Meet the Team: DX

Have you ever wondered who writes all the technical documentation here at Memgraph or who’s answering questions and helping developers through Discord and Stack Overflow? Meet Ante, Katarina, Kruno, Matea, and Vlasta - our Developer Experience team that perfectly combines technical writers and developer relations engineers.

Let’s start with your team roles - who’s responsible for what, and which tools do you mainly use?

Vlasta: As a technical writer, I’m maintaining and improving documentation as code here in Memgraph. Mostly I use GitHub and Visual Studio, but Google Docs, Notion and Grammarly are great for any other kind of content that needs writing and editing. XMind helps me organize my thoughts and ideas about the organization of documentation or projects we are working on. And yes, I am endlessly dreaming about a spelling checker that works well across all platforms and software!

Ante: I am a software engineer in the DX team, and my responsibility is primarily on technical tasks, but I am happy to work on any challenges or tasks we have as a team. Two things that I always use are Visual studio code and Slack.

Katarina: Being a developer relations engineer includes using tools for app development such as Git, VS Code, and Docker. My stack includes Python, React, and Kafka/Pulsar/Redpanda because of the streaming datasets. Besides coding and creating demos, I attend many conferences, talk at various meetups, etc.

Kruno: Well, I came to Memgraph as a technical writer, but now I’m a developer relations manager. Mainly I’m working with our community across several social networks, improving developer journeys, advocating for external developers, and conducting user interviews. My everyday tools are GitHub, Visual Studio Code, SnagIt, Google Docs, Orbit, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console.

Matea: I am the newest and only student member of the DX team so I work on a little bit of everything. I am currently very engaged with the developer community, asking and answering many questions and learning on the way. Google sheets, VSCode, and GitHub are my tools, but I’m looking forward to trying more programming tools and developing my skills.

So, what does team DX actually do?

Katarina: DX team, or the Developer Experience team, is responsible for smoothing the process of Memgraph adoption to any developer out there. Technical writers are responsible for the documentation and the content that gets out there, while DevRel Engineers are responsible for building the demo apps showcasing the strengths of Memgraph, writing and filming the content, and managing the community. The community hangs out at Discord, and Stack Overflow, so we are always there to hear them out. DX team also attends conferences, speaks at the meetups, organizes webinars and courses, and organizes a local meetup - Graph Data Zagreb.

Ante: Or, to put it very shortly, the team is involved in everything developers outside Memgraph interact with. This includes docs, APIs, demos, tutorials, community, etc.

Are there any challenges you face as a part of the developer experience team?

Kruno: When it comes to the general population, I would say that people are still not familiar with graph databases.

Ante: Something we struggle with all the time is balancing complexity when preparing any content. Content complexity defines your target audience and where the content belongs, so we must consider it.

Vlasta: The biggest challenge is to try and reset your mind, kind of unlearn everything you know about your content and documentation to see flaws. When you become too comfortable within the docs or content, you assume that because it seems logical and right to you, it's logical and right for everyone. WRONG! Seek out feedback, and question everything.

What’s been your favorite team activity? Or what's the best thing about your team?

Katarina: Escape room! But really, we all do enjoy as a part of our team bonding budget to go and have fun in escape rooms or just dining together. Besides that, I’d say the best thing about our team is its diversity.

Matea: The best thing about my team is that every single one of them is so friendly, welcoming, and helpful. They immediately made me feel like part of the team :)

Kruno: The best thing about my team? They are there for me when I need them. I get a lot of new knowledge and support daily. Favorite activity? Kate already mentioned an escape room, but other than that, I like just being with the team, drinking coffee, and talking about various things.

And last but not least - what do you like about working at Memgraph?

Ante: The various challenges we face push us to learn more, which I like very much. One of the great benefits of working at Memgraph is working from home. This gives me a lot of freedom and time and enables me to be with my newborn daughter.

Vlasta: Being remote gives me valuable time to spend with my kids I would otherwise spend on traveling. Also, morning routines of getting everybody ready for their kindergarten adventures are less stressful. My work requires a lot of peace and quiet, and I can sometimes struggle with that in the office.

Katarina: I like helping and educating. I am always interested in new ways of explaining concepts to people which will truly inspire them. I also like learning new technologies, and here I have full freedom to do so.

Matea: The friendliness of the coworkers! Also, Memgraph is a great company to work at since it is an amazing platform, and all of the employees recognize that and try their best to develop it further.

Kruno: I love the people of Memgraph. So young, so enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and friendly, ... I learn new things every day, and I always have someone that I can ask if something is not clear.

Join our community and get involved with our DX team on Discord, and give us a star on GitHub!