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.

https://developerrelations.com/strategy-and-metrics/the-four-pillars-of-developer-relationsdeveloperrelations.com

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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.