The Business Value of Developer Relations Quotes

“Tangible makes us feel better. Tangible helps us predict a good ROI, but brand loyalty, relationships, and other key foundations of community are inherently intangible but almost incalculably invaluable. We can conduct surveys and look at indicators like all of those we’ve just listed, but as it stands, there is no perfect measure .”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“Developers hate being marketed to, and they have an incredibly sensitive awareness meter (or BS meter) for when they’re being pandered to.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“Whereas most professionals have the best interests of the business at their front of their minds driving their day-to-day decisions, DevRel professionals have the best interests of the community as their driving factor. They, of course, care about the success of the business as well—”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“every community is different, and although many methods and techniques work well and reliably, the most critical skill of all to learn is observing what is happening in your community and being able to react and optimize it.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“Developer Relations, and more broadly how we engage and build culture in communities, is a remarkably nuanced, complex, and context-specific discipline. There simply isn’t a one-shot recipe that works well for everyone.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“How they’re using it is obviously what’s most useful, helpful, and beneficial to them. Instead of struggling to make it be exactly what you want, why not work with them? Learn why that particular process or workflow is most helpful to them.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“If you’ve got products that are proprietary as well as open source, it’s important for you (and your stakeholders) to remember that your open source customers who typically aren’t paying for your product are just as valuable as your paying customers . Their feedback, contributions, and support are integral to your success. Because of this, you need to protect the open source offerings that your company has. Don’t make the open source products subpar to your paid products. Offer support to them just like you would to your paying customers. And treat your open source community just like you would your paying customers—with respect and appreciation.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“Without the ability to account for the value the DevRel team is contributing toward the overall company goals, you’ll be hard-pressed to keep the team together. In addition, you’ll have a hard time keeping your team motivated. As Rob Spectre says in his “Measuring Developer Relations” talk,1 the primary reason why you track metrics in DevRel is so that “everyone on your team knows—not thinks, but knows—the difference they are making with their work.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“There are times when it makes far more sense for something to come from a personal voice that has a face and a name attached.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“If your primary audience is developers, make sure your social media manager can speak to a technical audience.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“the Developer Relations team should never carry a quota related to a particular number of leads or the amount of money they’ve contributed to the pipeline.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“Let’s be clear about one thing, though: the primary goal of Developer Relations is not lead generation.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“if you do decide to go the route of hiring a Developer Relations professional, make sure to give them leeway to make decisions as they see fit.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“sales should never be the primary goal for the Developer Relations team.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“if you put the community first, the company will succeed.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success

“This isn’t as simple as marketing and broadcasting targeted messages to developers.”
― Mary Thengvall, The Business Value of Developer Relations: How and Why Technical Communities Are Key To Your Success