Four pillars of DevRel
To devise a DevRel strategy, one must understand their company's needs and the tactics that can be used to meet them. Let's take a look at the four pillars to understand all of this in a better way.
Summary
DevRel programme usually/arguably revolves around fours pillars.
Outreach
Community
Product
Education and support
Pillar define what exactly is done in the programme.
Pillar can be further divide based on the tasks performed by DevRel and Dev Experience.
Offers a handy way to think about tactics to pursue a DevRel strategy.
Scribbles
Four Pillars
Outreach
Community
Product
Education and support
What are the pillars for?
Pillars are about what you will do in your DevRel programme.
The strategic initiatives to meet the program's initiative are usually chosen from one or more of the given pillars
DevRel vs Developer Experience
Once you take a close look at the four pillars, it's visible there are two halves -- outreach and community which is usually covered by developer relations, then we have product and education/support which is covered by developer experience.
DevRel programme needs to consider all four.
A mix of tactics chosen will depend on the broader strategy. This brings us to the AAARRRP funnel, which you can take a deeper look at in the scribble linked below.
[link the scribble]
Example of why the divide b/w DevRel and Dev Experience isn't always clear.
One can have a great outreach program, arguably DevRel, to drive people from awareness to acquisition -- a better approach would be to have high-quality documentation, which arguably falls under developer experience.
Outreach
Broadly, covered in two ways
Online
In-person
Activities are done in order to drive customers.
Makes people aware of the products and helps them get a better overall understanding.
Helps people to overcome initial objections and push through to some commitment to using it.
Community
Community is about creating a framework that enables developers to be successful with your product.
Having an active community around the product is 🔑 for many developers.
Provides the evidence that people, other than the organization selling it are using it for various use-cases.
Helps in amplifying efforts of DevRel programme.
Community has a role to play in each stage but it’s most focused on moving developers from the acquisition through to the product stages. The social proof, additional support, and supplemental activities that a community delivers are all crucial in helping developers to feel comfortable about committing to your product.
Product
DevRel teams can find themselves in marketing, engineering or anywhere based on the organization's goals.
Now, DevRel in the product might sound a little unconventional for beginners as to what role can they have in shaping the product -- right?
Developer advocacy is more talked about than developer evangelism, partly because advocacy is a two-way thing.
Dev advocates, advocate the products to developers but also advocate on the behalf of developers in product discussions and ensure that developer needs are heard.
DevRel teams should focus on ensuring that developer needs are hears and should represent the voice of developers in product discussions.
In terms of dev funnel - DevRel's role in the product should focus on moving someone from activation to becoming a committed user.
Education and support
This domain can likely be covered by several different teams.
Dedicated support team
Developer success team
Developer education team
DevRel itself.
Whether or not DevRel is directly involved in it, they should take account of activities necessary to educate developers and support them outside of the company's formal/dedicated channels
DevRel team's role should be to support developers who aren't yet customers, to provide them with educational materials that the company's tech writes wouldn't cover.
To ensure that developers are more productive -- strong education and support is a must.
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