Raising the Next Generation of DevRel  ## Metadata - Author: [[LornaJane]] - Full Title: Raising the Next Generation of DevRel - Category: #articles - Document Note: ## Summarize: In this article, the author, a Developer Advocate, shares valuable insights and strategies for professional and personal development within the realm of Developer Relations (DevRel). The field of DevRel is vast, continually evolving, and requires a unique combination of specialist and generalist skills. The author emphasizes the importance of identifying essential skills for one's role and working on deliberate self-improvement. They also highlight the value of sharing knowledge and skills with others, contributing to the growth and development of the next generation of DevRel professionals. The article encourages being curious, generous, and open to continuous learning in this dynamic field. ## Bullet Points: - **The Monumental Skillset:** - Developer Relations professionals require a diverse skillset, including understanding and performing tasks of their target audience. - They must excel in writing, social media management, technical content delivery, public speaking, and even video streaming. - Adaptability is essential as roles may change, requiring the acquisition of new tech stacks and communication skills. - **Self Help for Developer Relations Professionals:** - DevRel lacks well-defined certifications, making personal and professional development self-driven. - Utilize a mix of study, activity, and advice to improve skills. - Identify valuable resources, follow experts in the field, and practice deliberate learning. - **Multiply the Growth:** - Encourage intentional learning through various methods: - Study groups or book clubs for specific knowledge needs. - Shadowing experts to acquire new skills with guidance and feedback. - Utilizing feedback loops to improve public speaking and writing. - Engaging in formal study or online courses for quantifiable skills. - Embracing docs-driven study by taking responsibility for producing documentation. - **Be Curious, and Generous:** - Acknowledge that learning is ongoing, and there's always something new to discover. - Foster good learning habits and a drive to improve continuously. - Share acquired knowledge and resources with others to facilitate collective learning and growth. ## Paraphrase: 1. **The Monumental Skillset:** When venturing into Developer Relations, professionals find themselves in a role that requires a diverse and unique skillset. To succeed, they must understand and even perform tasks akin to their target audience. From adept writing to skilled social media management, technical content delivery, compelling public speaking, and even video streaming, the Developer Relations expert juggles multiple roles. Such a combination of specialized and general abilities is challenging to master, making it easy to feel overwhelmed. However, by recognizing that certain skills may vary in importance across organizations and roles, individuals can focus on areas where they need improvement and develop a plan for growth. 2. **Self Help for Developer Relations Professionals:** The journey to becoming a proficient Developer Relations professional is not marked by well-defined certifications or exams. Instead, it's a path of self-discovery and intentional learning. There is an abundance of valuable resources available for those who seek to enhance their skills. Engaging with a mix of study, practical activities, and seeking advice from experienced practitioners is pivotal to achieving progress. By embracing deliberate learning and taking inspiration from others, individuals can strengthen their expertise in various aspects of Developer Relations. ## Conclusion: The article underscores the challenges and opportunities that exist in the realm of Developer Relations. It stresses the importance of recognizing the unique skillset required and encourages self-driven professional and personal development. The journey involves a mix of study, practical experience, and advice-seeking from experts in the field. Additionally, the article highlights the value of sharing knowledge with others to foster collective growth and development. By maintaining a curious and generous mindset, one can continually learn, adapt, and thrive in the dynamic and ever-changing world of Developer Relations. ## Questions: - How can Developer Relations professionals strike a balance between being a specialist and a generalist in their roles? - In the absence of standardized certifications, what are some effective ways for individuals to showcase their expertise and qualifications in the field of DevRel? - What role does intentional learning play in the continuous development of a Developer Relations career? - How can one identify and prioritize the essential skills for their specific DevRel role? - What strategies can be employed to foster a culture of knowledge-sharing and collaboration within the Developer Relations community? ## Auto-tagging: Developer Relations, DevRel, Professional Development, Skillset, Self-improvement, Learning, Knowledge-sharing, Generosity, Curiosity, Public Speaking, Writing, Social Media Management, Technical Content Delivery, Video Streaming ## Index Creation: - Developer Relations - DevRel - Professional Development - Skillset - Self-improvement - Learning - Knowledge-sharing - Generosity - Curiosity - Public Speaking - Writing - Social Media Management - Technical Content Delivery - Video Streaming ## Table of Contents: 1. Introduction 2. The Monumental Skillset - Understanding the Unique Skillset of Developer Relations Professionals - Balancing Specialized and Generalist Skills - Identifying Essential Skills for Success 3. Self Help for Developer Relations Professionals - The Evolving Nature of DevRel - Embracing Self-driven Professional and Personal Development - Leveraging Valuable Resources for Skill Enhancement 4. Multiply the Growth - Collaborative Learning and Development - Techniques for Skill Improvement - Study Groups and Book Clubs - Shadowing Experts - Feedback Loops - Formal Study - Docs-driven Study 5. Be Curious, and Generous - Embracing Curiosity in a Dynamic Field - Cultivating a Generous Mindset for Knowledge-sharing - Empowering the Next Generation of Developer Relations Professionals 6. Conclusion ## References: [The original article, if applicable, should be listed here.] ## Future Research: - Exploring the effectiveness of different learning methodologies in the context of Developer Relations. - Investigating the impact of structured mentorship programs on the professional development of DevRel practitioners. - Assessing the role of knowledge-sharing communities and their influence on the growth of the Developer Relations field. - Examining the long-term career trajectories of individuals in Developer Relations roles to identify patterns and opportunities for growth. ## Hypotheses: 1. **Hypothesis 1:** Developer Relations professionals who actively engage in deliberate practice and seek feedback will demonstrate greater skill improvement in areas such as public speaking and writing. 2. **Hypothesis 2:** The establishment of formal mentorship programs within the Developer Relations community will lead to increased knowledge-sharing, resulting in a more robust and interconnected professional network. 3. **Hypothesis 3:** Professionals who actively participate in study groups or book clubs focused on specific knowledge needs will exhibit accelerated growth and expertise in those areas. ## Methodology: 1. **Research Design:** Conduct longitudinal studies tracking the professional development of individuals in Developer Relations roles over an extended period. 2. **Data Sources:** Utilize surveys, interviews, and performance evaluations to gather quantitative and qualitative data on skill development and knowledge acquisition. 3. **Analysis Techniques:** Apply statistical analysis to measure skill improvement, identify trends, and explore correlations between learning methodologies and professional growth. ## Implications: The findings of future research in the field of Developer Relations can have significant implications for - Document Tags: [[devrel]] - Summary: Developer Relations isn’t new, but it’s also broad, ill-defined, and constantly evolving. It’s difficult to keep your own skills up to date, never mind coping with a whole team fu… - URL: https://lornajane.net/posts/2023/raising-the-next-generation-of-devrel Developer Relations isn’t new, but it’s also broad, ill-defined, and constantly evolving. It’s difficult to keep your own skills up to date, never mind coping with a whole team full of people and constantly creeping industry scope. The required combination of specialist and generalist skills to be successful is any of the Developer Relations and allied roles is extensive, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and end up coasting being just-good-enough at things but never feeling mastery. As an individual contributor, manager and general DevRel presence over the years, I’ve developed some tactics both for myself and my team, and I’d like to share them in case they’re useful to others. Also since I’m moving to a less DevRel role, writing this down while I can still think about it! When I was in my first ever round of interviews for a Developer Advocate role, I asked the interviewer “What is this role on the way to? I love Software Engineering, but if I become a Developer Advocate next, where does that lead me?”. He thought for a while and then said “CTO. I’ve seen a couple of very good DevRel people do that and the only skillset this weird belongs to a founder”. That phrase stayed with me “skillset this weird”; it’s funny because it’s true. Developer Relations professionals need to understand or maybe even perform the job of their target audience. We need to communicate in writing as well as the documentarians, operate social accounts like the PR specialists, deliver technical content like a lecturer or keynote speaker – and probably video stream as well. We need to be able to juggle multiple competing projects, and often complex travel arrangements, and be publicly available, polite and positive, online and IRL, at all times. That’s three separate career categories right there, so how do you gain all those skills, and develop them in meaningful ways? And when you change jobs and need to switch out to a new tech stack and a different subset of communication and workplace skills, then what? The first thing to recognise is that many roles need some selection of these skills, but not all of them are equally important in each role. Your team may already do a skills matrix to help you understand what skills are most important in your role, or how the skills are spread across the team members, and this can be useful. If you’re doing this with a team for the first time, keep it simple. Mine usually look something like this (I’m resisting the urge to go on a tangent but let me know if a post about this would be useful): [](https://lornajane.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/skills-matrix.png) The desired skills and level of those skills will change between organisations, between roles, maybe even within one role over time – that’s expected. What you need to do is identify something that you could get better at. Then it’s time to make a plan. ##### Self Help for Developer Relations Professionals This career isn’t well-defined. There aren’t many well-recognised certifications or exams to take, and in many ways as an industry we’re still working out what would be considered good practice in any particular situation. By picking one skill to work on, you’re essentially putting a better tool in the toolbox that you take with you and open when you need to tackle any challenge. In the absence of a single source of documentation or other truth, we become our own teachers, but luckily there are so many good resources out there that the real challenge might be choosing where to start! Some topics can be studied in an afternoon; if you need to prepare to host the regular webinar on StreamYard then their own docs, a well-presented example webinar and some time spent pressing all the buttons and checking the output is probably all you need. Other skills or topics may take a little longer, especially where the scope is large; for example public speaking is an apprenticeship that takes a lifetime! Along the way I have: read about ten books and many online articles about various aspects of the craft, given a few hundred talks with a few thousand hours of private rehearsal, watched those talks on video where they were recorded, received a lot of talk feedback, watched a thousand talks by other speakers, helped a few dozen other speakers to prepare and deliver their talks, become quite a connoiseur of talk abstracts for different types of event, spent two years as a regular Toastmaster attendee – and come away with the impression that there really is a lot still to learn. What’s common to both of those learning journeys is the mix of study, activity, and advice that brings improvement in each area. Taking input from different people, in different formats, and crucially practising those skills and reflecting on your progress, is what drives you forward and also consolidates what you learn. Identifying resources that can give you what you need next can be difficult, the Internet is a big place. Set up a feed reader and follow the writings of people you admire in your area of interest (I started putting some suggestions here, but frankly it got out of hand and should be a separate post). You can also look at the archives for curated resources lists such as [DevRel Weekly](https://devrelweekly.com/) to find things on specific topics or get to know some individuals to follow. When it comes to the hands-on element, there’s an idea called “deliberate practice” that expands on research showing that the quality of someone’s practice is what dictates their skill improvements. Be intentional with learning, with looking for opportunities to use those skills, preparing well for the opportunities, and in reflecting on how things went afterwards. ##### Multiply the growth So far, so personal and professional development. What about the next generation? Well, **in DevRel, we are all the next generation**. There are people just joining, leaving, transitioning in sideways, and others doing the same role with a different title – and all of them are an important part of your story, just as you are of theirs. There is no “still doing it the old way” here, all of us keep on learning, evolving, adapting, improving. If you have experience in the field, then you can raise the next generation by sharing your skills and knowledge with the individuals behind you. This is super valuable and could have been a blog post by itself – but this is a different post. The real scaling of the DevRel skill standards comes from us being intentional in the way that we lean on one another to learn. You are probably familiar with all the techniques here, but consider how you might apply them to the next thing you want to learn, with the people you have around you. Here are some ideas and when to use them: * **A study group or book club**: This is really effective when there’s a well-defined knowledge need (rather than a skills one), and you’re all at a similiar level to start with, so it’s a group with a shared mission. An example of when this could be useful: working through the onboarding guide to a new reporting tool that you’re going to be adopting at your organisation. * **Shadow an expert**: Borrowed from medical teaching practices, where famously they “See one, do one, teach one” to learn a procedure. This approach is ideal when you have an expert who is prepared to work with you to hand over the activity or skill. I’ve used this before when chairing meetings, and wanting to be able to rotate the chair. First, I explain my chairing process, what I’m looking for, how the mechanics work. Then, I chair a meeting, with my protege in attendance. At the next meeting, they chair, and get some feedback (realistically, we might repeat this step a few times – and I’m sure doctors do too!). Finally, and after some practice, they will take on the responsibility of teaching this to someone else one day. * **Feedback loops**: Most developer relations teams practice this one already, using the rest of the team or company as talk rehearsal audiences or blog post reviewers is a great way to improve at speaking or writing. Note that the purpose of the feedback loop in this instance isn’t to make a great talk/post, but to help the author to reflect themselves on what is already great, and what can be better – and pick that up themselves next time. *Getting better at delivering great feedback is also a skill worth working on, try [Lara Hogan’s Feedback Equation](https://larahogan.me/blog/feedback-equation/) and take your responsibilities as a feedback giver seriously.* To be really meta, take a leaf out of the Toastmasters’ book and give feedback on how the feedback was for those looking to improve their feedback skills. This approach works really well for improving skills like speaking or giving feedback, and can also work in a team of peers – it doesn’t necessarily need an expert to offer feedback that you wouldn’t have thought of yourself. * **Formal study**: Formal study is still pretty effective, actually, especially for individuals with good study skills. Although if you prefer video, then do that too, of course. The hard part about this sort of thing is making time to study solo. An online course with deadlines can help ~force~ encourage you to keep up with your studies and invest the time in this approach. I’ve [written about this before](https://lornajane.net/posts/2013/study-days-keeping-on-top-of-the-new-shiny) (wow that’s an old post!), but it’s just as effective today as ever. This approach works best for fairly quantifiable skills, so learning a new tech stack or a particular technique makes this a good option. * **Write the docs**: Docs-driven study is one of my favourite ways to get to know a tool or technology. Take responsibility for one piece of documentation or a tutorial on a topic that’s a little outside of your zone. By working through the details yourself, to a level where another person can come along and use what you produce, you will unavoidably learn something! This is especially good for getting to know the tools that you haven’t tried yet, or that cool third party integration you’ve been reading about. None of these are difficult to adopt, but it’s unlikely any of us will improve if we keep doing the same things, over and over. Go out of your way to pick one thing to improve, focus on, or intentionally practice. It’s hard to feel like the other things can wait – but they can. Honestly. ##### Be Curious, and Generous The truth is, there’s a lot to learn, and there always will be. Good learning habits, and intentional drive to improve are the best things you can teach yourself. There is a lot of research, plenty of good “this worked for me” content, and other resources around us. Go hunting for the best bits, and devour them. Share the links with others in your network, or curate collections so we all keep learning and building. Crucially, remember that someone is always you on the path, and you have something to teach them. Write what you’ve learned and how others can use it too. I hope this post helped you to reflect on the resources we have available to teach ourselves, our teams, and our industry – but I would never have written it until one day I looked at the team I had grown, and saw them grow one another, and thought we were on to something that we should share., Raising the Next Generation of DevRel, LornaJane, 01gv5nv414c3jtn1c68p0v8p57.