DevRel Weekly - Issue 125 - New Reports, DX Use Cases, and so many Podcasts!

Welcome! 👋

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Apologies for the late newsletter this week -- a bad migraine had me down-and-out Sunday evening and all day Monday, but I'm hopeful for a better week ahead! As I mentioned last week, a friend and mentor recently sent me a postcard "Let's be belligerently hopeful," and despite everything that's happened this past week, that's still the direction I'm choosing to take with this year. I'm looking for the good right where I am rather than only looking forward at what's to come as I did during so much of 2020. I hope you're also able to find the joy where you are today, even if it's difficult.

There are a lot of great resources listed below for this week's issue. As people are getting up and running in the new year, I'm sure we'll have even more excellent pieces of content in the weeks to come! One item that I'd like to mention specifically is a recent report delivered by Ana Jimenez Santamaria. As part of her Master's Thesis she's pulled together a set of metrics and a segmentation model capable of quantifying the value of DevRel work within Open Source. Be sure to check out the resources she's made available!

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

Understand Where the Venn Diagram Crossover Is

Community is about using a specific set of skills - connection, empathy, mobilization - to create win-wins for company and community. This starts with understanding what a win looks like for each group and where that Venn diagram crossover is.

-Evan Hamilton

DevRel is about Us, Not Me

Remember, #DevRel is never about “I” or “Me” or “them”.

It’s ALWAYS about “we” and “us”. Communities are not built on the merits of an individual.

-DevRelate

Tangibles 🤓

Developer Experience at Netlify

With Developer Experience still being a fairly new function across tech companies, there are a lot of questions about team make-up, common responsibilities, metrics, and more. Sarah Drasner released a fantastic write-up about how the Developer Experience team at Netlify has evolved and grown. Whether you're in the process of building a team, looking for a career change, or simply curious about the day-to-day realities of a Developer Experience team, you won't want to miss this article!

What you decide in that moment changes the course of your community.

In light of what happened this week in the United States, this Twitter thread from Patrick O'Keefe was particularly poignant.

In it, he makes the point that if you let an influential member or powerful person violate your guidelines, your community may continue to grow, since that person will bring a following with them. But it will forever change the face of your community.

Patrick starts with this statement:

One of the most pivotal moments early on for any online platform or community is when an influential member or powerful person does something that, in your heart, you know is a violation of your guidelines. What you decide in that moment sets you down one of two paths.

and ends by saying:

I know it can be hard to take a long term view in a short term world, but if you truly care about building something that has principles and is good, you have to be tough. You have to listen to the angel. You have to tell the influential member they can't do that thing.

Click here to read the rest of this thread.

Avoiding the DevRel ROI Trap with Better Strategic Alignment

If you're looking for a extensive walkthrough of goal-setting, planning, strategic alignment of goals, OKRs, and more (with links to a lot of other resources as well!), Petr Švihlík has put together a great resource. Be sure to set some time aside this week to dig into it.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts and Videos

Lauren Learns Things with guest, Laura Czajkowski - Developer Relations Manager (video)
Developer Relations Manager, Programming Mentor with Peter McKee - Devel Mentor
The magic formula to ignite enthusiasm in your community - from Alessio Fattorini (video)
Develop Community Building Strategies before Event Briefings from Glynk (video)
Lauren Learns Things with guest Olia Dukova, Head of Community (video)
Building Community by Solving Problems with Jono Bacon - Keep Connected
On the Value of Authentic Relationships in Tech with Jonan Scheffler - We Belong Here
Fostering Inclusivity for Neurodivergent Community Members and Colleagues with Wesley Faulkner - Community Signal
Demystifying Privacy & Data for Community w/ Social Strata with Rosemary O'Neill - C2C Podcast

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

Have someplace to be? Check out the DevRel Weekly Events Collection. There might just be an event you're interested in attending. You never know unless you look.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Evangelist

Did you know that you can recognize people by the way they type? This is what we do at TypingDNA, and are looking for a Developer Evangelist to join us in the mission of making the TypingDNA Authentication API the #1 choice at a BringYourOwnDevTool party. For this, you will attend and talk at events for devs, will technically help them on all the channels where they are, and also create various content (screencasts, videos, and the like).

Developer Evangelist - Moovweb

The future of development on the web is Jamstack, and our jam is bringing these performance and simplicity benefits to large, dynamic sites where traditional techniques don't apply. We're seeking a passionate Developer Evangelist who will blaze the trail for strategic community engagement and the growth of our developer base.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

Only you control where you look for new roles in developer relations. Use the force, and check out the DevRel Weekly Jobs Collection. What do you see? Anything of interest?