A presentation at DevRelCon 2021 by Vera Tiago
Specialization and Career Paths for Advocacy Teams @veratiago Manager, Developer Advocacy / OutSystems
What’s in it for you Considering DevRel Managers Get an overview of the different DevRel roles and activities. Organize your team and plan growth for your team members. Individual Contributors Access your skills and plan possible career moves.
Agenda 01. Developer Advocacy and DevRel 02. Different DevRel Fields 03. Specialization in DevRel and Developer Advocacy
The days of the solo Developer Advocate are slowing fading away. (Source: State of Developer Relations 2020)
Developer Advocates (also Developer Evangelists, Technical Evangelist and Dev Relations typically work with the marketing team and are externally facing. Developer Relations is Marketing for Developer Developer Advocate? DevRel? DevRel is an interdisciplinary role that sits in a border space between product, engineering, and marketing Developer Relations is a PR person, while Dev Advocate is a Sales Engineer
Developer Relations Developer relations is a mindset of getting developers to adopt a platform or technology and making them successful with their initiatives (job or pet projects)
Five DevRel Fields Dev Evangelism Dev Marketing Dev Experience Dev Advocacy Community Mng
Developer Marketing Goal Create Go-to-Developer Strategy What You Do Need to Master Work Close With • Define Messaging and Target Personas • Knowledge About Developers • Product Management • Plan Developer Communication • Research • Corporate Marketing • Writing • Developer Evangelism • Coordinate Product Launches • Plan Events Sponsorship • Analytical and Strategic Thinking • Planning
Developer Evangelism Goal “Get out the word” What You Do Need to Master Work Close With • Speak and attend conferences • Public Speaking • Developer Marketing • Story Telling • Developer Advocacy • Technical blogs and Videos • Podcasts • Streaming • Partnerships with other Communities • Writing • Networking
Developer Advocacy Goal What You Do Need to Master Work Close With • Create Demos • Knowledge about Different Developer Tools • Developer Experience • Extend the Product Enable Developers to Successfully leverage your product • Advocate developer’s requirements to internal product teams. • Support Community • Write How-tos and Documentation • Dogfooding / Customer Zero • Coding • Developer Evangelism • Writing • Developer Marketing • Community
Developer Experience Goal Reduce friction and increase developer productivity What You Do Need to Master Work Close With • Product Design / UX • Knowledge about Different Developer Tools • Developer Advocacy • Documentation & Training • SDK, Plugins, extend the Product • Talk to Customers / End Users • Product Management • Usability and User Experience • Community
Community Management Goal Grow and nurture the Developer Community What You Do Need to Master Work Close With • Building and managing online communities • Event Management • Developer Advocacy • Knowledge about Developers • Developer Experience • Organize and Facilitate Community Events • Put together content for newsletters and social media • Run Different Programs (Ex. Champions Program) • Community Operations • Program Management • Communication
Specialization in DevRel & Developer Advocacy
Challenge The biggest challenges in DevRel is determining which among the numerous possible activities is the most impactful and where you can bring more value.
Different DevRel Fields Dev Marketing Dev Evangelism Developer Personas Messaging to Developers Brand Positioning Developer Awareness Collaboration & Partnerships Definition & Strategy “Get the word” out Developer Experience Community Management Developer Productivity Product Experience Grow and Nurture the Community Retention Orchestrate different fields Developer Advocacy Code and Content Community Support Product Feedback Education & Advocacy
Specialization in DevRel and Developer Advocacy Dev Advocate 1 (Advocacy) Dev Advocate (Generalist) 70% : Advocacy 60% : Dev Experience Dev Advocate (Evangelism) 50% : Dev Marketing 50% : Dev Evangelism Community Manager 100% : Community As you grow your team, you allow you team members to Specialize and focus
Dev Advocacy Dev Advocate (Advocacy) No Dev Experience n al nic ch te Branching out Dev Advocate (Generalist) ? Dev Evangelism Dev Advocate (Evangelism) No n Dev Marketing c te l ica hn
Attract new Developers and drive to try out (Awareness and Activation) Evangelism Decoded PodCast, 3rd Party Events, Innovation Summit, Technical Alliances and other partnerships Programs & Tactics Education Programs Developer School, mentorship, education labs, hackathons Engage Developers to build more (Adoption and Expansion) Voice of Developer Amplify the Voice of the Developer Online Community Get more done each day (Forums & Forge) OutSystems Tech tracks In-depth tech talks, OSUG, Next Step tracks and OSDC Activate a Community of Advocates (Advocacy) Advocate Activation Activate the right expert to demo, present or write about a topic Advocacy Programs (MVPs/Champions) Support, Communication, activity and onboarding Decoded Labs (Video Content) Quick Hits, ICYM, Tales from the Trenches Content & Innovation Lab Collect, create and review demos, presentations, articles and components to support all of the above
Wrap up ● As the industry matures, we’re seeing a lot of specializations form within the role ● Invest in specialization and Maximize your potential ● Develop the skills that will take you to the next level / dream job
Thanks !
Specialization and career paths for advocacy teams
For years, companies who invested in DevRel would have one person doing a variety of activities from speaking at conferences, engaging with the community, or writing content.
Today, more companies realize the advantages of DevRel, and they also recognize that it’s much more powerful than anticipated.
The result? DevRel teams are growing, so it’s essential that we start specializing roles/responsibilities. In this talk, Vera will drill down into each role specialization across developer relations with some examples from the industry.
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