March 31, 2021 April 2021: Thoughts from Adroc on Community

Wow! It has been one year since I officially took on leading the community team… and what a crazy year it has been. As I was thinking about writing this blog post and looking to provide regular musings and updates, I thought back to January 2020 when Mike Morris (Topcoder CEO) was explaining his thoughts and goals for 2020 and making sure as a company we focused on more member payments (as in finding/creating more opportunities for all of you to earn), recognize that the industry was rapidly changing to accept virtual work models and communities like Topcoder (COVID has sped that up!) and it was important to make sure all of us never stop listening and improving the overall experience and lives of Topcoder community members. In that conversation, I started thinking of options and recruiting a community-focused developer-type executive we could hire. At the end of the conversation, Mike asked if I would be interested…   

Topcoder for me has always been about the future – crafting new ways to work, new ways to think about work, new ways to innovate with technology, and new ways to engage, teach, compete and motivate a fantastic community like Topcoder. April 2020 started a crazy ride for all of us, and one of the biggest things I miss is seeing and visiting with all of you from Indonesia to India to Europe and South America.

This year we are celebrating 20 years of Topcoder! Topcoder started in 2001 with a simple goal: to identify the best developers in the world through competition. Over the past 20 years, Topcoder has evolved into a sophisticated community of competitive programmers, developers, designers, and QA enthusiasts tackling and solving some easy… but mostly super complex technology problems with enthusiasm, attitude, and style.

I am excited about our community sponsors and programs we have planned for 2021 (Adobe, EdgeNet, Headspin (and more coming). Our weekly Monday Community call with all of you (join every Monday for what is hot that week). Competitive programming (SRM’s, RDM’s, and Topcoder Skill Builders), The 2021 Topcoder Open and Regional Events, and, of course, Topcoder Gig/Freelance work!

My ask of all of you is to let us help you in your Topcoder journey. You have a fantastic Community team (Jessie, Nick, Harshit, Daniela, Kiril) to help you and provide advice when needed. You have an amazing and hardworking support team (support@topcoder.com) to help you with any platform questions, and our steller product development team is consistently working to improve the platform’s experience. 

Remember, our work is never done – nurturing and caring for each other and a community like Topcoder requires investment, time, and care. We want all of you to learn, grow, thrive, and achieve great things. 

Continue being bold and have enthusiasm and passion for pushing yourself forward. 

Chat with me in the new forums!

– adroc