Learn how you can make the most of the world of Atlassian
Growing a business can be full of uncertainty, but the strength of the Atlassian community is one thing developers can count on. When you develop for the Atlassian Marketplace, you are part of a thriving network of customers, developers, and Atlassians themselves. It's more than just the place you go to for support and help: our community is an invaluable resource that makes life as a developer easier.
A Tale of Two Communities
Our ecosystem consists of two community forums: one with a developer focus and one for customers. Both offer benefits for developers.
The Developer Community
The Atlassian developer community is a forum where developers can crowdsource technical solutions, ask for help while building new products, engage with peers, and access product news and announcements. There is an abundance of content there, more than a single person could consume in a lifetime, but we keep everything organized by category so developers can find what they need quickly. We also make it easy to see where the action is at a glance by displaying how much activity is happening in each category.
If you get stuck on a problem and have a question, there is a good chance someone else ran into the same issue. Thousands of common questions have already been answered and can be found through a quick search or by browsing through the relevant category. If you can't find an answer to your question, post your issue by selecting + New Topic and see if other developers in the community know a solution or workaround. Provide as much context and information as possible to give other developers their best chance to help you.
Tips for getting help
- If it's a technical issue, post an example of the code giving you trouble.
- Provide some context about what you are trying to accomplish and a detailed description of the result you're seeing.
- Post the full error message or logs for the community to analyze.
- Even the most complete and detailed posts may still require some back-and-forth to troubleshoot, so forum members may need to follow up with you to fully understand the issue.
If someone provides an answer that goes above and beyond, mark it as a solution to help the next person and to reward the replier. When you provide solutions to forum questions, your growing expertise will be displayed to the community via badges. More information about best practices, you can read our post here.
Make sure to follow the Announcements section, where you can learn about the latest releases, upcoming changes, developer events, and read insights from Atlassian research projects. When there is something we need everyone to know about because it relates to multiple Atlassian products or is of interest to developers as a group, we post it there for transparency and visibility. We even automatically close older announcements to keep outdated content from being bumped up, ensuring critical information is easy to find.
Exploring the Developer Community is a great way to get tips from other developers who have been in your shoes or strike up a conversation directly with the Atlassian ecosystem product teams. If you haven't already, create your profile and join in on the discussions!
The Atlassian Customer Community
The Customer Community is the home for users of all Atlassian products, from beginners to experts, and is a great place for developers to connect with customers where they already are. In the Community, users can network and get quick assistance from other users, developers, and Community members. With over 4 million members, there are more people on the Atlassian Community than there are people living in Los Angeles. That's a lot of individuals who can help you build up users for your Marketplace app if you play your cards right. For developers, it's also a powerful resource that can serve as inspiration for new app use cases and make your next product or feature better for customers.
Beyond its size, the Atlassian user Community is noteworthy because of its unique makeup. Many of our end users are on software teams themselves and our customers are often savvy admins. The technical knowledge spread across the Community provides developers with the opportunity to engage and empathize with end users on a deeper level. That's helpful for developers working to improve their products through valuable feedback.
If you're a Marketplace or Solution Partner, make sure you review some basic guidelines on our do's and don'ts when interacting with Community members before you jump in. Your participation is as essential to the Community as its members are to you. When you connect with the people that actually use your products, everyone wins.
Atlassian provides an opportunity to take your Community engagement even deeper through our Community Leaders Program. The Atlassian Community Leaders program recognizes members who share solutions, organize events (both in person and online), and help make the community a vibrant and welcoming place. It's a chance to connect with others on a more focused level, make your name as an ambassador between developers and customers, and mentor members of the Community. Our Community Leaders share a mission to build relationships with Community members and each other while sharpening their expert skills.
In recognition of the extra effort, you gain access to a private Slack channel, earn a Community Leader badge for your online profile, have direct access to the Atlassian team, and enjoy many other perks. You'll also be able to say that you make a difference by shaping the future of the Community. Around here, Community Leaders are rockstars.
To earn the title of Atlassian Community leader, you need to be vetted and approved by the Community Team, the Partner Team, and existing Community Leaders. We are looking for applicants with hands-on expertise and who are not in a position that is directly responsible for the sale of a product. All Partners in good standing are eligible for our program. Sound like you? Learn more and apply.
A Healthy Community Benefits Everyone
At Atlassian, developers, experts, and Partners interact with customers to help them get the best possible experience from their Atlassian products and apps. In return, app creators get deeper knowledge of customer needs, an opportunity to build loyalty, and a chance to gain credibility. Building relationships with customers improves your ability to stay informed about where your apps are succeeding or missing the mark and how you can provide solutions in the future. When you decide to take action on improvements to your app, be sure to announce it and keep the feedback loop going.
Example: Community Leader Nic Brough_Adaptavist does a great job helping a customer answer their questions on the Community here.
Writing articles is an easy way for developers to add value while also establishing their own expertise. A good article can elevate you as a developer if it's part of a larger conversation rather than a thinly veiled promotional piece, so take your time and put thought into it. You will know you wrote an engaging article for readers if it starts a conversation or results in the sharing of new perspectives.
Example: Read this Community post to learn how to write exceptional articles for the Atlassian user audience.
These are just a few ways you can harness the power of working within the world of Atlassian. To take advantage of these benefits and discover more, join us on these forums.