DevRel Weekly - Issue 70 - Speaking, Content, and Metrics -- the Trifecta of DevRel Conversations

Welcome! 👋

Happy Thursday, friends! I hope your week has been treating you well. I've been revamping a lot of processes this week as I continue to move things over to a new system given the problems I referenced last week. I'm still working out a few kinks, which means this week's issue is slightly shorter than usual. If you know of good articles or tweets that I've missed, be sure to send them over!

I've also been working on an exciting development: a part-time (5-10h/week) job opportunity for someone who's interested in helping sift through the 800+ links I collect every week. In addition to my undying gratitude, this role also gives you the opportunity to learn more about the DevRel industry as you're given front row access to all of the content that comes across my plate. If you're interested, or you know someone who is, take a look at the job description and reach out for more information.

Until next time!

Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

DevRel is a State of Being

DevRel isn't a discrete list of tasks that you do and then check off; it's a state of being that pervades every aspect of your professional life.

-David Simmons

The Key to a Successful Community

The key to success in a community is to make the community members happy. And the key to keeping members happy is and has always been good relationships.

-Rohit Kumar Guha

DevRel Advice Column

I am looking for some nice resources to prepare myself for #DevRel interviews.
Can you suggest me some?

-Yashovardhan Agrawal

Are There any Unlearnable Skills? If so... What are They?

I'm curious to hear what you all think about this tweet from Denise Henkel, translated below:

What is the unlearnable property of a good community manager?

Are there any "unlearnable" skills? Or is it just a matter of having a good teacher?

Tangibles 🤓

10 Things I Learned When Giving a Lecture for the First Time 👔

I’m a huge fan of “lessons learned” blogposts. The people writing them tend to be willing to reveal a vulnerable side of themselves, giving us an opportunity to empathize as well as learn, seeing ourselves reflected in their honesty. This piece is no exception. Mimi's advice is spot-on, whether you’re giving a talk in the near future or simply considering the possibility.

Looking for more public speaking advice? This question sparked one of the best discussions that I’ve seen in a while. Be sure to check it out!

Setting Precise Targets For Your Community Work

Many of my clients struggle to set specific metrics for their teams, instead choosing to create broad goals that don't translate well to specific strategies or proving the value of the team. This blogpost from FeverBee digs into why this "umbrella target" viewpoint is a dangerous way to approach metrics, as it often results in clunky, confusing goals that aren't easily executed. Instead, by focusing on precise targets, teams are able to set specific metrics which will in turn yield the biggest results.

5 Tips on Creating Valuable Community Content

We all know that having a good content strategy can make a big difference in engaging your technical audience, but how do we know what exactly makes content "good"? Sarah Robinson-Yu's latest blogpost walks through 5 different tips on writing successful and engaging content.

Three Levels of Community Skills

So often when we're struggling to build a successful online community, we point to the tools or the processes as the problem rather than looking inward and seeking advice on how to level up our own skills. In this blogpost, Richard Millington talks about how to upgrade your skills as well as the skills of your coworkers in addition to setting expectations for the community members.

You’re Not Alone

Being a one-person DevRel or Community team is a real problem in the tech industry. According to the Community Roundtable's recent research, 34% of community managers are a team of one.

So what do you do when you need additional support? Tirza Austin suggests that we should engage the entire organization. By training your coworkers and showing them how valuable conversations with the community can be, you'll be able to delegate some of your work while at the same time ramping up excitement for community building internally. Read more about how she encourages you to approach these conversations and use them to establish value within your organization.

Tangents 🐰

A Community Approach to Leadership and Teamwork

Over the past decade, we're slowly starting to see the tide shift when it comes to gender representation at events, among speakers as well as attendees. But that shift has taken time and a lot of effort from engaged community members.

This shift has required teamwork and engagement from leadership, and Erica McGillivray encourages us to put our teamwork-building and leadership skills to work solving more of these problems. She gives a powerful call-to-action on her blog this week, ending with this statement:

If we want to solve the major problems of our world — or even execute on large organization projects with goals spanning months or years — teamwork is essential, and every leader must have an understanding of their own teamwork philosophy and how they are socializing this and showing it through their own actions.

Storytime 📚

The Frontier Podcast: Dealing with Information Overload

A few weeks back I mentioned one of our newest sponsors, Gun.io. They're producing a fantastic podcast that releases new episodes several days per week, which means even if you're not interested in the latest topic, there's sure to be something else that will catch your eye.

One of the more recent episodes was full of great advice for those of us who are constantly absorbing information, whether from in-person conversations, online forums, or day-to-day communications. Priyanka Sharma suggests having a brain trust of people who share information so that you can ensure you're not falling behind while also not having to consume everything yourself. She focuses her time and energy on one-on-one conversations, choosing key conferences she wants to attend throughout the year and investing her time and brain power into those that will benefit her the most.

Be sure to listen to this episode and subscribe on your favorite podcasting software so you won't miss any of the upcoming interviews!

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

We already have so many great events on the horizon for fall! If you're looking for a conference to attend a little later this year be sure to check out our collection of upcoming events!

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Advocate

Rasa is looking for a passionate developer advocate to join them at their office in San Francisco and help them grow their open source community. The developer relations team at Rasa owns the full funnel from developers first hearing about Rasa to contributing to our open source products and has one simple goal: constantly simplifying the experience with our products so that developers can get started faster, build better AI assistants or contribute to our open source.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

Looking for the next step forward in your career? Check out our collection of over 150 jobs to see if the perfect fit is out there!