The Death of DevRel (Again?) and the Rise of Product Advocate and Community Roles
I don't think the role of developer relations is dead, but it's definitely going through a renaissance period -- and the focus now is on product and community
For me, the last few weeks have provided a good balance of conversations (online and at the State of Open Con in London) and catching up on podcasts during my travel time. One topic that has dominated both things is the struggle that developer relations as a role (and community) are going through now. From a people perspective, I see and feel the pain of the layoffs. I hope that, ultimately, these upheavals will help reposition the role and provide more clarity on the goals.
Although a few folks have pitched to me that this is “the death of DevRel”, I think this is overblown. However, I foresee a potential forking of the job into “product advocates” and “community building” roles.
Allow me to explain…
DevRel and ZIRP: Ups and downs
There’s no denying that the popularity of the DevRel role blew up in the pandemic-induced era of 2020-2021. After the initial confusion of “how do we influence developers if we can’t talk to them at in-person conferences?” many developer advocates quickly pivoted to online events, creating lots of content, and streaming demos and coding jams. The zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) created the illusion of “free money” in VC-backed startups and scale-ups, and most of us leading DevRel or go-to-market departments were fed the mantra of “growth at all costs”. I remember trying to hire developer advocates in 2021, which was nuts. Finding experienced DevRel folks on the market was tough, and the salaries were very high.
Now, we see the effect of the swing away from ZIRP, where companies are being told to “get fit” and “do more with less”. This results in layoffs and, in some cases, the complete elimination of DevRel teams. In my recent mentoring calls and community chats, I’ve been aiming to understand the deeper causes that have triggered this. There was (with hindsight) a clear overhiring in this space. However, the most common root cause appears to be a lack of clarity between DevRel efforts and business impact.
I’m confident that DevRel, in some form or other, will bounce back over the next ~18 months. But what will the future of DevRel look like? From what I’m currently hearing, I think it’s more focused on product and community.
The future is product and community
On a recent flight, I listened to Hank Taylor on Shomik’s Software Snack Bites podcast share a lot of great ideas related to what he calls “product advocates”. The Boldstart family were all over this (which is generally a good sign!), as I had previously bumped into Hank’s work via Ed Sim, where he discussed the value of “Technical SDRs”.
I’ll include the links to both pieces of content below, but what I took away from Hank’s content jived with my recent experience: often, traditional sales development representatives (SDRs) are not technical enough to address questions from a developer-focused audience to convert them to pipeline, and conversely, developer relations folks aren’t focused enough on the buyer journey or getting prospects into the sales funnel.
Although I appreciate the argument that good DevRel isn’t focused on sales, in my (start-up focused) experience, the cliche that “everyone works in sales” rings true — at least until you get to a certain size where you can afford to spend money on “brand halo effect”.
Being more focused on the buyer journey and the sales funnel can help to address the perceived lack of impact of DevRel efforts. In previous roles, I’ve attempted to clarify “DevRel influenced pipeline”, which can help drive internal awareness of my team’s efforts.
Complementing this potential shift from DevRel to product advocates, I also see the increasing rise of community advocates. There’s been chatter in the past few years that community-led growth (CLG) could be the next evolution of product-led growth (PLG).
In addition to the value of building your own community around your problem space or product, there appears to be value in tapping into other communities. As reported in “The end of the social network” in The Economist recently, there has been a shift away from sharing product recommendations on social media towards sharing in small private groups (or “communities”). I see no reason why this trend won’t permeate into developer-focused communities.
Building or influencing communities also leads nicely into trackable metrics (size of community, activity, conversion to pipelines, etc), as well a delivering value for all of the folks involved (checkout my previous thoughts on community building).
What should I do as a DevRel looking for future gigs?
I advise DevRel folks looking for their next gig to learn more about product sales and community.
I’m conscious I sound like a Boldstart fanboy here, but Anna Debenham’s recent "Dev First Founder Toolkit" articles series is super useful (perhaps start with “How to run a great demo when you’re not a salesperson”). Mary Thengvall’s book, “The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success”, is also a goldmine of advice for building developer communities.
Let me know if you have any questions. You can find me in the comments or via DMs!