How do we in #DevRel make developers sticky? Is it the docs? Is it the community? Is it the people you interact with at the vendor?
What brings someone past that initial awareness point?
1. Be helpful
I came into DevRel via tech evangelism, where I focused a lot on the content creation aspect. My belief was that if we were being helpful we would get people excited to try something out. But that’s just the beginning point of getting a developer interested in a new tool!
The Dread Pirate Roberts (from the Princess Bride) asks “What can I do for you?”. Before eventually being pushed down a hill by a developer who didn’t like the API documentation.
2. Make it easy to find things
When a developer gets interested, how do you keep a developer from disappearing forever? What keeps them coming back? I think a lot of devs get forced into certain tools and don’t have options, and that’s certainly one way to do it. But when developers can choose what they are going to work with, you have to have something that makes your toolset the right choice. And the right choice to use again after the first try.
My opinion is that this stickyness starts with DISCOVERABILITY.
Doc (from Back to the Future) finds the API documentation he was looking for and says “THIS IS IT!”
Making it easier for devs to find the help they need to get the job done needs to be there! I’ve never heard a developer complain that something was too easy to find, or too helpful!
3. Grow a community
But going beyond that, I believe the people aspect of COMMUNITY really grabs hold of us.
You can switch your favorite tech stack up when you need to, but those personal connections pull people together a lot tighter. I wonder sometimes if I would have joined Sitecore all those years ago if I hadn’t gotten so pulled in by the community aspect!
The Autobots lean in for a group hug because they love helping each other out and showing off the cool things they built on Sitecore.
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