DevRel Weekly - Issue 101 - Paradoxes Amidst the Pandemic, or Finally Facing the Music?

Welcome! 👋

Hey DevRel fam. I took a few days off this past week and while we didn't actually "do" anything in the sense of a traditional vacation, it was an incredible opportunity to simply push pause on everything.

I recognize that this is an incredible privilege -- both my partner and I still have jobs and the ability to take that time off; we have the ability to shelter-in-place and leave only for groceries or fresh air; we're both healthy and relatively unimpacted by the chaos around us.

But the low-level stress and anxiety of the world around us still pushes in and impacts our day-to-day lives. I've noticed a pattern of folks in tech canceling vacations and saving up our vacation time for whenever things return to "normal," but I'd encourage you to take a day or two to simply disconnect and decompress. Our mental and emotional health is just as important as our physical health and we need to be taking the necessary steps to maintain that health so we can continue to take care of ourselves, our families, and our communities.

Hang in there, friends, and as always, let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Top News of the Week 🗞️

State of DevRel 2020 Survey

If you haven't taken the time to respond to the State of DevRel survey yet, please do so now! They've extended the deadline in hopes of getting a few more respondents, so if you've been putting it off, you still have a chance to contribute. The information that comes out of it helps drive our entire industry forward, which means it's definitely worth your time! Go ahead & take it now... the newsletter will still be here when you get back 😊

Tidbits 🕔

Ask First, Then Build

Back to basic #community rule:

Don't put together a community just because it feels like a good idea. You may be right but make sure there is interest and people ready to join.

Ask first and then build.

-Shannon Emery

Share Original, Thought-provoking Content

The best devrels and evangelists on Twitter don't recycle the same talking points, nor tweet for emotional reaction. They share original content, concepts, and ideas. They make you think first, rather than solicit a reaction.

-@shellscape

Tangibles 🤓

Heart or Mind? Community or Business? The DevRel Paradox

I've been mulling over this blogpost since I first saw it last week. The Krunch team has accurately captured the struggle that so many of us face in Developer Relations: do we prioritize the needs of the community or the needs of the business? I've long said we have to keep both of them in mind at all times, but as the tech world pivots yet again, this is a question more of us are going to be asking in the days to come.

The team ends the blogpost with this thought about DevRel professionals:

I’m certain they live for their community first but also take their business extremely seriously. In the practical world when the heart says one thing and the mind another, it’s very hard to get your heart and head to agree on priorities. The answer we set out to find to the question “Can a DevRel serve both equally?” comes down to what the DevRel team believes will help sustain the other.

For me personally, for the community to enrich the benefits of a SaaS tool that the DevRel champions, [the tool] needs to survive first. For the tool to survive, the business has to survive. Therefore, DevRel has to serve the business.

What are your thoughts? Are things changing in a way that will force us all to prioritize the needs of the business more than we have in the past? Or is this simply a forced shift to the more sustainable version of Developer Relations that has always been necessary but that some have been fighting against for all these years? I'd love to hear what you think!

Managing the Community Ideation Process for Product Managers

Building on our recent conversation about community ideation, this article from Vanilla Forums caught my eye this week. In it, Sarah Robinson-Yu talks about how to not only encourage feedback from the community, but how to manage the feedback process in a way that allows you to collect and process said feedback quickly. This swift engagement lets your community know that you're paying attention, which will increase the amount of feedback you get in the future.

Storytime 📚

TLDR Newsletter - Byte Sized News for Techies

TLDR is a daily, curated newsletter with links and TLDRs of the most interesting stories in tech, science, and programming! Sign up today.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts

On leadership, communities, and women in technology with Vaibhavi Desai - NinjaTalks
Getting Event and Content Topics from the Community with Nicole Sanders - C2C Podcast
Developer Relations, Hackathons and Single Malts with Arkodyuti Saha - Rushing Forward
Understanding Developer Advocacy with Moheeb Zara - Hello Blink Show

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

As you may already know, not all events have been canceled. As a matter of fact, virtual events have really picked up! Check out the DevRel Weekly Events Collection for some great professional development get-togethers coming your way soon.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

Have you or someone you know been thinking about applying for a new job in DevRel? Please feel free to check out the DevRel Weekly Raindrop Collection for inspiration!

Don't forget that we have a new system in place! Looking for a particular type of role? Just put the hashtag followed by the job category in the "🔍Find a bookmark in collection..." search bar to see what shakes out.

#Individual Contributor Roles

#Technical Community Manager Roles

#Senior Individual Contributor Roles

#Manager Roles

#Dev-Rel Adjacent Roles

Check out the new functionality and make sure to update your bookmark! 😊