This tweet got me thinking:
Show evidence of your mastery.
It’s incredibly attractive to those you want to serve and empower.
— Arvid Kahl (@arvidkahl) July 15, 2022
Building in Public
Presumably the context here is “Building in Public” which Arvid often talks about. The concept being if you’re building a company, a startup, a solution to some problem – that you talk (and publish content) about the thought process going into it, the decisions you’re making along the way. This process, this openness, exposes the “why” to your “what”. It makes the founder and the concept more approachable. It provides context for potential customers, partners, and clients to understand the solution, the impact, and the business more. It will drive engagement, and ideally end up with not just more customers, but more passionate customers.
Arvid and others can do a better job of explaining the “Building in Public” concept, but that’s the takeaway I have from it.
Keep in mind, talking, building, and having conversations doesn’t mean you’re *right* about everything, for sure. But you’re digging in and developing opinions. Ideally, you’re open to discussion on topics and tweaking your opinions as you learn and grow.
Learning and Doing in Public
“Show evidence of your mastery” The context I’m interested in is around tech skills. And showing mastery here is just as important.
How do you show evidence? Write a blog post or an article on a site like LinkedIn. Record a demo video. It could start with journaling for yourself until you’re comfortable writing for others. There are lots of ways of getting started and progressing from there.
For Yourself
- It can show your current employer what you know, what you’re learning, as well as how well you can communicate.
- It provides more information to prospective employers if/when you’re looking for a new opportunity.
- Sharing, writing, communicating: Great practices that develops soft skills.
For Your Company
- Like individuals sharing stories, organizations can demonstrate proficiencies to clients and customers.
- Within a company, teams can share solutions to internal challenges. These often result in other departments wanting to implement similar solutions – not only resulting in business wins but added ROI for the tools and licensing companies invest in.
For Others
The more you share, the more opportunities there are for folks to learn from you. People learn in different ways. You never know when your style of communication might sync with someone’s method of learning. You never know when that nugget of information you figured out is the one thing they’ve been trying to find.