On the 26th of November in 2020, I received an email from the Bitrise team recognizing me as a Bitrise Expert. This was a great moment for me — and I am glad I could help the Bitrise community learn about Mobile DevOps, test automation, and many other topics.
Since I now work at Bitrise as a Developer Advocate, I'm always on the lookout for Experts from all over the world to help build and scale our community. In this article, I will describe a few steps that I took — and you can also take — to get here.
If you don’t know what the Bitrise Expert Program is, here is an explanation from the official Experts Program page:
“Bitrise Expert Program is a community of highly skilled professionals from all over the world who share a passion for Bitrise. This program is designed for existing Bitrise users with months of experience on our platform, multiple builds, and web sessions. As a member of this program, you participate actively in the Bitrise community, helping us ensure that we are as close to meeting the needs of our users as possible.”
Why are we doing the Bitrise Expert program?
As we grow as a company focused on mobile CI/CD and Mobile DevOps, we are reaching more and more people — which is why we're so lucky to have a base of dedicated contributors who help us provide the best possible service to our users. Bitrise's Experts Program is a way to reward all of our contributors not only with recognition as aficionados of our service and ambassadors of our product — but also with benefits that can show our appreciation for your efforts.
My journey to becoming a Bitrise Expert
At my previous company, I was part of the team that decided to move to Bitrise as our selected cloud-based CI platform for our mobile app. I started building the CI/CD Workflow to run our automated tests for Android and iOS apps and to help the developers to be more productive in their day-to-day work.
Because of this, I tried and implemented different things with Bitrise. I found the platform incredibly useful and I thought I should share my knowledge of the product with the community. I started with a talk about the Continuous Testing and Mobile DevOps with SauceLab Meetup, then started writing different articles about Bitrise such as: Getting started with Bitrise for Mobile CI/CD, Run Robo Test on Bitrise and Firebase Test Lab.
I also created an open-source Bitrise Step for uploading an Espresso Test to Sauce Labs App Automate. I spoke at different BUG events (Bitrise User Group) which is a monthly community gathering to share knowledge. For example, I talked about Parallelizing Android UI Tests with Bitrise, Flank, and Firebase Test Lab. You can find all of them in our BUGs page.
What can you do as a Bitrise Expert?
Bitrise experts can do many things: they can help in hosting informative webinars, sharing insights about the latest updates, best practices for creating technical content, increasing reach, and sharing Bitrise knowledge across online and in-person communities.
Before applying to become a Bitrise Expert, you need to have gathered consistent knowledge of all mobile related topics including development, testing, deploying, Mobile DevOps, and CI/CD practices with Bitrise.
We have different levels of Experts from novice to intermediate and professional. You can also be an Expert in a specific category, such as testing, release management, architecture, and so on…
All you need to do is contribute actively to the community in any way you wish. Some of the ways you can help other users out include:
- Build your local Bitrise Community (Get Bitrise localized with us).
- Write guides and articles.
- Speak at events and webinars.
- Create Steps for the platform.
- Be an active member of our forum.
- Spread the word about Bitrise.
How does the Bitrise Expert program application process work?
The membership of the Bitrise Expert program is built for one-year intervals. Some members will feel that they acquired a high level of skills after one year and might decide to exit the program — while others may re-apply to stay in the program for another year. As part of the re-application process, Bitrise Experts must submit examples of content and contributions they created.
- Sign Up (Joining the program): There is a dedicated form, where you can add details of your contributions and their impact: blog posts, talks in meetups and conferences, Open-Source contributions. After you submit them, the DevRel team evaluates your experience, and — if they find it relevant — you progress to the next step. You will receive a confirmation email from the team including information about the swag package, and an invitation to the public Slack channel for Bitrise Experts.
- Phase 1 — 4 months (The Beginning): You and our DevRel team will start working together to support and help the community with different activities like articles, webinars, in-person events, and more. You will never be alone: as the Bitrise team, we will support you if you have any questions related to the Bitrise platform.
- Phase 2 — 8 Months (Keeping the Promise): You will continue growing together to spread the knowledge with new and different activities like hosting your own events, user groups, or building your own community with your language, also you will be invited to exclusive Experts user conferences and events with Expert spotlight.
- Phase 3 —1 Year (The Sustain phase): Applications will be reviewed after the first year. The emphasis is placed on evidence and the accuracy of technical content that helps other Bitrise Experts, such as blog posts, videos, open-source contributions, and presentations. Online knowledge sharing, such as posts to Bitrise Stack Overflow, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc., will be also considered. Links must be viewable to the general public to be valid.
The benefits
Our experts are not only the main pillars of our blooming community but an important part of Bitrise in general as well. This is why we designed a benefits package so we can properly thank you for your work.
As a member, you’ll have the following benefits:
- Exclusive Experts Program swag.
- Constant support from our team members.
- First-hand, early news about the platform, its features, and releases.
- Shoutouts and presence on our website and socials as an official Bitrise Experts.
- Invites to online speaking opportunities.
- Invites to in-house webinars and user conferences.
Thrilled to join the Bitrise Expert Program?
Get in touch with us by following us on social media and using one of the available contact options, and we'll respond to you in no time.
Conclusion
As Steve Jobs said, “Stay hungry, stay foolish” — and we couldn’t agree more. We encourage you to always challenge yourself, share your knowledge with others. We’re always looking forward to welcoming members into our Expert Program, so don’t hesitate to apply!
You can start your application here.
I hope you found this article helpful! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me or to the DevRel team at any time — we’re always happy to help.
Good luck! 💜
