The chapter explores the challenges and approaches to starting a project like Spotify Backstage from scratch, emphasizing the need for camaraderie, relentless promotion, and perseverance. It discusses the importance of proving value through launch and usage, understanding customer needs, and driving adoption through useful features and ongoing investment in evangelism. The chapter also delves into strategies for bootstrapping a developer portal with limited funding by showcasing wins, fostering a community of contributors, and promoting an open-source mentality.
In this episode we’re joined by Adam Rogal, who leads Developer Productivity and Platform at DoorDash. Adam describes DoorDash’s journey with their internal developer portal, and gives advice for other teams looking to follow a similar path. Adam also describes how his team delivered value quickly and drove adoption for their developer platform.
Discussion points:
- (1:47) Why DoorDash explored implementing a developer portal
- (6:59) The initial vision for the developer portal
- 12:19 Funding ongoing development
- 16:01 Deciding what to include in the portal
- 19:15 Coming up with a name for the portal
- 20:01 Advice for interested beginners
- 23:55 Putting together a business case
- 32:32 Getting adoption for the portal
- 37:27 Driving initial awareness
- 41:29 Getting feedback from developers
- 48:33 What Adam would have done differently
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