What Is DevRel? Developer Relations Explained

DevRel meaning and definition

DevRel is short for Developer Relations. Developer Relations is exactly what it sounds like, a marketing policy that prioritizes relationships with developers. In general society, there is a word known as PR which means Public Relations. You could say DevRel is the developer version of Public Relations.

DevRel is the marketing technique used to ensure that one’s company, products, and developers establish a good, continuous relationship with external developers and community.

People who do DevRel often have a technical background, having worked in the industry before switching to their role, but that is not a requirement. I have sometimes heard them dubbed “the social developers”.

Despite being employed by an organisation, they should have the best interest of developers and community in mind first and establish good communication between the parties.

What DevRel does

Something to note, DevRel is something you do and not something you are! But what do people who do DevRel actually do?
There are different job titles that encompass the different roles someone in Developer Relations can hold:

• Developer Advocate
• Developer Evangelist
• Community Manager
• Developer Educator

Depending on team size, there can be specializations of each of those roles – leaning more into one responsibility or the other.

• Develop educational content and learning assets
• Give in-person presentations and run workshops
• Boost brand visibility and recognition
• Build and manage community programs
• Organize, host, and participate in meetups

The role of a Developer Advocate

I am a one-person-team taking up the role of Developer Advocate. That means I try my best to cover all aspects of that role:

Marketing: Putting my technical knowledge of Icinga to work with our marketing department, running different social media campaigns, and overseeing our blog content.

Enablement: One of my goals is to make sure that all people who want to contribute to Icinga have the means to do so. That means pestering our Developers to write documentation, write documentation myself, sorting our tutorials, and generally create content to make contributing as approachable as possible.

Advocacy: I understand advocacy as being “the bridge of communication” between our developers, the community, and our management. I try to mediate where I see potential for conflict, answering questions and making people feel welcome in our community.

Community: Engaging with our community in the form of visiting events, giving talks, hosting events, roaming the community forum and generally being the face of Icinga you can approach.

Generally, those blend together in my day-to-day work.

Recommendation of DevRel Conferences

A DevRel conference is a good opportunity to stay up to date with the latest trends, taking part in interactive sessions, and broaden your network within the DevRel community. There are a few events, you should check out:

• DevRelCon: DevRelCon is dedicated to the craft of Developer Relations. Sessions focus on tactics you can apply immediately.
• OpenSourceSummit (Linux Foundation): You will meet a large, very diverse group of participants interested in open source.
• KubeCon (Linux Foundation/Cloud Native Foundation): A major event focusing on Kubernetes and cloud native, with a correspondingly large number of attendees. It is more on the commercial site, but it remains an excellent opportunity to engage with a diverse range of individuals and personas.
• All Things Open: All Things Open is a large, community-driven conference focused on open source and open technologies.

Help me help you!

Doing DevRel at Icinga is my dream job. I get to meet great people, support Open Source, and most important: help you achieve what you want with Icinga.

If you have concerns, wishes or something else in your mind, feel free to contact us and reach out to me.

Haven’t heard of Icinga yet? We offer an open source monitoring solution that integrates easily into existing infrastructures. It provides unmatched flexibility in configuration, automation and scaling.

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