DevRel Weekly - Issue 219 - Community Led, Community Operations, and Community Value

Welcome! 👋

Happy Monday, everyone. I'm off to Boston this week for a company get-together and looking forward to seeing some of my coworkers! I can still count on fewer than two hands the number of times I've gotten together with coworkers in the three+ years I've been at Camunda, which is such an odd realization. 😅

This week, a few links caught my eye in particular:

A fascinating discussion about what "Community-Led" means to different people.
An article questioning the value of keeping "community" in your title.
This description of Community Operations, including why it's essential for success once your team has scaled beyond its initial skeleton crew.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on both of these concepts, in addition to anything else that's on your mind!

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

What Makes Documentation Great?

🧵 Documentation, developer's best friend.

It either gives you wings, or makes you want to quit your developer life.

The importance of great docs is undeniable if you want to create an amazing developer experience and grow your community.

What makes docs great though? 👇[Click through for the full thread!]

Be critical

Use the right tool

Tools examples

Structure is for the users

Address their needs

Make it easy to read

Analyze user's behaviors

Ask for feedback

-Zuza Zuber (click through to read all of the tips)

Connect the Dots

Being a Developer Advocate is about more than just coding. It’s about connecting the dots between developers and businesses.

-Shivdhwaj Pandey

Don't Assume Everyone is Alike

One of the biggest mistakes in developer marketing is assuming all developers are the same. Know your audience and speak to their unique needs.

-Sara Waszyńska

What Value Do We Bring?

What value does Developer Relations bring to other teams?

Product teams receive the “gift of feedback”

Engineering is happy with extra testing and bugs submitted

Sales gets more product adoption

PR has access to cool stories

Marketing is able to reuse content

Recruiting has access to better candidates

Policy is able to collaborate with Key Opinion Formers

-Dawid Ostrowski

Tangibles 🤓

Case Studies

While I enjoy all of the philosophical blogposts and generic tips, there are times when I just want to dig deep into a case study of how people are actually applying these concepts. I came across a few such articles this week. I hope they're helpful for you as well!

Raising the Next Generation of DevRel

Whether you're new to DevRel or looking to mentor and encourage a new generation of DevRel professionals, this blogpost from Lorna Jane Mitchell is a good place to start. In it, Lorna walks through some excellent resources as well as what skills to focus on.

6 Ways to Align Your Community of Practice with Business Objectives

A "Community of Practice" which focuses more on general concepts or principles rather than a specific product can sometimes be difficult to tie back to company goals and objectives. In this article, Jimmy Daly takes you through steps to ensure you're on the same page as your stakeholders.

Go Ahead, Be Bossy

For those of you who are people pleasers like me, this suggestion from David Spinks will likely be uncomfortable. But also... he's right. 😅 Oftentimes, when we give our new community members too much freedom (read: ambiguity) when they join our platform, they wind up not feeling engaged enough to stick around. By giving them firm guidelines and specific instructions, they're more likely to actually engage with those around them.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts and Videos

Suddenly Unemployed with Erin Mikail Staples, Jarek Jarzebowski, and PJ Metz - Community Pulse (video)
Blogging as a DevRel or Developer Advocate - DevRel and Dev Advocacy the Podcast
Behind the Scenes: Exciting World of DevRel with Michiel Mulders (video)
How to Succeed in this Fast-Growing Tech Career with Gift Egwuenu (video)
Discussions on Coffee, Conferences, and Community Resources with Scott Wilder - Peers over Beers
Building a Tier-1 Developer Experience at Scale - kapa.ai podcast (video)
Is this the BEST TECH JOB? Day in the Life of a Dev Rel with Tomiwa (video)

Events 📆

DevRel Events

There are a lot of events coming up this month including some in London, Denver, Lisbon, and online. 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 👩‍💻

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!

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.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

We've seen several layoffs lately, but there are still companies hiring! If you are looking for a job, come see what we have in our collection.

By the way, if you are looking, this article from Rosie Sherry may have some helpful tips for you. Sending lots of well-wishes and confident interview thoughts your way!