Do you do the programming yourself? Do you write code?

Yes  I am a software developer

I can write code. But I rarely claim I’m a software developer, as I believe a software developer is someone who writes code full-time. I have a very high expectations of a person’s ability when they take on the title of “software developer”. I have years of experience working side by side with full-time developers that concentrate on creating excellent code. I don’t create excellent code, I create products for your market.

No I am not a software developer

If you’ve never worked with a software development team before you may not realize how cross functional a high performing team is. My role working with a team producing digital products is to:

• Quickly learn how your brand promise works, from you, your partners and your customers.
• Translate that into a digital strategy that provides you a roadmap for developing digital products.
• Working with you to find an acceptable budget that will deliver a great digital product portfolio.
• Working with the team I help you assemble to develop those products.

I do enjoy reading code and admire well written code. I’m code literate and will often help developers when they get stuck on a tricky programming problem by applying my analytical and critical thinking skills to help them find solutions. I’m also more likely to actually help them as I know how to write code.

Wait, what? Am I a developer or not?

I do get paid to write code and so people sometimes call me a developer. I also get paid to do a great deal of other things besides write code so I go with the label “Product Developer”. I prefer this label as I find when I use it, people have a more accurate expectation of both the capabilities I use to deliver on a complete software product.