How we’re building our DevRel stack

Lizzie McGlinchey — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 18:44:26 +0000

The AppLand team is almost entirely made up of developers. Our product, AppMap, is built for developers, so we spend a lot of time thinking about common developer pain points and how AppMap might be able to solve them – like how to debug when you don’t know what or where a bug is, or how to quickly understand complex code when there’s nobody around to help you.

Recently, we’ve been spending more time thinking not just about building for developers and their pain points, but also about how to best engage with them. As Head of Content and the newest member of the AppLand team (hi, nice to meet you!), figuring out how to engage with developers, i.e. how to do DevRel well, is my current focus. I know there are other startups in the Dev.to community that build for developers and need to engage with them, so I thought I’d start sharing what I learn as I go.

Today, I’m going to share a foundational learning: how to build a lean but impactful DevRel stack. In addition to building out our doc site, sharing content via Twitter and our blog, sending monthly newsletters and speaking at industry events, this is what’s driving the bulk of AppLand’s DevRel right now:

GitHub
We’re an open source company, so GitHub is the original source of all our DevRel. It remains incredibly important, especially as we get ready to release AppMap for JavaScript, which one of our community members has been doing the heavy lifting for.

Dev.to
Built on Forem, this wonderful platform is ideal for sharing and staying up-to-date on all things software dev. Our co-founder and CTO blogs here often and it’s been invaluable in helping us spread the word about what we’re building.

Discord
Discord is where the growing AppLand community “lives.” We have several channels in our Discord, including product-related ones, channels for beginners and contributors, and channels for reporting bugs, asking questions and leaving feedback. We also recently started a Livestream channel, where we meet every Thursday at 1 pm ET to demo something or just chat with anyone who wants to hang.

Orbit
Orbit is how we keep track of the growing AppLand community. It integrates with our Discord, GitHub and Twitter accounts which helps us ensure we don’t miss anyone who’s new or trying to reach out. Orbit is also really helpful for identifying and supporting our power users and most active contributors.

I’d love to hear what’s in your DevRel stack. What tool or platform do you love and think we should, too? Find me on our Discord or shoot me a note at lizzie@app.land with your recommendations!

DEV Community: Lizzie McGlinchey

How we’re building our DevRel stack