What actually works in early-stage developer ecosystems
DevRel looks different when developers are building on systems that are still changing underneath them.
Leading Developer Relations at Midnight has meant building an ecosystem from scratch, before launch, while the product is still taking shape underneath us.
It has been one of the most challenging and instructive experiences of my career. This is my first time leading DevRel pre-launch, with real users, real incentives, and real consequences when things break. When nothing is stable yet, every assumption about DevRel gets pressure-tested fast.
What actually helps developers move forward becomes very clear, very quickly.
As we get closer to taking the chain live, these patterns have become impossible to ignore.
In early 2025, I wrote an article about DevRel at Midnight as a systems problem. Flywheels, journeys, scaffolding for scale. That thinking still holds.
What changed is that we stopped designing in the abstract and started operating those systems with real developers, real incentives, and real breakage. Some assumptions held. Others collapsed fast.
This post is not a replacement for that earlier strategy. It is what survived contact with reality.
For context, here’s the original piece: DevRel in Web3: Building Systems that Scale While the Ecosystem is Still Taking Shape.
1. Engagement programs are only valuable if they create directional movement
Healthy ecosystems help developers move somewhere, not just participate.
Quests, fellowships, Discords, events, and content have value only when they push developers forward, from curiosity to first build, from contribution to real ownership. Activity without progression is just motion, not momentum.
Early-stage programs must teach something concrete and lead to something tangible. Developers should leave knowing more than they did before and having built something they did not have yesterday.
If a program cannot answer “what does this unlock next?” it is not an engagement strategy. It is marketing noise with better branding.
2. Docs, tooling, and support are converging into a single developer experience
Developers experience your ecosystem as a single surface, no matter how many teams, orgs, or silos exist behind the scenes.
From their perspective, documentation, examples, local tooling, error messages, and support are inseparable parts of one experience. When something breaks, they do not diagnose which team owns it. They just decide whether to keep going.
The ecosystems that feel easy to build on are the ones that design these pieces as a coherent system, not as a collection of disconnected deliverables. Consistency, handoffs, and shared ownership matter more than perfect individual components.
If it feels smooth to the developer, it is because the org did the hard work to make it so.
3. Early-stage DevRel credibility is earned through consistency, not scale
Shipping reliably beats launching big, every time.
Weekly rhythms, predictable programs, clear expectations, and visible follow-through build trust faster than any splashy campaign ever could. It may not look glamorous from the outside, but developers notice when things run on time, work as described, and improve steadily.
Early-stage ecosystems are experiments by definition. The teams that earn trust are not the ones that avoid mistakes, but the ones that ship quickly, acknowledge what did not work, fix it, and keep moving. Momentum comes from iteration, not perfection.
Consistency plus learning beats polish every time.
4. Early-stage DevRel succeeds or fails on unblocking, not inspiration
The most effective DevRel teams are not necessarily the loudest but instead are the fastest at removing friction.
At early stages, developers do not churn because they lack motivation. They churn because they hit blockers, and no one clears them quickly enough. The teams that win treat DevRel as an unblocker responsibility first, and storytelling second.
5. Flat teams outperform rigid hierarchies in early ecosystems
When you’re building an ecosystem from zero, no one actually knows what will work yet. The fastest progress comes from teams that invite ideas from everywhere, try things quickly, and course-correct without ego.
We treat DevRel as a continuous experiment. Ideas come from the team, from builders, from the community. We test them. Some land. Many do not. We learn, adjust, and move forward. That is not chaos, it is disciplined adaptation under uncertainty.
Decentralized ecosystems demand this mindset. The community ultimately decides what sticks. The role of DevRel is not to dictate direction, but to create the conditions where good ideas surface, get tested, and scale when they earn it.
Everyone involved brings expertise. Everyone has seen DevRel done well and badly elsewhere. The teams that win are the ones confident enough to listen, humble enough to pivot, and disciplined enough to turn learning into action.
6. Small, well-instrumented communities outperform large, unmeasured ones
You do not need more developers. You need clearer visibility into the ones you already have.
Early-stage ecosystems win when teams can answer simple questions: who is progressing, who is stuck, and why. But insight alone is not enough. What matters is what you do next.
Strong communities turn feedback into action. They intervene when builders hit friction, create new paths when momentum stalls, and give developers clear reasons to keep building and deepening ownership.
Retention does not come from scale. It comes from attention. A smaller group with tight feedback loops, clear progression paths, and visible follow-through will always out-iterate a massive community where signals disappear into the void.
7. DevRel is becoming an operating system, not a job title
The most impactful DevRel work now lives in systems, not individuals.
What scales is not charisma or heroics, but workflows, standards, flywheels, tooling, and feedback loops that keep running week over week. Titles may change, but the work is increasingly about building durable engagement infrastructure.
Early-stage DevRel is less about growth hacks and more about earning trust under uncertainty.
Join the Midnight Conversation
We’d love for you to join this early ecosystem. Hear your feedback and ideas. Drop into Discord, open an issue, or fork a repo and show us what you’ve built.
An invitation to fellow DevRel builders
If you’re doing DevRel in a web3 ecosystem, especially an early one, I’d love to connect.
If you’re building DevRel while the platform is still taking shape, I’d love to compare notes.
What broke faster than you expected? What held up under real usage? What did you stop doing entirely?
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