This presentation is about some thoughts and ideas that I learned working as Technical Evangelist. The material is just the beginning of a series and is only covering basic concepts. I must to thanks everyone that is present on the references for the amazing content around the subject.

1. Developer Relations 101
Felipe Pedroso

2. Developer Relations 101
Felipe Pedroso
“What I learned from working with Developer Relations”

3. Developer Relations is not meant to...
… sell anything.
… provide technical support.
… take care of business development.
… use traditional marketing targeted to developers.

4. Product
Engineering
Developer
Relations
Ecosystem
Developers
CompaniesAcademics

5. 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.

6. 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
● ...

7. But… what is the ROI?

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

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

10. 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

11. Choose the activities based in your goals
Activity 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

12. That’s it?!

13. That’s it?!
Of course not.

14. 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?

15. 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

16. Thanks!