Issue 77

Welcome! 👋

hi everyone! I'm back after two weeks of both my pup and I being under the weather (hence the skip week last week). I'm pleased to say we're both on the mend and getting up to speed with our various tasks!

We've got a few DevRel Weekly sponsors that I'd like to highlight before I let you dive into all of the great content.

If you're hunting for a new job and looking to take a step slightly outside of DevRel, this Developer Experience Product Management job from InterSystems might be a good place to start! I've been privy to a lot of conversations about what to do post-DevRel lately, so this role is particularly fascinating to me. Stay tuned for a Community Pulse episode about this topic as well.
Frontier Podcast is back with another fantastic episode, this time focusing on event organization.
Lastly, CMX Summit has graciously extended a 15% off discount code for any DevRel Weekly readers. Just use devrel-is-great at checkout. I hope to see you there!

With that, let's dive into the content...

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

DevRel Advice Column

Engineers / dev advocates who do conference speaking, do y’all have resources about measuring ROI on your public speaking engagements?

-Amy Chen

Good, affordable mic for podcasting? I've been reading a few blog posts and I'm feeling more confused than anything. So many options. I don't need a Rolls Royce, just something that does the job without breaking the bank.

-Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Anyone have any examples of cool API stickers for a company or a brand or a project?

-Jeremy Meiss

Documentation 101

Me until I'm dead:
Developers are, at best, going to skim your documentation unless they have hit a problem, in which case they are going to switch to frustrated/frantic skimming.

This is why your documentation has to be extra clear and inviting.

-Amara Graham

Detailed Documentation is key to developer experience. Never assume the developer using your api is very experienced. Make it beginner-friendly.

-Jonddon

Advocate vs. Evangelist vs. Community Manager

There's been a lot of talk about Developer Relations titles lately and there are 3 great Twitter commentaries about it this week:

Tierney Cyren explains why he's an advocate, not an evangelist, and what each means to him.
Josh Dzielak continues the conversation, emphasizing the difference in day-to-day work and how to know whether you're more focused on evangelism (product) or advocacy (people).
Wildaxt hypothesizes why there are so many different tips for community managers, many of which are broad strokes of ideas instead of specific concepts to be implemented.

Curation, Connection, Repetition

Community building comes down to three things:

Curation - choose people who want and need to be there

Connection - make them feel included and valued

Repetition - do it consistently

-David Spinks

Setting Boundaries is OK.

Bruno Borges points us toward this recent article in HBR, which includes this quote from Dr. Edward Ellison:

If you are so inspired to do what you do, then you’re not necessarily good at setting boundaries. We need to teach people that setting boundaries is OK. It’s not selfish. It’s actually selfless. It allows you to be more effective at what you do, and to better [help] those you wish to serve.

As a group of people who tend to be passionate about our jobs, it's important to remember to set boundaries early and often.

Tangibles 🤓

How I Help Devs Write for the Company Blog

Finding enough technical content to fill your company blog without writing non-stop is no easy task! But working with your engineering team to write content isn't a walk in the park either. Lucky for us, Ioana Budai wrote a fantastic piece about her journey of helping developers write for the company blog.

How To Write Community Guidelines

Too many companies set up an online community without first establishing community guidelines. I'm not just talking about a Code of Conduct (though that is necessary as well!). These guidelines help people understand the purpose of the group, as well as what they can expect as a result of their involvement. Carrie Melissa Jones wrote a great article about how to structure these guidelines -- be sure to take a look if you're venturing into an online community initiative!

Still need some convincing about why community guidelines are necessary? Check out this piece from Sarah Robinson-Yu.

Documentation 201

There have been so many great articles about documentation lately! Here are a few of my favorites:

Where the Wild Docs Are by Taylor Barnett - Where should open source documentation live?
How Your Audience Changes Your API Developer Experience by Maggie Summers - How your docs should change depending on your audience.
Documentation is Key for Inclusion by Yasmary Diaz - Documentation helps to rebalance the power deficit, because knowledge is power.

Closing the Feedback Loop from the Customer

Product feedback is one of the most frequently referenced types of DevRel Qualified Leads. Jessica Kerr understands the value of closing this feedback loop, and in a recent article, explains why Developer Advocates are the chosen role for completing this loop in B2D companies.

Storytime 📚

Organizing a Tech Conference: Advice from the Pros

Sarah Withee and Colin Dean join Ledge in this recent episode of Frontier Podcast. The advice that they give about event organization is evergreen, but the fact that they're talking about Abstractions, which Rain Leander and I will be speaking at next week, made this episode particularly awesome! Be sure to check it out and I hope to see you there.

DevRel Podcasts

Moving Day: What Happens When it's Time to Change Companies? with Alyss Noland and Joel Lord - Community Pulse
Heather Champ and the Biggest Threats to Great Online Communities - Community Signal
The State of Community and Its Role in Society - Association Chat Podcast
Establishing Your Personal Brand with Cassidy Williams - Chats with Kent C. Dodds
Deepica Mutyala: ON Entrepreneurship and How To Quit Your Job To Pursue Your Dreams - On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Imposter Syndrome - Ladybug Podcast

Events 📆

CMX Summit 2019

Over 2 days, CMX Summit will expand discussions, techniques, and tactics applied to community building for businesses and support communities and their CEOs, CMOs, and builders at scale. (That’s you!) You’ll gain insights from the best in the industry and make lifelong friends.

Get amazing insights from speakers like Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor and Nick Mehta, CEO at Gainsight. And don’t forget to network with other community builders!

Events 📆

Developer Relations Events

Meetups, webinars, and conferences... they're all coming your way! 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.

Interested in speaking at DevRelCon London Dec 10-11? The CFP is still open.

Also, props to the DevRel Japan events team! Their tweets have been flooding my searches recently and while Twitter's translation tool isn't always the most helpful, I'm excited to see the enthusiasm and interest in DevRel and developer communities in Japan.

Lastly, if you're looking to build an events community, be sure to check out this recent post from the CMX Connect London team, who share tips on how they've maintained momentum with their local in-person community.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Product Manager - Developer Experience

Making developers successful is key to creating platforms that have long-lasting impact. As the Product Manager for Developer Experience, you'll help build InterSystems into the first choice for developers building massively scalable, interoperable, analytic applications. This is an exciting opportunity to act as the key connection between developers and the rest of the team, responsible for creating and executing the vision InterSystems’ developer experience. You'll work closely with multiple groups in the company to define the vision, identify opportunities, and drive impact for both developers and InterSystems. The ideal candidate has a solid understanding of software developer needs, strong cross-functional and communication skills, and good instincts for balancing process vs value.

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 over 175 listings and it will likely grow even bigger by the end of the week!