I'd like to start with a story about a guy called Miguel. He was born in Mexico, and when he was young, he moved to the US with his parents and fell into technology, and started learning how to code.
During his career, he started leveraging this API management platform called MuleSoft, and there was a really awesome community around it. He started learning from other people who were using this technology, and soon he started teaching and sharing his own best practices.
He ended up founding one of the core meetup groups in Dallas and became that champion.
In this particular community, there’s this recognition called ‘the ambassador,’ so of course, he became one of the leaders in the community.
Just for context, MuleSoft is a part of Salesforce. Salesforce also has this recognition in their community called ‘the golden hoodie.’ You earn this recognition if you're influencing and mentoring others and making an incredible impact in the community.
Miguel was one of the first MuleSoft community members to earn this at Salesforce.
This narrative is a perfect arc of what you’d like to see in your community champion. But I don't think that's the coolest thing about Miguel's story. Miguel was from Latin America, he understood the opportunity to bring skills and technology to underserved communities, and he always carried that with him throughout his career.
At his company, he currently runs a Latin American division, and he’s giving back by helping people to upskill and connecting people to opportunities, and that's what fuels him. And, as someone who works in developer marketing and community building, that's also what fuels me.
We have to deliver on product adoption goals and those bottom line KPIs for our bosses, but this is the lens I like to bring to community programs because ultimately, we want our customers to thrive in their own lives.
