DEV Community

Cover image for The Subtle Art of Being A Developer Advocate | What is a Developer Advocate?

The Subtle Art of Being A Developer Advocate | What is a Developer Advocate?

Wassim Chegham on April 21, 2021

A few years ago I wrote this article called "What the heck is a developer advocate?" which tried to help people in the tech industry understand wha...
Collapse
 
anthonyjdella profile image
Anthony

Great post! I'm interested in being a dev advocate and this helps a ton! Thx

Collapse
 
danieluhl profile image
Typing Turtle

Thanks for writing this. I'm trying to get the role of Developer Advocate established at my company today. I'm wondering if you can say more about how to track the effectiveness or convince the business of the value of the role.

Collapse
 
nikoldimit profile image
Nikolas

thats an interesting one: i guess the main metrics are/should be around engagement. Developers usually prefer to talk to other developers instead of more traditional roles like CSMs and other marketing/business folks. So i guess the main argument for hiring one is that a developer advocate is the only way that you can actually listen to and engage with the (dev) community.

Collapse
 
anfibiacreativa profile image
Natalia Venditto

Wonderful read, Wassim! Very informative of what developer advocates are and how they contribute to a product and its ecosystem, including the community around it!

Collapse
 
camerenisonfire profile image
Cameren Dolecheck

This was a great explanation, thank you. Your first post about Dev Advocacy and it got me very interested in the role. It more closely aligns with my interests, skills, and aspirations than most traditional dev positions.

The biggest hang up I've had with Dev Advocate as a position is the compensation range seems to be about 2x less than software engineer. Maybe this is because most places put it under a marketing position? What are your experiences and insights into compensation for this kind of work?

Collapse
 
pawlean profile image
Pauline P. Narvas

Absolutely a wonderful read, thanks Wassim! I've been interested in DevRel/Dev Advocacy for a long time but decided that recently, I've been wanting to be more open about how I really want to push my career in that direction. This was super helpful! Thank you, keep being awesome :)

Collapse
 
peibolsang profile image
Pablo Bermejo

Awesome post. The MS developer community is lucky for having you.

Collapse
 
measomvanessa profile image
Vanessa Measom

Enjoyed reading this Wassim! It spurred me on to write my own post, about my experiences as a Developer Advocate.

Collapse
 
wassimchegham profile image
Wassim Chegham

Just read and shared your post. Thank you for sharing! It's really inspiring!

Collapse
 
nagpavanchilakam profile image
nagpavan-chilakam

Great article, thanks

Collapse
 
poalelungimihai profile image
poalelungimihai • Edited

It's a beneficial article where are explained a lot of interesting facts about this developer advocacy. It's an excellent subject that requires a lot of attention. I think that in this way, people should defend their rights. I was being involved in such a process. I was helped to understand all the mechanisms with the help of weareecs.co.uk/social-research-ins.... You can also find a lot of valuable and fascinating detail about all this kind of process. A well-informed person is always a compelling one.

Collapse
 
aravind profile image
Aravind Putrevu

Wonderfully written Wassim! I've been an advocate and a community organizer. You've articulated all the responsibilities very well.

Collapse
 
adnanebrahimi profile image
Adnan Ebrahimi

Very informative post about Developer Advocacy. thank you for sharing this Wassim!

Collapse
 
phongduong profile image
Phong Duong

I saw the developer advocate title on LinkedIn and wondered if it is really a job, what they actually do. Thank you for the explanation

Collapse
 
anthonyjdella profile image
Anthony

How would you compare Developer Advocacy for B2B and B2C companies? Should the role be the same?

Collapse
 
wassimchegham profile image
Wassim Chegham

There should be no difference because the Developer Advocate's audience is the developer community.

Collapse
 
gabrielfallen profile image
Alexander Chichigin

You might want to know that hexa.run/ is inaccessible: first, wrong SSL certificate, after that -- not found.

As we're talking feedback. ;)

Collapse
 
melissakaulfuss profile image
Mel Kaulfuss

Thanks for writing this! I’m about to start my first Dev Advocate role & this post is invaluable to me (because I need to figure out how to do my job 😆)!!

Collapse
 
wassimchegham profile image
Wassim Chegham

Thank you, Mel. Good luck with your new role. Happy to answer any of your questions you may have 🤗

Collapse
 
sergiogama profile image
Sergio GAMA

Very good post! The best profession!! I Love it! I'm taking the liberty to use your idea of Developer Advocate Iceberg in my presentation about Dev Adv/Tech Advocacy/ Tech Evangelist.