From First Course to Advocacy: The Developer Journey of Indermohan Singh, Platform Developer Advocate at Dynatrace

Why this story stands out

At DevJobs.at, we watched the session “Indermohan Singh, Platform Developer Advocate bei Dynatrace” with particular interest. The speaker, Indermohan Singh, offers a candid, grounded look at how he discovered programming, how a failure taught him to learn the right way, and what it actually means to work as a Platform Developer Advocate at Dynatrace GmbH. Most of all, he shares a mindset for learning that newcomers can apply straight away—and a simple, practical path into developer advocacy.

An early start—and a formative setback

“It’s weird if I would say I started when I was a kid, but this is surprisingly true.” Indermohan’s first touchpoint with programming came through his mother. In India, at a time when computers and the internet were still new, she attended an institute to learn programming alongside Photoshop and other computer skills. Curious and inspired by what he calls “fancy stuff,” he followed along—even before he really knew what programming was.

His first course ended bluntly: he “miserably failed the exam.” Not because of a lack of interest, but because he tried to “cram” programs—like the classic “find the prime numbers” exercise—instead of understanding the logic. That stumble turned out to be a gift. It gave him a basic sense of what programming might be and, more importantly, a sustained interest to pursue it properly.

The real beginning after 10th grade

The real start came “after my 10th grade,” the Indian high school stage. Indermohan joined a Polytechnic College and began studying programming in earnest. This was the shift from reproducing patterns to learning concepts—understanding what sits behind the code. That emphasis on concepts over syntax becomes a throughline in his career.

What a Platform Developer Advocate at Dynatrace does

“My role at Dynatrace is Platform Developer Advocate.” Indermohan’s definition is crisp: he enables developers—inside and outside the company—to understand the Dynatrace platform and leverage its benefits. It’s less about teaching in the traditional sense and more about enablement: clearing obstacles, structuring knowledge, listening carefully and feeding back insights to product teams.

Workshops: building content and facilitating hands-on learning

A large part of his day is spent on workshops: “creating the content for the workshop, doing the workshop itself.” Effective enablement hinges on well-designed practice. Good workshops are not just slide decks; they translate platform capabilities into solvable tasks, guide participants through exercises, and gather insights that refine the material in the next iteration.

Documentation: original content, style reviews, tech reviews

Documentation is central to his work. He creates “the original content of the documentation” and also does “style reviews [and] tech reviews” for contributions by others. Documentation, in this frame, is not a by-product; it is a product. The value lies in precision, consistency, and accessibility—and in the collaborative reviews that keep quality high and knowledge current.

Feedback loops: listening to the community, signaling to builders

Indermohan closes the enablement loop by “gather[ing] the feedback from the community inside and outside [Dynatrace]” and funneling it back “to the developers who have created the technology itself.” That feedback makes sure workshops, docs, and product evolve together. The cycle is clear: practice, capture, refine.

Video learning: Learn Deque as a dojo for the Dynatrace query language

Another piece he “recently started doing” is video content. He highlights an app called “Learn Deque, where people can learn Dynatrace query language.” He describes it as a “dojo app” with a set of exercises; each exercise includes a video in which he explains “the topic or the task at hand.” The approach blends structured challenges with focused explanation—a potent mix for turning concepts into skills.

How to learn programming: logic before syntax

When Indermohan speaks about newcomers, he is refreshingly direct. Many spend too much time worrying about syntax. But “this is not what you should start to learn.” First, you need a “mental model of what programming actually is.”

Visual languages for the win: Scratch

He suggests “language like Scratch, which is visual programming language.” With Scratch, you drag and drop building blocks for conditionals, loops, and other control structures. The crucial shift: “you don’t spend a lot of time fixing the syntax, but actually executing the logic.” That puts the cognitive focus on problem structure rather than punctuation and formatting. For beginners, this dramatically lowers the barrier to entry and builds foundations that transfer to any other language later.

Algorithms as thinking tools

“The logic, that is the real programming to create algorithms to solve a problem.” In Indermohan’s view, programming is modeling solutions, not typing incantations. If you learn to think in algorithms first, syntax becomes a tool rather than a hurdle. His early attempt to memorize prime-number programs is a perfect cautionary tale about why pattern-cramming yields shallow learning.

Many are already doing developer advocacy—without the title

How do you become a developer advocate? Indermohan’s answer is disarmingly practical: many developers already do parts of the job without naming it that way. “There are a lot of developers who are writing blog posts… going to meetups and they’re giving the talks there.” If you help others, share what you know, and participate in meetups and publications, you are already practicing advocacy.

His path: books on Ionic, meetups, online publications

Before joining Dynatrace as a Developer Advocate, Indermohan wrote “a couple of books on Ionic,” the mobile framework for hybrid applications. He also gave talks at meetups and contributed “a couple of blog posts for a couple of online publications.” The pattern isn’t prescriptive, but it’s instructive: create content, show up, learn from feedback, and iterate.

The last step: find the job and jump

If you’re doing those things, you’re “already on the path of becoming a developer advocate.” What remains is straightforward: “Last thing for you is just to find the job for developer advocate and then just jump into it.” The invitation is both simple and empowering: if you have the practice and the mindset, take the leap.

What we’re taking away from the session

The power of this session lies in how it fuses personal narrative with concrete, usable advice. No buzzwords, no fluff—just clear lessons from experience:

• Build mental models first; don’t start with syntax.
• Use visual tools like Scratch to learn control flow and logic.
• Practice through meaningful exercises—workshops and dojo-style apps with guided videos are a strong combo.
• Treat documentation as a product; write, review, and refine collaboratively.
• Run tight feedback loops: collect insights from learners and pass them to the builders.
• If you write, speak at meetups, and publish, you’re already on the advocacy path.

Practical steps for beginners

These steps follow directly from Indermohan’s approach:

1. Practice logic with visual tools: Start with simple problems—counting, comparisons, repetition—and model them in a visual environment like Scratch. Focus on conditionals, loops, and data flow.
2. Set small learning goals: Instead of trying to memorize entire courses, define bite-sized objectives (use one conditional well, write a loop that matters, handle an event). Document what you learned.
3. Separate problem from syntax: Write down the steps and logic in plain language or pseudocode before you touch a text-based language.
4. Share what you learn: Blog short notes aimed at helping someone else. The act of explaining forces clarity.
5. Seek community feedback: Attend meetups and offer a lightning talk. The goal is feedback and growth, not perfection.

Practical steps for emerging developer advocates

For those drawn to advocacy, Indermohan’s description doubles as a roadmap:

• Build workshops: Design tasks that center on real problems, not features. Iterate based on learner feedback.
• Invest in documentation: Create original content and get good at style and tech reviews. Precision and accessibility matter.
• Close the loop: Create a reliable channel to funnel workshop and community feedback to product teams.
• Use video where it helps: Short, focused explanations paired with exercises—like in Learn Deque for the Dynatrace query language—can unblock learners quickly.
• Be consistently visible: Publish in online outlets and speak at meetups. Consistency trumps polish.

A learning posture that compounds

The common thread in Indermohan’s journey is a learning posture. His early failure—memorizing and then failing the exam—didn’t end his pursuit; it reset his compass toward what lasts: logic and mental models. Syntax and tools follow more naturally once the thinking is in place.

That same posture shows up in his day-to-day work. Workshops start with problems, documentation makes concepts explicit, feedback shapes the next iteration, and videos clear practical hurdles. Taken together, these practices enable others to act with confidence on the Dynatrace platform.

Quotes and core ideas

Focus on impact, not titles

What strikes us is how little Indermohan centers on titles and how much he centers on impact. “Platform Developer Advocate” isn’t a badge; it’s a commitment to enablement. In practice, it runs on three engines—learning experiences (workshops and videos), clarity (documentation), and resonance (feedback loops). Together, they create the confidence developers need to put a platform to work.

Conclusion: Enablement as the throughline

“Indermohan Singh, Platform Developer Advocate bei Dynatrace” tells a story built on practice, not shortcuts: spark curiosity, prioritize logic, produce content, process feedback, and then take the next step. Whether you’re just clicking together your first if-statement in Scratch or wondering how to turn community work into a formal advocacy role, the guardrails are the same. Start with logic, share what you learn, and take the leap when the opportunity appears.

For us, one line sums it up: logic before syntax. Master that, and you won’t just learn to program—you’ll be able to bring others along on the journey. That’s the essence of developer advocacy as Indermohan lives it.

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