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Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

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Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#21

Post by randyzwitch »

geerlingguy wrote: post #19
timelincoln wrote: post #9

Devrel here, (by the way it’s typically called a Developer Advocate or a Developer Evangelist, don’t get me started on how many questions I’ve gotten about the relation to religion lol) I think the article does a good job describing what devrel looks like at companies that are smart about selling to the new “tech business world” which is desperate for a way to measure the technical credibility of potential vendors. B…

> it’s typically called a Developer Advocate or a Developer Evangelist And a lot of the dev advocates I see on social media (most seem to have a strong presence there) also have an image of an avocado, since apparently a lot of people confuse "developer advocate" with "developer avocado". Just noting that in case you notice a number of people with avocados in their about text and wonder what that's about.

I wouldn't say it's about confusion, it's just a very online joke.

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#22

Post by sigstoat »

morelisp wrote: post #20

You know how they took operations, re-christened it "DevOps", and made it the responsibility of the dev team without commensurate increase in hiring or pay or education? That, but for account management.

> That, but for account management.

account management seems different. the developer relations folks have more purple hair and technical skills.

account managers are suits who come in at the start to sign the contract, and again later when everyone involved has fucked up to try and salvage the business relationship.

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#23

Post by viejoqueso »

randyzwitch wrote: post #21
geerlingguy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s typically called a Developer Advocate or a Developer Evangelist And a lot of the dev advocates I see on social media (most seem to have a strong presence there) also have an image of an avocado, since apparently a lot of people confuse "developer advocate" with "developer avocado". Just noting that in case you notice a number of people with avocados in their about text and wonder what that's about.

I wouldn't say it's about confusion, it's just a very online joke.

It's not a joke, it's based on this article by Mary Thengvall. [https://www.marythengvall.com/blog/2018/1/31/developer-avoca...]

It resonated with a lot of the people in that role, specifically with Microsoft Developer Advocates who I've seen share that article quite a bit.

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#24

Post by ghaff »

di wrote: post #17

Developer Advocate here (who works in Developer Relations ). I think "DevRel" is a big bucket, but what the author is calling "Developer Relations" is just the most visible subset of the bucket. The impression is that a "DevRel" spends all their time writing talks, traveling to conferences, pitching products and speaking. This makes sense, because the "DevRels" you probably see the most are the ones that are doing th…

I'd add that there's often a community management aspect to the role as well and sometimes that's the title. In general, I find a lot of different titles used which may or may not reflect what the person does day to day.

I even know people who are also product managers who do a fair bit of outward-facing DevRel/Evangelism type of work.

And skill sets vary quite a bit too. I know folks who do a ton of coding, creating demos, etc. And I know others who, while typically at least somewhat technical, are much more on the relationship and community-building side of things.

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#25

Post by ghaff »

viejoqueso wrote: post #23
randyzwitch wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it's about confusion, it's just a very online joke.

It's not a joke, it's based on this article by Mary Thengvall. [ https://www.marythengvall.com/blog/2018/1/31/developer-avoca... ] It resonated with a lot of the people in that role, specifically with Microsoft Developer Advocates who I've seen share that article quite a bit.

And she more recently wrote a book on Developer Relations using the same analogy. https://www.amazon.com/Business-Value-Developer-Relations-Co...

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#26

Post by eddiezane »

duxup wrote: post #4

So a sales like role, but with someone with a bit deeper technical knowledge who can speak to not just the nuts and bolts of features, but talk to the customer about what they do with tech, maybe how, and etc? Seems like a role that I've seen done by sales, sales engineers, product managers, etc.

I've always described what I do as marketing for developers at the end of the day. Developers typically have the thickest bullshit shields and know immediately when they are interacting with someone that isn't technically credible - say at a conference expo booth.

I've personally had very little involvement with sales over the years and have mostly operated at the top of the funnel. Most (from my experience) DevRel teams actually sit under a marketing org.

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#27

Post by tenebrisalietum »

I think this article is incomplete without mentioning oppressive IP laws that enable copyright to basically support multi-generational legacies. Patents: I'm not sure how patents are extended past their 17 year limit but if they are, it's the same thing.

"Intangible assets" are more or less propped up by these laws. Would Microsoft be a $250bn company if copyright on Windows and Office only lasted 10 years?

You can't count on most physical assets outlasting the typical copyright term. So this is where all the value and power is moving to because it's literally protected by law and never decays.

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#28

Post by randyzwitch »

viejoqueso wrote: post #23
randyzwitch wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it's about confusion, it's just a very online joke.

It's not a joke, it's based on this article by Mary Thengvall. [ https://www.marythengvall.com/blog/2018/1/31/developer-avoca... ] It resonated with a lot of the people in that role, specifically with Microsoft Developer Advocates who I've seen share that article quite a bit.

A humorous analogy based on something funny that a co-worker did seems like a joke to me. I'm not claiming I invented it, just saying that it doesn't stem from confusion.

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#29

Post by NathanKP »

I have worked as a developer advocate at AWS for almost 4 years now. I think this article gets one half of the equation, the public facing part, but what they are missing is the second half, which is that developer advocates also serve as a bridge back from the end customers to the engineers inside your organization.

My job is to be a credible technical voice to customers, but it is also to be an accurate representation of customer needs and wants to the engineers who are building the products. I go out and do customer facing talks and live streams on Twitch, and use social media to talk about my company's products, but then I listen to these customers when they come up to talk to me after my conference talks, or when they send me messages on social media.

I take those learnings and go into product management meetings and tell the PM's about customer problems, and I write proposals for things to build to solve customer problems. I influence the customers to use my company's products and use them better, but then I also influence the product roadmap to have the right things being built for the customers, based on what they want.

So dev rel / dev advocates work in both directions. At its best it is a bidirectional channel that translates internal knowledge into external awareness, and external complaints and issues into internal awareness and solutions.

Re: Why Do We Have Dev Rels Now?

#30

Post by TheHegemon »

sigstoat wrote: post #22
morelisp wrote: post #20

You know how they took operations, re-christened it "DevOps", and made it the responsibility of the dev team without commensurate increase in hiring or pay or education? That, but for account management.

> That, but for account management. account management seems different. the developer relations folks have more purple hair and technical skills. account managers are suits who come in at the start to sign the contract, and again later when everyone involved has fucked up to try and salvage the business relationship.

> the developer relations folks have more purple hair and technical skills.

I've never heard the term "purple hair" before. Is that literally meaning like... more alternative?

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