On this site you’ll find my blog, links to things I’ve done in other places, and my contact details. I’m always happy to hear from others in the industry and you are welcome to reach out to me with requests for articles, podcasts, or speaking – I can’t do everything, but that doesn’t stop me trying!
Welcome! I’m Lorna: open source technology leader and developer experience engineer. I’m a striking combination of technical experience, communication skills, and a genuine love for enabling others to succeed. I’m a leader, an engineer, a writer, a user champion, an open source maintainer, and a public speaker. My passion is taking great technology, and making it a great experience for users.
From The Blog
08 Mar
2023
Raising the Next Generation of DevRel
Developer Relations isn’t new, but it’s also broad, ill-defined, and constantly evolving. It’s difficult to keep your own skills up to date, never mind coping with a whole team full of people and constantly creeping industry scope. The required combination of specialist and generalist skills to be successful is any of the Developer Relations and allied roles is extensive, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and end up coasting being just-good-enough at things but never feeling mastery.
As an individual contributor, manager and general DevRel presence over the years, I’ve developed some tactics both for myself and my team, and I’d like to share them in case they’re useful to others. Also since I’m moving to a less DevRel role, writing this down while I can still think about it! Continue reading
26 Feb
2023
Manager’s Secret Second Calendar
Employees expect a lot from their managers, and as managers we do our best to meet those expectations. However most managers are only human (I’ve met a few that I had doubts about), and so it can be difficult to get absolutely everything right absolutely all the time. I’d like to share a tactic that I learned from another manager around the time that I took my first line manager role, that I think really helped me to at least give the impression that I knew what was going on: a second calendar, visible only to you, with key dates in. Continue reading