Welcome! 👋
Happy DevRel Weekly Day, everyone! How are you doing?
I've been making a bigger effort to check in on friends, coworkers, and community members lately. I know plans have shifted for many of us in the past few weeks and while some of us thrive when working from home, it's been a real struggle for others. Be sure to check in with those you're in contact with, and if you need someone to chat with, don't hesitate to reach out. We're all in this together.
Without further ado... let's dive into the great content from this week.
Best,
Mary (@mary_grace)
DevRel Weekly Patreon
Tidbits 🕔
Collaboration is Key
twitter.comIf you’re in DevRel and your company only allows you to talk about, collaborate on, or work on their own tech, your management is toxic.
Characteristics of Community Professionals
Great community professionals
- Engage strategically
- Motivate intrinsically
- Moderate holistically
- Leverage ethically
- Act as example
Tangibles 🤓
Adjusting, Adapting, Accommodating
As we're all adjusting to this new (hopefully temporary) normal, there are a number of new resources that have come out this past week. I'm continuing to maintain the various Toby Collections that I first shared last week, touching on DevRel-specific topics as well as remote work and hosting online events.
In addition, there are a few posts that I want to call out specifically:
- Grounded, DevRel Teams Look to Nurture Communities Online - Jennifer Riggins explores how DevRel is pivoting to online-first communities and what this might mean for the industry as a whole.
- The Power of Online Community Forums When The World Changes - Adrian Speyer talks through some of the challenges we're facing as well as the lessons we can take away from this experience.
- The Value of Communities During the COVID-19 Crisis - Rachel Happe dives into the value of communities during a crisis and how online communities are uniquely equipped to respond quickly and efficiently.
- The Holloway Guide to Remote Work - While this is a paid piece of content ($35 currently), the content included inside is well worth your money. It's a veritable treasure trove of information that's applicable no matter your company size or prior experience.
Lastly, if you have a spare 20 minutes this weekend, I'd encourage you to participate in this research project. Dr. N. P. Leander is crowdsourcing data about community engagement in a psychology study that can be integrated with virus spread data. For obvious reasons, I think we're uniquely qualified to participate.
thenewstack.io
Introducing the Orbit Model Airtable Template
I've mentioned the Orbit Model a few times previously, but this latest announcement has me particularly excited. They've revamped their GitHub repo and created an Airtable template for tracking community member's activities and calculating metrics for where your members fall within the orbit of your product. One of my goals for Q2 2020 is to dig into their resources and combine the Orbit Model with my DevRel Qualified Leads to start building a map of Camunda community members. I'd love to see how you're implementing these ideas as well!
orbit.love
How Flutter transformed the DX (Developer Experience)
If you're looking for a good case study about a product that has created a phenomenal developer experience, this post about Flutter's easy onboarding with screenshots of how they've set developers up for success. They list a variety of tools as well as tips on how they've accomplished this within their platform.
medium.com
People Trust the People They Know
This article from Lauren Hug manages to encapsulate something that so many of us who are DevRel professionals know inherently: People trust people they know. This concept is the crux of why building relationships and providing trustworthy information is such an integral part of building a successful product and the examples she gives set a solid foundation for building a business case for investing in community more heavily at our various companies.
medium.com
Tangents 🐰
Content is the New PR . . . and other stories you may have heard
With more conferences being canceled, postponed, or moved online, many of us feel like we're suddenly gaining time to focus on other activities, including content. As we evaluate what that content looks like, I'd encourage you to take a moment to engage with your communities to find out what's important to them right now. After all, their interests and needs might look different right now as well. By re-evaluating their needs, we can better serve them by contributing value.
This blogpost from Tami Belt gives some great tips on how to hone in on what questions your community is actually asking and build a communications plan that will last far beyond the next few months.
medium.com
Storytime 📚
DevRel Podcast: The Ethical DevRel
Events have a code of conduct. Projects often have rules of behavior for those who participate. There are expected rules we follow when creating content, from adhering to MLA style to ensuring ideas are delivered in a succinct way with value to the consumer. But when it comes to DevRel, there is no specific rule set or guidelines for practitioners. Beyond the external rules we need to follow as generally good humans, there is nothing to show how to be an ethical DevRel practitioner. So where does that leave us? Coraline Ada Ehmke and Don Goodman-Wilson join the hosts of Community Pulse to discuss this difficult topic.
communitypulse.io
Events 📆
DevRel Events
Looking for a place to connect with others who are doing what you do? There are a handful of DevRel and community building events coming up soon that have moved online. Be sure to stay connected to those who build you up during this time of chaos.
gettoby.com
Jobs 👩💻
Developer Relations Jobs
Sometimes looking for job openings can feel like trying to find Waldo. If you want to find the right Waldo, you have to know what you're looking for. Find your Waldo or find out what you're looking for by taking a look at the Developer Relations Jobs Toby Collection.
gettoby.com