Issue 35

Welcome! 👋

As I've alluded to previously, there are a variety of ways to approach Community Management and DevRel. This week is all about asking the right questions to figure out which approach is right for you, and more importantly, right for your community members. By asking a series of questions, digging into the specifics of your company goals and how they relate to your team goals, and then listening to your community, you'll start to see a plan develop.

Keep in mind that the last piece -- listening -- is key to your success. Asking the questions internally isn't enough. They need to be asked of the community as well. After all, they're the ones who will be on the receiving end of your plans, and if it's not a plan that meets their needs, they likely won't participate.

If you need help figuring out which questions to ask or how to narrow down who your primary community is, let me know! I love digging into various developer communities and helping teams come up with the best strategy for how to serve their community members.

Best,
-Mary (@mary_grace)

Tidbits 🕔

It's all about that swag.

My conference experience now that I'm in #devrel: walking through the exhibit hall to check out what other people order for swag, and mentally planning my next swag order.

-Yulan Lin

At the Heart of it All

DevRel is servant leadership more than anything else. It's taking the hits and speaking on behalf of a greater community.

-Emily Freeman

DevRel Advice Column

In exactly one week, I need to share my thoughts on where the #cmgr market is headed. What would you most like to hear me address (i.e. has piqued your curiosity or triggered your anxiety)?

-Rachel Happe

Hey #DevRel friends. Do you have a cool or unusual use for GitHub in the line of your work? I'd love to hear about it if you do!

-Don Goodman-Wilson

Best events and meetups for community-management professionals outside of the US?

-Phoebe Shin Venkat

How Necessary are Regularly-Scheduled Events?

A community without regular events is.... a crowd? A nice idea?

It still surprises me how many #cmgr teams don't invest in regular programming. It's like a church without Sunday services... which would make community building VERY hard.

-Rachel Happe

We Need a Strategic Framework

A lot of us in innovation are 'doers'. By always doing, we're positioning ourselves as not strategic. We need a robust strategic framework for ourselves, and it must be tied into the corporate & business unit strategies as well.

-Jakkii Musgrave, quoting Anthony Ferrier at DISRUPT.SYDNEY 2018

Recommendations and Pitfalls

In case you've missed Jono Bacon's recent "Recommendations and Pitfalls" tweets, Swarna Podila has done us all the incredible favor of collecting them in a Twitter moment.

Tangibles 🤓

Are You Doing Indispensable Work?

When our work is driven by engagement numbers instead of actual engagement, it keeps us away from what truly matters to our community: the community members. Richard Millington brings up 9 ways you can engage with your community in order to make them, and you, indispensable to your company.

The most important community manager skill? Being able to ask!

Jessie Frazelle recently tweeted something that caught my eye:

Maintainers & Contributors, I'll always try to be your voice and I hope you all hold me accountable on that as well. What would you say your biggest need is?

This is what community management is all about: asking questions and then listening to the community’s answers. Alfredo Morresi echoed this sentiment in a recent post:

At the end [of the day], the functional unit of any community is dialogue. Open and ongoing dialogue transforms a loose group of people with a shared interest into a community that can share stories, support each other, and pursue collective goals.

Vincent Boon gives us some of the key questions to ask when you're considering launching an online community. By asking these questions, both internally and externally, you'll be on your way to creating a successful community, geared toward meeting their needs.

Metal Detecting

Metal detecting is for hobbyists, archeology is for professionals.

This is a smart analogy for being deliberate about the community work that we're pursuing instead of chasing the next shiny thing.

Building Your Internal Army

Many of us tend to separate ourselves from Marketing, Engineering, and Product, seeing what we do as unique and separate from the other departments. But Amara Graham argues that by building up these relationships, we create an internal army that increases our power and helps us serve our external community that much more effectively.

The 7 P’s of Community — A Simple Framework for Building Belonging

Get your pen and notebook ready... you'll want to take some serious notes on this next article. From CMX Hub comes The 7 P's of Community, full of important principles, questions to ask, and frameworks to follow.

Tangents 🐰

Why Great Customer Experience Begins With Humans, Not Technology

Empowering your employees to make the right decisions for the community is essential to providing a good customer experience. But this mindset requires the stakeholders in your company to recognize that the customers are more important than the technology. This article from CMSWire explains that great customer experience begins with humans -- both the employees as well as the customers.

The humans — be they customers or those working with customers — play a bigger part than the technology itself.

Storytime 📚

Conference Talks, Podcasts, Interviews, and More!

There are a few videos and podcasts that were released this past week. From Jono Bacon talking about how far we've come in Community Management to a panel on how to build your DevRel team from Heavybit, led by David Spinks, there's relevant content for everyone in the industry.

Conversations with Community Managers: Christian Brothers Automotive - Podcast from The Community Roundtable
Growing a Developer Relations Program - Heavybit Industries Panel led by David Spinks, CEO of CMX
Jono Bacon interviewed at OSCON 2018

One from the Archives 📰

Speaking at conferences: theatre rules apply

I've read a lot of articles on public speaking over the years, trying to overcome my nerves and improve my delivery. This article by Cassie Kozyrkov is, by far, one of the best I've ever come across. As we enter the busiest part of conference season, don't miss this opportunity to hone your speaking skills.

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

Meetups, webinars, and conferences... they're all coming your way! I'll have some exciting news to share in next week's newsletter about an upcoming speaking opportunity, but in the meantime, let me know if you're going to be at any of these great events! Even if I won't be in attendance, I'd be happy to connect you with others who will be.

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

We spent a lot of time this week sifting through various links and tracking down all of the new job openings. As a result, the Toby Collection now has a whopping 142 listings and it will likely grow even bigger by the end of the week! Be sure to check out the job openings from our sponsors, Docker and Samsung NEXT as well, and best of luck on your job hunt!

Developer Avocados 🥑

How much do you know about avocados?

You may call yourself a Developer Avocado or have an 🥑 in your Twitter bio, but how much do you actually know about avocados? Test your knowledge in this fun quiz.