To do your best work as a developer, you need context. A development community thrives when its members share context as a habit. That's why Shopify Engineering believes that sharing context is vital to our growth and success—as a company, as a team, and as individuals. Context is an abstract term, and we use it to refer to the why, what, and how of our development philosophies, approaches, and choices. Although sharing context comes in a myriad of forms, three of the ways we do it at Shopify are through: Our in-house Development Handbook A vibrant developer presentation program, called Dev Talks Podcasts that go deep on technical subjects. Each of these programs is by and for developers at Shopify, and each has strong support from leadership. Let's take a brief look at each of these ways that we share context and how they benefit our development community. Shopify Development Handbook Managing content is always a challenge. In hi-tech organizations, where tools and technologies change frequently, products ship quickly, and projects can pivot from day to day, having access to up-to-date and relevant information is critical. In a whirlwind of change and information volatility, we try to keep a central core of context in our Development Handbook. Origins The origins of the Handbook go back to 2015, when Jean-Michel Lemieux (JML), our current Chief Technology Officer, joined Shopify. In his first role at the company, he needed to learn about the Shopify platform—quickly. The company and the product were both growing rapidly, and the documentation that existed was scattered. Much of the knowledge and expertise was only in the heads of Shopifolk, not written down anywhere. So he started a simple Google Doc to try to get a grip on Shopify both technically and architecturally. As the doc got longer, it was clear that the content was valuable not just to him—this was a resource that every developer could contribute to and benefit from. Soon, the doc took shape. It contained
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