DevRel Weekly - Issue 216 - Refreshing the Basics

Welcome! 👋

It's been a difficult time of layoffs for so many people... I hope all of you are doing well and taking care of yourselves amidst the chaos. 🧸 Jarek Jarzebowski started a discussion on Twitter this week, asking people whether they thought the idea of DevRel was being abandoned (coming in guns blazing!) due to the various layoffs happening. While I don't agree with the (presumed) assessment that the layoffs are a sign of DevRel failing at these companies, the discussion that follows is a fascinating one.

I noticed a theme among many of the links from this week -- many of these articles are in the "201" space: not quite beginner-level information, but geared toward folks looking to take that next step once the basic foundation is set. If this is you, I hope this week's issue is helpful for you! And if you know someone else who might be looking for this information, please pass it along to them!

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

Build Strong Relationships

The key to success in Developer Advocacy is the ability to build strong relationships with developers and other stakeholders. You'll need to be a great communicator, able to explain complex technical concepts in a way that's easy for non-technical audiences to understand.

-Chirag Maliwal

Show, Don't Tell

Show, don't tell. Demonstrate the value of your product through tutorials, examples, and case studies.

-Sara Waszyńska

Tangibles 🤓

Linking Online Community to Business Success

If you're new to building a community strategy and are looking for a comprehensive walk-through covering what to look for, the questions to be asked, and the metrics to consider, Chris Detzel has you covered with this article. From engagement to content to online communities, he has a lot of great tips to get you started.

5 Tips for Building the Best Developer Experience Possible

These 5 tips from Allen Helton give a great foundation for how to improve the developer experience of your product. While none of these will be "easy fixes" or the solution that makes everything magically better, if you take this feedback into account as you continue to build out your product, you should start to see a difference in your product user engagement as well as onboarding new users.

How to speak “developers’ language” when you aren’t one

I've never held a job as a developer, but that doesn't mean I know nothing about code. I couldn't agree more with this article from Olga Koenig. In it, she encourages technical community managers and builders to take coding classes in order to better understand their community. Whether your end goal is to become a developer or not (mine isn't), staying up-to-date with technical trends, programming languages, and the basics of code is an important part of serving your community and being the best you can be at your role.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts and Videos

Open Source & DevRel with Kelsey Hightower - Find Francesco (video)
How to level up your technical career by writing - Grammarly for Developers (video)
DevRel For Black Developers And Why It's Slightly Different with Corey Weathers (video)
Introducing DevRel(ish) - A Show about DevRel with Erin Makail Staples and Brian Rinaldi (video)
Getting Started In DevRel with Edith Puclla (video)

Events 📆

DevRel Events

More events keep popping up on the horizon; come and check out what's next!

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Advocate and Community Manager

Multiplayer is a collaborative platform that makes it easy for teams to design, develop and run distributed software. We are hiring a Developer Advocate and Community Manager to increase awareness and adoption of Multiplayer by developing technical content and building an engaged developer community. This person will join the founding team and help define the trajectory of a venture-backed company from the early days.

Head of Developer Relations

Drive awareness, deepen our developer relations, and become a key stakeholder in our company strategy as Unleash’s new Head of Developer Relations.

Unleash is the biggest and fastest-growing open-source feature management platform in the market. We have an amazing community that actively engages with both our open-source and upper-tier enterprise offering. A diverse, supportive, and collaborative culture is a big part of our DNA. We like to think we’re pretty fun, too. We look for people who are curious, creative, and inventive. Sound like a good fit? Apply today!

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

Considering a change in your career? Check out this post to help evaluate whether it's time for a change. If it is, come see what we have in our collection of jobs that range from Entry Level all the way up to Senior Director.