Cronofy delivers a single API for developers to integrate their apps and services with their users' calendars

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What goes into creating the best API documentation is a contentious subject. Most developers have their own opinions on what should and shouldn’t go in to API documentation. It’s rare for everyone to agree. Everything from what you put in it to how things are laid out will affect the experience for your customers. That’s why getting it right is so crucial. Fail to get it right and you risk deterring prospects from using your API because they don’t understand how things work, or worse — a slew of support tickets that take up everyone’s time. I spoke to ’s development team to find out more about how they approach writing ours. Cronofy Consider it when developing a new feature Photo by on rawpixel Unsplash “Not considering your API documentation as part of your product is usually the root cause of bad documentation,” says Stephen, our Senior Developer. “The API documentation is the first thing we consider whenever we are developing a new feature. We often have long discussions about the correct terminology for each property, trying to avoid ambiguity wherever we can.” This is important to ensure that it’s as simple and easy-to-understand as possible. The vaguer your description of a feature or element of it is, the more likely it is to confuse customers and the more support requests you’re likely to get. “Not considering your API documentation as part of your product is usually the root cause of bad documentation.” — Stephen, Senior Developer, Cronofy Factoring in the documentation while building the new feature also gives you time to work through any issues. Customers can give you feedback during Alpha and Beta phases, further allowing you to refine the docs before it goes live. Stephen continued by saying this: “The API design does change during our development phase. Often when we write SDK and format documentation we spot things we’d like to tidy up before making things public as we never change our public API. “Another key aspect of this is our Alpha and Beta phases where we rely on our customers to let us know how fit for purpose the documentation is.” When the product does go live, you can be sure that you’ve worked out most of the kinks and it will help your users get to grips with the new feature. Have clear examples Photo by on rawpixel Unsplash “With the most complex API methods giving examples and extra supporting documentation is essential. If you don’t do this you’ll often be paying this back though additional support requests,” says Garry our CTO. “With the most complex API methods giving examples and extra supporting documentation is essential.” — Garry, CTO, Cronofy “Many of our endpoints have optional parameters, but there’s a common set that are required and optional ones we recommend are set. So I start with a request that reflects those best practices, and the kind of response that can be expected to be received in return. “This provides a context around which to explain all possible parameters, what their potential values are, what their defaults are if they aren’t provided, and finally what that all means together.” By starting with an example, you put an image in people’s heads. This image helps with their understanding. Customers and prospects will understand your product/feature much faster with an explanation like this. Common usage examples also incorporate storytelling to show your users what they could create. The more context you provide for your customers, they more likely they are to understand the feature and be excited about adding it to their software. Usability and consistency are key Photo by on NESA by Makers Unsplash “Simple things like making the documentation available offline or adding deep linking really help.” — Stephen, Senior Developer Usability is a must in all aspects of software development, and API documentation is no different. “Key things like usability, consistency, and features are often overlooked. Simple things like making the documentation available offline or adding deep linking really help,” says Stephen. “My pet peeves are when you have parts of the documentation which contradict themselves or leave things as ambiguous. It doesn’t matter if you know what the behaviour is, write it down so others do too. “For example, if the definition of a property states a value must be greater than zero but the validation states the value must be positive, the implementer must make a decision if 0 is a valid input.” Don’t rely on tools to generate it for you Photo by on Tyler Franta Unsplash It’s easy to want to rely on tools to do things for you, but if you want to create the best experience for your users, this isn’t the best way to go. “You see things such as a thing having a field named ‘comment’ and a description of ‘the thing’s comment’. This doesn’t tell you what type it is, or could be, though you might guess it’s a string. Nor does it tell you the format of that string. It could be plain text, HTML, Markdown, or something else. It doesn’t tell you how long that string may be so you can cleanse your requests and size your database field appropriately. It doesn’t tell you whether it’s ASCII, UTF-8, or something else so you can use the correct type of encoding,” says Garry. “There’s just so much you then have to work out yourself as the developer, and that compounds over every developer that uses that API. So what saves the publisher a few hours costs their customers hours each.” “It’s easy to want to rely on automation tools to fix things for you, but if you want to create the best experience for your users, this isn’t the best way to go.” — Garry, CTO Sometimes the time and cost savings for you aren’t worth it when you consider the end-user experience. And really, isn’t how your customers feel the most important thing? If they don’t like what you’re doing, they’re less likely to recommend you to their network, which means less custom for you. A great experience, on the other hand, means they’re more likely to recommend you to their network, further increasing your influence, attracting new customers, and giving you more money to build more features. Conclusion Photo by on Rishi Deep Unsplash What makes great API documentation may be a contentious subject, but for the most part, the basics are pretty simple: Consider it as part of your feature, not an after thought Have clear examples Be consistent Think about the user experience Don’t rely on tools to generate it for you All these elements work together to ensure that your customers fully understand what they can build when they use your API. This means they’re more likely to use it to its fullest. A well-documented API also means you’re less likely to get frequent support tickets from customers who don’t understand how X or Y feature works or why something doesn’t do what they want it to. Taking the extra time to put together a consistent, well-considered documentation will pay dividends in the long run. What do you think makes for great API documentation? Try our API If you’re a developer and want to see how easy it is to , where you could be making your first API call in minutes. add two-way calendar sync to your software head over to our website Not a developer? — including Trello, Slack, and Evernote — using our free . Connect your calendar to your favorite apps Calendar Connectors

How to Write Great API Documentation Every Time

Artificial Intelligence. AI. We have all heard about it or read an article detailing how it is going to change the way we work or even live. There is also a degree of fear: will machines learn too much and decide to replace us? Watching Terminator will do that to you. But today’s AI is both more complex and much less advanced than self-conscious, freedom-seeking robots. We had a stand at — a HR Tech conference and show — a few weeks ago and were really excited by the great applications of AI for HR that we discovered there. Unleash London is a great complement to many of these tools and we had discussions with several providers on the benefits of calendar sync for AI tools. Cronofy’s real-time scheduling technology AI is a hot topic and many industry sectors are investing in it. But AI is also a bit of catchall term. AI can refer to things like robots or self-driving cars. It can also take the shape of a . chatbot It means applying computers’ ability to learn and solve problems to many challenges by using and analyzing historic hiring data to make more intelligent decisions. Making smarter decisions and automating tasks can save businesses , and improve the life of employees at all levels. thousands of dollars per employee every year It comes as no surprise that many HR software providers are already working to leverage the benefits of early stage artificial intelligences. Various AI-based technologies are already changing how businesses and candidates interact with each other. As these services become more widely adopted and integrated into Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions they help transform every step of the hiring process. Here is a list of AI use cases for the hiring process and the benefits they can provide to recruiters, candidates, interviewers, and businesses in general. We have also added some suggestions of how Cronofy’s calendar sync API can be plugged into these tools to offer an even richer experience. Job postings optimization The key to hiring a great candidate is — believe it or not — to meet the talented people you want to join your team. This is why posting an attractive job ad is a critical part of recruiting. If you have visited a job board recently you will also know that this critical part is often ignored. Businesses can forget that they have to sell themselves and the position if they want qualified applicants to submit their resumes. Writing a good job ad that will attract exactly the type of candidates you want is much harder than it sounds though. With AI it is possible to let software create the perfect job adverts that will get candidates started on their journey and build a strong employer brand for your company. By analyzing the copy of successful job adverts a machine can detect meaningful language patterns and write the job ad that will attract a diverse and qualified cast of candidates. The beautiful thing with machine learning is that the more job ads are analyzed and the more results are entered into the software, the more refined the job postings will be. Constant learning and predictive analytics are a winning combination when it comes to crafting impactful copy. The better the job posting, the more qualified candidates will apply to fill vacancies. This can give businesses a competitive advantage and help them grow. But they still have to make the correct hiring decisions and offer a great experience to the candidates. Resume screening Great job postings mean that a lot of candidates will send their resumes through. But between 75% to 88% of the resumes received don’t match the requirements of the role. To decide which candidates to interview, recruiters would traditionally spend hours parsing through resumes, most of the time only scanning the pages for a few keywords before deciding who will progress to the phone screening or face-to-face interview stage. Analyzing hundreds of resumes is a time-consuming task. It is also a basic task that highly-paid recruiters shouldn’t be focusing on. 52% of talent acquisition leaders say the is identifying the right candidates from a large applicant pool. There is only so many hours in the day and candidates need to be contacted and kept informed of how their application is progressing. hardest part of recruitment AI can help automate high-volume tasks such as these. Machines can be tasked to search for specific keywords and elements of language that will have historically been used on successful applications. Machine-learning software needs a lot of data to work well. And they will only get better as the AI providers acquire more clients, completes more hiring processes, and improves their filters for a variety of roles. It therefore becomes important for businesses to keep track of their hires so that the AI tools can learn who went on to be a successful hire and which employees left the business quickly. This will help refine the resume screening criteria going forward. It can even be used to parse through the database of resumes received for other vacancies and assess if there are matches for a different job opening. With AI businesses can optimize their resources so talent isn’t missed. All this helps give time back to recruiters so they can focus on preparing for interviews and engaging with candidates. AI recruiting assistants (chatbots) Chatbots are already used to answer support questions, engage website visitors, and help employees book their paid time off in a matter of seconds. The use cases for chatbots during the recruiting process are also numerous. When chatbots are synced to the calendars of the interview panel, they can be used internally to help recruiters find an interview time that works for everyone based on their real-time availability. A simple question or command is enough. And if they need to find a meeting room, the recruiting assistant can take care of that as well. All the applications and software used by businesses can be integrated into a chatbot, from HCM platforms to meeting room management systems and group chats. Interviews or tests can be scheduled in an instant, and a booking link sent to candidates almost immediately. This is less disruptive and stressful for everyone involved. The times agreed to by the members of the interview panel can be shown to the candidate, who picks the most convenient one for them. Meetings and meeting rooms are booked and calendar invitations sent to everyone. Chatbots can also be used to communicate directly with the candidates. For example, when a candidate applies to a vacant position it could be used to ask screening questions. They can also be used to answer questions that the candidate might have about the interview or the company itself. AI recruiting assistants help reduce the time to hire and improve the employer’s brand by developing deeper relationships with candidates. Candidate testing and ranking It is more and more common for employers to ask candidates to complete tasks before or during interviews to assess their skills and base their hiring decisions on facts, not just the impressions of recruiters. These tests often happen through video interviewing technology. AI has a role to play in this, too. A risk of not doing these tests in person is that candidates might be able to cheat. Google is only ever two clicks, away after all. AI software can detect any abnormal behaviour and notify the recruiter, such as if the response time was particularly long for a question. They can also be used to analyze facial expressions and voice intonations to detect signals that indicate if a candidate could be a good match. With calendar sync, all these tests can be scheduled in instantly no matter how many candidates have applied for a position. If an interviewer needs to be present, a booking link can be shared so that candidates can pick a time when they are available. Once the tests and interviews are completed, candidates need to be ranked on their performances and skills. Well-constructed AI software helps to eliminate bias from this crucial decision. Humans are biased beings. Studies have proven that humans are mainly due to the inherent bias that inhabits all of us. Be it a preference for candidates coming from a similar social background or who are graduated from the same college, a lot of factors can impact a hiring decision. bad at making good hiring decisions By taking the ranking of candidates out of the hands of the interviewers, AI can help foster a more diverse working environment by focusing on the hiring the right person for the job. When the quality of hires increases, it leads to employees who stay longer with their employer and are generally happier and more productive. It’s a win-win for everyone. Automated candidate engagement and nurturing After spending a lot of time and money sourcing resumes and interviewing candidates, many businesses forget to use this data once the position is filled. Creating a database of all the resumes of qualified candidates who weren’t offered a job is a great way to get a head start on the next recruitment process. AI can help keep the information contained in the candidate database up-to-date by looking for changes in social media profiles. Companies can also keep passive candidates engaged by sharing company news or upcoming vacancies. If a candidate has found another position, predictive analytics can be used to notify your ATS when they are likely to be ready to be contacted about a new opportunity. With AI-powered candidate engagement platforms recruiters always have access to a dynamic pool of pre-qualified candidates who already know about the company. The bias question It is impossible to avoid the question of bias when discussing AI. The idea pushed by the supporters of AI is that if hiring decisions are made by machines they will inherently be fairer and help companies hire a more diverse workforce. After all, standardized methods mean that everyone starts on an equal footing. But this forgets that software is built by individuals who all have inherent and subconscious biases. It also ignores the fact that no technology is more susceptible to replicating existing bias than AI based on machine learning. If machines learn what success looks like by studying existing patterns, how can they change a model that is currently unfair? For example, if a business is looking to hire a new software developer and is using an AI software to screen resumes, it is important that all applications are considered in the same way. But if the development team is mostly male, the AI could favor the resumes of male developers. Or it may develop a preference for resumes that use more masculine words. It is the role of the AI providers to be aware of (of which there are over 150). It is also their job to build safeguarding mechanisms to ensure that AI doesn’t acquire the . existing biases same bias as the humans who built it That’s is why software needs to be tested and refined all the time, which is something only humans can do. Before choosing your AI provider make sure you check with them what they do to prevent bias from being replicated. Parting words The benefits of using AI to improve the hiring process are numerous. Machine learning and problem-solving software can be used to reduce the time to hire. They can also ensure that the quality of hires improve, which leads to happier and more productive employees. When bias is taken into consideration and solutions implemented, AI can promote a more diverse working environment by removing human decisions that are sometimes based more on feelings than facts. But to say that we fully understand the potential of AI for recruitment would be a lie. Every year there are new applications for it. What we do know is that the future of recruitment centers around a better use of AI to attract, develop, and nurture candidates. We can’t wait to see what’s next as the role of recruiters is transformed. Real-time calendar sync is sure to be a huge part of it. And, for now at least, the final decision to offer a job to a candidate still rests in the hands of recruiters and managers. But the benefits of putting more decisions into the hands of controlled technology can’t be denied. This post was originally published on the Cronofy blog . Check it out for weekly insights into HR, technology, startup life, and more.

How Will AI Transform the Hiring Process?

The Cronofy dev team at last year’s Hack24. Photo courtesy of Tech Nottingham. A hackathon — a combination of the words hack and marathon if you hadn’t guessed — is an event where tech people get together to code over a period of a few hours, sometimes days. We’ve attended several hackathons over the past few years, so we thought we’d share some tips that we’ve picked up along the way on how to survive a hackathon! Planning is winning When you’ve got a short amount of time to get a lot done, planning is crucial. We wrote a guide a coupe of years ago on , and our advice still stands! how to prepare for a hack event The more you plan, the more time you’ll have for coding on the day! Make sure everyone’s on the same page Choose carefully! The more diverse your skills and backgrounds are, the better your chances of success. If you decide to work on separate tasks make sure to catch-up with your team every few hours to ensure everything is still aligned and that everyone is playing to their strengths. There’s nothing worse than getting twelve hours in to find out that two of you have been working on the same thing for the last few hours and you could have spent that time on the crucial presentation! Keep it simple Aim to create something simple then build it into something magnificent. Create a product that will take a few hours to develop then you can spend the rest of the time improving it to show off to the judges. A finished product is better than a polished one, so make sure that what you create is achievable in the time that you have. A finished product is better than a polished one. Simple or small doesn’t have to mean boring, either. Birthday and wedding cakes are often made using madeira cake, which is notoriously simple, but that simple cake can be used to create everything from BB8 to . Hogwarts Photo courtesy of Tech Nottingham. Don’t be afraid to start over (and learn to fail fast) If you start working on a product but realize it’s not working a few hours in, don’t be afraid to start again. There’s no point spending your time working on something if you realize early that it is not going to turn out as you planned it. Take regular breaks Taking a break to have something to eat, get some fresh air or have a power nap can make a huge difference to your productivity levels. You may feel like it puts you behind at first, but you’ll achieve more running at 100% for 16 hours than at 50% for 24 hours. Try something like the and set a reminder so that you’re not glued to your station. Pomodoro technique Do some exploring Staying in the same room for long periods can be exhausting in itself. Break it up by going for a short walk outside or around the venue on your own or with your team. Steve Jobs was a big fan of because they’re a great way to brainstorm, and there’s no reason you can’t take advantage of the same tactics! It seemed to work pretty well for him at Apple 😉 walking meetings Image courtesy of Giphy. Stay hydrated It sounds simple, but did you know is as dangerous as drink driving? driving dehydrated A study done by Loughborough University last year found that when you drive dehydrated your reflexes are on par with when you’ve drunk alcohol. While you probably won’t be driving during the hackathon, you still need to think clearly, and you can’t do that when you’re dehydrated. If you’re really in need of a break and aren’t from the area, why not check out some of the local pubs and cafes when you go get some fresh air? You never know what hidden gems you’ll discover! Keep a bottle of water by your side and use getting a refill as an excuse to get up and stretch your legs. You can also use this time to stock up on snacks. Remember to eat When you’re heavily focused on something the hours can go by before you realize you haven’t eaten all day. Don’t do it! Set reminders so that you eat regularly and keep your blood sugar levels up. The lower your blood sugar levels are, the more difficult it is to concentrate. Photo courtesy of Tech Nottingham. Looks good, doesn’t it? Have a nap Power naps are a great tool to give you an energy boost when you’re starting to lag. If there’s somewhere you can go for a quick nap, take advantage! Don’t go past the crucial 20-minute mark though — after that you start to go into REM sleep, and that’s when it becomes harder to wake up and you start to feel groggy. For an extra energy boost, have a caffeinated drink before you fall asleep. Caffeine takes about twenty minutes to get into our system, so drinking something caffeinated before you nap will leave you feeling extra refreshed and ready to go when you wake up! Image courtesy of Giphy. Meet your fellow hackers Hackathons are great places to network. People who’ve met at previous hackathons have gone on to become great friends, worked together and even started businesses together! Explore the room when you can and don’t just stick to your comfort zone. Enjoy yourself With everything going on around you and everything you have to do it’s easy to forget to enjoy the moment. Even if you’re a regular at hackathons, every one is different, so take few moments to sit back, take some photos, and enjoy the atmosphere! Out of all our advice, this has to be the most important! Every hack event is different, so it’s worth taking the time to enjoy it. Photo courtesy of Tech Nottingham. And when it’s all over… Relax and reflect You’ve worked hard and hopefully won a cool prize you want to play with, but don’t forget to relax and reflect! You’ve earned it! When you’re all partied out, get an early night to make sure you’re ready for whatever Monday brings. What are your tips for surviving a hackathon? Let us know on Twitter or over on the ! @cronofy Cronofy Facebook page This story was originally published on the Cronofy blog .

How to Survive a Hackathon

When you build a website and create content it is important to keep in mind why you are doing it. You want potential clients and users to find your products when they enter a related terms in a search engine. Developers might roll their eyes when they hear the magic words ‘Search Engine Optimization’. And if you want to make a digital marketer roll their eyes, tell them the old joke, ‘An SEO expert walks into a bar, pub, lounge, public house’. But, SEO is crucial in the success of your business, especially if, like Cronofy, you rely on a strong online presence to grow your business. Here’s a list of things you can do that will make your SEO and Marketing colleagues happy (and suspicious about what you really want from them). If you’re keen to go even further, you should check out Moz’s . free beginner’s guide If you are comfortable with SEO, you may want to just use the points below as a checklist when you’re working on a website. 1. Redirects Search engines hate duplicate content, so pick a side: redirect www. to non www. (or vice versa) to avoid ending up with two copies of every page, e.g. 301 https://example.com/batman-watch to https://www.example.com/batman-watch Courtesy of GIPHY. This is pretty standard stuff, but different redirects have different impacts on SEO; for extra reading on the ranking power behind them, check out Moz’s . Best practice redirection 2. Meta data Basic meta data falls into three tags: titles, descriptions, and links. Meta descriptions and titles should include relevant keywords for the page (but not be stuffed with them). The golden rule is to always write for a human rather than a search engine. Always write for a human over a search engine. Titles should ideally be under 70 characters in length and explain clearly to the reader exactly what they can expect to find on your page: <title>Time Travel: A Beginner’s Guide from Cronofy</title> A good meta description starts with a call to action and gives the reader a convincing reason why they should visit your website in under 230 characters. <meta  name="description"  content="Jump into our free beginner's guide on how to make  time travel work for you. Written by Cronofy, experts in time  and space."> Meta keywords are a legacy tag from the search engine optimization days of yore. It’s worth checking out your competitors’ code to see if they’ve got any listed so you can see what they’re trying to rank for. When it comes to your own site pages however, you can leave the keywords tag out to shave a fraction of a KB off your load time. Or entertain yourself by turning it into an easter egg. <meta name="keywords" content="such keywords, much excite, wow read now"> 3. Robots.txt Most SEOs hate dealing with robots.txt. One wrong disallow and the entire website drops out of the search engines. You’ll instantly be a superhero if you offer to deal with it (beers for life seems like adequate compensation). Pattern matching, robot exclusion protocol tags and much more are all covered in this . article on robots.txt Courtesy of GIPHY. 4. Search-engine friendly URLs This is one of the golden areas where both users and search engines want the same thing: URLs that are easily understood. Poor URLs are pretty rare these days, but double check that your pages look more like: https://www.example.com/batman-watch as opposed to: https://www.example.com/38329jdaajwhj323WTF 5. Canonical tags This header tag tells search engines which version of a page you prefer them to crawl and rank. For example, you could have several URLs to the same page with different strings such as: https://www.example.com/batman-watch

https://www.example.com/search.php?item=batman-watch

https://www.example.com/product.php?item=batman-watch&trackingid=1234&sessionid=5678 Courtesy of GIPHY. If you develop for an ecommerce website, chances are this is a widespread issue for you. Utilizing canonical tags means you can direct interest to the version you prefer (in this example, without being penalized by the search engines for having duplicate content across different URLs. http://www.example.com/apple-watch) Google’s Matt Cutts explains all in . this video It’s really important to get your canonical tags right as your search engine visibility can be trashed very easily if you get it wrong. Audisto has created a great in-depth guide called that goes into a lot of detail about when and how to use canonical tags. Link rel=canonical: How to do URL canonicalization right 6. Relative vs absolute links As a developer, it’s likely that you favor relative links over absolute. Unfortunately, the world of SEO demands the opposite. Check out Moz’s video, Should I Use Relative or Absolute URLs? (TL;DR: coding relative URLs might not be the best idea for SEO) and make it a new habit for live environments. Sorry. 7. Page speed Google has admitted that page speed is a ranking factor. As a result, the faster your website is, the better. Some of the techniques to achieve that include using a file compression software to reduce the size of the CSS, HTML, and Javascript files that are larger than 150 bytes, optimizing your code by removing unnecessary characters and improving your server response time. Your SEO expert colleagues will definitely be happy if you can help them reduce the ‘page load time’ so if you know a weird old trick for shaving MB off a page, now’s the time to pull it out of the bag. Use a page speed diagnostic tool like to see how your website it currently performing. WebPageTest.org 8. Language tags If you’re just using one language, search engines are spot on when it comes to detecting what that language is. But if you’re utilizing different languages to present the same content, you’ll need to use to ensure the right people get directed to the right places and you aren’t penalized for duplicate content. the hreflang tag 9. Facebook Open Graph and Twitter Cards (Okay, so these are technically social media things rather than SEO, but they’re still one of those must-do tasks for effective marketing and branding). Open Graph and Cards serve a number of purposes, but at their most fundamental level are used to ensure that an appropriate image and description appear for a page when someone posts one of your site URLs on Facebook or Twitter (bonus: they have their own APIs). For more detail and how tos, take a look at Kissmetrics’ detailed article: . What you need to know about Open Graph meta tags for total Facebook and Twitter mastery Other schema and microformats, such as tags for creating those star ratings you see in Google searches, can generally be found here: http://schema.org/docs/gs.html 10. Sitemap(s) In addition to having the minimum of a sitemap.xml file, you’ll also want to submit it to the search engines once your website is ready to be indexed (or reindexed, if you’re relaunching it or have made a substantial number of changes). Once you’ve uploaded your sitemap(s), you can submit them directly to Google and Bing via and . Google Search Console Bing Webmaster Tools 11. Live pages Have you ever put a page live even though you don’t want people to actually visit it just yet? If you’re using any kind of CMS, chances are when you publish it will get added to your sitemap and the search engines will be pinged. Best practice: only put pages live if you don’t mind random people visiting them. If you really have to put a page live that’s not for public consumption, use a tag before putting it live (don’t forget to remove it later!). noindex 12. Nofollow links Sometimes you end up linking to a website that’s nothing to do with yours, like when you need to credit the creator of your favorite Batman gif. In those cases — and — add nofollow to the link. some others <a href="https://www.allthebestbatmangifs.com" rel="nofollow">Batman gif</a> This tells the search engines that this link isn’t as important as others on your website, and allows them to focus on the ones that are more relevant. Note: If you’re running a CMS with a good SEO plugin (e.g. Yoast for WordPress), chances are you can sit back as most of the hard work’s been done for you. Just have a browse through the settings and a quick look at individual pages to check everything is being utilized correctly, and that you’re not duplicating tags or important files outside your CMS folders. Also, you might not be the only person in charge of creating content for your website so don’t hesitate to share this checklist with your colleagues. This post was originally published on the Cronofy blog . To super power your SEO strategy, check out our Trello Calendar Connector .

Coding a Strong Foundation for SEO

While not an exhaustive list, this is also not a list of requirements. Many of the traits are contradictory. In fact, it is the balance of them that is most appealing. You will rarely find them within one individual, which is what makes building teams so interesting. It is hard for one person to encapsulate the following traits in perfect balance, but it is easier to hire or form a team that exhibits them in aggregate. That is often superior as individual extremes can often collaborate to produce a product that is better than a group existing on the median. Regardless, this whole post should be taken with a pinch of salt. Like everything in software this is one individual’s opinion based upon their experiences which are likely different to your own. Unwavering self confidence Let’s be straight, as software developers we are crafting new worlds out of our own imaginations. Just to embark on this effort without running away scared needs a modicum of self confidence. To do this for a large part of a system that other people rely on requires significant cojones. For this small part of the universe you are god, master of all you survey, and you will be subject to constant questioning as to why things are the way they are. If you are a benevolent god, why can’t users store their favourite flavor of donut? Surely a wise and just god would allow for such things?! Such confidence is usually hard earned from the journey from junior developer to lead developer (or whatever arbitrary name your company may apply). Each step along the way someone more senior should challenge your every decision, not necessarily because they think it is wrong, but to help you understand why you believe it is right. Only through your knowledge being hard won and battle tested should your self confidence become unwavering. Unwavering self doubt Equally as much as you need the confidence to declare that water is wine, you need to have a level of doubt that you implemented the water-to-wine algorithm correctly. Confidence is a massively powerful thing, but untamed by doubt it can be misguided and cause more harm than it is worth. Without self doubt, why would you ever write tests? Surely you would not need verification that your code works with complete self confidence? Crushing humility Humility is the glue that brings self confidence and self doubt together. It is what allows you to approach your peers from a position of “I’m 99% sure this is the best way forward, but I really want your thoughts on it”. Starting a conversation from “I’m not really sure what to do” is a recipe for a long conversation. Having the self confidence to start a conversation from a specific point of view helps shorten it. Having the self doubt and humility to ask for the conversation helps improve your thinking. Having the humility to readily admit when you are wrong during the conversation helps reach the best possible outcome. Overly helpful Be it a junior developer that is learning the ropes, a customer that’s having trouble using the system you are responsible for, or a colleague that is wondering how something works, your default state should be to make someone’s day better. So often all people outside of a development team hear is “no”. Taking every opportunity to say “yes” and make things easier or better for someone is worthwhile. This also brings more weight to your “no” as you’ll be the one person that usually says “yes”! If making the decision between being perhaps too helpful and refusing a request, always err on the side of being too helpful. You never know when you’ll need a favour to be repaid in kind. Strongly empathetic This relates somewhat to being helpful, but if there was one trait I would highlight above all others it would be this. The best developers I have known have always had a wider awareness of the system they are working on. Sometimes they will be provided with the context they crave, otherwise they will ask “why is this important?” over and over and over until they understand the underlying motivation. This is not because they disagree with the change, it is because they want to deeply understand why the change is being made. They understand that they are a catalyst for the company they work for and want to be as effective as they can be. As a developer you are often uniquely positioned in understanding what a system is capable of. Often you are approached with solutions to implement to an unarticulated problem. Only empathy will help you surface the problem that is being solved, which can lead solution that is far superior. A healthy level of paranoia Effective developers know someone is always out to get you. Even if you deeply understand a problem, have collaborated with your peers to implement the optimal solution, and have implemented it perfectly, someone is trying to find a way to poop on your parade. This is why we protect against SQL injection, cross-site scripting, lock down everything possible, and so forth. It is not primarily because we do not trust other people, it is because we do not trust anyone, even ourselves. The worst part of this is that the parade pooper is likely to be yourself. In six months you may be extremely motivated to change how something is implemented for the most well-meaning of reasons. However, without sufficient safe guards put in place by your past self (tests, documentation, etc) you may inadvertently poop on your own parade by breaking existing functionality. Highly inquisitive The best developers don’t just know how their own code works, they understand how the libraries and runtimes beneath it work. This usually comes from a need to understand “how the sausage is made”. A good understanding of a couple of layers of abstraction below the level you are working at often helps you write better code at the level of abstraction you are working at. Most common cases of this is understanding which calls will and won’t result in external calls, understanding what patterns result in excessive memory or object allocations which in turn lead to bloat or garbage collections. I like the term I first heard from for this: mechanical sympathy. Many approaches can work, many can be easy to maintain, but often there will be one that is particularly sympathetic to the library you are using, the runtime you’re executing within, or the hardware you are deploying to. Martin Thompson Only by understanding the wider picture can you pick an approach that is more sympathetic than others and reap the benefits. Perseverance Software development is intellectually challenging and can be an emotional rollercoaster. There’s the highs of shipping a much needed feature, the lows of finding bugs, the lows of features that turn out to be unfeasible given the budget, the lows of spending hours looking into bugs, the lows of determining why something only works on your machine, the lows of the backlog growing faster than you can implement it, the lows of the mundane copy changes and other such trivial work that is only trivial after years of grinding, the lows of… Actually, it’s a pretty crap rollercoaster. And this is why perseverance is key. You often have to wade through pits of despair or troughs of sorrow. But occasionally there will be something, some change you need to make, some feature that you need to implement that will be so easy based upon the previous 6 months of hard work and discipline that you will be elated. So much so that you’ll be able to face the next 6 months of slaying creeps until the next time. Light heartedness Software development can be very serious. It’s a binary world, zeroes and ones, black and white, right and wrong. But so much of it is subjective that someone’s right can be another’s wrong and tensions can get high. Simple mistakes can bring the world tumbling down, stable systems can spontaneously catch fire, ninja attacks can happen at any time and those ninjas might be on fire too. Software development should be taken seriously, but it does need to be countered by a bit of humour; a bit of banter. Otherwise it gets too serious, people get stressed, they stop enjoying themselves and then they won’t be able to focus as well on the task at hand. It doesn’t take much to break the tension — a well chosen GIF, the perfect emoji, or sharing an amusing link. That can be all it takes to stop things from boiling over. It’s just a bunch of zeroes and ones at the end of the day. Good memory for previous errors Effective developers strive to not make the same mistake twice. You’ll often find they have practices in their personal process that helps them avoid them. For example, writing tests, documenting reasoning for particular things, use of code tools, and so forth. The little mistakes can be easy to make but still take time to resolve. If you can create a process or use a tool that helps you avoid making the small mistakes more of your attention is free for avoiding the larger, more costly ones. TL;DR An effective developer will often have these personality traits: Unwavering self confidence Unwavering self doubt Crushing humility Overly helpful Strongly empathetic A healthy level of paranoia Highly inquisitive Perseverance Light heartedness Good memory for previous errors What traits would make your list? . Let us know This post was originally shared on the . Head on over there for more insights on software development, startup life, and calendar APIs. Cronofy blog And, if you’re a fan of Trello, don’t forget to check out our new Trello Calendar Connector Power-Up .

9 Personality Traits of an Effective Developer

Working as a developer in a distributed team allows for a lot of flexibility. You no longer have to book more expensive weekend deliveries for furniture, or find a way to get to the office when the weather turns the roads to ice. The hours saved each week from skipping a regular commute can add up to giving you days’ worth of extra time. It’s not without its difficulties, though. You could find it hard to focus, struggle with team communications, and generally just miss day-to-day passive human company. Following these tips hopefully you can minimize these negatives and purely benefit from the positives. Keep a good line of team communication Your team is important to the work you do. You’re all working together for the same goal, so keeping them in the know on what you’re working on, how it’s going, and any issues you’re facing is vital. It can prevent wasted time and avoid needless frequent, flow-breaking, catch up sessions. Here at Cronofy we’ve made use of multiple team organizational tools, such as Trello and Basecamp. Both of these help keep everyone on the same page and give each person a better view of what’s in progress and what’s coming up next on the roadmap. I cannot recommend using an organizational tool strongly enough. Timebox your struggles I am often guilty of spending hours working on a solution to issues that could easily be solved were I to ask for help. These problems often stretch on as I feel I am making progress even though the problem would be solved faster by a phone call. My method of avoiding this pitfall is to timebox any problem I’m stuck on. If I’m still working on the same issue after 15 minutes, I give myself the rest of an hour to solve it myself, or I start talking to my team mates to see if there’s something they know that I don’t. This helps with reaching more targets and completing tasks faster and more efficiently. It also helps build relationships with team members whom I otherwise would not see or talk to very often. Get some company If you’re anything like me you’ll go crazy if you don’t talk to anyone for a few days, which is a very real possibility when working from home. You can spend all day in your own personal palace without seeing a soul, with only the occasional ping of a Slack message to remind you that you’re not alone in the universe. After a while that can start to make you go stir-crazy. It helps me to make active efforts to leave the house. Make plans to meet someone for lunch, or after work. Meet ups are also fantastic, especially if you’re new to an area or don’t know many people. They put together like-minded people and combine them with interesting content and alcohol — the perfect recipe for conversation. Utilize conversational tools Part of working remotely means your team dynamic doesn’t evolve passively through constant small interactions. The “Hey, how’s it going?” conversation doesn’t come so naturally when you have to write it in an email instead of just on your way to get your morning coffee. These interactions and conversations help to build relationships, and make your team more comfortable together. It doesn’t have to be this way though — with the right tools you can get these passive communications going and start gradually building up these relationships with your co-workers. The key is making it easy to talk to each other about your weekend, about your upcoming holiday, or about the way your dog escaped in a Benny Hill-style scenario the night before. We use two tools for our core communication: Slack for instant messaging, and Zoom for face-to-face conversation. These two tools work together to allow for casual, asynchronous, communication in Slack, and full-on personal conversations through Zoom. Using these two tools we’re prepared for any grade of discussion, be it planning out our next quarter’s roadmap or discussing the latest Marvel movie. Conclusion Remote working can be a real change of pace, but as long as you assess any issues as they come up and work out as a team how to resolve them, you’ll feel the benefits of working remotely and enjoy waking up that bit later without a commute to worry about. This story was originally posted on the Cronofy blog . Want to make the most of your remote work? Check out our Trello Calendar Connector .

A Day in the Life of a Developer in a Distributed Team

describes soft skills as: Oxford Dictionary Personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people. Things like empathy, open-mindedness and a willingness to learn are all soft skills that we can utilize whatever industry we’re in. We’ve spoken to the developers at Cronofy to see what soft skills they feel benefit them most, and how you can improve yours. 1. Empathy Being able to empathize with your team allows you to fully understand the problems that they face and find a way to make your project work for everyone. Suggesting new ideas is much easier when there is an understanding between members of a team that there won’t be any negative feedback or mockery, no matter how someone feels about an idea. Empathy allows us to predict how others are likely to react to what we say, meaning that we can tailor how we speak to our audience. If you don’t like someone’s idea, ask yourself why. Then, when you give feedback, start off by saying something positive about their suggestion, then what you don’t like, and finish off on another positive. This ‘sandwich’ approach means that the person you’re giving feedback to won’t dwell on the negatives but will understand the pros and cons of their idea. Empathizing with your user, meanwhile, allows you to see things from their point of view. They’re the ones that will be using your product, so you must always, try to see things from their point of view before your own. Just because you like how something looks/works, that doesn’t mean your users will. always Decision-making should be about more than personal preference. 2. Communication Effective communication is key both at work and at home. Our developers are key parts of our team and are always willing to speak up in meetings, whether they’re with staff or customers. Some things to keep in mind to communicate effectively: , even if you’re unsure of yourself — people will pay more attention to what you say if you say it with confidence. Speak clearly and with conviction . The best communicators spend as much time listening as they do talking. Listen the person speaking. Let them say what they want to say, then chime in with your thoughts. Don’t interrupt 3. Teamwork No matter what you do, there will be time when you have to work as part of a team. Whether it’s a team of developers, designers, or a project team, developers need to work well with others to be successful. Working well with others makes what you’re working on more fun, and makes people more likely to help you in the future. You may not always agree with the people in your team, but having different points of view helps to build . more successful companies 4. Approachability and Helpfulness At some point, someone’s going to want to ask you something. It could be about your tasks for the day, about an issue or a bug, or just about your plans for the weekend. Being approachable is key. If people don’t feel they can approach you and ask you something, when something goes wrong, they’re less likely to ask you for help. That could mean that a little problem soon evolves into a big one. Not being approachable or helpful also means that others are less likely to help you should you need it. If you can establish a rapport with people, they’re more likely to work with you and not against you. Make it clear to people when you don’t have time to communicate by putting headphones in when you’re busy and setting yourself offline on the company chat. If someone still approaches you, set a time when you can meet to discuss things. 5. Patience Sometimes you’ll be a part of a team or meeting that doesn’t just consist of developers. That means you’re going to have to explain the reasons behind your decisions and do so in a non-technical way. Some people will get everything straight away, while others will need more time. Being patient with people at moments like this is crucial for teams to work well together. Not everyone understands how difficult programming is, or how long code takes to write. They may ask you to do something without realizing the scope of what they’re asking. This can lead to frustration. Take your time to explain why it’s not as simple as they think, and to answer any questions that they have. Once you’ve taken the time to do this, future sessions will become much easier! 6. Open-mindedness When your mind is open, you’re more willing to accept new ideas, whether they’re yours or someone else’s. Even the worst ideas can inspire something great if you’re willing to consider them before dismissing them. The more ideas you have, the more projects you have the potential to work on. While not every idea you have will turn into something, you don’t know what will until you’ve thought about it in-depth. Keep your mind open to new ideas not just from your team, but from the rest of the company and even clients. Clients are the ones who use your product, so they’re the best people to tell you what works and what they need. 7. Problem solving At some point in your career, you’re going to face a problem. It could happen on a regular basis, or it could be rare, but it’s inevitable. How you handle problems will have a big impact on both your career and the company you work for. Problem solving is a key skill that employers look for in prospective employees, so the more examples you have of problem solving, the better. When approaching a new problem, always view it objectively, even if it’s one you created accidentally. Once you know what exactly the problem is, find out what caused it. Finding a solution is easy once you know the cause. Almost. It’s also important to remember that whether you caused the problem or not, you don’t have to fix it alone. Working with people in and outside of your team helps you to solve a problem faster than doing it alone. 8. Accountability Accountability is all about taking ownership of your mistakes. It can be difficult to admit that a decision you made created an undesirable result, but in the long-term, both you and your employer will be better off. When you hide from your mistakes, there’s every chance that you or one of your colleagues will make the same mistake in the future. Instead of running from what happened, put your hand up and admit responsibility. Use the opportunity to analyze what went wrong, then use this data to fix the problem and teach you and your colleagues how to avoid similar mistakes. 9. Creativity The best ideas and solutions often come to us when we approach things from a different, less obvious angle. This is what separates the most creative people — from programmers to entrepreneurs to authors — from everyone else. Despite popular opinion, creativity can be learned, but it comes with practice. Reading fiction, writing, art, crafts, even cooking are ways of exploring creativity. The more ways of creativity you explore, the easier it is to find different ways to approach the same problem. 10. Time management When you have a lot to do, knowing how to manage your time is crucial. How much time do you spend planning? Actually coding? Working with your team to come up with new ideas? Managing your time efficiently allows you to focus on what’s most important and get tasks done more efficiently. Techniques like the , where you work for a set period of time on one task, take a break, then go back to it, or , where you visualize your tasks, are great ways to build a routine or learn how to focus your attention if you’re prone to multitasking. Pomodoro technique Kanban While sometimes the need arises for multitasking, and you may feel like you get loads done when you do it, studies have shown that it’s . bad for productivity Not giving something your full attention means that tasks take longer to complete and you’re more likely to make errors. If you often multitask, prioritize your to-do list then use one of the techniques mentioned above to help you focus. You’ll be surprised how much faster you get things done when they have your full attention! Over to You What soft skills help you the most as a developer? Let us know if you think we’ve missed any over on Twitter ! @cronofy This was originally published as a on the . two-part series Cronofy blog

10 Soft Skills Every Developer Needs

10 habilidades blandas que todo desarrollador necesita

When it comes to technology, there are often concepts that exist in a purely abstract way. We therefore have to find ways to explain what these concepts are so that they make sense to as many people as possible. Failing to doesn’t just mean annoying friends and family when they ask you who you work for, but it can result in a loss of sales, too. Take the application programming interface (API) — it’s a concept software developers are familiar with, but most people outside of the software world have never even heard of it before. Yet we use them daily without even knowing it. An API connects one piece of software to another. So, for instance, it might connect your calendar to your product management software. Or it might show your Twitter feed on your website. Explaining abstract concepts in the right way can be the difference between business success and business failure, so it’s imperative you get it right. Let’s take a look at the key techniques you can use to write about abstract concepts… Use plain English There’s a myth that we often see, and it’s that using complex language makes you sound smarter. It’s actually counterproductive: it isolates readers, putting them off even finishing reading your sales page. This means you’ll get fewer conversions and customers. No matter what qualifications you have, we all have days when we’re tired and we don’t want to think too hard. Plain English ensures that the work our brain does is in working out if the product or service is for us, not what on earth the page says. Using plain English means that readers instantly know who you are and what you do. They can make an informed decision about if you’re the right fit for them faster, or decide that they want to find out more. Tools like and measure your writing’s readability. It’s worth running your writing through a tool like one of these — they often pick up on things we haven’t even considered. When you’ve been writing for a long time, it’s easy to fall into bad habits. ProWritingAid Hemingway Having a tool that can pick up on them — even if it isn’t always right — reminds us that, no matter how long we’ve been writing or how much we write, we don’t know everything. There are always things we can do to improve our writing. Use analogies Analogies, metaphors, and similes are one of the best ways to explain abstract concepts. Saying that something is something else helps us to get our heads around new, complex ideas because we’re a visual species. like For example, we often refer to an API as "the plumbing being the apps". People know what plumbing is; they know how it functions, and how their kitchens and bathrooms wouldn’t work without them. Coming up with the right analogy to describe your product isn’t always easy, but it’s worth taking the time to do. Don’t fall into cliched metaphors and similes because they’re easy; come up with something that’s unique to you, or embrace one that’s popular in your industry. is a useful tool for finding analogies to describe technical concepts. You can submit your own if you come up with a good one, too. Sideways Dictionary Embrace visuals Visuals — imagery, infographics, even videos — are great at further helping to explain what you do. We worked with to create videos that explain how our products work. Mair Perkins The challenge was creating videos that worked with without a voiceover. The videos often play on a loop at events where we can’t use any sound. But we also use them on our website. It was a juggling act that worked out well, and our videos have helped many customers quickly understand what we do. and And don’t be fooled by the fact that they’re videos — even videos with no sound still require writing. You remember that film, ? Everyone wondered how it could win an Oscar for best script when there was no dialogue? Well, it’s because every action on the screen is still by the scriptwriter. Your video should be no different. The Artist written The more you plan your video before you start the creation process, the more likely it is to fulfil your vision and the less revisions you’ll need to do. You can also create images using the words on the page. While this is a , it’s highly effective in copywriting, too. literary technique Think about it — when you read a novel or a poem, you don’t just get inside the character’s head—you see what they see. How? The world around them is described to you. You can use this technique to describe to your readers how the world around them would look with your product or service in their life. The stronger the visual, the better. Explain the end result When someone has just arrived on your website, they don’t care who you are. They don’t care what your products are called. They care about what you can do for them. This goes deeper than explaining what the features and benefits are all about. This is about the that your customers can achieve. outcomes How will you make their life easier? What will their business look like if they use your product? What will it look like if they don’t? The more you can focus on these concepts, the more likely you are to get that conversion. That’s because focusing on the ties in with the visuals. outcome While you’re not showing them a picture (although you could), you’re giving them a clear image they can see in their mind. My personal favorite is ’ value proposition for Copy School: "become the most profitable person in the room". The course teaches you how to write copy, but that’s not the idea they sell to you. The rest of the page explains why copywriting is important, who the course is for, and the areas you’ll study. Copy Hackers Given how long Copy School has been going for — and that they’ve used that tagline more than once — I’d say it’s pretty effective. Show evidence Any evidence you have of success — whether they’re case studies, statistics, testimonials, or even news coverage — helps to turn your abstract concept into something more concrete. Social proof is powerful, so the more you can get, the better. That’s why you’ll see long-form sales pages with testimonials after almost every section. Those testimonials are much more powerful than you saying "my product works’". They give your potential customer proven results they can compare their own efforts to. Case studies are a particularly effective way of doing this because they tell a story. These were a key part of Cronofy’s early days, because it showed how big names like to benefit their users. Skyscanner embraced our calendar sync technology Tell a story You had to know this one was coming, right? Storytelling is at the heart of all great copywriting, and it’s especially important when you’re selling an abstract concept. It's even more important when your product or service is new. Telling your reader the story of what they could achieve with your product or service helps them to feel what it’s like to be in that position. And that feeling is more powerful than anything except proven statistics that your product works. You can do this on your sales pages, in use cases, in blog posts…this technique works just about everywhere. These all give you the chance to show readers (remember the key rule: show, don’t tell) how things could change if they embrace what you could do for them. Conclusion Writing about abstract concepts — especially to people who are new to something — isn’t easy, but it’s a great way to flex your writing skills. If your product or service is an abstract concept, such as an API, it’s a necessary skill you’ll need to develop, too. What are your tips for writing about abstract concepts? Let us know in the comments!

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