Devs

Never fix anyone’s computer at the office.

Not even once.

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Empathize.Leave them alone.

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Headphones on?

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Leave them alone.

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Leave this dude alone.

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It takes 23 minutes to return to the

original task after an interruption.*

*The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress, Gloria Mark, University of California

https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf

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Do the math.

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4 Interruptions = 1 Hour Lost

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(I’m looking at you Slack)

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“Your team sent a total of 11,400 messages last week (that's 2,103

more than the week before). Of those, 5% were in channels, 7%

were in groups and 88% were direct messages.”

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If you want your project done:

• Get the developer some time

• Leave them alone

• Make everyone else leave them alone

• Give them snacks

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Empathize.How to work

better together.

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Create a DLA(Department Level Agreement)

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The DLA States

• The development team’s expectations of how work should be assigned to them.

• The account team’s expectations of how work should be approached.

• Ideal collaborative scenarios.

• Unfavorable collaborative scenarios.

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Cross Department Presentations(Quarterly)

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The more we know about the

other team, the better.

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Dev presents to accounts.

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Accounts presents to dev.

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Hang out.

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Talk about non-work things.

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Strive to create real relationships.

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End.