Asking the right questions for DevRel impact

Author's Note: What follows is Part 3 of a (currently) 6 Part series on Developer Relations, and how we can move it forward into the years to come. It is not meant as a definitive roadmap, but more as a kickstart down the road of conversation. Please comment as you see fit, and be part of what Developer Relations can become.

Also of note: much of this specific content comes from a previous post I wrote, "So you're starting a new DevRel job"

When you start a new Developer Relations or Community role at a company, you may well be their first hire, or you're coming in after someone else (or a group) has left, or you’re coming in to take over the team (or any variety of these and others not mentioned). During that initial onboarding you'll usually be asked to provide a 30/60/90 plan along with a strategy for the next year. This may seem daunting, but it’s something you should be prepared to do. You may also be coming at this as someone who's already in the role at the company, but you're wanting to reshape your DevRel Program to gain the maximum impact at your company. What follows

I’ve personally spent roughly the last 15 years in the Community and/or DevRel space, with the last 12 or so in an official capacity. What follows are the questions and steps I’ve learned to apply which are by no means a complete list - I’ve added to this list after each role change - but should be a good starting point for you.

If you haven't already, I highly suggest you take a look at the great resources that @blackgirlbytes has put together in her DevRel Journey Series, with a specific call out to her Tips to Succeed in your First DevRel Job.

Before joining

One of the first steps is to make sure you fully understand everything you can about the job you’re potentially taking. Making sure you ask some of these questions will help you to be a bit more informed about what you might expect before you start.

1. How does the company make, and lose, money?
2. What area of the company is the DevRel team a part of? Who would you report to?
3. What are the “big rocks” the department and company are tackling this quarter/year?
4. How are objectives identified and handled?
5. What is expected over the first 30/60/90 days?
6. Why do they want or need a DevRel team?

These will help to give you an idea of the company and how it’s structured and what you might be faced with on Day 1. All of the above come with the caveat that businesses can, and do, change from the time you receive the answers above to the time you start. However, this will give you a foundation to build off of.

photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

When you start

That first day, or week(s) in some cases, is usually full of all of the onboarding tasks which will occupy your time. That is, however, a good time to start your own personal onboarding to the team and company with some of the below steps:

1. If you’re onboarding with more than just yourself, build relationships with your fellow “first day-ers” - you never know when your paths might cross again and it’s good to have a frame of reference.
2. Meet with your manager and clarify the job as you understood it when you took the position to make sure you’re both on the same page. Also,
   • Make sure you understand the timeframe they have for the first deliverables for the position (30/60/90 day plan, strategy, etc.) and how they would like to receive it.
   • What is the budget that I have for the team? What was last year’s budget? What amount of discretionary spending do I have?
   • Identify how they would like to receive information like metrics, status, objectives, etc.
   • Identify who they would like you to meet with. This will likely be a high-level list, and you will want to drill down with each person when you meet with them.

After the onboarding

Once you’ve gotten through the “administrative” pieces of joining the company, you want to get started with the “roadshow”. This involves meeting with those identified by your manager, along with leaders in the following areas:

• Product Managers, Owners, etc.
• Product Marketing, Content, Demand Gen, etc.
• Engineering, Sales Engineering, etc.
• C-Level
• Customer Success

In those conversations, make sure to ask “Who else should I talk to?” and setup those meetings soon after. Below I will provide the questions that I use for the respective areas, some of which are duplicated across different teams. If you use any of these, it’s important that you customize them to your respective company.

Questions for everyone

1. What is the mission, vision, and values for the company? What are they for {insert department here}?
2. What are your priorities and goals? What wins do you need? How can DevRel help you accomplish those? How can I help you?
3. What are your biggest concerns about working with developers?
4. Do you have any concerns about the Developer Relations team and the way they’ve worked cross-functionally in the past?

Questions for Product teams

1. What are the pillars of our product?
2. What is our threshold for a new account for them having successfully “onboarded”?
3. What are the things we are currently hearing from users about our product?
4. Do we know when developers make the transition from checking us out, to “swiping the card”? Do we know why?
5. Do we know why developers do / do not choose us?

Questions for Marketing teams

1. [Demand Gen] What is our process for identifying developers at conferences/trade shows/events? How do we decide what to send to them? Any examples?
2. [Demand Gen] What is our current process around swag? Who is responsible?
3. [Demand Gen] What is the process for attending/sponsoring conferences?
4. [Demand Gen] Where in the funnel do you see DevRel helping?
5. [Demand Gen] What are our currently targeted developer communities? Regions?
6. [Demand Gen] Do we know when developers make the transition from checking us out, to “swiping the card”? Do we know why?
7. [Demand Gen] What is the current geographic customer breakdown, and what are the goals for this year and beyond? Any regions we’re avoiding specifically?
8. [Demand Gen] Where are our current, target markets? What are our current, targeted technologies?
9. [Product Marketing] Do we know why developers do / do not choose us?

Questions for Customer Success teams

1. What are the customer pain points that your teams are currently hearing about?
2. Are there any identified users who are already passionate about us?
3. Is there a space where we collect and share common issues or FAQ with the community?

If there is already a community….

1. What is the current community forum process? Who owns what?
   • The system?
   • Answering questions?
   • Outreach activities?
   • Any current processes to get an answer from someone in the company?
2. What metrics are currently collecting about the community? Programming languages? Functions/roles? Geographic locations?

What now?

Once you’ve gathered all of the answers, it’s time to look for common themes from each which can help you identify potential opportunities as you build your strategy and program. In theory, you should be able to have the beginnings of a strategy and program to present within the first 60 days to the key stakeholders who you identified during your “roadshow” in order to get their feedback, and then modify as needed by the 90th day.

Over the next 3 months (equal to the first 6 months on the job), start to implement the first steps of your strategy and tweak it as needed, with a mind to seeing results within the first year. This doesn’t mean that everything would be done and yielding results in the first year, but rather that you should start to see progress around your strategy, and that you’re hitting specific milestones that were identified. Then rinse and repeat.

So now let’s return to those dreaded questions around value.

Cover photo by Zach Lucero on Unsplash