DevRel Weekly - DevRel Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices

Welcome! 👋

I don't know about you all, but this week has flown by. Between DevRel friends being in town for conferences and a variety of exciting but time-intensive meetings, I didn't quite believe it when I realized that we're basically halfway through April!

I hope you all have had productive and equally exciting weeks, and that the information in today's newsletter is useful for you as you tackle the challenges ahead.

As always, if you have any questions, need to brainstorm an idea, or get some feedback on a project, I'm happy to chat! Just drop me a line.

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

Find Ways for Communities to Intersect

Communities grow through interaction. Sometimes, it’s necessary to find ways for communities to intersect in order to foster that growth.

-DevRelate

Developer Advocacy is a Mindset Before it's a Career

Developer advocacy is something you do long before you are paid to do it.

-Eric Johnson

Good Developer Experience Is...

Good developer experience happens when doing the right thing is natural and messing up is hard.

-Kent C. Dodds

Want to know more about what makes a great developer experience? Check out the responses to Peggy Rayzis's Twitter thread.

DevRel Advice Column

Dev Rel (+ other biz facing devs). What words have you found useful, that you never used as a dev? So far I have: “buy in” and “align” and "stakeholders" - any more?

-Rachel Black

If Developer Advocates/Evangelists represent software companies in the community...

What would you call someone who advocates for new technologies on your engineering team?

Technical Evangelist? Internal Developer Advocate? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Looking for suggestions/advice.

-Joe Previte

Tangibles 🤓

The Four Pillars of Developer Relations

After you've taken the time to listen to your community and observe their needs as well as the industry trends, it's time to define your tactics. Matthew Revell from Hoopy lays out the four buckets that these tactics fall into:

outreach
community
product
education and support

12 of the Best Event Sponsorship Proposal Examples to Inspire Yours

Organizing a conference? You won't want to miss these tips from event ticketing platform Tito. From how to provide a conference overview to displaying quotes from previous attendees, Tito digs into 12 conferences who have figured out the most effective ways to find sponsors.

9 Essential Items for the Best Travel Experience

I'm a gadget-lover, there's no denying it! This recent post from Alex Walling highlights 9 of his favorite gadgets, from organizational containers to the best headphones on the market. If you're gearing up for the 2019 conference season, you won't want to miss this.

That One Motivated Member

We're all constantly looking for those diamonds in the rough: community members who are not only enthusiastic but committed to finding answers for others.

Richard Millington's suggestion? Start getting to know your community members on a personal level and slowly but surely, you'll find these gems.

If you could put your members on a bell curve of enthusiasm, there will always be a tiny few who are a few standard deviations from the norm. They typically want to feel connected, have access to you, and see the impact of their work.

KPI Community Basics: Part 1

Without meaningful goals, it is nearly impossible to get support from the larger organization.

Carrie Melissa Jones starts off a recent blogpost with this nugget of truth.

But let's face it... KPIs are difficult to define, right? But as Carrie says,

setting the right KPIs and communicating them with the larger organizations is vital to a brand community’s long-term success.

She starts by breaking down some of the key terms and then helps you understand how to create meaningful KPIs of your own.

Storytime 📚

#GatheringSummit 2019

I recently took attended the online-based Gathering Summit which featured 40 videos from various community builders and gatherers from a variety of industries. I have yet to make it through all of the videos, but plan to continue watching them over the next few weeks. The insights that I've gathered will stay with me for quite some time, I'm sure!

I livetweeted sessions as I was watching the videos and will continue to add them to this moment as I watch the rest. If you're interested in watching the videos along with me, you can still purchase the Gold Pass for only $99. Dig into that professional development budget -- it's completely worth it!

Here were a few of my favorite quotes:

Community building is hard. It can look warm & fuzzy from outside, but you're taking on a lot of emotional labor & there's invisible work that no one will ever see. It's ok to be frustrated, fed up, & lonely sometimes. Find those who understand. @saronyitbarek #GatheringSummit (tweet)
Strategy helps us know what we're going to do together. Covenant helps us know how we're going to be together. Both are important and highly relevant to building a successful, thriving, meaningful community. @caspertk #GatheringSummit (tweet)
Trying to build community in a for-profit setting can be difficult. If our intent in bringing ppl together is to get something from them, that's not community building... it's manipulation, which can easily turn into coercion. @CharlesVogl This is an incredibly important point for #DevRel #CMgr pros. Communities can absolutely benefit orgs & it's ok to ask that these communities serve org goals. But your focus HAS to be on enriching community members, not on making money. (tweet)

Events 📆

CMX Summit 2019 CFP is Open!

🎤 Speaker submissions are now open for CMX Summit 2019! Have valuable insights on building community that you'd like to share with 1000+ community builders? Get your application in! (by April 18)

-David Spinks

Developer Relations Events

Events season is now in full swing just like my allergies! But unlike my allergies, conferences can make you feel energized and are a great place to network and learn new skills. So take a peek at our Toby collection full of upcoming events and be sure to pack your tissues and eye drops!

Know of an event that should be on this list? Let me know!

Jobs 👩‍💻

Head of Developer Relations

Camunda is reinventing workflow automation for customers around the world, including Bloomberg, NASA, Allianz, Universal, and Goldman Sachs. We're an open source company passionate about connecting with developers, empowering them to automate critical business processes and innovate at the heart of their company’s business. We are looking to hire a passionate and experienced Developer Relations leader who can assemble a team of equally passionate individuals to inspire developers to build great things.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

It never hurts to keep your eye on what’s out there on the job market. Take a peek at our jobs collection from time to time to see if something intrigues you!