DevRel Weekly - Issue 72 - Inclusivity, Advocacy Programs, and Speaking

Welcome! 👋

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope those of you in the States enjoyed the holiday yesterday. Even if your experience was like mine and you weren't able to see any fireworks due to the fog (welcome to summer in San Francisco!), I trust that having the day off provided some much-needed relaxation. I know it did for me.

This week, I'm excited to announce that I have a little more help here in DevRel Weekly land! The wonderful Kate Pond joined the team this week and has already contributed to the newsletter content by pointing me to a fantastic list of speaking resources.

There are a lot of great resources to dig into this week, so I won't take any more of your time here, but as always, if you stumble across good content throughout your week, feel free to send it my way via email or Twitter DMs. I always love learning about new resources!

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

What's the Context?

When developing / refining community strategy, it is critical to understand the larger market and business contexts the community will exist in. This sounds obvious, and yet, the needed research, discussion and development of shared understanding of these contexts rarely happen.

-Structure3C

Be sure to read the rest of the thread here.

Celebrate Even the Smallest Things

Baseball stats. The epitome of celebrating literally the smallest achievement...

"Up to bat is {Player} who hit his first home run June 13."

Only one HR. Almost 200 times at bat. #coolstory

Something there for #cmgr - celebrate even the smallest thing in your community.

-Jeremy Meiss

Is Conference-Driven-Development the Best Way?

Advice for DevRel professionals:

Stop submitting talks about things you want to learn as if Conference Driven Development was healthy for your anxiety.

Build things. Document the process. Formalize what can be abstracted for reuse. Contribute to documentation sites. Write a blog.

Maybe present.

-Bruno Borges

Inclusivity isn't an Agenda

You cannot have a true tech/developer community if there is not an opportunity for everyone who wants a seat at the table to have one. Inclusivity isn’t an agenda, it’s a necessity for flourishing and growth.

-PJ Hagerty

What Should we Actually Know About "Growth"?

So much of what we hear about "growth" these days is contradictory, counterintuitive, or just straight-up confusing. Dan Hockenmaier expanded on 10 of the concepts he has found true in this Twitter thread.

Josh Dzielak reminds us that this is a topic very closely related to DevRel:

Great thread, very relevant to developer relations:

growth loops matter more than the funnel

developers can't advocate until they activate

list out the key milestones of your developer journey

a/b testing is local maximums only

actually talk to your customers 😁

DevRel Advice Column

Olle Pridiuksson has pulled together a Youtube playlist of "Must watch" videos for anyone in DevRel.

Are there any videos on DevRel, DevX, Technical Marketing, or Community Building that you would add? Let him know!

Tangibles 🤓

Principles for Developer Documentation

If you're looking to revamp your documentation, be sure to read this article from Matthew Revell first. The 6 principles he walks through are key to the success of your community as well as your product.

Writing technical content that isn't documentation? There are a few tricks to making it better as well. The 8 tips in this piece from CMSWire may seem obvious, but if you don't have these foundational pieces in place, you may not be serving your community with the content you're producing.

How to Select Members for Your Community Launch

Let's say you want to build a community and you already have a handful of community members who might be a good fit. How do you know who to invite to be founding members? Carrie Melissa Jones walks through how to select members for your community launch in this blogpost, focusing on potential member's behaviors, attitudes, and skills.

If you're still building the foundation of your program, check out this article from Tessa Kriesel. In it, Tessa walks through the steps that she took at Pantheon to build out a successful advocacy program, starting with why it was a good idea for their community.

Surveys: Results and Requests

This is the season for surveys! CMX launched their survey this week, focusing specifically on how businesses are measuring and valuing community programs. Please take a few moments to share your experiences.

The Australian Community Managers network released their findings this week, having surveyed 150 community professionals in Australia. As Venessa Paech says,

ACM 2019 findings reveal an industry with much room to grow, a disconnect between community professionals and platform providers, and a persistent misunderstanding and devaluing of community management practice.

Be sure to check out the full report.

Speaking Tips & Tricks

I can tell we're getting close to conference season based on the sheer number of speaking tips & tricks articles that I've been coming across these past few weeks! I'll be updating the Best Practices: Speaking post in Patreon over this next week with the best articles, but in the meantime, here are two that I've come across this week:

Train the Trainer! A Collection of 50 Blog Posts. Thanks to my new content manager Kate Pond for finding this post! It's chock-full of amazing advice, from how to handle projector issues to the best way to display charts and everything in between. Be sure to set some time aside to dig in.
Marc DiPasquale recently gave his first public presentation (congrats! 🎉) and took the time to write up a few lessons learned. There are some gems in here, like remembering to pause and think rather than rushing through your content, as well as skipping Q&A if you're not comfortable with it. Whether you're a first time speaker or a seasoned veteran, there's something in here for everyone.

Building Blocks for an Innovative and Inclusive Developer Community

As PJ Hagerty said in the tweet I quoted early in the newsletter, inclusivity isn't an agenda, it's a necessary part of a successful community. Few people are more qualified to talk about that topic than Listen Community Consulting's SJ Morris, who has spent years building inclusive developer communities.

In this new blogpost, SJ talks about what needs to be considered in order for a growing company to foster an inclusive community.

Another part of creating a diverse community is having a diverse Developer Relations team. After all, how else are we supposed to relate to our community? Jen Sable Lopez tackled this topic at the recent DevRelCon SF. Be sure to set aside some time to watch her talk or read the transcript this week.

Tangents 🐰

Saving Community from Technology

I found this article by Henry Mintzberg thanks to the ESNchat conversation that I mention in the Storytime category below.

It's a fascinating and sobering article about how technology has changed our view of and engagement with communities. But before you nod and say "yep, our phones and laptops have really changed us!" have you ever thought about the invention of the wheel allowed us to drive away from each other? Trust me... you'll want to read this.

Storytime 📚

Winning in a New Industry with Best Practices From Another Sector

What happens when two unexpected industries intersect? Dave Ugan spent years bringing UX, CX, and technology concepts to the end-of-life (aka funeral) industry. From finding your core audience (no matter how small!) who is excited about your product and turning them into ambassadors, to iterating based on (not-so-fun) feedback, there are so many principles in this episode of The Frontier Podcast that apply to DevRel.

Thanks to Gun.io for their sponsorship of DevRel Weekly! Be sure to check out the rest of their episodes and subscribe today.

#ESNchat: State of Community Management 2019

ESNchat hosted a fantastic conversation with Rachel Happe last week, covering a number of questions around the state of community management. When you have a moment, check out the full conversation to hear about how community professionals think the industry has evolved over the last decade, how to address the lack of business skills, and more.

Here are a few highlights:

I think over the last decade the idea has gained traction that communities can actually be consciously constructed and managed. Before that there was a general feeling that they just kinda happened (or didn't). #ESNchat

-Dennis Pearce

Community managers are the ultimate dot connectors! Always on the lookout for opportunities to bring people together to enable business progress. Helicoptering up, surveying the landscape and working out where to spend your time/energy collaborating is a great skill. #ESNchat

-Rita Zonius

Business skills can be acquired in a variety of ways

Training, hiring, or partnering. Some of the best approaches have been amazing community strategist/program owner pairings. Find a friend in finance. Find a friend in legal. Find a friend in the business.

-Rachel Happe

After Pulse: Video Content 101

If you're interested in building out video content for your team, you won't want to miss this conversation that Jason Hand and I had with Dan Thomas on Community Pulse.

This week in the After Pulse, Jason and I took the time to talk about how to balance the content we create for our personal brand in addition to our company. We also touch on the importance of producing content that’s specific to your learning style even if that topic has already been covered, because other folks likely learn the same way you do.

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

I don't know about you but something about events motivates me. When I look at my calendar and see all the awesome events I have lined up for the summer I get energized, I pull out my to-do list, and I get stuff done! I love that surge of energy and I put it to good use. What about you, are you being energized by any events this summer? If not, it's not too late. Check out our list of upcoming events and find something that inspires you.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Developer Relations Jobs

Looking for a change of pace? Take a look at our collection of open positions that are just waiting for the right candidate!