Danny the Development Leader - Buyer Persona

Sheet
Table of Contents
Persona Basics
Responsibilities
Sources of information
Familiarity with low-code
Priorities/Initiatives
Barriers, Blockers, and Pain Points
How Mendix Delivers Value
Evaluation Criteria
Technical Evaluation Criteria
Business Evaluation Criteria
Decision Making
Role in Buying Committee
Champion or Skeptic
What makes Development Leaders different?

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For questions, please reach out to Dina Durutlic

Persona Basics
What are the basic, key pieces of information for Development Leaders?
 “I am the liaison between upper management and my team - I
need to ensure management gets the solutions they need, while
my developers stay productive and motivated.”

My Title is… I Report To… My Important I’m I Hate…

Stakeholders Are… Passionate
About…

Sr. Director/Director of VP, Software Engineering Business leaders Solving Administrative

Software Engineering complex tasks and
problems project
management
NOTEWORTHY: In terms of career development, most Development Leaders have had a linear career path,
starting as developers and working their way up. (This means that they understand the developer in terms of
pain points, frustrations, etc.)
My Top 5 Responsibilities Are…
. Translate business needs into development roadmap
. Deliver on solutions that focus and impact business goals i.e. reduce cost, operational efficiency, etc.
. Ensure developer productivity is high, while motivating the team and cultivating talent
. Resolve issues that impact executing/delivering on time
. Ensure customers/ end users have a high quality experience
! NOTE !: Development Leaders do not contribute to the development of solutions, but they do oversee
the process to make sure “the train leaves on time”.

Sources Of Information That I Use…

To research (sparked by a need/pain point):
Gartner for understanding the landscape agnostic of vendor narratives and leading providers
Google to get a “quick” understanding of the technology and vendors
Stack Overflow to see the community for the technology (i.e. questions asked, presence, etc.)
Word of mouth from my peers to get their perspective on the technology
Other:
LinkedIn articles from thought leaders in business and IT
They follow business leaders like Jeff Bezos, Mark Cuban, Mark Zuckerberg, etc.
Learning:
O’Reilly
Pluralsight/Coursera/Udemy

My Familiarity with Low-code…

Little to no familiarity with low-code → understand the concept of visual development (but not the ability of
low-code development at it’s core)
Associates low-code development with “simple use-cases” or “business focused solutions”

“Sounds good in theory. It has potential as the technology gets better” - Director of Software Engineering
@ Major US sport organization

“Sounds like it could be useful for some teams - like business or simple use cases, but not for mine.” - Sr.
Director of Software Engineering @ Medical device company

“Putting engineering and business in one place? It doesn’t sound realistic.” - Director of Software
Engineer @ Medical device company

MOTIVATOR: Development Leaders are motivated by solving a challenge/problems – those more hands on are
motivated by delivering, no matter how big or small.

Priorities & Initiatives

What are some key priorities and initiatives that Development Leaders are looking to achieve?
! NOTE !:Development Leaders want to be more strategic and take on responsibilities that move the needle for
the organization. “I want to [help] decide what’s important for the company, for the customers”. - Director of
Software Engineering @ Major US sport organization

I need to ensure and enable strategic growth in key areas…

INITIATIVE DESCRIPTION EXTERNAL QUOTE RELATED MENDIX ASSETS (more coming
soon)

Developer Need to ensure: “Make sure my teams are https://www.mendix.com/blog/5-stats-

Management that the team is working, working efficiently illustrating-the-developer-shortage-facing-
staying and effectively. I’m enterprise-organizations/
motivated and responsible for the well
not burning out being of the entire team - in https://www.mendix.com/blog/low-code-
that developers addition to their benefits-streamline-development-without-
are productive - productivity. So I need to jeopardizing-quality/
working make sure they are doing
efficiently and well and growing in addition https://www.mendix.com/press/mendix-
effectively to delivering solutions to drives-economic-value-for-large-companies-
that developers management/stakeholders” amid-software-developer-shortage-strong-
are growing in - Director of Software rise-in-business-demand-for-applications-
their careers Engineer @ Medical device new-report-finds/
company

Portfolio Need to ensure: “Scalability is very

Scalability & that the important; we are in a
Uptime organization can competitive
continue business/growing industry
growing without so we need to launch
incidents and frequently - with high
limitations quantity of deliverables, this
that there there is a big KPI. We need to be
is no downtime prepared for unplanned
hypergrowth - I need to
ensure we can grow
without restrictions.” -
Software Engineering
Leader @ Transportation
organization

Cloud Need to ensure: "Among the list of things - https://www.mendix.com/blog/why-cloud-

Migration that the including cost reduction, native-applications-are-the-future-of-
organization can incident reduction, etc. I software/
move to the need to decommission from
cloud on-prem and move to the
that the team cloud. We need to have at
can create least 99.99% uptime.” -
cloud-native Head of Software
applications to Engineering @ Banking
future proof organization
solutions

Legacy Need to ensure: “I want to enable a hybrid https://www.mendix.com/customers/teraco-

Modernization that they move cloud environment and data-environments/
away from cloud-native apps so that
legacy systems way we can move away
 which have risks, from monolithic https://www.mendix.com/blog/exp-realty-
require applications - move away moves-to-microservices-archictecture/
specialized from legacy systems” - VP
skillsets, of Software Engineering @ https://www.mendix.com/blog/how-
increase costs, Banking organization continental-swapped-lotus-notes-and-
etc. domino-for-low-code/
that solutions
are future proof https://www.mendix.com/blog/killing-your-
companys-legacy-applications-the-right-
way/

Customer Need to ensure: “Engagement/experience https://www.mendix.com/blog/avertra-

Impact that the and customer retention are uses-lowcode-to-change-the-way-they-work-
customer is very important. We are also and-drive-customer-satisfaction/
having a positive trying to expand the user
experience base by tapping into new
that customers markets/audiences.” -
continue/expand Director of Software
business with Engineering @ Major US
the organization sport organization
that there is no
churn

Business Need to ensure: “A large part [of my https://www.mendix.com/customer-

Efficiencies that processes responsibilities] is stories/suez/
are optimized developing and delivering https://www.mendix.com/customer-
there is minimal the capabilities to drive stories/dubai-municipality/
downtime business value - impact
there is a such as cost reduction, etc.”
reduced cost to - Head of Software
the business Engineering @ Banking
organization

Barriers, Blockers, and Pain Points

What stops Development Leaders from delivering on their initiatives?

BARRIER/BLOCKER/ DESCRIPTION EXTERNAL QUOTE RELEVANT

PAIN POINT INITATIVES
(from previous
section)

Organizations are afraid When it comes to embracing “Bugs are very hard to Organizational
of change/reliance on emerging/new technology or deal with when it’s Scalability & Uptime
legacy systems even moving to a new way of legacy code. Not to Legacy
working is very adverse to mention the Modernization
leadership/the organization. maintenance cost, Cloud Migration
So adopting something new technical debt, and
 requires a lot of convincing, other things that cause
proven value and minimal risk. pain points due to legacy
solutions.” - Director of
There are some solutions that Software Engineering @
are legacy that the Major US sport
organization continues to organization
leverage - in conjunction with
“legacy thinking” from
leadership, teams are “stuck”
working with older
systems/solutions that are
costly, risky, and require
specialized resources.

Miscommunication with There is frequent “Communication is Customer Impact

non-technical miscommunication do to always a piece when it Business
stakeholders different stakeholders comes to pain points. Efficiencies
“speaking a different The left hand knowing
! NOTE !: this is not the language”, additionally, teams what the right hand is
fault of the IT team or the hit blind-spots → this occurs doing is always a battle.
business team, it’s a when they don’t know the Is communication going
“language difference” right question to ask to get up the chain? is it going
issue the right answer. lateral? Things being
said need to be heard
and understood.” -
Director of Software
Engineering @ Medical
device organization

Priority switching (or Development Leaders and “Maintaining context Legacy

competing priorities) their teams often deal with about too many things Modernization
priority switching this comes creates an overhead, Cloud Migration
from competition priorities reduces efficiency, and Customer Impact
from key stakeholders but builds up stress." - Business
results in overhead, reduces Director of Software Efficiencies
efficiency, and builds up Engineering @ Leading
stress networking organization

“Seamlessly developing?
Not happening. We have
a lot of fires all the time
and that’s stressful for
the team. Finding the
right amount of planning
and communicating is
very much the day to
day.”- Director of
Software Engineering @
Medical device
organization
 Developer shortage Teams are often short staffed “Talent shortage - no Organizational
when it comes to skilled one wants to work for a Scalability & Uptime
resources for development yet [a company that isn’t Cloud Migration
face tight deadlines and software] - this impacts Legacy
deliverables requested by key everything.” - VP of Modernization
stakeholders Software Engineering @ Customer Impact
Banking organization Business
Efficiencies

Industry regulations Due to the nature of some “There is a 200 page Customer Impact
companies (i.e. banking, process checklist that a Business
medical device, etc.) there are tool has to go through. Efficiencies
heavy regulations when it So bringing in new tools
comes: takes about eight
Bringing in a new months to a year. The
technology (there are often vendor has to meet all
standards/criteria that the regulatory and
have been predefined that security stuff on the
the vendor must adhere to) checklist and
Solutions created by the successfully meet the
company need to be audit process.” - VP of
compliant with industry Software Engineering @
regulations Banking organization

“High industry
regulations slows down
speed to market for
solutions” - Director of
Software Engineering @
Financial organization

How Mendix Delivers Value?

Where does Mendix fit in addressing barriers, blockers, and pain points to deliver success?

! NOTE !: When aligning Mendix values to Development Leader pain points, we need to be very clear and
connect the dots for them. The goal is to either foster a true champion with the data they need to have a robust
argument OR ensure the skeptic gets all their questions answered!

PAIN POINT MENDIX VALUE STRENGTH IN LEARN

DESCRIPTION/ELEVATOR PITCH OUR SOLUTION MORE
(weak: 1 - strong: 5) (coming
soon)

Organizations are afraid of Named an industry leader by both top tier 3

change/reliance on legacy analysts (such as Gartner & Forrester),
systems Mendix provides the reassurance that
 low-code development is equipped to
take on enterprise grade initiatives as
well as ensure stakeholders of the
longevity of the organization – which
makes it an industry leader.

Miscommunication with Mendix brings all stakeholders together 5

non-technical stakeholders in a collaborative environment to define
requirements and process feedback.
Stakeholders can provide clear feedback
to the team (via screenshot capability and
comments within each application.)

Different competing Due to the nature of low-code 3

priorities from development, each step of the software
business/priority switching development lifecycle is abstracted and
automated to streamline development -
deploying 10x faster than traditional
development. Mendix also supports
developers with built in resources to help
them streamline the process.

Developer shortage Mendix empowers co-creation across a 4

diverse developer spectrum with purpose
! NOTE !: be cautious how built, skills based IDEs for citizen and
you position citizen professional developers. Both IDEs share
developers. For example, the same meta-data model and model
refer to them as domain repository - offering seamless
experts who can help bidirectional sync as well as close
offload tedious tasks, make collaboration within a project. By
minor changes, or use the enlisting domain experts to take on
platform to provide “tedious” tasks of development or
professional developers a prototyping an idea for an application, it
prototype. removes the miscommunication between
developers and non-technical
stakeholders.

Industry regulations Mendix complies with various third-party 1

security certifications and assurance
reports. The platform also takes the
security of applications, the platform
itself, and the cloud operations running
the platform very seriously to comply with
industry regulations.

Evaluation Criteria
What do Development Leaders look for in new technologies in order for them to commit to adopting them?

! NOTE !: Development Leaders will often bring in technology that solves a pain point - so when they do an
evaluation to bring in a technology, they’ll focus first on the business evaluation criteria first. To shortlist vendors,
they’ll look at technical criteria (also focusing on who the vendor is, what their background is, size, etc.) but they
need to understand the basic list of capabilities of the vendor.

Technical Product Evaluation Criteria

. Ease of use
a. What is the learning curve? Is it intuitive? Is there good documentation? Is there solid communities?
! NOTE !: This is an important factor for Development Leaders, given the limited number of resources,
using their time effectively is very important. So, the ramp up needs to be reasonable OR the learning
curve needs to be justifiable as it’s pulling the team away from delivering solutions.
. Integration
a. Can it connect to key systems? Will it augment my current tech stack?
. Security
a. Is the technology secure? Can I add security parameters?
. Cloud
a. Will it support my goal to move to the cloud? Does it support cloud-native solution development?
! NOTE !: Development Leaders want to embrace the cloud and create cloud-native solutions if they
aren’t doing so today. However, they are often slowed down by legacy thinking from their management
team. Talking to them about how they can embrace the cloud without disruption, how can act as a
supporting factor for them.
. Cost
a. How much does the new technology cost? Who is the vendor? Is it justifiable against my perceived ROIs?
! NOTE !: Most organizations strive to reduce costs. Development Leaders are looking to help the
organization reduce cost, but they also have to take into consideration the cost associated with a new
platform vs. spending that on headcount.

Business Evaluation Criteria

. Supports key initiatives/ business goals
. Supports team productivity
. Improves operational efficiency
. Reduces costs

Decision Making
What role does the Development Leader play in decision making?

Role in the Buying Committee

Development Leaders are not the final decision makers
Development Leaders represent their opinion and the opinion of their team when it comes to evaluating
technologies
Development Leaders will often assess how the decision will impact their team and the business

Are they “Bringing In” (champion) or “Evaluating” (skeptic)?

Development Leaders often do both - they bring in new technologies for evaluation as well as act as an evaluator
for others when new technology proposals are brought in.
Bringing In New Technology (Champion)
Development Leaders will bring in new technologies when it aligns to a pain point(s) - this can be from a
business perspective or to better support the team
When evaluating a new technology Development Leaders will consider two types of ROI:
i. Does this technology add more value than hiring a developer or two?
ii. What is the return of investment from a business perspective?
! NOTE !: This order will be reversed when they are the “skeptic”
Development Leaders need to provide rationale (data driven support) for adopting a new technology,
however management often tends to trust the opinion of the Development Leader
Evaluating New Technology (Skeptic)
When evaluating a new technology Development Leaders will consider two types of ROI:
i. What is the return of investment from a business perspective?
ii. Does this technology add more value than hiring a developer or two?
! NOTE !: This order will be reversed when they are the “champion”
Development Leaders will represent their evaluation of a new technology as well as the opinions of their
team (the developers)
Development Leaders will shortlist vendors based on technical capabilities/features when they are
evaluating

! NOTE!: Skeptics might not be aware of low-code in the evaluation stage, so their evaluation might also act as
their education - but remember, they will look at the technical capabilities of the platform first, before
confirming the business value. (The reverse is true if they are a champion, champions will confirm business
criteria is met before evaluating technology criteria.)

What makes Development Leaders different?

What are some additional pieces of information to know about the Development Leader?

Technology
Development Leaders are willing to embrace/keep up-to-date with “proven” emerging technologies (i.e. cloud,
AI/ML, IoT, etc.) for two reasons:
. To remain “relevant” with regards to their own knowledge, to align with their developers (speaking the same
language), and to be strategic for the organization (being able to provide different type of solutions).
 . To understand what solutions are out there for alleviating pain points for their organization

However, due to legacy thinking from management it’s difficult to change mentalities without providing robust
support/rationale. Some work around this by embracing “hybrid”. For example, moving to Agile requires a
complete shift which can’t be done overnight so they operate in Waterfall primarily and execute small
developments using Agile. Similar ideology can be applied to deployment capabilities like cloud vs. on-prem.

Evaluation
When it comes to the demographic of Development Leaders they are diverse in nature, the only predominant
characteristic is that 75% of Development Leaders are men. When it comes to female Development Leaders,
the insight above remains true, but when it comes to their evaluation (whether they are a champion or a sceptic)
the technology needs to check all the boxes (if not most) before they support it.