DevRel Weekly - Issue 86 - A Plethora of Resources on DevEx, Communication, and More

Welcome! 👋

If you're opening up this issue of DevRel Weekly and only have a few minutes to delve into resources right now, do yourself a favor and put some time on your calendar to come back to it later this week, because there's just so much good information this week!

We talk about the importance of connecting community activity to customer data and how to build a smooth runway for your community to take flight. We also take a crash course in developer experience and communication theories that can influence our community building. Buckle up and enjoy the resources!

Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon

Tidbits 🕔

DevRel Advice Column

There are some great questions popping up from the community this week! Take a few minutes to help out your DevRel colleagues.

Dev Rel Twitter - I need your help. I'm new to this field and I need to start working on my career development plan. What are some good goals for year one in this field?

-Joe Karlsson

Hey avocados! What internet plans do you use when you are traveling abroad (outside of EU and US)? Are you using any of those devices which "huge" coverage like Skyroam?

-Denis Rosa

Writers, have you always liked writing? If not, why didn't you, and how did you learn to like it?

-Kate Pond

What does it take to do social media well for #developer communities? #devrel

-Matthew Revell

Connecting Community Activity to Customer Data: Do It.

I couldn't agree more strongly with this assertion from David Spinks:

A lot of problems go away when you can connect community activity (attendees offline, active users online) to customer data (revenue & retention).

That means you need a CRM and your community software needs to connect to it.

Only 1/3 of community teams can currently do this.

This is a point I've been doubling down on with all of my clients. We need to document interactions with community members. It's not "gross" -- it's necessary for our teams to be successful. How else are we going to prove our value?

In addition, it's helpful for remembering where we met people, what their hobbies are, and who exactly lives in Chicago, programs in Python, and enjoys public speaking for when we need to recommend a community speaker to a meetup. We suddenly don't have to keep all of that information in our heads, which frees us up to focus on other tasks, and allows us to delegate the finding of said speakers to others on our team.

Bonus: When you leave your team (as most of us eventually do), you won't be leaving them in the lurch. Instead of you holding all of the community relationships in your head, they've been building relationships with those community members right alongside you and they have all of the history to back it up while you're moving on to your next big gig.

Burnout is Caused by Imbalance

“Burnout results when the balance of deadlines, demands, working hours, and other stressors is greater than rewards, recognition, and relaxation.” -- @dparzych

This one quote captures it all.

-David G. Simmons

Developer Communities are Necessary

From the Devada State of the Developer Report:

Nearly all (94%) of the developers say they are active in at least one dev community

88% expect the vendors of products they use to offer an online community

Community is non-negotiable for dev tools.

-David Spinks

Why is Community a Mystery?

Community is only a mystery to those that don't understand the work that goes into building great relationships.

-Rachel Happe

Tangibles 🤓

Going Offline

In an industry where we're constantly taking advantage of the fact that the internet brings people together, it's easy to forget just how valuable offline interactions are. You know... meeting people "IRL." Erica Kuhl reminds us of the importance of these in-person interactions in a recent blogpost:

What I love about offline community programs more than anything is that it creates a safe and trusted place to create a sense of belonging and family no matter what industry, product or service!

3 Communication Theories for Online Community Builders

If you're like me, you love digging into theories that help explain why things happen a particular way. I often get lost in articles that give me a new perspective or provide a lightbulb moment. Nothing makes me more motivated than finding new ideas to explore and methods to try. Carrie Melissa Jones digs into 3 communication theories this week, helping us understand how these theories may change the way that we approach online communities.

As she says, these theories "give us a lens through which we can view a phenomenon in our community, explain it, and design communities more thoughtfully." So put on your reading glasses, grab your favorite studying beverage, and settle in for an educational journey.

The Community Runway

In order to launch a successful community program, you need a smooth runway. How do we build that runway? Communicate, communicate, communicate. Richard Millington addresses how to set your plan up for success in this short blogpost. TL;DR: Don't underestimate the amount of time needed to lengthen and smooth the runway so that you've got the momentum (and internal support) needed to launch a successful program.

The Community's Favorite Resources

Looking for resources on community building? Apparently all you need to do is tweet that there aren’t any 😅 Community builders came out of the woodwork to show Naval that while we’re always hungry for more, resources do exist and we’re building a smoother path for the next generation of community professionals! Click through to peruse the list of books, articles, and experts.

How To Maximize Value at Tech Conferences (as an Introvert)

As more DevRel professionals admit that they're (sometimes extroverted) introverts, more of us are realizing that navigating conferences is draining, and we need tools to get value out of these events. Kim Maida put together a list of tips that might be handy to keep close as you finish out this conference season and prepare for 2020.

Tangents 🐰

Developer Experience Crash Course

Want a crash course in Developer Experience? Check out this thread from Mateus Malaquias with links to articles, ebooks, and more.

Storytime 📚

DevRel Podcasts

Community Leadership is Unevenly Distributed with Marjorie Anderson - Conversations with Community Members
The 3 P’s of Community with Adam Fry-Pierce and Mike Davidson - Better Product
After Pulse: Audience Segmentation with PJ Hagerty and Mary Thengvall - Community Pulse
Why to run or NOT run a hackathon with Shaharris - Under the Hood of Developer Marketing
Why Demographics are Broken and Values Are the Future of Data with David Allison - Association Chat Podcast
Attention Verizon Media: Yahoo Groups Deserves Better with Susan Kang and Deane Rimerman - Community Signal

Events 📆

DevRel Events

Still looking for ways to use up your professional development budget before the end of the year? There are a number of conferences happening between now and the end of December -- check out our collection to see if there's anything that piques your interest.

Feeling sad about all of the conferences you've missed lately? Don't forget about this collection of conference talks and recaps.

And if you're already looking forward to next year, be sure to submit to the DevRelCon Tokyo CFP which is open through Nov 15! They're looking for talks about Open Source, Community, Developer Marketing, DevRel Team Management, and more.

Jobs 👩‍💻

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.

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

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

Looking to change your career in the near future? We've been curating jobs for you to make the leap just a little easier. From Entry-Level to Senior Management, there's something for everyone.