DevRel Weekly - Issue 206 - Strategies

Welcome! 👋

Welcome to November, DevRel Weekly fam! Apparently in the mountains, that means it's time for snow. 😅 Much of this past week was spent putting the last few touches on our growing wood pile, making sure all the windows had good weather seals, and enjoying the coziness of working from a cabin in the snow!

I hope you all had equally cozy weeks full of exciting new skills and interesting problems to solve. If you're looking for a few more interesting challenges, this week's content won't leave you hanging! Let's dive in...

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

Build for those already contributing

Common mistake: Trying to convince people to contribute to your community.

You can’t convince people to do anything they don’t believe in.

Lesson: Focus your energy on activating and engaging the people who are already convinced.

Build for the believers.

-David Spinks

How can you improve your skills?

5 simple steps to improve your DevRel skills as an Advocate

• Build relationships 🤝
• Write helpful content 👨‍💻
• Take notes of what other are doing ✍️
• Look for feedback 🔄
• Distribute your code 📈

-Jarek Jarzebowski

A process for metrics

No, there isn't a single metric to reflect the full value of community.

But there is a process you can guide your colleagues through to find the right metrics for your unique situation.

-Richard Millington

I'm curious to hear what you think! Do you agree with the flowchart?

Tangibles 🤓

But, why are you having lasagna for dinner?

Coming up with a to-do list of tasks for a quarter doesn't always mean you have a strategy... it just means you know what projects you're prioritizing. But unless you can answer why you're doing those particular things, Kamran Ayub argues that you may not be solving the correct challenge. Read more to understand what he means, and what it has to do with lasagna.

Why Your Developers Should Not Write Your Product Documentation

This recent article from Chris Riley presents an interesting theory: External practitioners should write your product documentation.

I hadn't heard this argument before, but it's an interesting one that I'll be thinking about over the next few weeks for sure. I completely agree with the premise that product documentation can benefit marketing and developer relations efforts, but my inclination is some of the issues he mentions -- docs being created haphazardly as an afterthought, missing information, etc. -- can be solved by a solid Developer Experience team and a good technical writer.

What do you think? Does he have a good point? Or would you never allow someone external to your company write your product docs? Let me know.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts and Videos

After Pulse: Developer Experience with Mary Thengvall, PJ Hagerty, and Wesley Faulkner - Community Pulse
Don't Read off the Screen by Stuart Langridge (video)
Should you use Facebook Groups for your community? by Jono Bacon (video)
Let's Talk DevRel with Head of Dev Engagement Stephanie Wong! (Twitter Space)
What should we measure to assess community effectiveness? by Jono Bacon (video)

Events 📆

DevRel Events

From in-person meetups to online conversations, there are quite a few events coming up in the next few weeks. Be sure to set the time aside for you to learn and grow by attending one or more of these events.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Advocate - North America

Camunda is the leader in process orchestration software. With Camunda, business users collaborate with developers to model and automate end-to-end processes using BPMN-powered flowcharts that run with the speed, scale, and resiliency required to compete in today’s digital-first world.

The Camunda Developer Relations team exists to serve the Camunda developer community and we are looking for a Developer Advocate to join our team and create resources that allow our community members to get up and running with our products quickly as well as represent the community’s feedback internally to our Product and Engineering teams.

Jobs 👩‍💻

DevRel Jobs

We are always adding new jobs to our collection. Have you seen what's new lately?

If you're struggling to find a new role, or struggling to find the right candidate for an open job at your organization, it may be that David Spinks can help. He's working on a new Community Talent Collective. Interesting in learning more? Check it out here.