I’m joining Fitbit as their Senior Developer Advocate

After some well-deserved vacations, I started my search for a new challenge two months ago and I’m happy to announce that today is my first day as a Fitbit Senior Developer Advocate. It’s an exciting time to be a Developer Advocate as many companies now understand the values of this role. The interview processes are usually slow, long and intense (2 months & 11 interviews for this one) for this type of role and it doesn’t make it easier when you are looking for a perfect fit on both sides.

My perfect fit

I’ve changed job quite often in the last years, so I was looking for some stability. A company mature and big enough to stay in business for a while and where I’ll be able to continue to grow my career. On the other side, I wanted a business small enough so I wouldn’t be just a number and where I’ll be able to have an impact. The product and the company needed to be something I like, be comfortable to talk about, and something I would be passionate about. Passion is critical in this role! I needed a challenge and being able to build something: I could not have it easy or being just another performer. Lastly, but not least, the vision of the role should be the same as mine (job description is quite different from one place to another with this title) and the people would need to be awesome, as awesome you can judge someone in a 30 minutes discussion…

Fitbit & me

I’ve been a Fitbit user for years and always loved their products. I started with the Ultra and bought too many Fitbit One (I lost at least 4 of those). I also use the Aria scale (v1) since a couple of years and I’m now the proud owner of the Ionic, the latest product from Fitbit. I’m sporting this watch for three weeks now and loving it. On top of that, you can find on their about page this text which resonates with me:

We’re a passionate team dedicated to health and fitness who are building products that help transform people’s lives. While health can be serious business, we feel it doesn’t have to be. We believe you’re more likely to reach your goals if you’re encouraged to have fun, smile, and feel empowered along the way.

Of course, it can be some corporate bullshit, but I had the feeling all along that it was at the core of who they are. Some of you may know, but I’m in a journey to be healthier, physically and emotionally. On the former, I already lost 31 pounds and I feel better overall. I go to the gym three times a week, meditate daily, and try to cook more, drink less and make better choices. In other words, Fitbit’s mission is a great fit with where I am in my life today.

The job

I’m so excited about this new challenge and the trust that they are putting in me as their new Senior Developer Advocate. I’ll have the pleasure to work with passionate people like Jon Barlow who is the only Developer Advocate right now. The release of the Ionic and a SDK that let developers use web technologies to build applications. It open up new opportunities for them to publish their masterpiece on this new platform. There is an interesting similitude with what I was doing at Mozilla with Firefox OS. My role is all about helping developers being successful while bringing feedback to the product team. Going back in that role, that I was missing so much, also means that I’m back on the conferences’ circuit. Feel free to ping me if you want me to speak at your event or meetup.

Feel free to drop me an email, connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn and add me as a Fitbit friend… I’m so excited about this new journey and do some epic shit!

P.S.: I’ll be at our first NorCal Fitbit Developers meetup this Thursday.