Building Effective Tech Communities: Extracts from CMX Chennai Chapter’s May Event
Whether you’re a developer or someone interested in building effective tech communities, this post aims to provide valuable insights.
Let's see the benefits of starting a tech community and the challenges that come along with it. This blog post summarizes the questions and answers shared during the CMX Chennai Chapter’s May event at Makers Tribe.
How I Define a Community
A community is characterized by individuals who share common attitudes, and interests. It creates a space where like-minded people can come together, interact, and collaborate.
Tech communities play a vital role in fostering knowledge sharing, idea validation, and organizational branding.
Benefits of Starting a Tech Community
1. Knowledge Sharing Among Peers:
In product-based organizations, engineers are often divided into modules, such as the Platform team, Reports team, or AI team. This division creates challenges for knowledge sharing among peers working on similar backgrounds let’s say frontend/backend. Likewise, in service-based organizations, engineers are typically assigned to projects, making knowledge sharing a bit more challenging due to project-specific boundaries. Establishing a tech community within a company helps bridge this gap, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and insights across teams and projects. E.g. at Kissflow once a month, “Chapter Day” will be organized where everyone put their work aside and shares/collaborate with peers of the same background across the module.
2. Emerge and Validation of New Ideas:
While events like Hackathons already foster the emergence and validation of new ideas, a dedicated tech community can enhance this process further. By creating a space for open discussions, brainstorming sessions, and collaborative problem-solving, a tech community can become a breeding ground for innovative ideas and ensure their validation through collective expertise.
3. Product/Company Branding:
Tech communities also contribute to product and company branding. By allowing external individuals to such community events, organizations can increase visibility and attract a diverse range of talent. E.g. Thoughtworks’ GeekNights, which allows external participants as well as helps to engage with the community. In addition, employees who actively participate in the community gain a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in giving back.
Managing Work and Community Responsibilities:
Being involved in a role while simultaneously running a community can be demanding. Here’s how such challenges can be managed:
1. Allocating Saturdays for the Community:
Recognizing that Saturdays are often non-working days in the IT industry, one can dedicate this day to community-related activities. By being mindful and setting aside a specific time, they ensure that their commitment to the community is fulfilled without significantly impacting their work schedule.
2. Demonstrating Product Usage in Demos and Examples:
Wherever it suits, one can demo their own product during demos with suitable examples. This approach not only showcases the practical application of the product but also helps the speaker to learn+evangelize the product.
3. Balancing Family Commitments:
In addition to professional and community responsibilities, one should acknowledge the challenges of balancing personal life, including family and children. Fortunately, when a life partner/children/parents understand the significance of the community work and are supportive, allow for adjustments when necessary.
It’s also important to note that some individuals in the tech community may participate actively for a period of time, take breaks, and then return, which is a valid approach to managing personal commitments alongside community involvement instead of doing nothing.
In summary, building effective tech communities requires dedication, balance, and the collective effort of individuals passionate about fostering collaboration and growth in the tech industry.
Checkout part-2 of this post sharing my own journey of community building how, when, now, and future — https://dinuswt22.medium.com/my-journey-in-community-building-from-challenging-beginnings-to-future-goals-36824fa3fc1b
