Nikki Zavadska from Jexo recently took part in Appy Hours, a new monthly event where 4 Marketplace Partners and app developers go head to head for the title of Best App Demo. Each presenter has 5 minutes to share their app demo, and customers vote for the app demo they liked best and can connect for more information.
We had the chance to ask Nikki about her approach to creating content, her top tips for fellow developers, where she draws inspiration from for her demos, and how she prepared her demo of Swanly to win Best App Demo in our monthly Atlassian Appy Hours in June!
Hi Nikki! Tell us about yourself. How long have you been with Jexo?
Hi! First things first, I wanted to thank the Atlassian team for organizing Appy Hours and supporting Atlassian developers. 💙
I’m with Jexo since it was “born” in 2018. I helped to grow the company to a team of 14, launched 6 products used in over 3000 companies, and helped build a library of educational content for project managers.
I actually founded Jexo with my co-founder Biro when I was just 25! When you think of a generalist like myself, this was the best personal hyper-growth experience I could ever get.
I live and breathe for our team, they often tell me that my official job title should be a “do-all”. My main focus is Product and UI/UX but you often find me in the marketing team working on content, website, growth, design, and SEO. I love being creative but also applying my analytical skills and marketing is my newly found passion.
What’s your favorite Atlassian Value, and why?
All values are important, that’s what makes the company unique and pulls the right people together. Atlassian values are really inspiring and so well crafted that it’s hard to pick only one!
I would say “Be the change you seek” resonates with me the most. As a leader, I know that it’s really important to lead by example. The work and attitude of the team reflect the leader’s mindset.
But not only that, I see it as a reminder to look beyond job titles and explore opportunities that help you create something new, more innovative, and help to get stuff done.
What’s a tip for a Cloud app developer wanting to widen their reach?
Try to explore the world through the eyes of your customers, not the product, and help the community along the way. Every single one of us has something unique that we’re passionate about and finding that something is an essence for your growth as well.
Sometimes doing certain activities that don’t bring immediate results like starting your own blog, or building a community and audience on socials doesn’t seem as appealing as building new product features.
But over time they become one of the most valuable channels you have that support your flywheel model.
How did you prepare for the demo you gave for Appy Hours, and what was the experience like?
When running demos for the Atlassian Community, I try to think of a theme for the demo to make it more fun.
For example, for Apptoberfest last year we made a demo about prioritizing a pub crawl, we joined Atlassian Bakeoff, and in December we launched a special Christmas edition with Santa and the Grinch.
Because Appy Hours was a live demo, I needed to do it a bit more low-key. I went with an idea that I had for a while to make our Jexo pets project managers of the “meowcating” team and “pawsome” development teams. As silly as it sounds it worked 😳.
I asked my team for pictures of their pets and names, I set up a new test instance, and I was ready to go. Overall, the preparation time was less than 30 minutes.
The demo itself went beyond expectations! It’s always great to meet new and well-known faces from the Atlassian Community. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people joined Appy Hours and all the support we had during demos. I would 100% recommend joining Appy Hours if you’re not yet decided. It’s a quick win! And most importantly, you’re going to make friends along the way.
Can you tell us more about your approach to creating content? For example, how do you ideate and prioritize creative ways to engage your audiences?
The key to creating content is to have a clear idea of who your target audience is and create content pillars based on their interests and pain points.
Apart from thorough research and analyzing what our audience liked in the past we always aim for our content to be fun, educational, and engaging.
There is one magic tip our marketing team uses to sparkle imagination and creativity. We look at 3-4 big brands outside our industry that have similar values to ours. For example, we look at the brands in the food, beauty industry, and video games. These brands are in a really competitive space and need to stay on top of their game.
If you would be looking only at your competitors in your niche for inspiration, you would just become looking like everyone else. Try it out to get some fresh perspective!
What’s one tip for someone wanting to get more involved in the Atlassian developer community?
First, think of why you want to get more involved. Is it because you want to help others? Make more friends and connections? Give feedback to the Atlassian? Or all these things?
Once you’re clear on the objective, it’s much easier to figure out what activities you should do to get there. And then, of course, it goes without saying that you should give without expecting to get anything in return, and be consistent.
I hope to see you at the next Appy Hours 🍻!
Sign up to demo your app at a future Appy Hours, and RSVP for our July Appy Hour event!