[HN Gopher] What DevRel means to me
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What DevRel means to me
Author : sea-gold
Score : 40 points
Date : 2024-02-15 23:24 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (christine.website)
(TXT) w3m dump (christine.website)
| c0balt wrote:
| That was an interesting read, thank you for sharing your
| perspective somewhat transparently.
|
| I wonder how other industries with "producers" handle these kind
| of marketing efforts. How do you advertise/ market to a mechanic
| or farmer? I see some on YouTube but that obviously can't be
| everything.
| neom wrote:
| It kinda gets a bit door-to-door sales-ish-esq in those
| industries. Trade shows, publishing reports driving out to the
| farm and hand delivering them, shaking hands with the farmers.
| If you distill this article down to 1 tenant, its sales isn't
| sales, it's relationship building. I built devrel team at
| DigitalOcean when it started, and I'd be damned if I let anyone
| onto my team who was a seller. When I hired Mikeal Rogers I
| said something along the lines of: "You go make the js
| community happy, do whatever will help them grow, tell them
| what we're doing, ask them what they need, and spend your
| budget on helping them" - he crushed it, one of the best people
| I've ever hired in my career, never sold once, not even a whiff
| of it. I almost lost my job every quarter running things how I
| did... till the day I didn't, and that was the day I got
| promoted. Most people are scared to do community building the
| right way, but when you do, it works extremely well.
| pryelluw wrote:
| I enjoy community building as well and it's why I organize
| the python Atlanta (pyATL) group. It is all about the
| community but also the individual. Having the goal of getting
| to know each person and working to align what we offer with
| what they want. People mostly want a place to belong and
| grow. Where they feel nurtured and supported. Without the
| pressure of constantly having to buy shit. When you put
| people first great things happen.
| xmcqdpt2 wrote:
| I feel like this article suffers a bit from a lack of
| perspective. The way DevRel works is nearly identical to
| marketing in other sectors where the consumer is sophisticated
| and technical.
|
| For example, scientific instruments companies also sponsor
| technical innovation, they also have scientists in marketing /
| education roles going to conferences, etc. If you are selling NMR
| instruments for 10 M$ each, you also invest in good relations
| with the community, because you want the person who has just
| received a massive grant to think of you and your great work and
| call your sales dept. You aren't going to get anywhere cold-
| calling random academics who mostly aren't in the market for a
| NMR right now.
| didgeoridoo wrote:
| I don't get the impression that Christine is saying software
| DevRel is the _only_ role that looks like this -- just that
| standard "consumer" marketing tactics don't really work on
| developers.
|
| I wouldn't say it's necessarily based in a "lack of
| perspective", but perhaps more just choosing to not expand the
| thesis to encompass the broader world of technical marketing in
| non-software industries. I think that's fair, given that the
| author's experience is centered on the software world, and not
| every blog post needs to begin with a cross-disciplinary
| literature review.
| PH95VuimJjqBqy wrote:
| yeah, while reading it what popped into my head is that people
| just love to label things to help them feel different.
|
| what they're doing is marketing.
| philipwhiuk wrote:
| The pretense that their role doesn't exist because of the
| sales pipeline they generate is slightly crazy.
|
| DevRel are in sales and marketing.
| fosterfriends wrote:
| Great write-up, your take on honesty is very accurate. I
| appreciate a member of a community who is well-intentioned, and
| transparent about any biases they're bringing in. I write a lot
| about my devtool, but I try to be transparent that I work on it,
| and also try to share learnings beyond just what I build.
| xena wrote:
| Author of the article here. Surprised to see this one landing on
| Hacker News instead of the short story I wrote last night
| (https://xeiaso.net/blog/2024/the-layoff/).
|
| I wrote this to summarize a conversation I had with the CEO of
| the company I now work for while I was getting hired there.
| Apparently it had the effect I want, because I now work there
| doing devrel.
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