Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist?

#11

Post by wpdn » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 10:07 AM UTC

RNeff wrote: post #6

A developer advocate is an extrovert that likes teaching, explaining, answering questions, writing intro docs and code examples; that wants the users to succeed. They also report back to the project managers and programmers about problems: confusion, missing functionality, bugs, possible enhancements, OS and compiler incompatibilities. No one will use your software if they cannot figure out how to use it.

This is a valid argument but it does not answer my question which was about why do companies have developer advocates for products other that what they directly sell.

Re: Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist?

#12

Post by kazinator » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 9:34 PM UTC

wpdn wrote: post #11

RNeff wrote: post #6

A developer advocate is an extrovert that likes teaching, explaining, answering questions, writing intro docs and code examples; that wants the users to succeed. They also report back to the project managers and programmers about problems: confusion, missing functionality, bugs, possible enhancements, OS and compiler incompatibilities. No one will use your software if they cannot figure out how to use it.

This is a valid argument but it does not answer my question which was about why do companies have developer advocates for products other that what they directly sell.

Because those products form an ecosystem on which the product is built which they do sell. If the users are familiar with the platform and have adopted it, it's easier to sell to them stuff based on the platform.

Re: Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist?

#13

Post by nwAcctFrgtPswrd » Tue, Jul 07, 2020, 8:51 AM UTC

wpdn wrote: post #10

iforgetmypwrd wrote: post #5

Imagine having a company, you have a sales pipeline. For every 1000 people who know what your company/product is, 100 people will go to your website, 10 people will call/email your company to ask a question. 1 person will end up considering buying your product. So build a dev advocate team, you will increase the amount of people who know what your product is/ask questions about your product. Furthermore people callin…

I'm specifically not asking about these people. Take facebook - they don't sell react. Why do they have developer advocates for that? In other words, if you sell cars, why have people who talk to other people about how ICEs are built?

O i see what you mean,

I would assume Facebook having one successful dev advocate has many benefits:

-if FB is going to build products with React, it is in FB's best interest that there is a healthy React community constantly building new things FO FREE, so now Facebook can easily integrate good ideas/tools built for React into internal systems. I would assume this is huge.

-basically recruit smart/productive devs to FB by interacting with React community on a regular basis

-buys goodwill with dev community

-An additional line of communication into potential customers, when you have a potential sale going on with a customer, if your dev advocate knows important technical leadership people at customer that can help

But really i have no idea :)

Re: Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist?

#14

Post by nwAcctFrgtPswrd » Tue, Jul 07, 2020, 9:01 AM UTC

nwAcctFrgtPswrd wrote: post #13

wpdn wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm specifically not asking about these people. Take facebook - they don't sell react. Why do they have developer advocates for that? In other words, if you sell cars, why have people who talk to other people about how ICEs are built?

O i see what you mean, I would assume Facebook having one successful dev advocate has many benefits: -if FB is going to build products with React, it is in FB's best interest that there is a healthy React community constantly building new things FO FREE, so now Facebook can easily integrate good ideas/tools built for React into internal systems. I would assume this is huge. -basically recruit smart/productive devs to…

Important to remember that things like React or Java, they aren't ever finished, they are constantly being worked on and improved on, so while there is a central brain trust (React has the React team at FB, Java has the Java Executive Committee comprised of devs from Oracle and other big companies like IBM, Twitter, others. these devs are eventually going to retire and will need to be replaced by community experts) these open source communities are still very much dependent on dev community assistance/feedback for the successes of these languages/frameworks to keep the gears churning.

Re: Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist?

#15

Post by wpdn » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #12

wpdn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a valid argument but it does not answer my question which was about why do companies have developer advocates for products other that what they directly sell.

Because those products form an ecosystem on which the product is built which they do sell. If the users are familiar with the platform and have adopted it, it's easier to sell to them stuff based on the platform.

i am pretty certain that promoting react has little impact on people who do bring the most revenue to facebook (end users who simply eat up clickbait).

Re: Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist?

#16

Post by wpdn » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 2:07 PM UTC

nwAcctFrgtPswrd wrote: post #14

nwAcctFrgtPswrd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

O i see what you mean, I would assume Facebook having one successful dev advocate has many benefits: -if FB is going to build products with React, it is in FB's best interest that there is a healthy React community constantly building new things FO FREE, so now Facebook can easily integrate good ideas/tools built for React into internal systems. I would assume this is huge. -basically recruit smart/productive devs to…

Important to remember that things like React or Java, they aren't ever finished, they are constantly being worked on and improved on, so while there is a central brain trust (React has the React team at FB, Java has the Java Executive Committee comprised of devs from Oracle and other big companies like IBM, Twitter, others. these devs are eventually going to retire and will need to be replaced by community experts) t…

Yep, this is close to what I was thinking too. I was wondering if this doesn't have the drawback of core team having to constantly deal with people from outside coming with their use-cases that have nothing to do with what the team's vision is. You know, "i was thinking it would be nice to have bells and whistles when you click this button" type of people. I would really love to get some insight into the efficiency of this (developer-advocacy-in-general) - seems like it's really worth it for companies.

Re: Ask HN: Why do developer advocates exist?

#17

Post by wpdn » Fri, Jul 10, 2020, 2:10 PM UTC

nwAcctFrgtPswrd wrote: post #14

nwAcctFrgtPswrd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

O i see what you mean, I would assume Facebook having one successful dev advocate has many benefits: -if FB is going to build products with React, it is in FB's best interest that there is a healthy React community constantly building new things FO FREE, so now Facebook can easily integrate good ideas/tools built for React into internal systems. I would assume this is huge. -basically recruit smart/productive devs to…

Important to remember that things like React or Java, they aren't ever finished, they are constantly being worked on and improved on, so while there is a central brain trust (React has the React team at FB, Java has the Java Executive Committee comprised of devs from Oracle and other big companies like IBM, Twitter, others. these devs are eventually going to retire and will need to be replaced by community experts) t…

I just thought of another possible explanation - apps and integrations are probably a big part of the revenue ecosystem so e.g. in case of react, if your product is built on it and your integrations/apps/whatever engine is also react-centered, it's kind of cheap to introduce new people to these concepts. I guess.