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Whether you’re an aspiring developer building out portfolio projects, or a software engineer building out their website or app in hopes to get users, an effective landing page will go A LONG WAY in helping convince users that what you’ve built is worth their time.
A long time ago, we used to get away with just being code monkeys, but nowadays, being able to code is only part of your job. You’re not just a coder, you’re a problem solver.
What problem are you solving? Well, you have to take the time to understand what problems people are having and what type of solutions could make those peoples’ lives easier.
Your landing page should be focused on the result that your future user or customer will achieve. It’s ALL about them and has to do very little with how “great” your product is. This is where MANY software engineers screw up when they venture outside of just pushing code to a repository.
A secret that some of the higher quality bootcamps don’t share with you is that they teach their students to build products, not just random personal projects. Your portfolio projects should be driven around building something that solves at least one problem for someone and gives them the result they’re looking for. This demonstrates a user-centered mindset that is highly valued by almost any company.
This is a different way of thinking for many software engineers, but this is key not only to exponentially increasing your value as a software engineer but also to making it much more likely that your side project could eventually bring in additional profit one day.
Jennifer Westbrook (guest):
Website – https://www.jenwestwriting.com/freebies
Topics:
0:00 – Intro
4:36 – Landing page advice, user-centered approach, and the benefits of caring about any of this
14:13 – Frontend developers SHOULD ABSOLUTELY CARE about content and UX. THIS is how you stand out from other front-end developers.
17:13 – Dumb it down for users, Aspiring developers OFTEN undervalue themselves
25:02 – You’re more than just a code monkey at companies, especially startups. Don’t ever forget that.
28:21 – I challenged her to come up with a landing page for a previous app that I built, on the spot, with absolutely no prep time.
41:39 – Here’s a secret that a lot of higher-quality coding bootcamps will have their students do.
46:46 – Are demo accounts for your app still a thing that people care about?
48:53 – Final thoughts and advice, where you can reach Jennifer
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