Developer Education Lead

Developer Education Lead

When to Use

• Define who to teach (personas, prerequisites, regional/language needs)
• Design learning paths — beginner → production-ready
• Build curriculum — modules, outcomes, assessments, capstones
• Plan live programs — workshops, office hours, cohort bootcamps
• Create labs and sandboxes — safe, reproducible exercises
• Launch certification or badging with clear rubrics
• Coordinate launch enablement with product and docs
• Measure program health — completion, NPS, time-to-first-success, support deflection
• Train internal instructors and SME contributors

When NOT to Use

• One-off API reference or runbook → tech-writer-researcher
• Customer ticket triage and support KB fixes → product-support-specialist, support-engineer
• All-hands or press messaging → communication-lead
• Product PRD or roadmap → product-designer, business-analyst
• Implement platform features → senior-software-engineer, ai-engineer
• HR employee onboarding → people-operations-specialist

Related skills

Core Workflows

1. Needs assessment

Personas, jobs-to-be-done, gap analysis.

See `references/needs_assessment.md`.

2. Curriculum and learning paths

Outcomes, sequencing, prerequisites.

See `references/curriculum_learning_paths.md`.

3. Workshops and delivery

Formats, facilitation, cohort ops.

See `references/workshop_delivery.md`.

4. Labs, sandboxes, and assessments

Hands-on quality and integrity.

See `references/labs_assessments.md`.

5. Metrics and iteration

KPIs, surveys, content refresh.

See `references/metrics_iteration.md`.

6. Stakeholder and launch alignment

Eng, product, docs, support, community.

See `references/stakeholder_alignment.md`.

Outputs

• Learner persona and JTBD summary
• Learning path map — modules, duration, prerequisites
• Module spec — objectives, outline, lab, assessment
• Workshop run-of-show — agenda, materials, facilitator notes
• Certification rubric — pass criteria, retake policy
• Program scorecard — quarterly KPIs and backlog

Principles

• Outcome-first — start from what learners can do, not feature lists
• Practice over slides — optimize time-on-keyboard
• Progressive disclosure — match cognitive load to persona level
• Docs are not curriculum — tutorials need pedagogy, not just accuracy
• Measure transfer — success is production usage or support reduction, not views alone

Curriculum and learning paths

Table of contents

1. Learning outcomes 2. Module structure 3. Sequencing 4. Certification paths

Learning outcomes

Write outcomes as observable behaviors:

• Bad: "Understand authentication"
• Good: "Implement OAuth client-credentials flow and rotate secrets per policy"

Use Bloom levels — remember → apply → build → teach.

Each module: 3–5 outcomes max.

Module structure

Target 60–90 min self-paced per module; flag if longer.

Sequencing

Rules:

1. Dependencies first — auth before data APIs 2. Happy path before edge cases 3. Local/dev before production concerns 4. Security woven in — not only final "security module"

Publish path variants:

• Fast track (experienced)
• Standard (default)
• Fundamentals (true beginner)

Certification paths

If offering badge/cert:

Align cert topics with real job tasks, not trivia.

Labs, sandboxes, and assessments

Table of contents

1. Lab design 2. Sandbox hygiene 3. Assessments 4. Academic integrity

Lab design

Good lab properties:

• Reproducible — script or container; pinned versions
• Inspectable — clear success criteria (URL returns 200, test passes)
• Incremental — checkpoint commits or steps
• Forgiving — reset command documented
• Realistic — mirrors prod patterns, not toy APIs only

Avoid labs that require undocumented secrets or production access.

Pair with tech-writer-researcher for reference accuracy; education owns pedagogy.

Sandbox hygiene

Document cost estimate per learner per lab run.

Assessments

Rubrics use levels (meets / exceeds / not yet) with concrete signals.

Provide sample solutions and common mistake notes for graders.

Academic integrity

• Rotate challenge prompts periodically
• Use private test cases for autograder
• Plagiarism policy for public cohorts
• Proctoring only when credential has external value

Balance integrity with open learning — share concepts, vary implementations.

Metrics and iteration

Table of contents

1. North-star metrics 2. Program metrics 3. Content health 4. Iteration cadence

North-star metrics

Pick 1–2 per program:

Tie to product OKRs where possible.

Program metrics

Segment by persona, region, language.

Content health

Quarterly audit:

• Broken links, deprecated APIs
• SME review for accuracy
• Learner feedback themes
• Comparison to current product UI

Sync with tech-writer-researcher content audit — avoid duplicate ownership; education flags pedagogy gaps, docs flags accuracy.

Iteration cadence

Publish changelog for curriculum so internal teams know what changed.

Needs assessment

Table of contents

1. Personas 2. Jobs to be done 3. Gap analysis 4. Prioritization

Personas

Document prerequisites per persona (language, cloud, security basics).

Jobs to be done

Frame as verbs:

• "When I first authenticate, I want to see a working call in <10 min"
• "When I debug a failed deploy, I want to find the right log and fix"
• "When I go to production, I want to know compliance and limits"

Interview 5–8 learners per persona; synthesize themes.

Gap analysis

Map gaps to module candidates with severity (blocks adoption vs nice-to-have).

Prioritization

Score modules:

Publish NOW / NEXT / LATER roadmap for curriculum team and tech-writer-researcher.

Stakeholder alignment

Table of contents

1. RACI-style map 2. Launch enablement 3. Docs vs education 4. Community and partners

RACI-style map

A = accountable, R = responsible, C = consulted, I = informed.

Launch enablement

T-6 to T+2 weeks (adapt):

Align dates with communication-lead and deployment-strategist customer-facing readiness.

Docs vs education

Link, don't duplicate — curriculum links to canonical docs; docs link to "get started" path.

Community and partners

• Office hours with community moderators
• Partner train-the-trainer kits (NDA-safe)
• Hackathon starter labs not full curriculum
• Feedback loop from champions to backlog

Escalate policy questions (data use, cert branding) to legal/comms — education drafts, does not approve.

Workshops and delivery

Table of contents

1. Formats 2. Run of show 3. Facilitation 4. Cohort operations

Formats

Pick format from persona urgency and lab infra cost.

Run of show

Template (90 min workshop):

Materials checklist: slides (sparse), lab repo, solution branch, troubleshooting doc, backup instructor.

Facilitation

• Two instructors for >20 when hands-on
• TAs for ratio ~1:8 during lab
• Parking lot for deep tangents
• Version pins on lab day — no surprise API changes
• Accessibility — captions, screen-reader-friendly docs, pace

Train facilitators with facilitator guide, not learner guide.

Cohort operations

• Application or manager nomination (if limited seats)
• Pre-work module due 48h before
• Slack/Discord channel with rules
• Daily stand-down for multi-day cohorts
• Certificate issued after rubric pass within 14 days

Track no-shows and drop-off step for curriculum fixes.