Getting Started as a Developer Community Ambassador

This guide will give you everything you need to know to become, and maintain, your status as a Developer Community Ambassador.

The goal of our Ambassador program is to reward our most technical contributors with valuable benefits for their contributions to their peers. If you ever have any ideas about how this program could be better, send us a message.

Join the Ambassador in Training group

If you want to become an Ambassador, please click @ambassadors_in_training and click ‘Request to join’. :+1:

Being in the Ambassador in Training group lets us know that you are actively pursuing Ambassador status so that we can start tracking your contributions, and it lets the rest of the community see that you are an :training_ambassador: Ambassador in Training :training_ambassador: as well. As soon as you accrue enough points to become an Ambassador, you will automatically move to the Ambassador group and start receiving your perks.

Being in the Ambassador in Training group will also add you to the private, ambassadors-only category, #community:ambassadors, where you can engage with other Ambassadors and see important resources like the quarterly leaderboard that shows your progress to achieving Ambassador status.

Link your GitHub account

If you plan on contributing pull requests to SailPoint-related open source repositories, you will need to link your GitHub account to your forum profile:

Complete your forum profile

In order to become an Ambassador, you must add the following items to your Developer Community forum profile. These items will be used to promote you on our dedicated Ambassador page on developer.sailpoint.com as well as improve your presence in the forum.

Add A Profile Picture

This picture will be used in the forum (obviously) as well as on our Ambassador promotion page, so please choose something that promotes you well.

Add A Short Biography

The community wants to know what makes you human, so feel free to share something fun—it doesn’t have to be all identity.

Add a Profile Header

When developers are trying to understand who you are, they will often search your profile to see what else you do and where you do it. Adding a profile header adds to your personal brand and showing who you are. :slight_smile:

Add A User Card Background

This is the background image that comes up when people click on your user card. Again, it just adds to the story about what makes you, you. Here is an example:

Start contributing

Each type of contribution in the developer community will be awarded different point values based on their impact. Below is a table of how points are matched to community actions. This allows you to choose your own path to Ambassadorship. If you have any ideas for additional contributions, please let us know!

Contribution Point Value
Topic solution 60
Topic reply* 3
Write a blog post 400
Write a community knowledge base post 50
Merge a GitHub pull request 100
Open a GitHub issue 20
Complete a GitHub issue** 30
Receive a like 6
Flag a post 6
Present a Developer Community live stream 600
Present at Developer Days 1500
In discovery session 150
Submit a Colab SaaS Connector 200
Submit a Colab Workflow 100
Submit a Colab Transform 100
Submit a Colab Rule 100
Submit a Colab Plugin 100
Submit a Colab Community Tool 100

* Since most replies are productive in nature, topic replies are awarded for most public categories (ex. announcements, blogs, deprecations, show and tell, discussions and questions, etc).

** Each issue you open in an approved GitHub repository earns 20 points. If your issue is closed as completed (i.e. not closed as “won’t do”), you earn an additional 30 points. This effectively makes completed issues worth 50 points.

Requirements for Ambassador and Expert Ambassador

To become and maintain Ambassador status, you must accrue 400 points each quarter. To become and maintain Expert Ambassador status, you must accrue 2000 points each quarter. Ambassador and Expert Ambassador status is awarded as soon as you reach the required point amount for each. You will retain your status for the quarter you achieve the status, as well as a grace period of all of the next quarter as well.

You do not have to first be an Ambassador to reach Expert Ambassador. You can go straight from Ambassador in Training to Expert Ambassador status. Consider the following scenarios for a better understanding of this system:

  • Achieving Ambassador status
    • You accrue 400 points halfway through the quarter (ex. February 15th of Q1). You are automatically granted the Ambassador status. Although your quarterly points will be reset to 0 starting in Q2, you will remain an Ambassador for all of Q2 as well.
    • If you are unable to accrue enough points by the end of Q2 to remain an Ambassador (ex. you reach 300 points), then your Ambassador status will be removed starting in Q3.
    • If you decide to pursue Ambassador status again, all you need to do is join the Ambassador in Training group by clicking here: @training_ambassador.
  • Achieving Expert Ambassador status
    • You accrue 2000 points with two weeks to spare in the quarter (ex. March 15th of Q1). You are automatically granted the Expert Ambassador status. Although your quarterly points will be reset to 0 starting in Q2, you will remain an Expert Ambassador for all of Q2 as well.
    • If you are unable to accrue enough points by the end of Q2 to remain an Expert Ambassador (ex. 1000 points), but you meet the point value for Ambassador status, then your will be moved to the Ambassador status starting in Q3.
    • If you are unable to accrue enough points by the end of Q2 to remain an Expert Ambassador or Ambassador (ex. 300 points), then your Ambassador status will be removed starting in Q3.
    • If you decide to pursue Ambassador or Expert Ambassador status again, all you need to do is join the Ambassador in Training group by clicking here: @training_ambassador.

Carrying over excess points

At the end of the quarter, any points you have that exceed the point requirement for your status will be carried over to the next quarter. For example, if you are an Ambassador and you have 1000 points at the end of the quarter, 600 will carry over to the next quarter. If you are an Expert and you have 2400, then 400 will carry over. There is no limit to the number of points that can carry over to the next quarter.

This system allows you to contribute without fear of losing any points, and it allows you to accumulate more points during times when you are able to contribute so that you need not worry about contributing during times when you are busy at your job.

Tracking your quarterly points

Each quarter, a new leaderboard will be generated that will track the points of each Ambassador. You can see your points for the current quarter by clicking on the “Ambassador Points” link under the “Community” dropdown in the sidebar.

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Redeeming Rewards

Ambassadors

As soon as you become an Ambassador you will receive the Ambassador badge :ambassador: along with the following rewards.

  • Exclusive ISC Test Tenant

    • Access to your own private Identity Security Cloud test tenant. This tenant will have access to the latest beta features released by SailPoint, at your request.

    • You can use this tenant to test solutions for the community members you support, as well as yourself :slight_smile:

    • A member of the Developer Relations team will reach out to you with more information.

  • Recognition

    • Your ambassador profile will appear on SailPoint Developer Community

    • Custom social share package to share on LinkedIn or other social platforms. This will be sent to your forum inbox.

  • Exclusive Access

    • Access to exclusive sessions with other Ambassadors and the Developer Relations team via the Ambassadors category and chat.

:bangbang: These areas are not intended for technical assistance. Please direct technical questions to the appropriate Questions & Discussion category.

  • Early access to product features

  • Office hours with the Developer Relations team. Come learn about what we are working on, share your feedback, and get help with problems you might have. You can sign up for office hours in the Ambassador Events category.

  • Priority consideration for speaking at Developer Days

  • Developer Community swag

  • Have ideas on something interesting we could provide for you? Let us know here!

Expert Ambassadors

Once you reach Expert Ambassador status, you will receive the Expert Ambassador badge :expert_ambassador: and have access to these additional rewards.

  • Preconfigured ISC Test Tenant

    • Access to a preconfigured Identity Security Cloud test tenant instead of the barebones tenant. You can message @colin_mckibben or @developer_advocates to request a preconfigured tenant.
  • Access to Community AI, which is an artificial intelligence bot that can help you build transforms, workflows, connectors, and more.

  • Temporary ISC test tenants. In addition to your primary development tenant, you can request additional tenants for a short period of time to assist with demonstrations, sales, or other temporary activities.

  • Priority recognition on our Ambassadors page

  • Everything Ambassadors receive

    • Expert Ambassadors also enjoy all of the benefits provided to Ambassadors.
7 Likes

Did the “Carrying over excess points” process change? I’ve never had Expert Ambassador status previously, but based on the wording above I was expecting to have 2000 points subtracted from my total (i.e. 2000 required for expert and balance retained) vs. being reset to 2000.

This is actually a bit of “bonus” for me because I had less than 4000 total so I ended up with more than expected and already have the requirement met for this next quarter.

1 Like

The process hasn’t changed, but the process does take some time. The leaderboard hasn’t been changed to the new quarter yet as I’m waiting for the point rollovers to finish and recalculate. You are seeing a score of 2000 right now because the rest of your excess points have already been moved over to next quarter. Once the recalculation is done and I have verified everything is correct, I’ll update the leaderboard to point to the new quarter.

2 Likes

I have a doubt regarding points carrying over excess points.

If you are an Expert Ambassador and you have 2300 in Q1, then 300 will carry over to the next Querter Q2. And, you have not gained any points in that next quarter, which is Q2. then will you be an Ambassador or Ambassador in Training from Q3? Since you have not gained any points in Q2,.

That is technically correct, although we do exercise discretion when changing Ambassador status to lower levels and don’t automatically remove members from the program if they are close to achieving a particular level.

I am sorry, I didn’t get that. Will they be an Ambassador or Ambassador in Training from Q3?

In your specific example, we would use our discretion to move them from Expert to Ambassador. If the Expert had accumulated less points, like less than 100, then we might move them to inactive and invite them to join the program again if they wish to.

In general, promotions are hard boundaries. As soon as you reach a point threshold, you will be promoted. Demotions are under our discretion as we understand there is nuance to how each Ambassador contributes and that demoting at specific thresholds sometimes isn’t the right thing to do.

1 Like

Okay. Thanks for the information shared, @colin_mckibben !