[MUSIC PLAYING]
JEANA JORGENSEN: Welcome to Community Day at Next '21.
My name is Jeana Jorgensen.
And I'm here with Urs Holzle.
Today is unique in that it will span an entire 24
hours to bring together communities
from all around the world in local time zones.
But before we get into those details,
we wanted to share some really exciting news with you.
URS HOLZLE: That's right.
But first, I'd like to thank you all for your incredible
collaboration and commitment to Google Cloud,
because developers are really the core inspiration
behind everything that we build.
Your constant pursuit of excellence motivates us.
And your feedback pushes us to be better.
In a developer keynote yesterday,
I announced the Google Cloud Innovators Program.
With this program, we want to bring all of Google Cloud
developers together to co-create, to learn
from each other, and to unite our global technical
communities where we're supporting Google Cloud.
And we also want it to reignite the human connection
that many of you have missed over the last 18 months.
And that can be dismissed or overlooked in online forums.
And finally, we know that technical communities
can sometimes be intimidating to new members.
And so our program's primary design principle
is grounded in inclusion and in serving
the community, regardless of your knowledge base
or your status earned.
So I want to personally invite each of you
to join us to become a Google Cloud innovator.
So come share your experience, coach and grow others.
Most importantly, learn from each other
to build things that have a meaningful impact
on the people who use them.
JEANA JORGENSEN: Terrific.
To join us, just sign up at cloud.google.com/innovators.
We're really excited to get to know you.
We also wanted to let you know about a dedicated technical
community event we will host for the first time
this coming February.
Twice a year in different regions around the world,
we'll bring the users and creators of Google Cloud
together to brainstorm, learn, and get hands
on to move projects forward.
Google Cloud innovators will be eligible for invitations
and speaking opportunities early.
So please sign up to be an innovator today,
and we'll share more details about the event in the coming
weeks.
Urs, we've got a few more pieces of good news to share.
URS HOLZLE: All right.
Yes.
We continue to invest heavily, of course,
in developer experiences through intuitive in-product usability
or through community engagement to offer deeper recognition
of your expertise or through access to tools and resources
that help you get your job done.
And another key investment is in our learning experiences.
So, for example, to meet the demands
of cybersecurity professionals, Google
has pledged to train 100,000 Americans in fields
like data privacy, data analytics, security,
and IT support.
And additionally, "Tech News World"
cited that over 90% of IT leaders
expect to expand Cloud Services over the next one
to three years, but over 80% identified a lack
of internal skills and knowledge as a top barrier
to Cloud success.
And according to another study done by Global Knowledge,
Google Cloud skills are in super high demand,
commanding the top two paying it certifications in 2021
in the US.
So I'm very happy to announce Google Cloud Skills Boost.
Google Cloud Skills Boost is the definitive destination
for Google Cloud learning, including 700 labs, courses,
learning paths, skills badges, and certification resources all
authored by Google Cloud.
The platform is available globally today
in English, Japanese, and Spanish,
with more languages to follow soon
to enable millions of people to build and validate
the skills that they need to thrive in an evolving
Cloud-first world.
And finally, to reaffirm our commitment
to accessibility of these learning resources,
we are offering access at no cost for 30 days to Google
Cloud Skills Boost.
So visit the website to access free training today.
JEANA JORGENSEN: Fantastic.
OK.
Before we get on to the details of how Community Day will run,
I have got two questions for you.
OK, first question, Google Cloud has
been talking about empathetic engineering for quite some time
now.
Can you tell us a little bit more about what that means
and why you think it strengthens developer experiences?
URS HOLZLE: Sure.
By empathetic engineering, we really
mean, how are we putting ourselves
in the shoes of our users, the developers,
and ensure that we build products and services that
really start with your needs first?
We've always been an engineering-led company.
So what we needed to learn was really
how you wanted to use our services because users come
with different challenges and different backgrounds
from different industries, some of them
new to Cloud technologies.
So that's where customer empathy comes in.
As an engineer, do you really understand the experience
that real users have with your products?
Are you really walking in their shoes?
So we implemented a listening and learning system
based on customer empathy.
So for example, teams test products
by performing common user journeys just the same way
customers would without internal help, without internal tools,
without insider tips.
We gather the feedback.
We improve the services or the documentation
and then test it with real customers.
So we keep iterating until we're confident that we've
built intuitive services that are
easy for developers to implement and build
great solutions around.
JEANA JORGENSEN: Great.
Thank you for that.
So here's my second question for you.
If you were starting your career in technology today,
where would you focus your learning?
URS HOLZLE: Wow, that's a huge question.
Because technology evolves so quickly
that it can be pretty overwhelming,
especially if you're early in your career,
and unfortunately because of the digital transformation
of many industries, the success of those organizations
will increasingly depend on the services and products that
are built by its developers, so learning really
is super important.
Based on what I've seen, I would probably
start with these three things.
First, you have to dedicate time for learning every single week,
right?
So I'd start out by determining what forms of learning work
for you independently of the subject and then
really allocate a set of hours to grow your knowledge base.
So for some, reading works best.
For some, it's videos.
For some, it's interactive events.
You just got to understand what works out for you.
And so next, I would pick a couple of topic areas
that really interest you and start
learning the fundamentals.
Joining online communities or forums
can be a really good way to get different perspectives
on the subject that maybe aren't in the standard traditional
learning paths.
And then finally, of course, the question
is, well, what subjects should you go after?
Now, there's hundreds of them.
And so that's really something that depends on you
and your preferences and your situation.
But I'd say three areas kind of come
to mind for me, first customer empathy.
I already talked about it.
It's not something that's taught in schools,
but it's really, really important
that we build technology that people actually want to use,
right?
And so when design a product, and you
start with a deep understanding what the customer actually
needs, then you can really build more than just a solution.
You can create a viable business and a viable product
that really lasts.
Second, learning what it takes to ship a product,
also not broadly taught in schools,
it's really invaluable in almost every job that I've seen.
So that includes things like the fundamentals of release
processes, lean or agile development,
and how you best design products for self-service delivery
because you want to design your product such
that users can start using it quickly
rather than depend on some complicated instructions
or deployment process.
And then last but not least, security.
You've all heard about the growing cyber threats
that so many organizations are facing.
And they're only going to get more sophisticated and more
invasive.
And so security is something that you
need to build into your product and in your development process
from the beginning.
You can't bolt it on later.
So learn about the fundamentals of securing a product
or system, and then keep up with the trends.
So that will give you the confidence
that you need to build long-term viable products or companies.
JEANA JORGENSEN: Right.
Really great advice.
Thank you for that.
I know it'll be especially important for new developers
and early-in-career folks.
So thank you.
I mentioned earlier that I'd give you
a quick rundown of Community today and how it would unfold.
So let's do that now.
Right after this, there is a special spotlight session
featuring Jim Hogan, a health care
strategist in Google Cloud alongside Vint
Cerf, the co-creator of TCP/IP and who has often been coined
the father of the internet.
The two will have a candid conversation
about accessibility in the workplace.
We think it's going to be a great session.
And we really, really are excited to have you join us.
After that, we'll head into the heart of Community Day.
You can join us in an immersive gathering experience called
Kumospace, which creates virtual campus with meeting rooms,
smaller spaces to hang out for one-on-one conversations,
and then larger auditoriums for more common topics.
Every single part of the day will
be powered by Google Cloud, including Kumospace.
So the day kicks off with conversations
led by Google Developer Groups across Europe, Middle
East, and India, and then the rest of the day,
we'll have a variety of experiences
and community gatherings with a few topics
available at each time block.
The first time block, you can attend
discussions led by Googlers and community members
like our Google Developer Experts and expert innovators
dedicated to specific technologies like Vertex AI,
secure software supply chain, Flutter, or Workspace.
And then the second block, you can follow a specific community
pathway and spend time with specialized groups like Kaggle
data scientists or Women Techmakers or even
region-specific groups.
And the third and final track throughout the day
will have dedicated spaces for learning--
how you can earn a Cloud certification,
develop new skills in hands-on lab sessions,
or even apply your skills for good and philanthropic-related
competition with other attendees.
We really look forward to seeing you
and hope you enjoy the rest of the event.
Join us next for the DEI spotlight session
with Jim and Vint.
Thank you so much for spending the last few days with us.
Remember to sign up for Google Cloud innovators
and become part of our Google Developer family.
We're excited to get to know you and spend more time with you
in the future.
Enjoy the rest of Next.