Introducing Twilio Developer Evangelist Benjamin Granados

Introducing Twilio Developer Evangelist Benjamin Granados

“A changelog is a file which contains a curated, chronologically ordered list of notable changes for each version of a project.”  (KeepChangelog.com)

I love APIs and this is indeed one of the reasons I am now working at Twilio. Something good APIs have in common is a good changelog. This means users can be aware of the new features coming, what issues have been fixed, and adapt their code in case it becomes necessary. Some examples of great changelogs are those from Twilio and Kubernetes.

Developers love to apply useful stuff to solve problems, don't we? Why not use the changelog format to introduce myself to the Twilio Community? Let’s try it:

# BEN'S CHANGELOG

## [v0 Beta] 

Features:
   * Love to build and destroy stuff
   * Curiosity
Known Issues:
   * Needed diapers
   * Eat too many cookies
   * No coding skills

This is my young child version. Born and raised in the beautiful city of Segovia, Spain. I have always had a passion for building my own toys and understanding how electronic devices work. I remember back then, I had a project to develop my own robot and what I did was glue together a bunch of pieces of boards and components from broken devices. It obviously did not move when I finished, so I wondered: What could be wrong with my robot?  That initial frustration only fed my curiosity and desire to build more and better. This was when I first saw a computer and I remember that I was totally fascinated with that machine.

## [v1 Lite] 

Features:
   * Basic coding skill
   * Play too much Lemmings, Prince of Persia, Commandos, StartCraft and Monkey Island
   * Love sports and have started climbing some mountains
   * Dreamer
   * Got my first jobs: postman and waiter
Fixed:
   * No coding skills
   * The diapers thing :-)
Known Issues:
   * Immature

This is my teenage version with so much stuff going on like any other teenager. I started to attend BASIC and TURBO BASIC programming lessons with my best friends. I remember the final project of that course was to build an animation with snow falling and a snowman, and I couldn't finish it by myself and needed some help from the teacher and friends. I decided that I wanted to be a Software Engineer, but I learned it would not be an easy path and I would have to work hard.

## [v2 Enterprise] 

Features:
   * Learned many different technologies and languages like ASP, Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, C++, PHP, and Java. Some of these no longer exist
   * Worked at many different companies and teams playing many different roles so I learned to adapt very quickly
   * Built a lot of great stuff. For example, I built a CMS in ASP before the CMSs even existed
   * Enjoyed climbing and traveling
   * Nonconformist
Known Issues:
   * Don't know about developer experience, APIs or open source.

In 2000 I became a Software Engineer. This version covers 2/3 of my career with two clearly differentiated releases:  

1. Dedicated to exploring and learning in different companies where I could learn new technologies, different ways of working and assuming new roles.
2. Leading a development team building web services in Java.

Here I forged a solid reputation as a problem solver and developed my passion for mountains. I think there is a parallelism between mountaineering and software development: climbing a mountain is a problem to solve and to do it you have to break it down into smaller pieces, just like we do when programming.

## [v3 Developer Love] 

Features:
   * Become a father and ran a crazy campaign for my son's treatment
   * Fall in love with APIs
   * Build some developer portals and lead an API program
   * Running developer events like hackathons and conferences
   * Nurture tech communities inside enterprises

The turning point in my life and career was the birth of my oldest son, affected by a congenital birth defect called Congenital Femoral Deficiency. After a strenuous effort and an incredible campaign in 2 years, we made the impossible possible. We managed to get the resources to give him the best treatment available in the world. That experience made me grow a lot as a person and as a professional, so I decided to boost my comfortable career and I looked for a role as API Evangelist. As an evangelist, my perception of software development changed, and I started to focus on developer experience and how developer products adoption works.

## [v4 Twilion] 

This version of myself is currently under development. Stay tuned for more updates.

My name is Benjamin Granados, new Developer Evangelist at Twilio and I am so excited to start serving Twilio’s developer community with a focus in Spain. My goal is to empower every single developer to enjoy building with us and create and strengthen bonds between Twilio and tech communities here in Spain. I can’t wait to build cool stuff together!

• Email: bgranados@twilio.com

• Twitter: @benjagm

• Linkedin: benjagranados

• Github: benjagm