DevRel Weekly

Welcome! 👋

hi DevRel Weekly family. 🤗 Apologies for the long delay in issues -- it's been a chaotic few weeks since I got back from Burning Man. Let me catch you up on a few things...

I got married 🥰
I got COVID 🫠
We officially hosted our first CamundaCon in North America, which was a huge success 🥳
I returned home, only to get sick again 🤧
Twitter officially closed down their free API access, which took down Zapier integrations as well 😵
Lastly, Raindrop.io (which I use to collect all my links) stopped maintaining its Zapier integration 😩

Given that Zapier is what I use to create RSS feeds from all of the Twitter searches & accounts I pull info from, these last two items have been a huge blow to my workflows. It's already been difficult to find all of the appropriate links with the changes in social media platforms lately, but these recent developments have made it nearly impossible to pull the information I'm looking for in order to create a helpful newsletter. While I love curating DevRel Weekly and have genuinely enjoyed the quest for information over the past 5 (almost 6!) years, it's time for this chapter to end.

That's not to say I won't ever use this space to share content, or that I'll stop providing other resources. In fact, it may free up my time and mental energy to create additional resources in the future! So if you're willing to stick around, please do! It just may be more "DevRel Thoughts Shared Randomly" and less about the "Weekly" cadence in the future. 😉

To all of you who have been here from the beginning, your support has meant the world to me! Thanks for the ideas, the feedback, and the constant stream of content to pull from. I can't wait to see what you do next!

It wouldn't be right for me to close things out without sharing a few of the best links I've come across throughout the chaos of the last few months. Without further ado... here are some of my favorites.

All the best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

We're all part of the same team

DevRel needs to get over the aversion to sales and marketing.

Marketing fills pipline. Sales closes deals. These are critical functions.

Good DevRel is the great connector, providing glue to build amazing experiences and solve problems.

Ignorance inhibits this, not aids it.

-Jono Bacon

Great advice for conference season

Ben Greenberg asked this fantastic prompt a few weeks back:

What would you tell new colleagues are the top things to know about staffing a booth at a conference as a #DevRel professional?

What advice would you give them that's distinct from their sales and BD colleagues?

Click through to read all of the responses.

Understand your company's objectives

If you're in DevRel and wondering how to measure your value, the first step is to understand your company's objectives. Your job is to directly contribute to them in the most scalable and effective ways possible, working with Product, Sales, Marketing, etc.

This thread from Matt Asay is worth reading, bookmarking, and screenshotting for future reference.

As Jeremy Meiss said,

Scream this from the rooftops. Proving your #DevRel team's value based on what matters to the business, and with what aligns with the different areas of the business, is integral to your success. Alignment doesn't mean 100%, but it also doesn't mean 0% either.

If you're looking for more info on how to build (and maintain) a strong DevRel team (and strategy), this article has some good tips.

Tangibles 🤓

Moving Developer Relations Forward

I've been following this series from Jeremy Meiss for the past few weeks with a lot of interest. I really appreciate what he's saying about where we are as an industry and where we need to mature. There are 5 parts to it currently (follow the links at the bottom of the first post for more) but a little birdy told me there is more coming in the near future. 👀

The DevRel Capability Maturity Model (CMM)

Whether you're starting or managing a developer relations program, having a way to gauge the program's maturity is crucial. Jordan Violet lays out the 5-step maturity model he's built out, from disorganized efforts to quantified results in this blogpost.

Why smaller, more private communities are thriving

For years, a goal for community builders was to have a large community. I know I'm not the only one who had a KPI of 500 people in the community by EOY! But trends are showing that people are more inclined toward smaller, more intimate communities these days. Ones where you can actually get the answer to your question and build real relationships with the other individuals who are asking questions. Scott Wheelwright digs into this concept more in this blogpost.

Two New Resources

Two new resources were released in the past few weeks. I'm looking forward to digging into both soon!

2023 Developer Relations compensation & culture report from Common Room - This report highlights the lived experiences of 136 Developer Relations professionals. It offers data focused on compensation, roles and responsibilities, expectations, and personal well-being in the industry in an effort to present a more holistic view of a career in DevRel.
Jorge Barrachina released an English version of his book DevRel Puzzle, originally published in Spanish. In it, he touches on behavior and participation patterns in communities, how to build a strong base for a productive and streamlined team, and the competitive advantage of a strong Developer Relations program, among other topics.

Storytime 📚

Need Better Technical Content?

Draft.dev has helped over 100 Developer Relations teams scale up their technical content production. Book a call to learn more about how we can help you grow and improve your content production efforts.

Events 📆

DevRel Events

Small and large, meetups and conferences - there are still DevRel and community-related events happening around the world. If you're looking for opportunities to network with DevRel professionals between now and the end of the year, be sure to check out this list.

Jobs 👩‍💻

DevRel Jobs

Finding a job can be overwhelming when you are looking to move positions or trying to find employment. We hope the work we've put into keeping our job board updated helps you in finding the next right thing for your career.

If you're looking for ways to prepare before your next interview, this list of Developer Advocate interview questions is a great place to start.

In addition, take a look at these red flags -- they're good to keep in mind not only for your current role, but also when you're interviewing for a new position.