DevRel Weekly - Issue 84 - Words Matter in a Burgeoning Industry

Welcome! 👋

Happy end to another week, DevRel friends! I hope your week was exciting, enjoyable, and altogether not too stressful. I'm coming at you with more great content this week, including how DevRel is not the same industry as Developer Marketing.

This is one of many confusing areas (including job titles, team names, and technical/non-technical requirements, among others) where terms have become conflated. As we continue to standardize DevRel practices in our still-emerging industry, it's important to remember that the words we use are important. Making sure that everyone in your company is on the same page about your team and the value you provide is an important step in ensuring your success within the organization.

One quick thing before I let you start clicking away: Kate and I will be working on the next "Best Of" issues in the coming weeks and I'd love to hear what topics you're most interested in learning more about. My inbox is open as always! Hope to hear from you soon.

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

Taking Care of Ourselves

Casper ter Kuile posted this simple statement on Twitter this week:

Reminder: we each give to the world what we most need ourselves.

I stumbled across it thanks to Fabian Pfortmüller who put it in perspective for community professionals:

I noticed this to be especially true for community weavers (often helping others with community, but without experiencing strong community themselves)

I've talked about the struggle I have with this "personal community IRL" idea in the newsletter before, as well as on the Community Pulse. Almost all of my "call in case of emergency" friends are spread around the globe due to the sometimes nomadic nature of DevRel. Real Talk: That can be rough on your heart. Make sure you're taking care of yourself along with the rest of your community!

The Difference Between Networks & Communities

Networks are connections whether they be sought out or imposed on us, personally meaningful or not. Communities are groups we choose to engage in on an ongoing basis because of a shared purpose or need. I don't consider one as necessarily a subset of the other.

-Jeff Ross

DevRel Advice Column

Here's your chance to give back to your fellow DevRel professionals this week. Can you add to these discussions? Click through to share your thoughts about metrics, revamping programs, and more.

Which activity do you find the most difficult 👻to show your impact? And Why? 🤔

-Krunch

Our internal help community is due a major revamp. Would any of my #cmgr connections be open to sharing their help community with me? What works? How is your help community used? Do folks bother with the help content or they just ask the question anyway?

-Dina Vekaria-Patel

Tangibles 🤓

Building Your Playbook - #ESNChat

Building a playbook is an important part of creating a successful DevRel team. It not only allows you to easily onboard new teammates, but also serves as a tangible illustration of just how much work you're doing on a regular basis as well as what could possibly be moved off of your plate. In some cases, it can even lead to acquiring headcount! This was the topic of conversation for the most recent #ESNChat. Follow along with the questions and subsequent discussions on Wakelet.

True Communities Store Memories, Not Knowledge

I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes a community "real" -- what are the different factors that make up the best communities, and why do we consider them to be the best? This article from Vinh Jones is a fascinating look at this question. He walks through his experiences building the community at Jive and how everything, from email exchanges with customers to documentation of work, was documented on their internal wiki. He closes with a few thoughts that hit home for me:

In its rawest and purest form, an online community is an avenue for a group of individuals to share information and opinions when they otherwise may never connect. Communities benefit greatly from a network effect: The value of the community itself increases as more actively participate in the community.

The true differentiating value of an online community is the ability to democratize collaboration and etch the most insightful and valuable contributions into digital memory.

Developer Relations and Developer Marketing…they aren’t the same thing

Marketing comes under fire all too often from DevRel and Engineering alike, but PJ Hagerty made a succinct observation this week: DevRel and Dev Marketing both have a place in B2D (Business to Developer) companies, but they are not the same function.

The people who know how to reach out to markets and create sales in technology are working hard to bring the bottom line under control and keep things in the perspectives of product. There is nothing nefarious or negligent about these ideas. Marketing has a purpose: catching the eye of potential buyers, consumers, clients, or users.

At the end of the day, here's what it boils down to:

A DevRel team does not and should not have the same aim as a Marketing team.

Acing the DevRel Interview

"How should I prepare for a DevRel interview?" is a fairly common question. After all, it's still a fairly new role in the scheme of things, and every company seems to handle it differently. But after conducting 100 DevRel interviews at Google, Aja Hammerly stepped forward to offer some helpful insights on how to ace your interview.

Looking for more information on how to launch your Developer Advocate career? Geertjan Wielenga recently released Developer, Advocate!. Read excerpts from a few of the interviews to learn more about how people got involved in Developer Relations.

Tangents 🐰

Open Source: From Community to Commercialization

For those of you involved in open source projects or working for open source products, this article from Peter Levine walks through the changes that open source has gone through over the years and what's needed to ensure its success in the future. I'm sure it will be no surprise to hear that community building is a core piece of this!

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts

Engaging Audience Using Humour with Martin Splitt - Technically True
People-First Community Strategy with Traci Cappiello - Conversations with Community Managers
How Communities Can Supercharge Your Business, Brand, and Teams with Jono Bacon - Culture Eats Strategy

Events 📆

DevRel 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.

Jobs 👩‍💻

Technical Developer Evangelist

Testim uses artificial intelligence to speed-up the authoring, execution, and maintenance of automated tests. Here's a note from their Head of Marketing, Francis Adanza, about an exciting job opportunity:

Hello Folks, we're looking for a Technical Developer Evangelist to join our team. If you like to code as well as talk about it, then we should chat. Learn more about Testim and the role here or feel free to contact me directly!

Developer Advocate Manager

We are looking for a Developer Advocate Manager that will join the Developer Experience (DX) team in Stockholm. You will be responsible for managing our team of Developer Advocates, including supporting their career growth, and driving Spotify’s developer relations strategy.

Senior Developer Evangelist

Hasura is an open source project at the intersection of the GraphQL and cloud-native movements and empowers developers to build powerful and scalable applications easily. We're looking for a developer advocate based in San Francisco/ Bay Area to help developers who are using or interested in GraphQL & Hasura to achieve success with these technologies. Our idea candidate is someone well versed with application development, who loves to explain technical concepts in creative ways and most importantly is an empathetic individual, who listens to developers and is able to provide actionable input to the product & marketing teams.

Jobs 👩‍💻

DevRel 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 Collections now have almost 200 listings from entry-level to senior management. Be sure to check out the job openings from our sponsors, Spotify, Hasura, and Testim as well, and best of luck on your job hunt!