Do not treat the community as just an audience, avoid overly-monetizing folks (especially in challenging times), and be sure to provide opportunities for growth!
Thanks as always for the expert and profound insights 🙏🏽. Community-building is a often a tricky part of a first-hire DevRel's job. How would you suggest such hire go about building an engaging community from scratch?
The main challenge that I've encountered is being clear on the goals. Once you know what the company/project is optimizing for, you can set your north star, which then dictates the work.
For example, are you prioritizing for onboarding to the tech/product? Spin up a Slack/Discord and run Zoom office hours; prioritizing for awareness? Research where the core personas hang out and spend time learning from them; or prioritizing for engagement? create learning materials and offer cohort-based training.
Hi Daniel!
Thanks as always for the expert and profound insights 🙏🏽. Community-building is a often a tricky part of a first-hire DevRel's job. How would you suggest such hire go about building an engaging community from scratch?
Hey Stephen,
Many thanks for the comment, and thanks for bearing with me on the slow response due to my travels!
This is a great question, and one that may inspire another post :)
In the meantime, this book contains a lot of great advice on the topic: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/developer-relations-how/9781484271643/
The main challenge that I've encountered is being clear on the goals. Once you know what the company/project is optimizing for, you can set your north star, which then dictates the work.
For example, are you prioritizing for onboarding to the tech/product? Spin up a Slack/Discord and run Zoom office hours; prioritizing for awareness? Research where the core personas hang out and spend time learning from them; or prioritizing for engagement? create learning materials and offer cohort-based training.
I hope this helps!
Best wishes,
Daniel