When my kids attended their first function at a new school this year, they shared their insecurity about whether they would make friends and find a place where they belong. I encouraged them that the first step to overcoming that fear is to simply say hello and introduce themselves — the best way to make friends is to be friendly.
My name is Jonathan, and I joined Guidewire at the end of October as a Developer Evangelist. A key part of my role is to represent Guidewire to developers and architects so they can better use our products to build, innovate, and grow.
In November, we hosted an interactive workshop at Connections 2021 with a group of developers and team leads who use Guidewire’s products. The workshop gave us the opportunity to hear directly what improvements they’d like to see on this site as well as in our overall developer engagement.
Here’s a high-level summary of what our attendees said they’d like to see:
- Enhanced product documentation
- Knowledge sharing and collaboration with other developers
- More training and tutorials
- Clearer navigation for both Guidewire Cloud developers and developers on self-managed deployments
The Vision
Our goal is simple. We want developer.guidewire.com to be the place where you and other developers can come to discover, learn, share, and grow with Guidewire.
We believe that if we can accomplish that goal, you’ll be able to build innovative solutions that help your customers, improve your products, and reinforce the sense of pride you have in your work.
Our Core Values
The following three core values guide everything we do on developer.guidewire.com — from how we make decisions to how we expect everyone to treat each other while on the site.
1. Be honest
Code never lies. You interact with our products and features deeply, which is why truthful relationships with our customers, partners, and others are so critical.
2. Be inclusive
All are welcome — whether you’re a cloud developer, a developer on a Self-Managed deployment, one of our partner developers, a Marketplace integration developer, a developer who’s new to Guidewire products, or a different role entirely. Regardless of where you live, if you’re part of this community, you belong here.
3. Listen actively
When we listen well, we can improve, grow, and find unique solutions to problems. More feedback means better products, which means happier users who continue to give better feedback.
What’s Next
We received initial feedback, and our vision and values are clear. Now let’s look ahead to what’s next for developer.guidewire.com.
We want to hear from you
While we actively improve the experience on this site, getting your perspective is critical. Keep an eye out for on-page surveys where we’ll ask you to tell us how we’re doing. You can also send direct feedback to developerfeedback@guidewire.com
By the way, I review and respond to each message we receive in that inbox, so please take a moment to email your answer to this question: What’s one thing that would help improve your experience on developer.guidewire.com?
Community engagement
We’re also aiming to launch a community component on this site where developers can interact with each other in a forum similar to Stack Overflow, Reddit, and Quora. If you’re interested in being part of the beta rollout of our community, email us at developerfeedback@guidewire.com and include “Developer Community” in the subject line.
Blog posts
On our blog, you’ll be able to learn what’s new in our products, hear from subject-matter experts, and see how other developers are using Guidewire.
Monthly newsletter
To stay up to date on the latest blog posts and what’s new, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.
While there’s plenty more to come for developer.guidewire.com, I hope you’ll take the first step with me. Please say hello and introduce yourself either by email, by following Guidewire on Twitter, or by connecting with Guidewire on LinkedIn.
About the Author
Jonathan Michael
Developer Evangelist
Jonathan has spent the last 12 years developing and implementing customer-centric digital marketing strategies. As the Developer Evangelist at Guidewire, Jonathan will be focused on partnering with, and advocating for the success of, developers who use Guidewire's ecosystem to build a better tomorrow.