Guest blog with Dan Holdsworth @ Roadmap.sh

In an era where technology and development are rapidly evolving, having a clear and structured path is paramount for success. Enter Dan Holdsworth, a seasoned professional whose expertise is now driving innovation and strategic growth at Roadmap.sh. 

Roadmap.sh has carved out a unique niche by providing comprehensive and accessible learning paths for developers. With Dan Holdsworth amongst others at the forefront, the platform is continuously evolving to meet the needs of the tech community.

As a leader in this dynamic field, Dan’s role as a Developer Advocate is crucial in shaping the resources and tools that developers need to excel in their careers.

LinuxRecruit had the opportunity to chat with Dan to delve deeper into the journey of Roadmap.sh so far and its plan for the future.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role within the company?

I'm Dan, the developer advocate for roadmap.sh and one-third of the team working on the project. I'm an 11-year Army veteran and former SRE & Engineering Manager. My role at the company varies from day to day but centers around managing the wider open-source community such as dealing with GitHub issues and pull requests, moderating the community on social media as well as listening to user and team feedback, and working with Kamran to ideate on feedback. I write the initial textual roadmaps, carry out outreach to potential partners and collaborators as well as run our weekly live stream "My Roadmap".

Can you explain to us your process for creating and updating the roadmaps?

When creating the roadmaps, we like to separate the logical and creative parts. We start with a backlog of roadmaps that we want to create and will then reach out to subject matter experts (course creators, YouTubers, blog owners etc) and share with them a basic textual version of a roadmap, asking them for their input and opinions. We will then iterate over time until all parties are happy with the content covered in the roadmap.

Once the "logical" side is done, I will throw it over the wall to Kamran who will then take on the painstaking task of designing and implementing the final interactive roadmap that the users will see. Once this is deployed to production, the community and I will then start to populate the roadmap with copy and content links.

In regards to updating the roadmaps, this is usually a community effort, we receive tens of pull requests and issues most days so the older roadmaps are being updated day by day.

Can you discuss any significant turning points or milestones in the development of roadmap.sh?

I would say a big turning point in the project was when Kamram began working full-time after we were acquired. Before being acquired the project was a "simple" project hosted on GitHub Pages, whereas now it is a fully-fledged product and since implementing user accounts we have had over 1.1 million users register accounts with us.

Name some of the challenges that you have faced whilst working at Roadmap, and how did you overcome them?

Transitioning from Engineering Management to what is essentially a product, marketing, and community management role wrapped into one, came with some challenges but luckily I have been fortunate to be surrounded by experts in the field so I managed to learn a lot in the short time that I have been with roadmap.sh.

How did the team decide on the specific roadmaps and content to include on the site initially?

Initially, it was a somewhat obvious set of roadmaps to make that all centered around the main roles in software development at the time, that being Frontend, Backend, and DevOps. As we now have over 50 roadmaps in production the process of deciding what is next has changed and it's a combination of "what are the community asking for", "what popular roadmaps have people made with our AI generator" and "what is the most popular topic in the industry right now". We also have some long-running partnerships with companies and open-source projects, and those roadmaps will take a while to create due to the schedules of both parties.

How do you foresee Roadmap evolving, and what impact do you think it will have on the industry?

Our vision is to be the go-to platform for learning and mastering new skills; whenever you think of learning something new, you should visit roadmap.sh. All of our efforts are centered around this vision, and we are constantly adding features that enhance the learning experience. For example, we are excited to soon launch "projects", which will be a significant step forward in making our roadmaps even more powerful. Additionally, we are working on features like goal setting, incorporating more AI capabilities, and making our roadmaps more beginner-friendly.

We aim to create a comprehensive learning ecosystem that supports users at every step. There is much more we plan to do, and we are just getting started. We believe that roadmap.sh already has and will continue to significantly impact the industry by providing a structured, community-driven approach to learning that is both accessible and effective.

What advice would you give to newcomers who are just starting to use Roadmap?

Some of our roadmaps can appear quite overwhelming to new developers so I would suggest that people use the "Start here" option on the website which will take them to a section that offers beginner versions of the initial 3 roadmaps and some tips and advice on how to navigate their wider learning journey.

What would you say to someone considering incorporating Roadmap into their learning or development process?

I would say they've made a very good choice! But I would also say that you need to put your learning into practice, I'm sure there are some people out there who can just look at our roadmaps, check out some of the content we link to, and then go away and be fine, but the majority of people will need to use the skills that we teach in order to fully understand what they're learning.


Some super interesting answers from Dan here. For more information on Roadmap.sh, head over to their website here.