Earlier we discussed how early-stage startupsBuild a developer communityandTrack product-market fit. Still, without a strong developer relations team, its difficult for these moves to be effective.
Developer relations specialists tend to act as information hubs, often working with other operations teams such as product, sales, and marketing, and syncing information with everyone. Many Web3 startups are putting a lot of emphasis on developers, so its worth taking a deeper look at this role. In particular, research on the added value that early-stage startups will bring from effective management of developer relations, and why developer relations can determine the health of the Web3 ecosystem.
The focus of this article:
What is Developer Relations? What is its development history?
How can developer relations move a startup forward in a funding round?
Where does developer relations create value for early-stage startups?
What are the dos and donts when hiring for a developer relations role?
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What is Developer Relations?
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A Brief History of the Development of Developer Relations Jobs
To understand the role of DevRel, it is necessary to further understand the background of its emergence. With the rise of open source culture, many people initially worked in developer relations in the open source community, such as promoting technology and writing popular science articles. It wasnt until the company started selling more aggressively to developers that DevRel became a formal function.
Birth of the software evangelist
Apple is said to have created the role of software evangelist in the 1980s, whose job it is to encourage developers to build apps for macOS and later iOS.
Apple realized that the value of the platform must be supported by the software running on the platform. The iPhone, for example, has been so successful in part because it offers consumers a rich and compelling set of apps. Although many applications were originally developed by Apple itself, with the continuous development of Apples ecosystem, third-party applications accounted for 99.99% of the App Store.
Product Driven Growth and the Rise of a Developer First Strategy
In 2016, Blake Bartlett of OpenView Venture Partners first proposed the concept of product-led growth (abbreviated as PLG) after investing in companies such as Optimizely and DataDog. The assumption behind product-driven growth is that adoption of a product can grow organically without significant top-down investment in sales or marketing. This model is often used by SaaS companies, where users can sign up and try the product for free in order to achieve growth. The purpose of this is to enable users to promote products in their own circles and build word-of-mouth for the products.
The product-driven growth strategy works especially well for companies that go directly to developers, such as Stripe, Twilio, and MongoDB. These companies employ DevRel strategies to accelerate growth. In this case, DevRel is very important, because the user interface design of the product prevents developers from getting the best experience. Due to the lack of a smooth front-end user experience, developers cannot easily use new APIs or SDKs, so more guidance and help are needed.
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Several functions of DevRel
A developer-first company like Twilio or Atlassian will have a full-fledged DevRel department and split jobs into DevRel functions like developer marketing or community management. And for relatively small startups, these functions are usually run by a single person who may not even have the word DevRel in their title.
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This diagram is based on developerrelations.coms The Four Pillars of Developer RelationsSlight adjustments.
In the figure, the meaning of awareness is self-explanatory; but for developer-oriented products, the concept of activation is more difficult to define accurately. For API interface products, developer activation usually refers to allowing developers to create an access token and call the API interface for the first time. For an SDK or library, developer activation refers to allowing developers to import and call functions in their code for the first time. The developer activation journey for different products is different. For an in-depth look at the developer journey, see Todd Moysfirst level title
Developer Relations for Web3
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Web3 DevRel is still in its infancy
Although some Web3 companies have established complete DevRel departments, such as Consensys, Alchemy, and Chainlink Labs, such companies are still rare. Most Web3 startups have only one DevRel representative, or do not even have this position, but temporarily assign DevRel-related functions to different team members.
Even though the Web3 team has set up multiple DevRel positions, these employees usually dont have much Web3 work experience. Many have come from Web2 giants such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon within the past 12 months. The Web2 DevRel community has also begun to notice this trend: In January 2022, DevRelCon founder Matthew RevellpredictIn the coming year, there will still be a large number of outstanding developer relations practitioners jumping to blockchain companies.
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DevRel means a lot to all kinds of Web3 enterprises
discussingWeb3 Developer Community, we briefly touched on a few types of projects that need to build a developer community. Since developer community building falls within the scope of DevRels responsibilities, companies must understand the working mechanism of DevRel if they want to build a developer community.
Companies that need to build a developer community generally fall into three broad categories, all of which have very similar business goals.
Web3 infrastructure
Such companies often do not bind to a certain protocol, but develop various tools and technologies to improve the interoperability of the Web3 ecosystem.
data oracle
L2 expansion plan
API interface to interact with blockchain
KYC management platform
distributed file system
Blockchain application SDK and middleware
DevRels business goal: to increase the number of integrations of the companys technology, and to generate revenue by charging for API calls and smart contract interactions.
L1 Blockchain and DeFi Protocols
Blockchain technology is usually managed and maintained by a decentralized team, while developer education is the responsibility of an open source foundation, such as the Ethereum Foundation or the Cardano Foundation.
DevRels business goals: increase the number of projects that access the protocol, grow revenue through transaction fees, and use the revenue to provide economic incentives for miners and node operators to ensure network security.
Trading Platforms and Markets
These are usually centralized digital asset trading platforms. Although such platforms are mainly aimed at end users, they also provide API interfaces and SDKs for developers to automate part of the transaction operations.
DevRels business goal: increase the number of integrations, thereby increasing the transaction volume of the platform, and earn income by charging transaction fees. Many protocols also provide free and paid aggregated transaction data that developers can integrate in their dApps.
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How DevRel Helps Startups with Funding
If a startup company can grasp the essentials of DevRel as early as possible, it will be more likely to be faster and faster.Complete all rounds of financing。Heavybit(a VC that invests in developer-first startups), Dana Oshiro, general partner, in a paper calledDefensibility and Value of the Developer CommunityAs mentioned in his speech, DevRel Commissioner can motivate investors to continue to provide financing for startups. Because DevRel can provide investors with various data and indicators that are of interest to them.
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seed round
During the pre-seed or cold start phase, the functions of DevRel are usually temporarily or randomly assigned to various members of the founding team. The developer who is the best speaker on the team will be in charge of demoing the product; one co-founder will be in charge of writing documentation; the other co-founder will be in charge of developer marketing.
Goal: At this stage, potential investors focus on whether founders canVerify product-market fit, and whether there are enough early adopters to sustain product development.
Goals and Metrics: Investors are primarily interested in indicators of early participation and attention, such as website traffic, social media activity, community signups, demo demos, and developer feedback.
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A round of financing
At this stage, a dedicated DevRel position must be set up. Startups face tougher vetting standards at this stage, as investors need to make sure the business can hit the next milestone before it burns out. Therefore, a full-time employee is required to launch the DevRel program and track the results, and it is no longer possible to let the founder or development lead work part-time.
Goal: Investors focus on whether the startup can recruit and retain developers, and start to benchmark against successful projects.
Goals and Metrics: Investors want the company to achieve the following goals: (Note: These goals have specific metrics, such as developer interactions, recommended customers, and retained community members)
Build product and community awareness.
Recruit developers and encourage developers to call API interfaces or smart contracts for the first time.
Stream and convert, get product feedback.
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After A round of financing
At this stage, it may not be enough to rely on one person for the DevRel position, and this person may be very busy. Companies should start breaking down DevRel roles into functions such as developer community manager, developer marketing lead, or by region, such as developer advocate for Asia or English.
Goal: Build defensive capabilities. At this stage, investors focus on whether the startup can recruit and retain developers, and there are enough successful developers to serve as references and cases.
Goals and Metrics: In $10-million rounds, investors want granular data that will give them insight into a startup’s momentum and ensure that the company can:
Continue to maintain momentum in terms of visibility and customer acquisition, and iteratively optimize based on product feedback.
Retain loyal developers with real user stickiness.
Developers are encouraged to recommend the technology to others and promote it spontaneously.
Github fork, integration, the number of integrations, third-party applications in the ecosystem, and the number of partners are all important metrics.
Summary of key points: Startups need to establish a DevRel team, each member can be responsible for different functions and achieve the measurement indicators in each key area, such as ecological growth rate and product participation.
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Which DevRel functions should early-stage startups focus on?
Many developer-first startups prioritize developer enablement and community development. That doesnt mean companies are neglecting marketing or advocacy functions, just that they will still be spread across teams. Developer empowerment and community functions will become the full-time work of DevRel commissioners.
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Why is there more emphasis on developer activation than developer awareness?
The first thing to remember is that this is just a fragment of a phase, not a permanent state. As the entrepreneurial team continues to expand, the focus will shift back to developer awareness. But in the early cold start phase, startups are often better at building awareness than retaining users.
This is especially true for Web3 projects, as founders are often under intense pressure to build network effects to attract investment. The point is to get people interested in its overall product vision and roadmap.
But there are countless projects competing for developers time and attention. So its not enough to have a compelling vision. If the developer experience is poor or the community feedback is not timely enough, these will quickly kill the interest of developers, and eventually they will migrate to other projects with better experience. Its all for naught if you can only build developer awareness without retaining developers.
We have mentioned in the previous article how toBuild a developer communitysecondary title
Strategies to Improve Developer Empowerment
Most developer-first companies employ many similar developer enablement strategies. However, many startups tend to ignore these strategies, or do not implement them seriously. Developer empowerment strategies include the following:
Develop high-quality technical documentation, tutorials, and getting started guides.
Host product-oriented webinars, live coding sessions, and instructional videos.
Develop clear error messages that cover issues at each layer of the product architecture.
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The Importance of Developer Experience Design
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Todd Moys flowchart -source。
This example comes from the title Developer Path Analysis, published by Product Designer Tod Moy. This is a very convincing case because it covers the entire developer journey, covering both content and product touchpoints. Moy researched the journey of a developer named Dewey and tried to document his motivations, pain points and bright spots.
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How do Web3 startups recruit suitable DevRel talents?
In the Web3 industry, companies compete fiercely for DevRel talents. 2022sTrueUp Crypto Position Research Reportsecondary title
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Since DevRel talents are in high demand, start-up companies should flexibly set job requirements, especially in terms of Web3 experience and work location.
Where to work: Since most Web3 organizations are highly decentralized, Web3 startups can easily compromise on where to work. The only thing to note is that recruiting employees in some jurisdictions may face some policy obstacles; in addition, it is necessary to ensure that the time zone coincidence of employees in various places is high enough for efficient coordination.
Web3 work experience: Many Web3 job descriptions require candidates to have some Web3 work experience. In fact, job seekers only need to have technical experience in the Web2 industry, because Web3 technical experience can be gradually accumulated in the work. In addition, if job seekers are interested in Web3 jobs, they are likely to have mastered the basic concepts of Web3 such as smart contracts, NFTs, and decentralization.
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Find job candidates with relevant skills
It is not necessary to recruit talents with DevRel experience. Because this is a new profession, many people come from other related fields. For example, a startup might consider hiring a technical writer who answers technical questions on Discord; a community manager who has technical knowledge and can write documentation; or a developer who is interested in DevRel roles and is technically adept communicate.
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Pay attention to empathy
Regardless of the professional background of the job seeker, an indispensable ability for DevRel positions is empathy. This requires one to be able to overcome ones own inner prejudices and prior knowledge. They need to understand the motivations and knowledge gaps of the target users. If startups can understand the demands of different types of developers, they can better customize communication and product strategies to meet the needs of target developers.
How to Assess Empathy
Assessing empathy is harder than assessing technical skills, so empathy is often overlooked during interviews. Companies ask some common questions to gauge a candidates social skills, but DevRels mission is to really put yourself in the shoes of a developer.
One way is to get job seekers from the five dimensionsExplain a certain Web3 technology concept to different types of groups (Note: Five Dimensions is derived from a very popular series of videos on Wired). For example, Chainlink developer advocate Patrick Collin in an article called Why Web3trust minimizationtrust minimizationconcept, so the concept is explained in plain language so that everyone can understand it. Explaining an obscure concept in a simple way is a must-have skill for all DevRel personnel.
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Why does Web3 need more DevRel people?
A DevRel team that can empathize with developers can provide guidance to new developers and help them quickly get started with the complex technology ecosystem. For many developers who have just entered Web3, Web3 is more like a city-state rather than a unified and coordinated industry. The unions of each city-state are competing with each other. This is changing as interoperability becomes more mainstream. Yet many times it is still difficult to harmonize language and terminology. This split is not only reflected at the language level, for example, there are various smart contract languages; it is also reflected at the conceptual level, for example, there are various competing consensus mechanisms, protocols, cross-chain bridges, L1 and L2, etc. Therefore, the DevRel commissioner will play the role of a translator, translating uncommon technical concepts into a more familiar language. Since the development work of Web2 is very different from that of Web3, complex technical concepts must be simplified in order to attract more Web2 developers to cross-border to Web3.
What makes DevRel positions unique is that they require loyalty on two fronts. On the one hand, the first responsibility of DevRel personnel is to ensure the success of the project. On the other hand, they also need to remain loyal to the developer community in the industry. Whether those developers are their direct customers or not, they want to see developers succeed. This vision motivates them to write more popular science articles and answer questions on developer forums like Stack Overflow. Doing so can effectively enhance the companys brand reputation, but it is not the fundamental goal that drives them.
Whats more, the success of Web3 infrastructure startups will increasingly depend on DevRel personnel. The field of Web3 infrastructure is constantly developing, and entrepreneurs are also aware of the markets need for decentralized infrastructure solutionsdemand is risingStartup with Chainlink Program
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