Inspired by a recent blog post from Jeremy on how to approach the first 30/60/90 days of a new devrel position, I wanted to share a few things that really worked for me when starting out on my evolution from dev to devrel. I highly reccomend taking a look at Jeremy's article as well - he has a ton of experience and shared some fantastic insights especially if you will be leading a team or are the first devrel hire.
But what if you are coming into an existing team with an existing community as an IC? This was the case when I began at Wix and my onboarding goals outside of learning the product were to get into our existing dev community and understand what they needed to grow and succeed.
At first we only had an in-house developer forum. We later established a presence on YouTube, Twitter, and Discord but when I began the only place to find Velo developers sharing was in the forum.
Getting to know your community
Step1: Set up time to chat with existing internal community maintainers
For me, step 1 was talking to the folks at your company that had been most invested in working directly in the community with the users. What had been working for them, what was hard, what they were hoping to see by having devrel in the forum space with them. In my case, there were 2 people moderating and providing technical assistance to users in this space when I started.
After that, it's time to take a look with fresh eyes.
The first mental hurdle I had to get over was feeling like I needed to be an expert to provide value to the community.
Let's face it, your users are the experts.
Okay, not always true but what it really means is the invested developers building with your product have some deep knowledge. Your product is in some way connected in some way to their livelihood and they may build with it every day. They know your API's and how to work around them. They have alot of ideas about what the product needs. This can be INTIMIDATING when you are new, but it is actually an opportunity.
Step 2: Talk to your dedicated and advanced users
When you spot a highly invested and advanced user early in your journey, take a look at what they are building and the conversations they have in the community. Reach out and get to know them (be respectful of their time and ask before sending that first dm). Building relationships early with your highly invested users is invaluable and also helps you find out what is missing for folks more advanced with your product.
Bonus, it's also fun and inspiring!
Step 3: Dive in and join the conversation.
The fastest way I was able to onboard to my product after following the user journey and reading the docs was to jump into our Q&A forum and start helping users solve problems. It is important to note here that I did not always know (and still don't always know) how to help up front. Some strategies I use when I see a problem a user is having and I'm not sure the solution right away...
Admit what you don't know yet. For Velo, there are so many API's and even now there are some I know much better than others. That's okay. Sometimes I will start a response saying "I haven't tested this yet, but ..." and offer some example, docs, guidance, place to start. I find many folks simply appreciate having someone to problem solve with and ultimately you will be able to get to the bottom of the issue even if the solution is finding a dev from the product team to assist you in the response.
Bring the question to the attention of the team/individual who would know best. If you can't find the answer in the docs and examples, neither can your users. Sometimes you need to go straight to the source and chat with the team that built the API. Through this process you will learn more and also bring valuable feedback to the teams on where your users get stuck. Bonus, you will build internal relationships through this process.
Ask questions! Have you ever asked for help and gotten no response? Sometimes it is because what is super clear to you is missing context so no one is able to answer. If you see a user looking for help but their question doens't make sense, ask them to provide more context.
Finally, while you are having all these conversations be sure to keep an ideas/notes doc. This is your potential future content.
Final Thoughts
Just started on a devrel team and have an existing community?
✨ Find out who has been maintaining the community previously and set up time to chat with them
✨ Talk to your dev users! They know a TON and you can start building relationships with them early.
✨ Help your dev users - even if you don't have the perfect answer up front, start a conversation, be honest, and be empathetic.
✨ Connect with your internal product teams.
✨ Find holes in documentation and examples through this process to advocate for improvements.
✨ Come away with a list of content ideas and a deeper understanding of your product and users.
What else do you do to get started in a new developer advocate position? Leave some tips in the comments!
Wanna connect with me? I love to chat. You can find me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and GitHub.
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