Issue 10

Welcome! 👋

With all of the events of the past week, from the beginning of a new quarter to the start of spring (but the return of winter snows and gray skies, depending on where you live) and the shootings at YouTube on Tuesday afternoon, it's been a heavy week for many people. It's no surprise to me that burnout has been a common topic of conversation this week as well, from the Slack team I help manage, to personal conversations, public tweets, and blogposts.

It's no secret that folks in Developer Relations struggle with burnout. There are conference talks about it, blogposts that delve into the topic, and people who leave the industry on a regular basis as a result. As people responsible for maintaining the health of the communities around us, it's incredibly important that we take care of ourselves first and foremost. After all, if we don't put our oxgyen masks on, we won't be able to help those around us.

I hope the blogposts and resources I've linked below are helpful and encouraging to you this week. As always, if you're struggling with burnout and need help, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm not a doctor, but I can help you find the resources and support that you need.

All the best,
-Mary (@mary_grace

Tidbits 🕔

DevRel, Devangelists, or... DevReloper?

Why the hell are they called "Developer Relations" and not "DevRelopers?"

-Corey Quinn

What has the biggest impact?

Join in the conversation and help a fellow DevRel professional:

What DevRel activities do you find the most impactful for your company?

-Bartosz Pietrucha

Crowd-sourced Burnout Tips

Jessica Rose recently tweeted:

Tech Twitter: Have you ever experienced burnout? What happened and how did you recover?

What resulted was a perfect example of a community coming together to support each other, offering resources and empathy. If you're fighting burnout or trying to make sure you don't get there, this is a great thread to read.

What's Next for the #CMgr Industry?

Do you have opinions on where you think the industry is going? Rachel Happe wants to hear them!

Starting the daunting task of writing about the future of community and community management for this year's SOCM research. What do you think the future holds for #cmgr?

The Struggle is Real

Everyone else: “Yay!!! Day off today for the Spring holiday!”
Solo #CMGR: “What’s a day off?”

-Lana Lee, Zuora Community Manager

Communities Aren't "One Size Fits All"

What's different about your community that sets it apart from others? Sometimes it's a minor difference and sometimes it requires you to completely rethink your strategy.

While the basics of community management are the same, not all rules apply, especially when it comes to online communities for associations.

-Marjorie Anderson, CMgr, Project Management Institute

Tangibles 🤓

DevRel-Related Conference Talks

As the events that we've been talking about over the last few weeks are starting to wind down, slides and videos are beginning to emerge. Rather than listing them all here, I've created a collection for you to peruse in your own time or bookmark to come back to later. Enjoy!

Sometimes Good Things Come to an End

Saying goodbye and turning out the lights can be incredibly difficult. Huge props to Kim McMahon and the rest of the {code} team for everything that they've done & the impact that they've had along the way. ❤️ This great post from Kim talks about what it's like to be the one responsible to turn out the lights on a program you love.

Pivoting off of Slack -- a Thread

After 4 years of running a (11,000 member) public Slack community for @TryGhost — today we’ve decided to shut the whole thing down for good. I’ve got a few interesting observations to share from the experience, and what we’re moving to now instead.

-John Nolan

As Patrick O'Keefe, Director of Community at The Community Company said in response:

The scalability of chat rooms and fatigue with lack of customization leads to the eventual pendulum swing back to hosted forums and community. The platform names change, but the core functionality and arguments are pretty consistent. We're building on our predecessors.

Plug or Unplug: The Balancing Act of Online Engagement

For those of you who are cultivating a community online, the idea of disconnecting for even a second can sound virtually impossible, but it's more necessary than ever. This article from Cathy Tilton gives practical suggestions regarding how to allow yourself to step away.

10 things I wish someone told me before I started working from home

Many of us are remote employees, which is a blessing and a curse. While working from home has its benefits when it comes to self-care, there are often other downsides that we didn't anticipate in the midst of our initial excitement. Jen Goldenberg Doner walks through the 10 things she wishes she knew prior to becoming a remote employee. How many of these can you relate to?

Community Management Skills That Matter: Strategy & Engagement

While engagement might be the first skill you think of when you hear "community management," community strategy skills are the most valued of the 50 skills in the Community Roundtable's Community Skills Framework. Read more about strategy as well as engagement and find out how to climb the ladder from the experts.

5 Tools to Build Sustainable Community

Making your community sustainable is one way to take some work off of your own plate and let you take a break every now and again. April M Roggio, PhD, walks through 5 tools that can help streamline the day-to-day work of maintaining a community, freeing up your time to do something for you.

Memo to Facebook: A Platform Isn't a Community

This article from Carrie Jones gets right to the heart of the discomfort we all have around Facebook calling their platform a community.

Community professionals know [that you] build one community at a time. That’s because creating a lasting community is about building safety and belonging among groups of people with a shared sense of identity, and not everyone can be safe with everyone else. In fact, the first thing that a community professional does when creating a community from scratch or optimizing an existing one is to understand what common identities exist across the member base and build value for those people. The idea of any of the large platforms doing this is preposterous at best. The immediate reaction would be: we need to break this apart into smaller communities. And that’s the root we need to return to.

Building and Leading an Open Source Community

JJ Asghar wrote a fantastic piece about what it's like to build and lead an open source community. TL;DR: it's not all glamour and fame (but we already knew that).

Building and leading an Open Source community is like organizing a trash pick up in your neighborhood. No one cares about the permissions you had to negotiate to get the local board to say yes, they are there to help you beautify the area. It’s still good to feed them or celebrate the best workers, but in general, they don’t care about the back end at all.

Tangents 🐰

How understanding your tribe can help you build your product

To figure out what works for your community, go to the city centre. Philippe Araujo brings us a great analogy for our tangent this week: find the "city centre" for your community -- where is it that people hang out? who's the mayor? who are the followers? what is it that draws people's attention? In paying attention to these key elements, you're on your way to understanding your tribe and therefore being able to build a product that fits their needs.

Storytime 📚

Growing & Nurturing Developer Communities (Podcast) 🎧

I recently had the privilege of being interviewed by Dan Thomas, host of the Teamwork podcast. We covered everything from identifying key members in your community to being a Technical Cruise Director, how to make warm handoffs to your coworkers and more. Take a look at the summary and listen to the episode.

One from the Archives 📰

DevRel & Burnout

This week, the "One" from the Archive is actually a collection of things to help you manage burnout in yourself as well as your teammates and hopefully prevent burnout in the first place.

-Carrie Melissa Jones: The Community Manager's Self-Care Checklist
-Greg Baugues: Developer Evangelists and Burnout
-Jono Bacon: Practical guide for avoiding burnout and living a happier life
-LaToya Williams: Handling Imposter Syndrome
-Mary Thengvall: Monitoring the Health of Your ~~Community~~ Self (video)
-Mary Thengvall: Burnout: What Happens When You Take On Too Much
-Mary Thengvall: List of Burnout Resources

As always, if you're struggling with burnout and need help, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm not a doctor, but I can help you find the resources and support that you need.

Events 📆

The Art of Slide Design (take 2)

p.s. Apologies to those of you who clicked on The Art of Slide Design link last week and wound up at a login page for Pocket! It's a great tool if you aren't familiar, but I'm guessing you were hoping to wind up here instead. Enjoy!

Developer Relations Events

Looking to meet up with some of your peers in person? Check out these upcoming events. Am I missing any? Let me know.

Jobs 👩‍💻

How ‘Tech Ladies’ Grew from a Side Hustle to a 23,000-Woman Force of Change

If you're a woman in tech and haven't heard of Tech Ladies, you'll appreciate this tip! Started by Allison Esposito, the Tech Ladies Facebook group is a community for women (+non-binary and trans folks) who are wanting to connect with others in the tech industry. The website connects women with the best jobs and opportunities in tech & also connects companies with the best techmakers.

Developer Relations Jobs

On the hunt for a new gig? You're in the right place. Check out the new jobs that have popped up over the past few weeks. Noticing that some of them aren't available any longer, or wanting to make sure yours gets listed? Shoot me an email.

Developer Avocados 🥑

Abandoned Avocados

Today I learned when avocados are abandoned they appear alone and sad -- burnt out, if you will. They're also kind of disgusting. Click if you dare.