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Devrel here, (by the way it’s typically called a Developer Advocate or a Developer Evangelist, don’t get me started on how many questions I’ve gotten about the

Devrel here, (by the way it’s typically called a Developer Advocate or a Developer Evangelist, don’t get me started on how many questions I’ve gotten about the relation to religion lol) I think the article does a good job describing what devrel looks like at companies that are smart about selling to the new “tech business world” which is desperate for a way to measure the technical credibility of potential vendors. But what’s more interesting from someone who knows devrel because I’ve worked in it for 7 years, is that at a more general level it’s just a communication layer that a business can have with an audience or a persona(in this case developers), that is growing ever more important. Whether you’re a platform (google Apple) and need more devs making stuff within your ecosystem, or you’re not selling to developers but you need technical integrations by third parties to enhance The value prop of your product, or you’re ACTUALLY selling directly to developers and trying to expand their mental model of what is possible with the low code tooling available today and why they can and should trust it. It’s a wide and interesting world in which almost every company is becoming a software company, and almost none of these companies have any idea how to communicate with developers or what they care about. You’re right that devrel is like a pre-sales role somewhat, but we all know developers are the hardest group to sell to in history, who else could more easily go find a free open source solution or just make it themselves?? You have to be able to communicate about the pros and cons of technology in an honest and coherent way, and that is what Devrel is all about to me.

zwischenzug 6y ago
Author here. Thanks for this perspective, it's really helpful to me.
geerlingguy 6y ago
> it’s typically called a Developer Advocate or a Developer Evangelist And a lot of the dev advocates I see on social media (most seem to have a strong presence there) also have an image of an avocado, since apparently a lot of people confuse "developer advocate" with "developer avocado". Just noting that in case you notice a number of people with avocados in their about text and wonder what that's about.
- randyzwitch 6y ago
  I wouldn't say it's about confusion, it's just a very online joke.
  - viejoqueso 6y ago
    It's not a joke, it's based on this article by Mary Thengvall. [https://www.marythengvall.com/blog/2018/1/31/developer-avocados-the-good-kind-of-fat https://www.marythengvall.com/blog/2018/1/31/developer-avoca...] It resonated with a lot of the people in that role, specifically with Microsoft Developer Advocates who I've seen share that article quite a bit.
    - ghaff 6y ago
      And she more recently wrote a book on Developer Relations using the same analogy. https://www.amazon.com/Business-Value-Developer-Relations-Communities/dp/1484237471 https://www.amazon.com/Business-Value-Developer-Relations-Co...
    - randyzwitch 6y ago
      A humorous analogy based on something funny that a co-worker did seems like a joke to me. I'm not claiming I invented it, just saying that it doesn't stem from confusion.
      - viejoqueso 6y ago
        Again this is not a joke. More information written by other Developer Advocates. https://blog.usejournal.com/the-birth-of-developer-avocados-61e4ac235033 https://blog.usejournal.com/the-birth-of-developer-avocados-...
        randyzwitch 6y ago
        From that article, it shows an entire thread of people talking about how a typo lead to a stupid joke https://twitter.com/NikkitaFTW/status/1009862568129781760 https://twitter.com/NikkitaFTW/status/1009862568129781760
ghaff 6y ago
>You’re right that devrel is like a pre-sales role somewhat In my experience, at least in the open source world, developer relations folks are pretty different from pre-sales and are usually not in the sales organization. Even if they don't carry a quota, pre-sales tends to be pretty focused on supporting specific customer sales opportunities. Not saying a developer relations person would never do that, but they tend to work much earlier in the pipeline. (Obviously at small companies, roles can blur more. And at pretty much all companies, lots of people get brought in to support sales in various ways.)
QuinnyPig 6y ago
I’m losing most of my DevRel friends by insisting on using the term “devrelopers” to describe the role.

zwischenzug 6y ago

Author here. Thanks for this perspective, it's really helpful to me.

geerlingguy 6y ago

> it’s typically called a Developer Advocate or a Developer Evangelist And a lot of the dev advocates I see on social media (most seem to have a strong presence there) also have an image of an avocado, since apparently a lot of people confuse "developer advocate" with "developer avocado". Just noting that in case you notice a number of people with avocados in their about text and wonder what that's about.

randyzwitch 6y ago
I wouldn't say it's about confusion, it's just a very online joke.
- viejoqueso 6y ago
  It's not a joke, it's based on this article by Mary Thengvall. [https://www.marythengvall.com/blog/2018/1/31/developer-avocados-the-good-kind-of-fat https://www.marythengvall.com/blog/2018/1/31/developer-avoca...] It resonated with a lot of the people in that role, specifically with Microsoft Developer Advocates who I've seen share that article quite a bit.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    And she more recently wrote a book on Developer Relations using the same analogy. https://www.amazon.com/Business-Value-Developer-Relations-Communities/dp/1484237471 https://www.amazon.com/Business-Value-Developer-Relations-Co...
  - randyzwitch 6y ago
    A humorous analogy based on something funny that a co-worker did seems like a joke to me. I'm not claiming I invented it, just saying that it doesn't stem from confusion.
    - viejoqueso 6y ago
      Again this is not a joke. More information written by other Developer Advocates. https://blog.usejournal.com/the-birth-of-developer-avocados-61e4ac235033 https://blog.usejournal.com/the-birth-of-developer-avocados-...
      - randyzwitch 6y ago
        From that article, it shows an entire thread of people talking about how a typo lead to a stupid joke https://twitter.com/NikkitaFTW/status/1009862568129781760 https://twitter.com/NikkitaFTW/status/1009862568129781760

ghaff 6y ago

>You’re right that devrel is like a pre-sales role somewhat In my experience, at least in the open source world, developer relations folks are pretty different from pre-sales and are usually not in the sales organization. Even if they don't carry a quota, pre-sales tends to be pretty focused on supporting specific customer sales opportunities. Not saying a developer relations person would never do that, but they tend to work much earlier in the pipeline. (Obviously at small companies, roles can blur more. And at pretty much all companies, lots of people get brought in to support sales in various ways.)

QuinnyPig 6y ago

I’m losing most of my DevRel friends by insisting on using the term “devrelopers” to describe the role.