DevRel Wins  ## Metadata - Author: [[Community Pulse]] - Full Title: DevRel Wins - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/e6d5e6e8-ce49-4854-87e4-4231cbeee904 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Manage Video Updates Proactively** - Maintain internal documentation and archives of raw video assets for easy updates. - Coordinate with sales, marketing, and support to communicate updates and maximize content impact. Transcript: Speaker 2 That? So I will say the first thing is we try to give a good internal documentation about the videos that we do. I don't choose record videos and polish them. There is a process where we create a script. We have a backlog in Notion and we also use platforms like Frame.io, which help us to have all of videos in the cloud, like the raw files, the raw audio. So the thing that we can do is whenever we find things that are out of date, we can go back to whatever video we created on that topic. And normally for each of the videos that I do or that we do, there is a correspondent article in our community portal. So we can go back and create a new version of the article and saying, hey, you know, now that, just to give you an example that happened very few days ago, we had a bunch of content around Air table. So you can integrate air table into AppSmith, but it turns out they changed their authentication mechanism. Now you have to create personal tokens to authenticate. So all of the templates, tutorials and videos that we created using OAuth 2, no longer work. So we go back to all of those articles. And if there were comments or references to those articles, we create a new article and we talk to those people. Also, if we know they're customers, because we know everything about customers, if they're using the air table connection, we talk to them and we say, hey, this is the new version of The video. And this is the new version of the article and the guide in the authentic in the documents, because these things are changing. And we create campaigns in our social media. So this is the other thing. The real is not a standalone work at all. We have to talk to sales. We have to talk to marketing. We have to talk to product. And that's definitely like one of also the pain points of this work, which is great. I love it. But you have to have the ability to go to talk to sales and explain to them in their words the technical team and even support. You know, when support is getting a lot of tickets about why is it not working, we have to let them know, hey, here's the documentation, the updated videos, the updated content, because They're complaining about air table not working because they had OAuth 2 and that personal tokens. Here's the content. So it is a complex piece of work that the world cannot work standalone. You have to work with all of the teams internally at your company. So that's normally what we try to do and maybe reuse ([Time 0:28:18](https://share.snipd.com/snip/42c3437e-b199-4905-8346-0b6ac7cbad75)) - **Keep DevRel Content Simple** - Keep your content simple and focused by covering only three to four topics per video. - Use short videos with clear CTAs to encourage viewers to continue engaging with your content. Transcript: Speaker 2 Is that I think, I was incorrect, I think that the more features and the more I gave on a video, the more I'm accomplishing and that's completely wrong. They keep it simple, keep it simple, stupid principle, the kids principle applies to dev rel. Don't try to cover a lot of things on your content. Take this three to four topics. Each topic should be no more than five minutes. Don't go deeply into the feature itself. Don't try to be a teacher. Just try to bring the value and the people will find a way. You just have to give them the tools they need. So I will say less is more and that's my recommendation. Don't try to overload your videos or your content or your tutorials because people will drop. Keep it simple, stupid and you will see how people will continue on the journey and they will want to have more. And actually, I will notice this when we're looking at the numbers. A lot of conversion in videos comes from what happens at the end of the video, which is the CTA, which is the call to action. Here's another playlist. Here's another video and we see that users who subscribe and actually watch a video, they tend to watch another video. But it's because the video itself, it's simple. If you try to put a lot on a video, they will drop, they will not stay, they will not watch another video. And we notice that. And when we change things to a small series of videos, people have this assumption or this conception that they are winning, they are earning something. If you're giving something to complex at first, they will overload and drop. So ([Time 0:31:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/78c532e5-49c5-46fd-a389-c81fc8e209ec)) - **Engage Audience and Teams Directly** - Talk directly to your audience including developers and stakeholders to get genuine feedback. - Facilitate direct communication between product teams and users to improve product understanding and solutions. Transcript: Speaker 4 You give? Speaker 1 So I'm going to put on my product manager heads and say the simplest advice is talk to your audience. Talk to your developers. Talk to your people. Talk to the stakeholders. Make sure everyone is aligned. Make sure you get the feedback and make sure you get the feedback at different levels. So oftentimes, especially when you're working with larger corporations, it's easy to get stuck in this thing. Well, oh, and we didn't really get to talk to engineers, but we talked to their team manager, their product manager, which kind of conveyed everything. Yeah. And that's perfectly valid feedback from a team leader or product manager, add your customer or partner or whatever that might be. Did you actually talk to the engineers? That is so important to get like everything raw from the source. And then if you get a chance, like this is like an bonus tip that I really highly recommend is as like as a dev professional, whether you're called yourself an evangelist or a technology Evangelist or a developer advocate or whatnot, you are in that unique position where you know how this tech is consumed, how your platform is being used. And you talk to all these different people, you have all these connections, some of them personal, some of them most superficial, some of them just in writing for a forum or a discord Or whatnot, make those connections, but also bring those connections into the companies. So if you have a team that's working on an SDK or an API or whatnot, make sure that they actually get to meet some of these people, invite your customers into like give a 30 minute lunch and Learn. This is how we use your API or your product within our products is how we integrate with it. So your product teams and your engineering teams can actually hear firsthand some of the struggles because you can be the person that comes in representing your developer community And saying, oh, this is what we're hearing from the community and everyone like, yeah, cool, great feedback. But when you actually hear it directly from them, it gives them much more insight, not depth to the conversation. So those are kind of my two cents, probably a bit more than that. But that's how ([Time 0:33:07](https://share.snipd.com/snip/09d95e27-0fdb-40a5-8720-1e31304f1972)) - **Leverage Layoff Outplacement Help** - Use outplacement services after layoffs to get coaching and clarify career goals. - Leverage your network to review resumes and success stories, and never hesitate to ask for help. Transcript: Speaker 1 And I was also facing like layoffs just before the holidays kicked in and before the Christmas holidays and New Year's and everything. And one of the things that I've been really struggling with is like, should I stay within DevRel? Should I go into more traditional management? Should I just find a director role at a nice company and be happy about that? Or should I really push the boundaries? Like, I wasn't quite sure which direction I want us to go. And meanwhile, recruiters just been relentless nonstop trying to figure out if they could get me to do whatever. Oh, we could be our next junior developer for .NET. Yeah, I don't think that's quite me. So anyways, where I'm going with all of this is one of the things that was part of my package from like the the seven package was a replacement service. And that is one of the probably most controversial things because I've heard a lot of people just absolutely to trash these kind of services. But I actually want you to, if you're going through layoff and you have this as an option, take the time. Try it out, see what they have to offer. Worst case scenario, you waste a couple of hours of your life talking to someone that you can just turn right and say, yeah, this is just not going to provide any value to me. So in terms of my case, I actually got hooked up with like they did an initial survey of what you're actually looking for. Do you need to help writing a CV? No, I know how to write a CV. Do you need help creating a beautiful LinkedIn profile? No, I do know how to create a LinkedIn profile. That's okay. You need help with storytelling. No, I can tell my story is just fine. So what I really said is, look, I need someone to kind of coach me to help draw out all the difficult questions, to really get to know me subjectively a little bit and also objectively to Try and figure out what is exactly you want to ask all the right and uncomfortable questions on. Why do you think that? Why do you want to do that? Is that a good idea? And it's been incredibly useful just to kind of align my own thinking about what I want to do. And so that's that's kind of one part to it. So if you have that option, if you're in the situation, take the time worst case you waste a couple of hours. And the other thing is obvious to anyone just network network network, but also just get some of your close peers to like review a resume and have like look over your success stories and Results and everything and kind of draw out some of the highlights just use your network. Everyone is more than happy to chip in. Everyone feels bad when they hear you're being laid out for us. Anything I can do? Yes, actually there is. Would you mind reading through this resume and just give me a five cents? So that's kind of my my check out is future network. Don't be afraid to just ask for help. People would love to help. And you have the option of trying out now placement service. Just do it worst case. You waste a few hours. Speaker 3 Awesome. Great advice. Great advice. And I think ([Time 0:40:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f5b75a7d-7f94-4f9a-8cc8-dd0e28019bc2))