Drupal: Not Just for Devs

Session Category Project Management & Consulting Audience All Attendees

What happens when you teach Drupal Site Building to the people who aren't developers?

At CivicActions, we did just that; over three cohorts, we brought designers, project managers, and accessibility engineers together to work through the Acquia Drupal Site Builder curriculum and prepare for the certification. The result was much more than a certification: designers and accessibility engineers gained a better understanding of the system they were designing for. Project managers developed the vocabulary and technical context to have more productive conversations with engineers and stakeholders. Across disciplines, participants developed a shared language for talking about Drupal.

In this session, we'll share how CivicActions created and ran three Drupal Site Builder cohorts specifically for non-developers, what we learned along the way, and give our resources, tips, and best practices. You'll leave with ideas for creating your own Drupal learning program and a different way of thinking about who on your team should understand Drupal. Because you don't have to write code to benefit from knowing how Drupal works. 

About the Speaker

Kelly Smith

Senior UX Design Engineer at CivicActions

Riverview, FL

I’m based in Riverview, FL, where I live with my husband, Kerry. At CivicActions, I'm the lead designer on the VA CMS project, and I lead cohorts of non-engineers through the Acquia Site Builder Certification course. I’ve been in the design arena for over 10 years, and prior to that, was an educational trainer and high school French teacher. When not working, I spend time attending baseball games, hockey games, and boating.