January 27, 2022 Growing the Community and Bringing Work With adroc – The Topcoder Nation Show #11

Great questions deserve great answers, and our guest in this episode knocked it out of the park with his honesty and wit while answering burning queries from community members. We had the honor to interview Adam Morehead – and this is what you get when you get him on stage:

Right off the bat, my personal takeaway is that speaking with Adam will always surprise you. He is a man who doesn’t learn a speech and repeat it anytime he has the chance. He has a capacity for coming up with brilliant, unique insights on every occasion you meet him, even if it’s the same topic you discussed weeks ago. To me, that’s an expression of creativity, and I highly suspect that led him to the current role he has.

He is the Vice President of Community and Marketing nowadays, having spent more than fifteen (15) years in his career in Topcoder. His biggest challenge is to drive the right message across the realms of marketing, community, and staff. It translates into growing the community and bringing more work.

“That’s the goal right now, to grow the community, grow customers, grow the talent, bring more people in, get more work in the platform. The focus is on, I would say, all things community. Engaging everyone, growing, and keeping everyone prospering, giving everyone opportunities. ”

— Adam’s on his current focus as VP of Marketing

Without further ado, please enjoy the gems of wisdom he shared with us during the interview.

TAKEAWAYS

These lessons, tips, and advice captured my attention, they may also help you:

• Adam has a hiking tradition where he travels to mountains in different parts of the US and goes off the grid for weeks once a year. For the curious minds, it was during one of those trips that he started to grow his iconic beard.
• Grow the community, grow the talent skills, grow the customer, and engage across all actors in the ecosystem. That’s the current focus of his work.
• His design background helps him in his role as a tool for providing feedback when tackling problems and asking the right set of questions.
• One of his favorite things about the community is the relationships he builds with people around the world.
• He relished his trip memories from Indonesia, India, Japan, and many others, where he was able to hang out with Topcoder members.
• He suggests members should stop assuming and ask questions. That leads to understanding a given problem and being successful.
• Despite being a remote worker for more than one decade, he feels the impact of not seeing members as he used to. COVID is hard (don’t miss this section in the video recording!!)

Topcoder Nation Show #11 is up on YouTube. See timestamps below for a summary.

TIMESTAMPS: GATES TO WISDOM

• Yearly nature trip to hike mountains in the US: 03:08 
• His current role as VP of Marketing: 08:27 
• Biggest challenges in his current mission: 11:53
• COVID is hard: 16:43
• Diversity and ability to meet people around the world is one of his favorite gains from the community: 22:55
• Going on a volcano trip with community members, India regionals, and Japan: 25:07
• Eating exotic food in travels: 29:44
• Fun things to do when not working: work more and rebuilding his house: 32:33
• Typical daily habits: 37:09

AMA 

We held an AMA (ask me anything) with adroc. Curious community members asked questions for him to ponder. Watch the video from 39:40 to check out the replies to questions such as:

• What is your expectation from Topcoder members? Do you think Topcoder members are good enough to satisfy customer needs?
• How do you find clients for Topcoder? Is it possible to attract more companies from the Fortune 500?
• Are you willing to work with clients outside the United States, for example, Chinese or Russian companies?
• What will happen with Topcoder in case of an economic crisis or war? Will you move the headquarters to Hong Kong, for example?
• What do you think are the advantages of Topcoder compared to other platforms that offer the same services, usually for less money?
• Just wondering why the TCO22 Finalists – (Stage 1 & 2) have not been announced yet.
• When will Topcoder implement crypto payments for members?
• When will the design prizes increase?

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Peace out.

TOPCODER NATION

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