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Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

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Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#21

Post by Sufrostico »

jerednel wrote: post #19
Sufrostico wrote: post #7

For DBA's should be a must, for automation purposes, backups, custom reports, etc, etc... And for Marketing it's just kind of scary... some of those guys start by saying: "I know how to program and that feature could be ready in a day or a couple of hours"

I work in marketing->e-commerce and I think it's a great idea to learn to "program". By no means am I a good developer, but I have played enough with Rails and PHP and deployed a couple of simple apps to production environments and I feel like I know enough to understand how to put together a coherent business requirements document. I think if not programming, at least process modeling or class diagrams should be lea…

> I think it's a great idea to learn to "program".

Believed or not I'm completely agree with you, learn to program will definitely improve the way you work.

But sometimes, some guys with little involvement in a project that know "how to program" cause more damage than good.

Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#23

Post by jmduke »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #12

I agree with most of this. I work in marketing and knowing Excel better than most (hardly coding I know) and a little bit of VBA and I get a lot of efficiencies where others can't. I'm now leaning some basic web programming at the moment. It helps open the mind to what can be done which in turn should make me a better marketeer when it comes to making plans. Plus it is good to know if engineers are being asked to do…

Excel is considered 'functional programming', which is different than traditional programming but nevertheless incredibly valuable. I took a 'Computer Skills for Business' class during undergrad and I can't thank it enough for turning ten-minute tedium into snippets of code.

Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#24

Post by zerostar07 »

coryl wrote: post #13
zerostar07 wrote: post #9

The marketing people I know would make terrible programmers. It's an issue of attitude.

Isn't the idea to be a minimally-functional programmer, rather than an awesome one?

I ve had a product manager guy trying to do that. Didn't help; his ideas were mostly irrelevant. The problem is he grew an attitude and tried to interfere with my work.

I generally hate analogies, but it's like a real estate agent trying to work with architects.

Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#25

Post by zerostar07 »

Daniel_Newby wrote: post #15
bloggergirl wrote: post #2

Not being able to code will be, in 10 years, like not being able to parallel park. People will look at you like, "Really?"

Half the population is below IQ 100 (in America and Europe). For these people, learning basic algebra is like pulling teeth. Coding? Forget about it.

It has little to do with IQ, and lots to do with education policy.

Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#26

Post by ahmadss »

sunir wrote: post #8

I think knowing how to code helps marketing more than just scripting. When drafting contracts I apply the DRY principle, modularize sections, and focus on clarity and meaningful names for section headings. When planning strategy I look at the whole structure of the market, which required analytical thinking not unlike system architecture. Moreover most of the high powered marketing is distribution which is almost all…

I agree w everything you wrote above, but I lack the tech knowledge to understand the following comparison: "high powered marketing is distribution which is almost all code these days"

Would appreciate it if you further clarified. Thanks!

Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#27

Post by ridave »

Good stuff, I particularly like #6. As marketer, knowing some programming has come in handy when working with technical folks who occasionally come down with a case of tunnel vision.

I would also add:

- Agency Management - Whether its calling your agency on BS or knowing how to use firebug to quickly diagnose a site problem, it definitely has saved me. (Recently I called a disgruntled web designer out about not using font-face and he has been much easier to get along with since)

- A focused approach - Since I have started to learn programming I noticed that I apply programming principles to (rather mundane) tasks that take up a lot of time but often go overlooked. For example, when programming and creating variable names I make them as specific as possible, so if someone else was working on my code they would know exactly what it is. A simple concept to most people on HN but its something often overlooked by non-programmers. Open up an excel file from marketing person and you will often be left scratching your head.

As for tools for learning to code, recently I have seen lots of places talk about codecademy, but most leave out CodeSchool.com. Definitely recommended - it's been a been a huge help for me and gotten me to the point where I am ready to take it to the next level (hopefully @ Hungry Academy).

Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#28

Post by gruseom »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #12

I agree with most of this. I work in marketing and knowing Excel better than most (hardly coding I know) and a little bit of VBA and I get a lot of efficiencies where others can't. I'm now leaning some basic web programming at the moment. It helps open the mind to what can be done which in turn should make me a better marketeer when it comes to making plans. Plus it is good to know if engineers are being asked to do…

knowing Excel better than most (hardly coding I know) and a little bit of VBA

There's no question that spreadsheets are programs, albeit not written in a general-purpose language. Question for you: what do you do in VBA? i.e. in what areas does the spreadsheet alone not suffice?

Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#29

Post by sunir »

ahmadss wrote: post #26
sunir wrote: post #8

I think knowing how to code helps marketing more than just scripting. When drafting contracts I apply the DRY principle, modularize sections, and focus on clarity and meaningful names for section headings. When planning strategy I look at the whole structure of the market, which required analytical thinking not unlike system architecture. Moreover most of the high powered marketing is distribution which is almost all…

I agree w everything you wrote above, but I lack the tech knowledge to understand the following comparison: "high powered marketing is distribution which is almost all code these days" Would appreciate it if you further clarified. Thanks!

Things like Google Apps Marketplace, the App Store, Intuit Anywhere, the Windows Store are all technical. Negotiating with then requires knowledge to maximize the opportunities.

They are a subclass of the wider deal. The Internet is the main distributor. If you look at YouTube's growth it wasn't just that they hosted videos but they found a way to use flash to embed videos on other people's sites.

The Facebook Like buttons are another example of using technology as a primary form of market expansion.

Re: Why Marketing and BD Professionals Should Learn to Code

#30

Post by beaker »

I think there's a huge difference between the kind of "coding" being discussed here and the work of an actual software developer. That said, if coding simply means having some familiarity with the concepts of computer programming, then I think it definitely makes sense for those people who are interested to partake!
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