open source engineer @ slack

as a part of the developer relations team.

for those unfamiliar “devrel” is the group that cares oodles about the folks that program.

we hope to make making apps on slack pleasant!

role responsibilities

boundaries for an open source engineer doing developer relations are loosely defined. or i lost the job description.

surface areas spread from internal initiatives to external involvements.

voicing feedback from the community and sharing my own plays parts in product progressions.

prototyping is a common practice and experimentation is encouraged. getting stuff done is one of my favorite parts of the job.

i feel very lucky to be with a wonderful team in all of this.

the slack cli is a tool for building automation features on the platform.

my involvements include:

designing user experiences for command line tooling: focused on the new user flow from an installation to a successful app deployment. applied consistency to output styles, tone, copy, and error messaging.
contributing upstream bug fixes to multiple projects: fixed issues that caused disappearing lines in outputs containing ansi sequences.
extending end-to-end tests and streamlining development workflows: implemented tests that have caught regressions. synchronized tests across multiple repos. reduced testing time by half with parallelization.

packaged bundles of code to make developing apps on slack quicker.

my participation spans:

engaging with community questions and bug reports: triaged issues submitted by developers and responded with workarounds and fixes.
reviewing open source contributions: assessed feature additions that expanded existing functionality and released the accepted changes.
maintaining pipelines and documentation: ensured artifacts adjacent to code embraced the most recent updates for sturdier repositories.

consult these tools: https://slack.dev

platform use cases and features are showcased in prepared templates.

my experiments encompass:

planning and production of initial apps: developed multiple samples around common use cases with an extensible and modular structure.
reflecting the latest additions: included examples of additions to the platform and other capabilities with corresponding documentation.
scripting dependency management processes: updated all module versions to the current release programmatically during release cycles.

detailed deep dives covering different topics directed to the developer.

my narrative contains:

compiling guides and tutorials: transcribed recommended practices from previous findings to reduce frictions for a smoother adventure.
iterating upon nuanced detail: refreshed wordage to resemble truths within an evolving landscape of constant delivery and deprecation.
attempting usability improvements: designed alternative layouts for structured information and reduced loading times for page content.

read the friendly docs: https://api.slack.com

before the full-time gig i had an internship on the education team.

summer days were split learning subtleties of the platform and sharing these understandings in an introductory educational guide.

the guide now exists in developer tooling as the “platform guide”!

from planning to polish and with the help of a mentor this guide:

sitting in front of the slack office