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# Developer Advocacy in accelerated times

Is your DevRel strategy just marketing in disguise? Discover how bridging the communication gap between engineers and executives saves companies millions in turnover costs.

- **Speakers:** [Chris Heilmann](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@chris-heilmann)
- **Event:** World Congress 2024
- **Published:** August 20, 2024
- **Duration:** 21:14
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1048-developer-advocacy-in-accelerated-times

## Summary

Developer relations (DevRel) is often misunderstood as purely an external marketing function, but its true value lies in acting as a bilingual bridge between a company's technical staff and its non-technical stakeholders. In this presentation, the author of the *Developer Advocacy Handbook* breaks down how effective DevRel drives both internal retention and external product demand. By translating developer pain points to C-level executives and nurturing internal engineers to become public spokespersons, companies can save millions in miscommunication and turnover costs.

A successful DevRel strategy must balance internal and external advocacy equally. Danger signs of a broken system include hiring external "loud voices" on social media who lack technical depth, or offering 40-year pension perks while failing to retain talent past three years. Instead, organizations should foster developer growth through structured career paths, internal knowledge sharing like "Lightning Thursdays," and open-source contributions. Giving developers a visible, public track record of their work not only prevents industry FOMO but dramatically boosts job satisfaction and organizational loyalty.

When it comes to sourcing top technical talent and staying informed, traditional job boards and algorithmic social media feeds fall short. Emphasizing open-source repositories allows hiring managers to evaluate a candidate's technical acumen alongside their collaboration skills—specifically how they handle pull requests and community comments. For technical inspiration, curating high-quality RSS feeds and industry newsletters provides far more actionable insight than chasing "interaction bait" on modern social platforms.

**Keywords:** developer relations, developer advocacy, technical talent retention, open source strategy, tech hiring strategies, developer career pathing, github pull requests, tech talent acquisition, engineering team communication, internal developer presentations, hr and engineering alignment, devrel strategy, rss feeds, developer job descriptions

## Chapters

1. **Origins of the developer advocate role** (00:00) — How the developer advocate position was created to translate between technical staff and company management.
1. **Bridging communication gaps with internal developer relations** (00:52) — Using developer advocates internally to optimize product documentation and communicate engineering frustrations to leadership.
1. **Mentoring engineers to become company spokespersons** (02:01) — Encouraging technical experts to speak publicly and represent the company rather than relying on non-technical presenters.
1. **Developer retention challenges and career progression** (02:43) — Addressing the broken promotion cycles that force engineers to change companies to advance their careers.
1. **External developer relations and capturing market demand** (03:21) — Gathering outside developer needs to inform product APIs and enabling external contributions through open source.
1. **Business benefits of a developer relations department** (04:39) — Improving talent retention, product maintainability, and market fit by maintaining a dedicated developer relations team.
1. **The pitfall of hiring external influencers for developer relations** (05:38) — Why hiring loud social media personalities fails compared to nurturing developer advocates from within the engineering team.
1. **Aligning HR job descriptions with actual engineering roles** (07:27) — Fixing the disconnect between recruiting teams that post unrealistic job requirements and the actual technical work.
1. **Providing structured career paths and meaningful employee perks** (08:27) — Offering realistic career safety and avoiding long-term pension perks for short-term engineering contracts.
1. **Measuring developer value and preventing fear of missing out** (09:26) — Defining engineering worth beyond lines of code and ensuring developers feel connected to modern industry trends.
1. **Promoting internal knowledge sharing and event participation** (10:26) — Sending developers to conferences and requiring internal presentations to distribute knowledge and build negotiation skills.
1. **Fostering public speaking skills with lightning talks** (11:51) — Hosting low-pressure technical meetings where engineers present code fixes to gain early speaking experience.
1. **Building public track records through open source repositories** (12:42) — Allowing engineers and interns to contribute to open source documentation and code to build their resumes.
1. **Sourcing quality technical inspiration using RSS feeds** (14:14) — Avoiding social media engagement bait by curating specialized technical content through reliable RSS readers.
1. **Curating newsletters and resources for engineering teams** (15:58) — Creating internal newsletters that share industry news, new tools, and job market trends to keep teams informed.
1. **Using open source contributions for technical talent acquisition** (19:01) — Evaluating potential hires based on their GitHub pull requests and team interactions rather than random job board applications.

## Related Moments

- [Transitioning from engineering to developer advocacy](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1748-emergency-discussion-can-t-hire-the-right-developers-here-s-what-everyone-else-misses) (from "Emergency Discussion: Can’t Hire the Right Developers? Here’s What Everyone Else Misses")
- [Leveraging social media for developer relations and public speaking](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1382-finding-your-way-in-tech) (from "Finding Your Way in Tech")
- [Experience requirements and empathy in developer relations](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1109-the-power-of-developer-communities) (from "The Power of Developer Communities")
- [Evolution and purpose of developer relations](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1799-stop-wasting-money-on-ads-how-to-actually-reach-developers) (from "Stop Wasting Money on Ads: How to Actually Reach Developers")
- [Transitioning into developer relations to blend coding and community](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/239-why-building-an-audience-is-the-best-thing-you-can-do-for-your-career) (from "Why building an audience is the best thing you can do for your career.")
- [Reframing developer relations and advocacy as an educational process](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/939-developer-tested-educator-approved) (from "Developer Tested, Educator Approved")

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- [From Coding in Silence to Sharing Your Developer Journey - Coffee with Developers with Francesco Ciulla](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/370-from-coding-in-silence-to-sharing-your-developer-journey-coffee-with-developers-with-francesco-ciulla)
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