HOW TO DEVREL: The 10x DevRel  ## Metadata - Author: [[Leon]] - Full Title: HOW TO DEVREL: The 10x DevRel - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #devrel - #10x - #mentorship Author: Leon Source: Article Reference: https://adatosystems.com/2025/09/09/how-to-devrel-the-10x-devrel/ date created: 2025-09-09 00:00 --- # Title: HOW TO DEVREL: The 10x DevRel ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### References: - Leon. “HOW TO DEVREL: The 10x DevRel.” 2025-09-09. - Yechiel Kalmenson, blog post (2019) quoted by Leon: “A real 10x Engineer is an engineer who can boost the productivity of their team 10x...” ## 📝 Summary: The article critiques the myth of the “10x Engineer” and reframes “10x” as multiplicative impact through others rather than personal output. Leon argues that the true 10x capability lies in mentorship, uplift, and enabling others to tell their stories. For DevRel, especially solo advocates, being “10x” means finding and amplifying internal voices—removing barriers like workload, language, confidence, and platform—so those colleagues can share their truths. The piece concludes by challenging DevRels to use their credibility and access to open doors for others and to measure success by the success they enable. Key lines: - “A real 10x Engineer… boosts the productivity of their team 10x.” (quoting Kalmenson) - “A 10x DevRel… creates avenues for new storytellers to speak their truth.” - “Use privileges… to open doors… then stand back and let those new voices step through.” ## 📖 Main Content: The article dismantles the productivity fetish of “10x Engineer” by highlighting that even top performers have off days; greatness is not constant output, but resilience and what one does next—seeking help, learning, iterating. Leon pivots: the only sustainable path to “10x” is multiplying others. In DevRel—often an “army of one”—10x impact comes from discovering colleagues’ stories and removing barriers so they can share them. Practical guidance includes advocating to leadership to create time, embracing multilingual expression, and providing scaffolding (co-authoring, editing, coaching). The ethical heart: leverage privilege for inclusion and step back to spotlight others. Personal reflections: - This reframing aligns DevRel with community organizing: power-building, not performance. - It maps well to WordPress/open-source norms—distributed ownership, many voices, sustainability through contributors. - The “stories” are not marketing fluff; they’re authentic knowledge artifacts that compound when shared. ### 🗒️ Notes - The “10x Engineer” myth - Not about speed/volume/quality in isolation. - Everyone, even high performers, makes mistakes; consistency is a myth. - Real differentiator: persistence and learning posture. - The multiplicative model - Quote (2019): “boost the productivity of their team 10x” via mentorship and knowledge sharing. - True 10x = replication of capability. - DevRel context - DevRel often operates solo; cannot produce 10x content alone. - “Army of one” realities increase need for leverage via others. - Story-first approach - Everyone has a story but faces barriers: - Workload: negotiate space/time with leadership; tie stories to business impact. - Language: encourage native-language expression; embrace multilingual community. - Confidence: provide scaffolding—co-authoring, co-speaking, editing, coaching, brainstorming, honest feedback. - Platform: create avenues—blogs, internal tech talks, community stages, docs contributions. - Ethics and privilege - Use credibility, opportunity, experience, access to open doors for others. - Step back once doors open; center new voices. - Challenge to readers - “Why aren’t you a 10x DevRel?”—a call to action to adopt multiplicative practices. ## 📖 References: - Leon (2025-09-09). HOW TO DEVREL: The 10x DevRel. https://adatosystems.com/2025/09/09/how-to-devrel-the-10x-devrel/ - Yechiel Kalmenson (2019), quoted statement on 10x Engineers. ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: - Original idea: “Real 10x Engineers boost their team’s productivity… mentors, uplifts, shares… brings others up.” - Paraphrase: The genuine 10x effect comes from engineers who elevate everyone around them—through mentoring and open knowledge sharing—so the whole group performs at a far higher level. - Original idea: “A 10x DevRel… sees stories in people and creates avenues… uses privileges to open doors and step back.” - Paraphrase: A 10x Developer Advocate identifies compelling narratives within colleagues, constructs pathways for those narratives to be shared, and leverages their status to grant access—then recedes so the new voices can take center stage. ## 📰 Newsletter: Learning web dev this week? Let’s talk leverage over hustle. The “10x Engineer” isn’t someone hammering out 10x lines of code—it’s the mentor who multiplies everyone’s output. In DevRel and WordPress, that means spotting the stories in your team and helping them ship: co-author a post on that gnarly PHP refactor, coach a lightning talk on Gutenberg block patterns, or set up a contributor day to turn internal know-how into docs PRs. Recent updates: PHP 8.x adoption patterns, WordPress performance wins, and a few shiny plugins worth a look. Community highlight: first-time contributors sharing in their native languages—because inclusion > perfection. Tools: try a docs style guide, a contributor ladder, and TTS for accessibility. Read more on the “10x DevRel” mindset—multiply voices, not velocity: HOW TO DEVREL: The 10x DevRel (adatosystems.com/2025/09/09/how-to-devrel-the-10x-devrel). Hit reply with your team’s untold story; we’ll help you ship it. ## ✅ Action Items: Framed for a GoDaddy Developer Advocate focused on open source/WordPress and aspiring OSPO director. - Map “10x DevRel” to OSPO outcomes - Define a contributor ladder for internal teams; tie to performance/development goals. - Establish an internal-to-external storytelling pipeline: draft → review → publish on dev blog/docs/WP.org. - Measure multiplicative metrics: number of first-time contributors enabled, co-authored posts, talks coached, languages represented. - Reduce barriers - Workload: propose “contribution sprints” (2 hours/fortnight) linked to product OKRs. - Language: support multilingual posts and subtitles; pair native speakers with editors rather than forcing translation-first. - Confidence: create a coaching guild—templates for talks, posts, demo scripts; offer office hours. - Platform: maintain a publishing calendar and speaker bureau; match SMEs to events. - Education integration - Convert internal learnings (PHP, JS, Git, GitHub) into micro-curricula and workshop kits licensed openly. - Add hands-on labs for block/theme dev; GitHub Issues for practice PRs to core/plugins. - Sustainability and funding - Pilot a sponsorship rubric for community maintainers; report transparently on impact. - Track maintainer health signals; propose backfill budget for critical OSS dependencies. - Transparency and inclusivity - Publish contribution stats and DEIB insights quarterly. - Prioritize stories from underrepresented voices; implement code of conduct channels for speaker safety. - Career alignment (OSPO director path) - Draft an OSPO charter emphasizing education, contributor growth, and ethical funding. - Present a “10x through others” strategy to leadership with KPIs and case studies. ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - H1: Coaching internal SMEs to publish increases external contributor sign-ups by ≥30% within 3 months. - H2: Multilingual content yields higher engagement from new regi - Summary: If you’ve been anywhere near the coding side of tech within the last 8 or so years (and that includes just sitting with a programmer in the lunch room) you have probably... - URL: https://adatosystems.com/2025/09/09/how-to-devrel-the-10x-devrel/ If you’ve been anywhere near the coding side of tech within the last 8 or so years (and that includes just sitting with a programmer in the lunch room) you have probably heard of the “10x Engineer”. While the phrase is well known, the meaning remains somewhat murky. Does it mean an engineer who can develop 10x the volume of code? Develop an equal amount of code 10x faster? Create code that’s 10x higher quality? Or does 10x the number of functions? The IMPLICATION is that this is a person who can provide 10x the “value” (however you personally define it) compared to a regular run of the mill software engineer. It builds on an earlier version of the same trope – the Rock Star Engineer. An equally impossible bar which itself builds on a more realistic observation: we’ve all worked with certain folks who just seem to have it all together. Who know what they’re doing, make fewer mistakes, and knock out the work. The problem is that nobody is like that all the time. The people we remember as being brilliant made their fair share of mistakes – even on the days we thought they were knocking it out of the park. Rock stars hit bad notes sometimes. Sports legends miss the ball sometimes. 10x engineers get stuck. More than sometimes, all of those folks have the same experiences we do. A lot. So if they’re just regular mortals like us, what’s behind the myth? On one hand, I think it has something to do with what those folks do NEXT. Having made the mistake, found their code to be buggy, realized they have no idea how to proceed, etc… they keep going. They ask for help. They recognize (and even embrace) the opportunity to learn. Hell, the best engineers I know revel in the opportunity to learn something new, or even learn a new way to do an old thing. But there’s ONE aspect of the truly amazing folks that does qualify them as “10x”. My friend Yechiel Kalmenson [put it best in a blog post back in 2019](https://blog.yechiel.me/are-you-a-10x-engineer-348aa74c82d5) > “A real 10x Engineer is an engineer who can boost the productivity of their team 10x. An engineer who mentors, uplifts, shares their knowledge, and ultimately brings ten other engineers up to their level.” > > The only realistic way to get 10x more out of someone is to give them the space to replicate what they do in others. To allow their spark to ignite the same passion and drive in the people around them. And so I finally come to the topic in the tile of this blog: the 10x DevRel. Having read this far, it’s self-evident that even the most experienced, gifted, driven Developer Relations Advocate can’t write 10x more posts, record 10x more videos, engage 10x more audiences, build 10x more communities, run 10x more hackathons, and so on. BUT… unlike the software engineers I described at the beginning of this post, DevRel folks are not usually surrounded by teams of other DevRel folks. There aren’t multiple teams of DevRels working in (and on) various aspects of the company’s offerings. In many cases, the DevRel you meet is the only one at their company. They are the proverbial “army of one”. So how could it be possible for that lone voice in the wilderness to level up their game? It starts by recognizing that everyone is the star of their own movie, everyone has a story to tell, and many of those folks would love a chance to tell that story but they don’t know how to get past the barriers in their way. Those barriers might be workload, or language, or confidence, or technical skills, or simply not having a platform. And our job as Advocates is to do internally what we already do for our customers: to listen to their stories. To encourage and uplift them. To help them recognize that their story is, in fact, worth telling. And then to help fill in the gaps for them so that they can tell their story in a way, in a place, and at a time that enables them to shine. Too much work? The Advocate can (and should) go to leadership and help explain how that story would attract new business. Is language an issue? The Advocate should encourage their colleage to tell their story in their words. The world is a multi-lingual place. The person doesn’t feel confident in their abilities? It’s the Advocates place to provide whatever support they need – co-authoring, co-speaking, editing, coaching, brainstorming, or simply offering an honest reflection of the work, but also promising not to stop helping until the story is ready to be told. A 10x DevRel is the person who sees the stories in the people around them, and then creates avenues for those new storytellers to speak their truth. A 10x DevRel is someone who takes the privileges they have – the credibility, the opportunity, the experience, the access – and uses it to open doors, not for themselves, but to then stand back and let those new voices step through and into the light. So my question to you (if you’re a DevRel) isn’t “Are you a 10x DevRel”. My question is: “Why AREN’T you a 10x DevRel?” [](https://adatosystems.com/2021/01/18/sysadmin-day-2020-business-as-usual-during-the-new-different/) [](https://adatosystems.com/2022/06/13/who-are-we-helping/), HOW TO DEVREL: The 10x DevRel, Leon, 01k4qgmtnpqhcya24gfcmy6anx.