We Need to Speak Differently – Technical Marketing with Tyler Hannan Ep 94

Tyler Hannan, Director of Technical Marketing at Basho, digests what in the world a Technical Marketing Engineer (TME) does. His journey goes from database administration to technical orator and he has a great view of the many parts of the Enterprise IT world.

I  (Matt) have the pleasure of working with Tyler and put our heads together to walk through the marketing side of technology storytelling.

In this episode, we cover:

• Engineers who like to speak for a living
• Marketers who have a passion for technology
• Org charts, org charts, org charts
• The difference between Technical Marketing and Product Marketing
• Delivering the new normal of content: more technical, more interesting
• Developer Advocates, Technical Evangelists and Solution Architects
• The internal enablement work and external communications
• Are you a Marketer who is technical or an Engineer who likes marketing? Is there only one path?
• Staying happy marketing and happy staying technical
• The organizational recognition of valuing both skills
• How TME roles let Conway’s Law play nicely inside the company
• Is this planned or accidental career paths?
• Consumption of content as metric vs gut-based marketing?
• What skills makes for a good TME?
• What’s the career path for a Technical Marketer? Where do organizations go from here?

A little non sequitur, this is my favorite talk by Tyler:

What’s important to glean from this conversation is a recognition that staying technical is not only a valid option for those interested in marketing, but it’s a necessary step for Enterprise IT companies from small startup to massive enterprise.

Keep an eye out for the TME roles and share your story with us @Geek_Whisperers.

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