DevRel Weekly - Issue 215 - DevRel is a Strategic Play

Welcome! 👋

This week's theme was loud and clear: Developer Relations is a strategic team that can directly impact a business's primary goals and bottom line. If you're struggling to make this connection at your organization, be sure to click through on this week's links! I'd love to hear if this content is helpful for you or if there are other topics you'd like to see a deep-dive on.

Also, this tweet from Joél Leon resonated with me this week and I keep coming back to it:

we need community like we need art, like we need museums and lovers; like we need lyrics and libraries. we need community like we need water, like we need air, shelter—community is nourishment.

community gets to be our anchor. because our freedom exists in our togetherness.

I hope this week, you're able to find your anchor... your nourishment... those who uplift, support, and encourage you. 🤗

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

p.s. If you're a DevRel Manager (Team Lead, Director, VP, etc.), Hoopy is running a survey to better understand how different organizations define roles and job titles within DevRel teams.

Tidbits 🕔

Your Strategy Should Live at the Intersection

I've said it before and I'll say it many, many more times:

The best, most resilient community strategies live at the intersection of what your community members need and what your business needs.

-Noele Flowers (click through to walk through a helpful exercise she designed)

DevRel isn't just "nice to have"

DevRel isn't just a "nice to have " role, it's a strategic play.

Developer advocacy can drive innovation, accelerate product growth, and build brand loyalty.

Identify the metrics you need to optimize, align with business goals, and create strategic initiatives around them.

-AJ Chan

Advocacy and Enablement

Developer Relations has two functions.

Advocacy - talk about tech. Go to conferences, run workshops, write blogs.

Enablement - apply the tech. Show users how to solve problems they are working on.

The first raises awareness. The second wins business.

A good team can do both.

-Rick Houlihan

What are the first 3 things you think of when you hear "DevRel"?

building relationships within the community AND COMPANY

finding alignment between company goals and community needs

ensuring voice and tone align with the right audiences/personas

-Kurt Kemple

We are the Bridge Between Businesses and Developers

DevRel is about building and keeping “healthy” relationships with developers and working to help them grow.

It is about loving to hear success stories but also listening attentively to their feedback and needs. DevRel people are the bridge between businesses and developers.

-Nour Bouayadi

Tangibles 🤓

How to Build a Community Content Strategy

"Content is King" (or Queen) has been a phrase used for the last few decades, but our strategy for content isn't always aligned with business goals. What if you could be achieving even more (more value for your community as well as the company) with the content you produce simply by setting goals and building habits? Commsor released a guide to building community content with lots of helpful tips and suggestions to make the process more maintainable for you and your team.

The Relationship Between DevRel and PipeGen

This thread from Tim Berglund has kept me pondering a number of items throughout this week, from proper metrics to the communication of those metrics, and more. I particularly liked this analogy:

You need to feed the soil for your plants to grow, and that, in our analogy, is the task of DevRel. Developers are the soil in which enterprise software sales can germinate, grow, and bear fruit. DevRel helps that soil thrive.

... to measure the impact of DevRel based on the size of the harvest is to focus on the wrong part of the ecosystem. This is why DevRel metrics aren't based on pipegen, but community.

Without vital, thriving soil, you'll never have a harvest.

Click through to read the full thread.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Origin Stories

Common Room is partnering with Hoopy to invest in new developer relations content that will help DevRel professionals learn from each other’s experiences and be more successful in their roles. And they want to feature you in case studies, origin stories, and more. Get in touch if you're interested.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts and Videos

The Evolution of DevRel with Jeremy Meiss - Screaming in the Cloud
How did we start? with Liran Tal and Yoav Ganbar - Developer Relations Diaries (Twitter Space)
Building Developer Relations Teams with Chris Traganos - Build and Learn
The Evolution of Community with Noele Flowers - The Community Experience
Reinventing You as an Effective and Engaging Community Manager - Community Manager Live (video)
How DevEx & DevRel can support go-to-market with Lee Robinson - Uncommon Visionaries (video)
The Journey to DevRel and Community Care with PJ Hagerty - Fireside with Voxgig
Your Very Own Developer Advocate with Serah Kiburu - NerdOut@Spotify
Community Policies and Governance with Melissa Westervelt - Community Conversations
Developer Experience is the Key to Better Software with John Abel - The Stack Overflow Podcast
Is Product Led Growth the DevOps of the DevRel World? by Daniel Bryant (video)

Events 📆

DevRel Events

There are still some events this month as well as coming up in March. Take a look at our collection of upcoming events to find meetups, conferences, and webinars that you’ll want to attend! Know of a great event that should be on this list? Let me know!

Jobs 👩‍💻

DevRel Jobs

With over 350 jobs in our collection, something is sure to fit what you’re looking for in your next career move.