Need someone to lead product management at your software company? I build high-craft software and the teams that build it. I'm looking for my next opportunity. Check out my resume and get in touch.

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

Business & Strategy

Developer Relations as Developer Success

Freshness Warning
This blog post is over 4 years old. It's possible that the information you read below isn't current and the links no longer work.

Most companies see Developer Relations as a marketing role. The job is to build awareness, recruit developers, and get product feedback.

Instead, the most important part of Developer Relations is to treat them like you do your Customer Success teams.

The primary role of your DevRel team is to enable customer outcomes. They are there to make the customer successful.

Creating developer tools, tutorials, and documentation are "one-to-many" enablers for customer outcomes. They are not targeted at a specific customer or specific outcome. These tools help developers discover self-success with your product.

One on one deep consulting with customers is another DevRel tool for customer success. By helping your customer understand what outcomes they are after and the best way to use your product to reach those, you’re enabling your customer to succeed.

Look at how you do customer success elsewhere in the company. What do you focus on? Onboarding? Adoption? Building competencies with your product? Do those same things as part of your developer relations.

Outreach, marketing, and developer evangelism are a part of Developer Relations. But the companies that are most successful with developers aren’t spending most of their time at events and doing content marketing. They’re spending most of their time making sure their developer customers are successful.

Recently Written

Lighten Your Process Burden
Dec 7: Everyone hates oppressive processes, but somehow we keep managing to create them.
Product Add-Ons Are An Expansion Myth
Dec 1: Add-ons can enhance your product’s appeal but won’t drive significant market growth. To expand your customer base, focus on developing standalone products.
Protecting your Product Soul when the Same Product meets New People.
Nov 23: Expand into new markets while preserving your product’s core value. Discover how to adapt and grow without losing your product’s soul.
Building the Next Big Thing: A Framework for Your Second Product
Nov 19: You need a first product sooner than you think. Here's a framework for helping you identify a winner.
A Framework for Scaling product teams
Oct 9: The people, processes, and systems that make up a product organization change radically as you go through the stages of a company. This framework will guide that scaling.
My Networked Webcam Setup
Sep 25: A writeup of my network-powered conference call camera setup.
Roadmap Outcomes, not Features
Sep 4: Drive success by roadmapping the outcomes you'll create instead of the features you'll deliver.
Different roadmaps for different folks
Sep 2: The key to effective roadmapping? Different views for different needs.

Older...

What I'm Reading