In part 2 of the developer pour-over metaphor, I zoomed in on what kind of developer water is used to make community coffee: distilled or filtered, referring to the "richness" of persona development.

But there's another aspect to the type of water... the temperature.

I've added an annotation that points out this "invisible" sub-process:

It's interesting because in this metaphor, whether you use hot or cold water would still drip into your community coffee. In one case, you'll get a tasty brew and in the other, you'll be forced to throw away – a wasted opportunity.

This could refer to your positioning and messaging. And like prepping coffee, you don't boil the water (that would be 211℉). It's just below boiling point. Specifically, the water must be heated to between 195-205℉.

That could translate to, "Get your messaging just right."

Either a developer will "get it" (hot) or won't (cold). It doesn't matter that you are using perfectly filtered water and have a rich persona – if they don't get it, they won't see the value. You've successfully captured their attention by storing it in the awareness kettle, and now you're about to pour it all over your materials.

There's something else though...

At the end of the day, a developer who you market to, who percolates in your materials, and still doesn't get it is still part of your ecosystem and your overall community.

This is why positioning and messaging are critical to get right early rather than push it off until it becomes a problem.

Just think about how long it would take to recycle that cold coffee water to bring it back to a filtered state where it would go back into the system again.

Have a lovely day,
Kamran