My exit from Google: we don't say goodbye, we say good journey.

Although I wasn’t searching for a new role, one found me, and after a long period of accumulating scope and responsibilities at Google, I’m excited to try something new.

I’m incredibly grateful for the 15.75 years I’ve had to work side-by-side with some of the most amazing engineers and storytellers I’ve ever met… and to do so on a global scale. I first learned about Developer Advocacy when I ran into Mano Marks at Google I/O in 2009. He had just returned from a talk at the UN, where he spoke about combating deforestation by empowering indigenous peoples with mapping platforms. I knew right away that it was my dream job, and I applied to Google.

I started as a Developer Advocate working on the social web. First there was Open Social, then Friend Connect, and Google Buzz. The +1 button was one of our first major launches leading up to Google+, and it ended up being on a shockingly high percentage of page loads on the Internet (the TL used to say, “it’s not just a f#$%ing button”). I changed teams to work on Google Glass and gave the first public demo of Glass alongside an introduction to our developer platform. That was probably the only time I’ll ever be the subject of a Saturday Night Live parody. After Glass, I helped evolve the DevRel structure at Google a few times. First leading a small team of DAs for “ubiquitous computing”, then all of Developer Advocacy and the Google Developer Studio, then a portfolio of DevRel teams. That portfolio of teams evolved over the years, and I had the privilege of starting full DevRel teams for Flutter, Firebase, TensorFlow, and evolving many others, such as Maps, Apps, Search, and Material. Later on, I was able to build Google’s first Internal DevRel team and take on responsibility for the Developer Ecosystem team and the Open Source Programs Office. Throughout all those years, I helped stretch Developer Relations at Google through projects like growing our online video presence, founding the annual internal DevRel Conference, coauthoring the Developer Relations Engineer role profile, evolving the Google I/O online experience and developer keynote, helping reinvent perf, and more recently helping evolve our craft in the age of AI. Together, we helped grow Google from a handful of platforms supporting consumer products to what it is today.

Here I am today, wondering how I was so fortunate to have worked on so many amazing technologies alongside so many extraordinary humans. Thank you to all my Google colleagues for everything you’ve taught me and all the crazy ideas we turned into the state of the DevRel art.

As for what’s next, well, that will have to be a different post.