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Discussion on: AMA, Sam 10-yr Googler in Web DevRel

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hem profile image
Hem

Hi Sam,

We are aspiring to build a strong developer community for our SaaS product. Our product has a marketplace where the apps are developed using the platform features & we are expecting 3x growth in no. of apps. (one of the primary metrics from our perspective). Currently, the engagement with developers is at its nascent stage.

  1. What do you think should be the approach of DevRel and key aspects that should be focused at this point ?

  2. What are the top 5 things that you would recommend to do in the short term? Say in 6 months to ensure strong developer engagement & enable them to build high-quality apps ?

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samthor profile image
Sam Thorogood

It's not five things, but some general DevRel advice I've learned over the years:

  • make sure the sample code (or whatever) to use your platform is well-written and polished—99% of devs will copy and paste it to create their experience

  • be your zeroth customer—constantly ensure your onboarding experience works well and try to look at it from different levels of experience

  • what 'community' means is different to everyone (mailing list, public chat, GitHub issues... ?), but make sure you have one, and code samples/answers are well-indexed so when folks search, they can get their answers easily!