Developer Relations 101

Developer Relations 101Felipe Pedroso

Developer Relations 101Felipe Pedroso

“What I learned from working with Developer Relations”

Developer Relations is not meant to...

… sell anything.

… provide technical support.

… take care of business development.

… use traditional marketing targeted to developers.

Product Engineering

Developer Relations

Ecosystem

Developers

CompaniesAcademics

Developer Relations is about...... building relationships with the developers.

… being relevant to their interests and inspiring trust.

… empowering and helping them to succeed.

… being an active part of their communities.

… understanding their needs and offering the right solution.

Typical Activities● Technical collateral: blog posts, articles, tutorials, videos, etc● Coding: code samples, quick start apps, wrappers, etc● Talks: events, meetups, webinars, etc● Training: workshops, hackathons, hands-on labs, etc● Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc● “Support”: Stackoverflow, forums, etc● Collect developers feedback and help to address them● Events sponsorship● ...

But… what is the ROI?

But… what is the ROI?This is the wrong first question.

“What are my goals?”There, I fixed it:

AAARRRP* - “Developers need to...”Awareness: “Know my product and what it does.”

Acquisition: “Try my product to see its value.”

Activation: “Use my product”

Retention: “Keep using my product and consider it to new solutions.”

Referral: “Talk about my product to other developers.”

Revenue: “Pay for the usage of my product.”

Product: “Help with the improvement of my product”* Created by Phil Leggetter

Choose the activities based in your goalsActivity Type Awareness Acquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue Product

Technical Collateral X X X X

Coding X X X X

Talks X X

Training X X X X

Social Media X X

Support X X X X

Events Sponsorship X X X X

Feedback X X

That’s it?!

That’s it?!Of course not.

Another mandatory questions to start.Who are “my” developers?

Am I ready to listen and address their feedbacks?

Evangelism or Advocacy?

How much do I know my product? Is it ‘developer-ready’?

How am I going to measure success?

Am I going to have a dedicated team?

References“The Core Competencies of Developer Relations” and “Why Do We Pay These People Anyway?” by Reto Meyer

“What is the ROI of Developers Relations?” and “Defining Developers Relations” by Phil Leggetter

“Why Developer Relations Programs Fail” by Mike Stowe

“Developer Relations: A Five-Level Maturity Model” by Michael Mahemoff

“The Developer Evangelist Handbook” by Christian Heilmann

Thanks!