Issue 34

Welcome! 👋

Hello to all of my new subscribers! This may be the first "typical" DevRel Weekly issue you've seen up until this point, given my end-of-summer vacation followed by the hellish migraine from last week. If that's the case... welcome! I'm so glad you've joined us here.

In each issue I'll bring you an assortment of the top DevRel-related tweets and articles from the previous week, with a handful of articles from the archive thrown in as well. And don't forget the avocado mention in each issue. Why avocados? I'm so glad you asked! I happen to believe that Developer Advocates (and DevRel teams in general) are just like avocados. By using this analogy we can help our stakeholders understand the business value of our day-to-day jobs.

Speaking of avocados... the final cover for my book, The Business Value of Developer Relations, is live on Amazon, where it's available for pre-order! I'm looking for a handful of folks who might be interested in reading the PDF proof in the next week or two and posting a review on launch day -- if that sounds like something you'd be interested in, hit reply and let me know!

And with that... I'll leave you to the content for this week. I've curated a shorter list this time around, given the amount of content that's been released in the last month! I hope it's valuable for you, and as always, if there's something I've missed, shoot me a note to get it on my radar.

Best,
Mary, @mary_grace

Tidbits 🕔

How is this valuable? Let me count the ways...

There are three types of value in community management:
- Value to members - what you do for them
- Value of members - increase in loyalty/LTV
- Value by members - what they create

-David Spinks

Make the most of it.

When a developer first signs up for your API, you often have just one shot to show them value. Given enough competition, there are no second chances.

-Jarkko Moilanen

Denise Henkel on Twitter

Community Management puts the member in the focus of the goal definition and asks:

What experience should the members of our community have to behave in such a way that our community achieves its goal?

-Denise Henkel (translated)

Which do you want?

Really interesting question from Kristen Wagenarr:

"Do you want an audience or do you want a community?" and yes there is a big difference.

-Tanja Laub, from SwarmConf

What sets you apart?

"Your network is your most valuable asset as a community manager."

-Michael Downey, quoting Jason Hibbets at #OSSummit

DevRel Advice Column

I'm running a mentoring circle at #GHC18 on #DevAdvocacy & #DevRel for students & early to mid-career professionals. What advice do you have for this group? What questions would you want to be answered?

-Lauen Schaefer

Tangibles 🤓

Writing Documentation When You Aren’t A Technical Writer

Have you been tasked with writing documentation for your API? If you aren't so confident in your skills, the awesome Taylor Barnett, whom you met a few weeks ago when she curated Issue 31 of this newsletter for me, has put together a fantastic series of articles including tips and tricks. Check out Part Two and keep an eye out for Part Three, coming soon!

Stickers, A Love Story

We all know that stickers are an integral part of every DevRel team (I'm only partly joking). Heidi Waterhouse takes the time to explain why in this recent article. From how stickers bring us together to gathering intel about particular conferences based on which stickers are most popular, there are some great insights in this piece that are beneficial to all of us who travel with an envelope of stickers in tow.

Loyalty Is Your Goal

Toby Metcalf has nailed the concept of why loyalty is your #1 goal in community building in this short piece:

Price may get them in but it's the service & experience a customer receives that makes them loyal to your brand. We lead such hectic lives it's wonderful to find a brand you can count on to get it right & put YOU first.

Open source and DevRel

If there was ever any doubt about whether DevRel professionals should care about Open Source projects, Simon Phipps is here to tell you that we absolutely should.

Linus, His Apology, And Why We Should Support Him

An apology from Linus Torvalds has been hitting all of the tech news sites for the past week. While some are skeptical, others are grateful for what appears to be a genuine and thoughtful apology. Jono Bacon gives a thorough summary of the apology as well as some advice on what he believes we should do next.

Should We Do This? A Decision Framework For Community Tactics

Apparently I'm not the only person who struggles with squirrels (or as others call them, shiny objects)! This article from Feverbee talks about how to decide whether a particular community tactic is right for you.

Advocate: one word, two directions

The Advocate/Evangelist war is still waging, but Jeff Carpenter sums up my feelings about the issue nicely in this short article.

You’ve Got Their Attention – Make the Conversation Count

As the year starts to wind down, many of you may be starting an end-of-year deck to share with your company stakeholders. But how do you know what to include? What will they be looking for specifically? And how do you prove your value in one short meeting? Community by Association has the answer to these questions and more.

Why Community Manager Is a Dead-End Job — and What to Do About It

While the title of this article is more than a little controversial, author Stefano Maffulli makes a good point. What's the retirement plan for DevRel professionals? Where can (and where should) we go from here?

Profiles in Community: Designing a Network of Communities

If you've followed me for a while, you've likely heard me harp about the fact that every community is different. I believe strongly that there's no "one-size-fits-all" solution when you're dealing with people, and Rachel Happe of The Community Roundtable happens to agree with me. She's taken the time to write up some of the various profiles (as well as challenges) from the variety of communities she's seen in the last decade. She's also summarized 5 of the biggest lessons she's learned over the last decade as she's worked with both healthy and unhealthy online communities.

Tangents 🐰

Surprise! Successful Community-Driven Development Requires Communities to Drive the Development.

At the core of Community-driven Development (CDD) is the requirement that the process be community-driven.

While this statement may seem obvious to those of us who are involved in community building on a professional level, you’d be surprised at the number of CDD projects that fail simply because the community isn’t involved.

This article from Kara Weiss may only be tangentially related to technical communities, but the principles still stand. As she talks about the international programs that have been run in 3rd world countries, she says,

Writ large, we’ve failed. But that doesn’t mean every attempt has been a failure.

Important and wise words for us to keep in mind as we pursue our own community-driven development.

Support for Speakers

As a DevRel professional, much of our job revolves around supporting the community. If you're looking for ways to specifically support community members who are speaking at events, Lorna Mitchell, curator of Issue 30, has you covered!

Storytime 📚

Podcasts Galore! 🎧

There were a slew of DevRel-related podcast episodes released this past month! From interviews with top DevRel executives to the state of our careers and everything in between, here's a round-up for you listen to:

Community Pulse: After Pulse: Content is Key
Community Signal: The State of Online Community as a Career
Conversations with Community Managers: Jeff Merrell
CTO.coffee: “Developer Relations & Community” with Felicitas Kugland
DevRel Radio: Meghan Gill on Community, Usability, and Coffee Mugs
Commerce Tomorrow: Cultural Shifts, Cloud Business, and Developer Relations at Microsoft
> Code: Cleaning House with Heidi Waterhouse
Screaming in the Cloud: Kubernetes is Named After the Greek God of Spending Money on Cloud Services
The Polyglot Developer Podcast: Developer Evangelism
Developer Life: Meet Chad Fowler!

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

If you've been looking for an excuse to travel to Europe, now's your chance! There are 4 DevRel-related conferences coming up in the next few months alone. For these and other events, check out the latest Toby collection.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Senior Developer Advocate, Java Ecosystem

Docker is hiring a Senior Developer Advocate to help developers and operations professionals move their applications to the Docker platform. You’ll be a leader in the field of building, deploying, and managing applications. You’ll use your expertise to help developers outside of Docker understand how to build and administer applications using the platform and will work out in the community, through conference appearances, participating in social media, blogging, writing technology guides and producing videos. If this sounds like a role for you, we’d love to hear from you!

Deep Learning Developer Evangelist

Samsung NEXT’s MissingLink product team is in search of a Developer Evangelist with a deep passion for Data Science and Deep Learning. MissingLink.ai has built a platform that accelerates the development and research around AI. Our platform automates most of the day to day tasks that Engineers and Data Scientists have to take to develop incredible AI machines.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

Looking for a new gig to start the new season? Check out the offerings from DevRel Weekly sponsors Docker and Samsung NEXT. If those aren't quite the right fit, take a look at any of the other 100+ jobs available in the Toby collection.

Developer Avocados 🥑

Cute Avocado Gif: Challenge Accepted

Rain Leander made it her mission to find the cutest avocado gifs last week after my call to action in Issue 33 and wow did she deliver! Don't just stop with the first-born avocado... scroll down to see the celebratory dances that follow. It's worth your time -- trust me.