DevRel Weekly - Issue 136 - The Balance of Recovery

Welcome! 👋

This week as I get word of more friends getting vaccinated and recover from my own vaccine reaction (hence the late newsletter!), I'm facing the question of "now what?" Do we immediately go back to in-person conferences and traveling every other week? Or do we ease back in, taking it slow and waiting to see how our minds, our bodies, our souls respond to the sudden change in pace?

My friend Jen Dary shared a PSA on her company Twitter the other day that really hit home:

You cannot expect your employees to get back on the horse as soon as they have shots in arms. What we have just collectively experienced (and are still experiencing) has been so deep that we will need a worldwide period of recovery.

What do you do in sports when you need recovery? You rest. You stretch softly. You nourish yourself. We will need the same things. We will need to rest, to take good care of our minds and bodies, to see friends and family and socialize. This is not lazy. This is recovery.

Make sure to take care of yourselves, your community members, your coworkers, your families, friends. We're all in this together but we may need to take things at different speeds for the next several months still, and that's ok.

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

How to Manage Everything as a Team of One

Hey lone #cmgr who's trying to do everything & be everything to everyone!

First - STOP, collaborate, & listen
Second - Getting strategic with it
Third - Can't stop, won't stop, don't stop

-Shannon Emery (Click through to read the full thread)

What's at the Heart of Your Community?

The joy of sharing should be the spirit of any community.

-hivebrite

Communities Evolve. What Remains?

Communities evolve over time. Some things might change, but the importance of working together toward a common goal remains.

As the faces of these communities, #DevRel practitioners must accept and move with these evolutions with patience and humility.

-DevRelate

First, Build Relationships

Community Tip: Community is people.

People don't want to build a relationship with your bot, your brand, or your email server. They want to build a relationship with you, the person. That means you have to be there, in your community, and you need to be you.

-Savannah

Tangibles 🤓

The Audience to Community Funnel

From funnels to commitment curves to number of followers versus engaged and active members, how we track success is an ongoing topic of conversation (and sometimes debate) between Marketing and Developer Relations teams. Jenn Pedde covers a few of these frameworks and introduces a funnel of her own that tracks the path from audience member to community member in this recent blog.

Getting better at Developer Relations

Wanting to level up your career but not sure where to start? Colm Doyle pulled together some advice in this article and everything that he suggests is spot-on. From creating content (whether you think it's excellent or not) to being curious, generous, and empathic, you can't go wrong if you're following these tips.

Hackathon Tips, Tricks, and Good Practices

If you're looking into hackathons as a possible way to connect with new community members and test your getting started guides, there are two great resources for you this week:

Your DevRel Pipeline

Struggling to hire DevRel professionals for your team? Heidi Waterhouse suggests you look internally to your support team. They're technical. They're empathetic. They're used to thinking out of the box. And bonus: they already know your product inside and out!

Tangents 🐰

How Storytelling Leads to Better Public Speaking

While James Clear's style may not work for everyone, becoming a better storyteller is a key part of being more comfortable as a public speaker. Interested in learning more? Check out this thread to learn James's story.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts and Videos

A candid look into DevRel and what it's like becoming a Developer Advocate with Angie Jones, Sarah Drasner, Kelsey Hightower, Emily Freeman, James Q Quick, and Colby Fayock (video)
From Bootcamp to DevRel with Danny Ramos - The Developing Story
Creating a Safe Space: How Naj Austin’s Ethel’s Club was Designed for Intersectionality - Masters of Community
After Pulse: DevRel Content Channels - Community Pulse
Developer Relations as a Career Path with Joel Lord - freeCodeCamp Oklahoma Lightning Talks (video)
Listening and Enabling: Talking DevRel and Neurodiversity with Wesley Faulkner - What We Talk About When We Talk About Tech

Events 📆

DevRel Events

Looking for an opportunity to learn from your peers? From webinars to events all over the world, if you're looking for professional development opportunities, you're in luck.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Senior Manager of Developer Community Programs

Okta is seeking an experienced leader and program manager who is passionate about building global communities of individual developers and independent software vendors that leverage our platform. You will be responsible for creating and driving Okta’s developer community programs strategy that enables individual developers and independent software vendors to succeed with Okta.

Chief Community Officer

The Chief Community Officer will define and lead all community-building efforts for Port and our other growth initiatives. This role encompasses community strategy, community building, marketing and partnership outreach efforts and is responsible for growing, engaging and retaining our members. You would be one of the key public faces of the Port. You’ll be given a lot of control and the ability to contribute to the direction of the company.

Content Manager

LogDNA is looking for a collaborative Content Manager to write and edit content about logging, DevOps, Kubernetes, and more. Not looking for a full-time gig but want to contribute content? Reach out, we’d love to work with you!

Jobs 👩‍💻

DevRel Jobs

Developer Advocacy, Community Management, Developer Experience, Technical Writing jobs... they're all here. Come and get 'em!