The answer is simple: I’m a damned good evangelist.

Technical evangelism requires two different sets of skills that you don’t often find in the same person:

• Hard skills: that’s the technical know-how aspect of the job
• So-called “soft” skils: that’s the touchy-feely communicating aspect of the job

Of the two sets of skills, hard skills are the easier ones to ramp up. I’ve got a developer background, and before 2002, I used Microsoft’s development tools. Furthermore, I have a luxuries most developers don’t have:

• The freedom to block out large chunks of my working day to get up to speed on current and upcoming Microsoft technologies
• The ability to contact people within Microsoft when I’m stumped — not just developer support, but even the people on the product or tool teams
• Whatever hardware, software and reading material I need

There’s also the matter of my soft skills. They’re considered much harder to learn than hard skills; some people believe that they can’t even be taught. My ability to communicate to both technical and non-technical audiences is such that even in this time of economic upheavals, layoffs and hiring freezes, I got so many calls with job interviews and offers that I didn’t have to call anyone for a job — they called me.

Pure technical know-how is not enough to be an evangelist. I’m sure you’ve suffered through some session or course taught by someone who really knew his or her stuff but had no capability of imparting that know-how to others. That type of person would be suited for a development role, but not an evangelist role.

Finally, management considers my “outsider” status to be an asset. While the evangelism team needs its share of “True Believers”, it never hurts to have someone who hasn’t been drinking the Kool-Aid to ensure they not just preaching to the choir. Just as the team needs credibility among long-time developers who use Microsoft tech, they also need credibility among a larger set of developers: those non-Microsoft developers who are generally considered to be “neutral”.

Just my 2 cents.. Good lick with the conference an the new role.