7 min read21 hours ago

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Some may surprise you…

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Photo by Todd Quackenbush on Unsplash

Hey Reader,

Software development is now more than ever such a multifaceted job. In my experience, some developers seem to think that programming is the only aspect to their work that’s important. Treating anything that isn’t code as a distraction.

I think, especially when working with others, that this is untrue for one, but also really limiting the value that you can bring to a cross-functional team, especially when working together to build an awesome product and enjoy your work.

I begin with this because, although yes, we do write code, and there are so many tools to do this. We have to be prepared to be able to do more than that. And not all of these tools are themselves software either.

So, these are the things I use every day, and even as I write this, in the era we are currently in, they’re evolving. As you will see.

Programming Tools

Let’s start with the obvious: yes, we program, and yes, we will want to use our preferred tools of choice. This will likely be at least one IDE, some way to interact with Source Control, be it a GUI such as SourceTree, or simply a BASH terminal. In Web Development, the browser itself, in other forms of development, it may be emulators, etc.

My point is, I am grouping these tools as one thing because they pertain just to the programming side of our role.

This is probably not super enlightening to you, so I will move on. However, with the era of mainstream AI upon us, this is something that we are finding we are having to evolve with when it comes to writing code. I will discuss this more in a later section.

Screenshot Tool

I work 100% remotely, and have done so for over 5 years now. However, even when I didn’t, I was still using either MS Teams or Slack to communicate with people in the same room. And I can honestly say that I have been using screenshots to communicate points and ask questions more or less every day of my career.

This isn’t just used for direct communication either. I make a point to put as much effort into creating high-quality PR descriptions, as well as sprint ticket descriptions and comments, as I do writing code. Screenshots are paramount to this transfer of information, and using something like the built-in Snippet tool in Windows to also add annotations means that this little tool gets even more use than the coffee machine.

GIF Creator Tool

To a slightly lesser extent, I create GIFs to achieve the same outcome as screenshots, and for the same use cases. Obviously, with the advantage of animation, I can show an actual piece of flow in the UI that is leading to a bug, or displaying a correct piece of functionality to my Product Owner. For this, I have been using ScreenToGif for many years. It is nice and simple to use, and is completely free.

This provides a nice halfway house between static images and screen capture, which leads me to…

Screen Capturing/Video Editing

This is now a bit more out of the Developer’s comfort zone, but I am finding that it is becoming a really valuable asset in my day job. Not all the time, but if you have either a lot of small or a singular, complicated feature to demo for a Sprint Review/Show and Tell. It makes your time a lot less stressful if you take the time to at least screen capture yourself demoing locally. You don’t have to worry about spinning up all your services and containers to do a local demo live, where, as we all know, if you’re on a recorded call, sharing your screen in front of an audience including management, if it can go wrong, it probably will! Anxiety overload.

If you have the time, try to record a voice-over as well. This has 2 really positive outcomes.

1. It means all you have to do for the demo is share your screen and hit play, or even better, if someone else is running the call, send it to them to do it. I have had demos where I have left to go and make a drink whilst the video is playing. Completely chill and stress-free.
2. Doing a voice-over is harder than you might think. But it is a good skill that improves your ability to communicate as well as increases confidence. Nobody likes the sound of their own voice, but if you practice, then you will get over that and stop caring.

For a simple and free tool then I can recommend Microsoft Clipchamp. You can capture, record and edit all in the browser or in a local client. I have found it useful for also doing things like speeding up footage for brevity whilst things are whirring away on screen, which has been appreciated. But you do need a Microsoft account, and it is slower to edit with. But for a simple demo, it is great.

If you’re looking for something a bit more professional, then I can also recommend

• OBS** **| A free, open-source screen-capturing tool that can also be used for things like Live Streaming
• DaVinci Resolve** **| A professional video editing and compositing suite. It has a free version with a lot of features, but it is more complex than something like Clipchamp.

I use these for YouTube videos, but for demos at work, honestly, these 2 are overkill.

AI

I would be remiss in 2025 to not include AI.

In my experience this year, I have been spending time talking with my colleagues at work about how they are using it, and because we are all in the same place of ‘testing the waters’, we are sharing our collective understanding about tools to use and how, and learning together. This has been a healthy experience that I would urge people to try when trying to understand something new. Don’t bury your head in the sand!

I have been using a collection of Generative AI clients to help with my work, and the results have been mostly positive.

• Claude | I have been using just the regular client and have found that it has helped with development tasks well, and given well-written explanations. Overall, I have been able to work faster and have learned things along the way. The downside is that with the free version, I have to wait for my prompt allowance to reset. I know there is Claude Code, but I haven’t used it yet.
• Cursor | Really good experience using the Gemini LLM, which seems to give me unlimited prompts. Cursor is also a branch of VSCode, which is my preferred IDE, so if you commit to using Cursor instead of VSCode, it should be a familiar experience, and all the plugins will work. As mentioned in the intro above, this era of AI is making us reconsider new tools.
• Perplexity | I personally haven’t had a great experience with Perplexity; it seems quite limiting with what you can prompt, and the responses are not as useful. It also seems to have a day limit on prompts versus Claude, which resets every few hours.
• Copilot | In my opinion, Copilot is the least useful for me when working. But I have tried to use it because it is unrestricted due to the Microsoft 365 licence. I have found it poor for code, at least out of the box and in direct comparison to Claude. Comparing it to Cursor for development is unfair, and to be fair, I know there is a VSCode plugin, but I haven’t used it yet.

I haven’t committed to a paid version of any of these things yet, so take this section with a large pinch of salt. But my point is, if you are a developer who isn’t even accepting the notion of using AI, I think that is a mistake. That being said, there is a line to balance where you aren’t completely reliant on it either. Give one of these a try.

Good Communication

You may have noticed that aside from Programming Tools and AI, which are very focused on getting your immediate singular tasks done. The other sections have had a more outward subtext of communicating and working with other people. And even the AI learning experience has been expedited by communicating with others in the process.

This is by far the most important tool to have in your skillset. As previously mentioned, I work remotely, and again, even when I didn’t. If you have any kind of interest in working well with other people, and building things that are actually valuable, whilst generally being happy about it. High-quality communication from everyone is fundamental.

It doesn’t matter your seniority, your technical prowess, or how good an idea is. If you can’t communicate well, then you are selling yourself short.

So do your best to be present in conversations, listen to what people have to say without interrupting them. Have your camera turned on in calls. Hosting a call filled with turned-off cameras is so much harder and nerve-racking, so spare a thought for that person and try not to let it just be the norm. If you work with people from around the world, then do your best to set a good example of a healthy culture of understanding, especially if they aren’t speaking in their native language.

This skill will set you up for all the others because when you don’t know what they are or how to do them, it will be this skill that will help you help yourself, as well as everyone else around you.

*This tool is *you, your confidence, your superpower, your personality, your humour, your empathy, your compassion, your unique experiences, your ability to learn and your ability to teach.

No matter what things change in importance and necessity over time, this will never be one of them.

Thank you so much for reading.

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