DevRel 101: The What & Why

Outline

• Introduction
• Developer Relations
• High Risk, High Rewards
• Not Just Content
• Conclusion

Introduction

In this article, I am going to talk about DevRel and what it really is. And the reason for that is that DevRel is actually new and young to the point where different people think it is different things and implicit. So what I want to get you to understand in this article is what I see what DevRel actually is.

About Developer Relations

DevRel is Developer Relations. It is about relationships with developers. This point needs to be heard, cemented, absorbed and believed. It is about Developer Relationships. What this tells you is that it is not about sales, it is not about marketing, it is not about promoting or demoing your product so people will adopt it. But it is about Developer Relationships. DevRel is about talking to, and investing in developers. It is about getting to know and listening to them, how they build software etc. Another way of saying this which I want you to take note is; It is all about “DevRel” and not “DevSell”. So, If sales numbers for the company you work for aren’t going up from DevRel, they should hire a sales team. If marketing branding isn’t what they want it to be, they should hire a marketing team. DevRel can work with these departments (sales and marketing), sharing the data from their relationships from developers because they deeply know and understand their developers to help them. Simply, the role of DevRel is to know, love, serve and understand developers and then take that knowledge and understanding from these high quality relationships and use it internally to fuel, motivate and influence other organisations towards the benefits of developers.

High Risk, High Rewards

DevRel is high risk, high reward. According to Tejas Kumar and i quote, “DevRel and angel investing are kind of the same.” With angel investing for example, it has to be money that you’re willing to lose and never see again because angel investments are highly risky. Empirical evidence shows that 9 out of 10 startups will fail. But, that one company that you invested in becomes a unicorn, you get very high rewards. DevRel is similar.

The tension between business people and great DevRel work is, business people will want to measure DevRel, like where’s the money from DevRel? There’s always this attempts to measure because, it gives a sense of control. But, DevRel work is hard if not impossible to measure because, human relationships are hard if not impossible to measure. It is “high risk, high reward.” A company will spend money on DevRel activities, like you’ll sponsor a conference, give swags, speak at conferences, paying money on whatever that you may not see return on, because it is hard to predict. The big mistake however, is treating DevRel like marketing.

Not for Everyone

This might be hard to internalise but, DevRel is not for every company because for different companies, the role of a developer plays a different role.The role of a developer and the relationship with this role from a company to the developer should be the basis for “do we need DevRel?” If the company need DevRel, how comfortable are they making high risk investments in developer communities that they may never see again but the relationships will be high quality and might pay off.

Not Just Content

DevRel is not exclusively like speaking, blog posts, or content in general. DevRel is not just content and evangelism but about Developer Relationships. So, the under guiding current is what is going to create and cultivate and lead this relationship with developers to flourish and be excellent. That’s what DevRel is about. Some times it may mean you’re going to do an educational talk to teach developers with the purpose of helping them to grow through good relationships, it could be a talk, a blog post, going on podcast because it could help developers. the goal is helping them through relationships and not selling.

Conclusion

In this article, we have been able to look at the real meaning and definition of DevRel, what it really is about, its high risk - high reward, and it not just being about contents, but contents that will cultivate and lead good relationships with developers to flourish.

One final thought. Do not hero worship people, or create a transactional relationship with developers solely for the purpose of benefiting from them in the future. It is a SIN in DevRel.

Note: This post was written as part of my DX mentorship live session with Tejas Kumar. All quotes paraphrased/quoted from Tejas Kumar.

Photo credit: Linux Developer conference, Palco.