A presentation at DevRel Folks Asia Meetup by Mary Thengvall
From Community Newspaper to Community Management My Journey to Developer Relations 1 @mary_grace
2 @mary_grace
Child Journalist 3 Storyteller Developer Relations @mary_grace
Child Journalist 4 Storyteller Developer Relations @mary_grace
Child Journalist 5 Storyteller Developer Relations @mary_grace
Developer Relations 6 @mary_grace
7 Camunda DevRel Team Daniel Meyer - CTO Boston, MA, USA (+Berlin, Germany) Mary Thengvall - Director San Francisco, CA, USA Luca Buchholz Community Marketing, Marketing Berlin, Germany 7 Niall Deehan Camunda BPM Developer Advocate Berlin, Germany Josh Wulf Zeebe/Camunda Cloud Developer Advocate Auckland, New Zealand Bernd Ruecker - Co-Founder Bad Mergentheim, Germany Mauricio Salatino Zeebe/Camunda Cloud Developer Advocate London, UK Danielle Andrist Developer Relations Program Manager Seattle, WA, USA
But how do I do DevRel? 1) Listen… a) To your stakeholders b) To your customers c) To your technical audience 8 @mary_grace Listen: Before making any plans or goals, take the time to listen. ● Listen to your company stakeholders: What do they expect of your team? What do they think you should be responsible for? What metrics are they accustomed to? And what business needs do they care most about? ● Listen to your customer community: What are customers’ biggest pain points with your product? Where do they struggle with onboarding? Where does the documentation fail them? ● Listen to your product’s technical audience: What problems are they trying to solve? What could be done to make their work life easier? Where do they get their content? What technological advances are they most excited about?
But how do I do DevRel? 1) Listen 2) Gather Information 9 @mary_grace Based on these answers, you can start making your plan. Find the overlapping areas where you can make your product a better fit for the larger technical audience and also make it easier for your customers to use. Figure out what content you can provide that not only answers your community’s questions but also solves problems for your company’s stakeholders. Learn about the areas where your co-workers struggle and see where your strengths can supplement those needs.
But how do I do DevRel? 1) Listen 2) Gather Information 3) Make Connections 10 @mary_grace Above all, community managers are responsible for making connections within the community as well as between community members and coworkers. These connections, or “DevRel qualified leads,” are what ultimately shows the business value of a community manager’s work. By making connections between community members Marie and Bob, who are both interested in the latest developments in Python, or between Marie and your coworker Phil, who’s responsible for developer-focused content on your website, you’re making your community a valuable source of information for everyone around you.
Resources: ● Twitter: @mary_grace ● Website: marygrace.community ● Newsletter: devrelweekly.com ● Podcast: communitypulse.io ● DevRel Collective: devrelcollective.fun ● Book: The Business Value of Developer Relations 11 @mary_grace
The Developer Relations industry has changed significantly in the past 20 years and continues to grow by leaps and bounds. While we’ve by no means “arrived,” we’ve made big strides in the past few years, particularly with regard to career trajectories, resources, and metrics. While this is not where I anticipated being when I started my career 13 years ago, I couldn’t be happier with where I’ve ended up. In this candid talk, I’ll share a little about how I got to where I am as well as what I recommend DevRel-curious folks (or new DevRel professionals) do in order to start their own journey.
for free. You
can too.