DevRel Weekly - Issue 81 - Conference Recaps, Securing Executive Buy-in, and Giving Back to the Community

Welcome! 👋

This has been a busy week in DevRel Weekly land! Between CMX Summit and DevRel/Japan, Twitter was buzzing with observations about community building from around the world.

In addition, folks were busy writing up fantastic content, including tips on how to secure executive buy-in for your strategy and how to ramp up your speaking abilities, in addition to what a day in the life of a DevRel professional can look like.

Before I let you dig into all of this awesome content, there are two slightly off-topic items that I want to make sure you don't miss:

First, I've been following along with the work that Krunch Data has been doing over the last few months and I have to say, I'm incredibly excited about the beta launch of this product! It has the potential to drastically improve the landscape of metrics within DevRel teams. They posted a sneak peek of their work on Twitter this week, and I'm excited to see what happens next.

Second, there's a fantastic Kickstarter that's almost reached its goal (and its deadline). Kara Carrell is creating a "Non-binary Folks in Tech Zine" that highlights the integral work that they're doing all across the tech landscape. Help fund the Kickstarter and spread the word to your tech friends before it ends on Sept 21. Thanks to Andy Tuba for making me aware of this opportunity!

Lastly, there was a typo in last week's newsletter when I accidentally typed "rabbit" instead of "rabbi" in the list of recent DevRel conference talks. I've confirmed with Ben that his background was not, indeed, as a rabbit, but in fact, as a rabbi. My sincere apologies for the typo.

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

DevRel Advice Column

Looking for tools to efficiently monitor community activity for keywords / brands / etc. on non-traditional social channels like StackOverflow, Reddit, Twitter, Quora, etc. similar to Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, a Python Script, etc. Any others I should evaluate? #devrel

-Jayson DeLancey

Where to host an online tech community?
Slack?
Discord?
Discourse?

-Julián Duque

Community is a Long Game

Building community around your brand is a long-term play.

If you can’t commit to it for at least 12 months, don’t even start.

-David Spinks

Help Others Be Successful, No Matter the Tool

As a developer advocate, the main goal should be helping others be successful in whatever they are working on. Sometimes that might be adopting the technology you are advocating for, and sometimes it might mean pointing them to a different solution that fits their needs better.

-Kurt Kemple

Working Together Builds Camaraderie

I think #devrel teams should intentionally pair up teammates to work conferences together. It's such an effective way to get to know your colleagues and build shared experiences.

-Ben Greenberg

No Strings Attached

If you've ever been concerned about the implication of speaking on behalf of your company, this discussion led by Tierney Cyren might be of interest! In it, he explores the difference between selling a product (not his job) and providing the best solution for the community member (what he strives to do).

Thanks to Justin Garrison for tipping me off to this conversation.

Don't Self-Select. Be Bold!

Don't self select out of things you want to do.

Apply to the job, submit to the CFP, submit that PR.

Let them tell you it's not a good fit. You never know, they might say yes!

-Laurie Barth

Tangibles 🤓

The Differences Between a Social Media and Community Manager

Continuing the ever-present theme of defining roles within Developer Relations, Nicole Schuman has written a fantastic article laying out the key differences between Community Managers and Social Media Managers with regard to voice, content, analytics, and event management.

Get the Context In The Question, Not The Answer

One of the most tedious parts of maintaining an online forum is making sure you have all of the proper information to address the question your community member is truly asking. In this blogpost, Richard Millington explains why getting context early on by encouraging community members to include all relevant information in the initial question can lead to an easier job for you as well as a more welcoming community.

How I Went from 0 to 10 Conferences

Whether you're a relatively new speaker or simply looking to improve your speaking and CFP skills, this article from Michelle Brenner is a goldmine of helpful tips. From volunteering at a local conference to judging CFP submissions and putting your audience first, Michelle's tips are all spot on.

P.s. If you're planning to be at Grace Hopper Celebration, she'd love to chat! Be sure to reach out.

How To Secure Executive Buy-In

One of the most difficult parts of implementing a Developer Relations strategy is securing buy-in from stakeholders. This buy-in grants autonomy, authority, and the holy grail: additional resources. But how do we achieve it? Sarah Robinson-Yu shares her personal experience and offers suggestions in this incredibly helpful blogpost.

A Day in the Glamorous Life of a Developer Advocate

If you've ever found yourself needing to explain to friends, coworkers, or family members that #DevRelLife isn't glamorous, despite the world travel, Alex Lakatos understands completely. He recently chronicled a "day in the life" via Twitter thread which then turned into a blogpost which detailed the ins and outs of events and traveling according to Nexmo. He also takes the time to explain a little bit more about what a Developer Advocate role looks like on a practical basis as it traverses Product, Engineering, Education and Community.

Tangents 🐰

The Power of Community in Organizations

Those of you who are new to DevRel Weekly may not know that I typically end my summer with a week in the Nevada desert, enjoying artwork from 70,000 individuals and engaging with one of the most welcoming communities I've ever known. I didn't attend this year, but this piece from Aly Owens resonated with me as a result! In it, she draws comparisons between the community present at Burning Man and communities built by enterprises.

She ends the article by focusing on two things that an enterprise should focus on to create a strong sense of community, and I couldn't agree more.

1) Focus on people.
2) Empower the people.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts

From online platforms to inclusive docs to the age-old question of "What Is DevRel" and "What do you do?" there's something for everyone in this week's collection of podcast episodes.

Completing a Smooth Community Platform Migration with Lisa Allison - Conversations with Community Managers
What is a Developer Advocate? with Aman Alam - $AION interview series
How to Write Inclusive Tech Documentation with Lucie Le Naour - Write the Docs
Beyond the Title with Brian Douglas - Revision Path

Events 📆

Future Developer Summit 2019

How do you build a developer program from scratch? How do you hire your first 5 people in DevRel? Join 80 Director/VP/GM-level thought leaders at Future Developer Summit 2019 as they get together to debate best practices, learn and design better developer strategies and share their experiences.

Events 📆

DevRel / Japan Conference Recap

After realizing that we were inundated with over 1400 additional tweets this week as a result of DevRel/Japan (WOW!), Kate reached out to the organizers to get a recap. Their biggest takeaway was learning from DevRel case studies in a variety of companies and communities.

In their own words:

DevRel/Japan Conference was happening on the 7th September in Tokyo! The conference was hugely successful, we got 100+ attendees, 1400+ tweets! The highlight of the event was that 16% of attendees were management level, we could reach out to those people that we cannot talk at general meetups. Next DevRel Conference in Japan is happening on the 29th February 2020, DevRelCon Tokyo! We are waiting for your CFPs/RSVPs. Thanks!

2019年9月7日に東京で開催されたDevRel/Japan Conference 2019は、参加者数100名超、ツイート数が1400を超え、オンラインでもオフラインでも大きく盛り上がりました。経営層の参加が16%と高い数値を出しており、普段のミートアップには参加しない層にアプローチできるのもカンファレンスならではであると感じました。日本のDevRel関連のイベントとして、来年の2月29日にDevRelCon Tokyo 2020が開催予定です。

Stay tuned for more information about the 2020 event, coming soon!

CMX Summit Recap

Per usual, I took notes from the talks I attended at CMX Summit in the form of Twitter threads. I've collected these threads in a moment for your browsing pleasure. Just click through on the first tweet to see the full thread from each talk. Want more CMX Summit goodness? Peruse the conference hashtag.

Developer Relations Events

Kate here: One of my favorite things about the DevRel community is that although we all help so many different communities, we still have events that help us care for our community, and this makes us better at what we do. It just feels all so meta. I love it.

Check out the events that are still coming this year by digging into the DevRel Events collection.

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 👩‍💻

DevRel Jobs

Does the question, 'Who do you work for?' got you and/or your DevRel friends down? Don't despair; our DevRel Weekly collection has jobs from all over the internet for you to look at. (Hopefully, that didn't sound too much like sales. 😉 We just hope that the collection is helpful.)