DEV Community

Discussion on: WTF is "Developer Focused"?

Collapse
 
awwsmm profile image
Andrew (he/him)

So do you think that only organisations and companies which develop software for developers can be developer-focused organisations? What about companies that really only produce software for consumers?

Collapse
 
adron profile image
Adron Hall • Edited

By definition it wouldn't be for developers right? There are companies that do both, let's say Apple, but then also focus on developers. Apple works on developer focused things like SDK's, languages (Swift/Obj-C) and then on the other side produces income via their products, a combination of software and hardware combined.

I don't think that an organization or a company has to be purely developer focused, it could be one of many aspects of what they focus on. What are your thoughts on that?

Collapse
 
jeremycmorgan profile image
Jeremy Morgan

The term is widely overused and beat to death. That being said I also think it's a matter of scope. A company can be "developer focused" internally, if they are highly invested in their developers and empower them to great work. That means next to nothing to the customer base, so it would only apply to recruiting materials ("come work for this developer focused company!)

A company or an organization that builds things for developers as Adron mentioned could also be "developer focused" and that means something externally as well.

Where do you draw the line is a great question. Is a company that sells physical widgets yet works hard to create a great API "developer focused"? Probably not but there's a small argument for it.

Collapse
 
adron profile image
Adron Hall

Exactly, beaten to death! Ugh!

Yeah, the line drawing is where things get more confusing, and somewhat frustrating! I try to keep a definition that is easy to provide when or if someone asks, "what do you mean by developer focused" when having conversations. It always seems to make things a bit clearer with a specific definition in mind.