What is DevRel?

DevRel essentially acts as a link between the community and the code. People in DevRel are frequently in charge of keeping lines of communication open between businesses and developers to facilitate improved information flow and feedback loops. As a result, the experience and growth path for both organisations is improved.

A division or organisation within a corporation places a high priority on interactions with outside developers who, in most circumstances, are supposed to be our clients.

DevRel is also a marketing strategy intended to make sure that a company's goods, developers, and customers create a positive, ongoing relationship with outside developers.

Some of DevRel's principal branches include:

1. Developer Experience (DX Engineer):

Product-focused DevRel: Owning the developer experience of the product is key to DevRel. It's about enhancing the developer experience with a particular product. This can be accomplished by speaking with users to learn how they use it, then improving the documentation and developing tutorials based on their responses.

Some key responsibilities of a DX Engineer are:

1. OSS and demonstrative projects

2. Internal components

3. Code reviews

4. Integrations

5. Product feedback

6. Educational materials and content

2. Content Creation (Developer Educator):

Content-focused DevRel is about spreading awareness about a product through written and spoken content. This can involve writing blog posts, making videos, teaching workshops, recording podcasts, tweeting and more. Content can be an SEO play focused on the long term or be a short-term promotion like new feature launches.

Some key responsibilities of a developer educator are:

1. Technical documentation

2. User experience

3. Conversion and happy paths

4. Technical writing style guides and tones

5. Educational content

3. Community Manager:

Community-focused DevRel is the process of promoting a product using spoken and written information. Writing blog articles, creating videos, facilitating seminars, capturing podcasts, tweeting, and other activities fall under this category. The content might be a long-term SEO strategy or a quick promotion like a new feature launch.

Some key responsibilities of a DevRel focused on community building are:

1. Technical writings

2. User encounter

3. Positive outcomes and conversion

4. Style guidelines and tones for technical writing

5. Informational material

Day-to-Day OKRs:

1. Roadmap precision

2. Debugging;

3. Announcements of new features

4. User comments and reaction times

5. Missing components

6. Downtime

Who is DevRel for? Is DevRel right for you?

• Yes, you need technological expertise.

• You take pleasure in assisting others with their technical issues.

• Need to do more than simply write or create

• Excellent explanation and teaching skills

• Extrovert and a people person

• Confident when speaking in front of others and asking questions

How to accomplish and be the best?

• Establish goals and manage up.

• Track, share, and scream out your efforts.

• Speak up on social media.

• Prioritise developer input.

• Ask questions when in doubt, and expand your network.

My DevRel story:

I have worked as a DevRel in 4 organisations, and 3 of them were internships! Yes, Developer relations is the role, I started my career with.

To mention, I have worked with Nervos Networks, Polkadot India, Samudai in the past.

I am currently advocating for StarkNet (Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum) and I am the only DevRel for Cairo (StarkNet's native language) in India! I get to build a community from scratch, which is even more challenging than I thought!

And truth be told, each role was different and required niche skill sets that I had to acquire by learning on the go.

DevRel came more naturally to me than a developer role, but regardless, technical skills play an important role in pursuing developer relations. I had an advantage as I am a computer science major but I firmly believe that any skill can be learned and acquired with time and dedication.

One key thing to remember: Before you advocate for any tech stack, be a developer first.

Learning is endless and we are all growing each day, please feel free to reach out in case I could be of any help.