Learn about the Google Developers Agency Program over Coffee with Amit Chopra Video Lecture | Coffee with a Googler - IT & Software

today I'm chatting with Amit Chopra
about Google's agency program and how it
works to connect developers customers
and of course agencies so I meant we
finally got you on the show it's really
great to have you here we finally got
schedules lined up and all that kind of
thing so tell us that what is it that
you do here at Google great Thank You
Lawrence for having me on the show super
excited before I jump into you know what
I work on didn't give a quick
introduction of what my team actually
does okay so I'm part of a team called
the developer relations ecosystem team
and our team is responsible for running
a number of very scalable global
outreach programs okay some of them you
might have heard of the Google developer
groups
I love the GDG is perfect yeah we have
hundreds of chapters out there you know
exciting people to build apps and learn
about technologies mm-hmm we also run to
meant tech maker right the launchpad
program and the Google developer experts
good stuff lots of interesting program
very large-scale programs now you've
added to that with the agency program
yes we have and the agency program is a
program which is specifically focused
towards development agencies not ad
agencies this is for development
agencies I generally call that out
because it gets kind of overloaded at
times you get a cool jacket cells
describe it you've got more pushback as
well you can take some after after the
show from me that's not the only reason
I had you on here perfect it's a it's an
added bonus so tell us a bit more about
the program okay so what the program
does is identifies let me give you my
what I call the elevator speed on this
one we identify upscale certify and
promote development agencies that's
quite a mouthful but it actually
summarizes almost everything that we do
about this program the development
agencies now in a world where there's a
demand for richer and richer and richer
UX agencies play a really important role
right so yeah how is it that you foster
that yeah absolutely in fact just to
step back a little the whole crux of why
we started this program was we were
looking at like my team focuses on
making sure that our quality comes out
really great
you know anyone who's developing
understands what it means to build a
Android app use material design use it
in the right way not just use it but use
it correctly right and we were seeing
that a lot of apps are not kind of
following the guidelines UX guidelines
things to do with general design battery
usage network usage and we would go and
talk to a lot of developers like we
would through Google developers summits
or to other events that we are doing but
what we found was that number of these
large organizations are actually using
agencies to build their apps you know
they basically bring somebody on board
who does the work for them
and we had no connection point for them
okay and so we said hey let's start a
program that works directly with them
and this was piloted about eighteen
months ago back in India so one of my
colleagues said I'm gonna experiment
like in all Google things we're like
yeah go for it and you know after a few
months we started looking at did it
actually make any impact and yes we
could see started to see a change in the
app quality coming out for these apps so
if developers were like outsourcing to
agencies then it was if we could train
the agencies then we can scale out
really these kids are really nice and
you know if you clean engine see once
all the clients you know get the benefit
so this was very successful in India
then we said okay let's try it in a
slightly different market so we went and
explored it in UK and Russia okay there
are the other two places where we
started this thing the program turned
out really well in other regions as well
and then last year when I came and
started working on this particular team
we scaled this out in North America as
well cool so you know we've had a pretty
good outreach of this particular program
running in almost 17 countries now so if
somebody wants to learn about it where
would they go
so you can go to our website
developers.google.com slash agency and
we'll put a link in the description yeah
you'll always have a link to this right
down there okay right down there and as
if you're an agency you can see all the
benefits that we generally provide to an
agency if you're a part of this
particular program we invite you to
trainings we are in UX reviews you know
which is something very that's really
hot yeah I mean we can't do a lot of
them but it kind of identify the right
opportunities and make sure before you
submit an app we can spend some time
with you on that we also provide you a
lot of trainings some of them are
trainings that we dedicatedly run for
agencies in fact as you know we are
talking there is an event happening in
New York where we are teaching agencies
how to run design Sprint's with their
clients okay so we bring them in and we
train them on best practices and we also
invite agencies to a lot of other events
that my team runs from time to time so
training is a big focus all that
information is on the website including
a list of certified agencies now so
before the certified agencies like so if
I'm an agency and I want to find out
about these great trainings like the one
you mention in New York that's all gonna
be on the site uh we don't list all the
trainings on the website okay what you
need to do is you go there and apply if
you're not part of the program submit an
application we generally go through an
evaluation process and make sure that
you know we are inviting agencies the
right kind of agencies to this kind of a
program right and once you are in the
inter program and you've gone to a
certain number of trainings we then
invite you to get certified as well cool
yeah so tell us about the certification
how is that an enhancement yeah so what
certification really is designed to do
is identify the best-of-breed agencies
we do a thorough evaluation of the
Android apps that they have built over
the past 18 months they go to a
submission process it's very similar to
how we generally go about evaluating
apps for editorial so that's one aspect
we look at the quality of the apps our
ratings the downrod we look at the
competencies that the team has so based
on that overall view that we build off
the agency we can give them a
certification status and we have that
list also on our website right now so it
sounds really nice like if I'm a
developer looking to have an app built
and as you mention there we usually go
into agencies anyway and but you're
helping join the dots so that these
agencies become first of all trained and
then also maybe certified so now if I'm
a developer also fund looking to find an
agency can I find it on the site you can
absolutely find it on the site we have a
directory of certified agencies and you
can look them up based on the place
where you are and we have at this point
roughly about 35 agencies that have been
certified okay we certify every six
months so we just completed one cycle
mid-year and so our list is available on
the website you can take a look you can
contact the agencies directly from there
and these are the ones that we've worked
with over a period of time to feel
fairly confident about what they are
doing and what they're building so it's
a great benefit if I need an app that I
can find a certified agency that's been
certified by Google you know to be able
to build a great app for them and if I'm
an agency and I can get into that
certified program it helps me to find
your customers right absolutely it's a
huge benefit I think not just you know
getting more business being certified
definitely helps an agency get more
business and we're hoping that that is
the case but I think I specially focus a
lot on upscaling the agencies okay
a lot of trainings we have done have
been at a very developer level you know
even teaching them some ins and out of
using Android studio it saves them a lot
of time you know this has been one of
the factors that has drawn a lot of
agencies to our training program as well
where we can give them these best
practices that on a day-to-day basis
help them save a lot of time right and
that's value that's the value adding for
them as well cool now you started in
India then you extend it to Russia in
the UK and then you've come to North
America I'm sure there's some great
success stories absolutely lots of them
always inspired by the story so what we
actually did was with the success
stories we have started what we call as
the spotlight video series okay you know
we go out to these certified agencies we
spend some time and talk to them about
the kind of projects they have worked on
the interesting things that they have
done a lot of them a project dependent
but I think one interesting one and you
can actually see the tech genie
spotlight video on that as well was one
of the dev leads you know she said that
she went on her maternity leave okay and
when she came back her team was so well
trained
you know because they've been attending
this training she was really surprised I
think now she comes out really well in
terms of you know sharing her
experiences so you know they're
interesting soft stories success stories
around certain aspects of you know how
the agency has benefited the agency also
a lot of case studies that are in the
spotlight videos I talked about how they
were able to get UX reviews for example
and then get an app out much faster for
the clients which is you know beneficial
to the client and also for the clients
end users you know people like you and
me who have to use
they see a very consistent design they
see a very robust app that you can use
nice so if I want to learn more its
developer google.com slash agency and
it's all down there in the description
as you call it before right there yeah
right and if you're an agency go sign up
you know we have a show interest form
and you know it's not running in all the
countries right now but you know
gradually we are expanding that
expansion in fact to Brazil is coming up
very soon Co so we'll be signing up
agencies in that region and gradually we
will move to other parts of the world as
well as we are starting to see interest
from the agencies worldwide so it's
never too late to sign up never too late
to sign up it was literally so thanks so
much Emma I've already learned a lot
Thank You Lawrence this was great to be
here and you know talk to you about the
program and talk to our audiences about
the program as well sounds like a great
program so thanks for watching this
episode of coffee with a Googler if you
want to learn more about the agency
program just take a look at the links in
the comments below and if you have any
questions for me or any questions for
Amit just leave them in the youtube
comments thank you so much thank you
very much