DISCLAIMER: No, I don’t believe I’m the universe’s gift to DevRel. I don’t have all the answers, all the skills, or even all the Pokemon. What I have is my experiences, collected over the 11 years I’ve been doing this work. That – my experiences and observations – are what I’m sharing in this series.
If you’ve been anywhere near the coding side of tech within the last 8 or so years (and that includes just sitting with a programmer in the lunch room) you have probably heard of the “10x Engineer”.
While the phrase is well known, the meaning remains somewhat murky. Does it mean an engineer who can develop 10x the volume of code? Develop an equal amount of code 10x faster? Create code that’s 10x higher quality? Or does 10x the number of functions?
The IMPLICATION is that this is a person who can provide 10x the “value” (however you personally define it) compared to a regular run of the mill software engineer. It builds on an earlier version of the same trope – the Rock Star Engineer. An equally impossible bar which itself builds on a more realistic observation: we’ve all worked with certain folks who just seem to have it all together. Who know what they’re doing, make fewer mistakes, and knock out the work.
The problem is that nobody is like that all the time. The people we remember as being brilliant made their fair share of mistakes – even on the days we thought they were knocking it out of the park. Rock stars hit bad notes sometimes. Sports legends miss the ball sometimes. 10x engineers get stuck.
More than sometimes, all of those folks have the same experiences we do. A lot.
So if they’re just regular mortals like us, what’s behind the myth?
On one hand, I think it has something to do with what those folks do NEXT. Having made the mistake, found their code to be buggy, realized they have no idea how to proceed, etc… they keep going. They ask for help. They recognize (and even embrace) the opportunity to learn. Hell, the best engineers I know revel in the opportunity to learn something new, or even learn a new way to do an old thing.
But there’s ONE aspect of the truly amazing folks that does qualify them as “10x”.
My friend Yechiel Kalmenson put it best in a blog post back in 2019
“A real 10x Engineer is an engineer who can boost the productivity of their team 10x. An engineer who mentors, uplifts, shares their knowledge, and ultimately brings ten other engineers up to their level.”
The only realistic way to get 10x more out of someone is to give them the space to replicate what they do in others. To allow their spark to ignite the same passion and drive in the people around them.
And so I finally come to the topic in the tile of this blog: the 10x DevRel.
Having read this far, it’s self-evident that even the most experienced, gifted, driven Developer Relations Advocate can’t write 10x more posts, record 10x more videos, engage 10x more audiences, build 10x more communities, run 10x more hackathons, and so on.
BUT… unlike the software engineers I described at the beginning of this post, DevRel folks are not usually surrounded by teams of other DevRel folks. There aren’t multiple teams of DevRels working in (and on) various aspects of the company’s offerings. In many cases, the DevRel you meet is the only one at their company. They are the proverbial “army of one”.
So how could it be possible for that lone voice in the wilderness to level up their game?
It starts by recognizing that everyone is the star of their own movie, everyone has a story to tell, and many of those folks would love a chance to tell that story but they don’t know how to get past the barriers in their way.
Those barriers might be workload, or language, or confidence, or technical skills, or simply not having a platform.
And our job as Advocates is to do internally what we already do for our customers: to listen to their stories. To encourage and uplift them. To help them recognize that their story is, in fact, worth telling.
And then to help fill in the gaps for them so that they can tell their story in a way, in a place, and at a time that enables them to shine.
Too much work? The Advocate can (and should) go to leadership and help explain how that story would attract new business. Is language an issue? The Advocate should encourage their colleage to tell their story in their words. The world is a multi-lingual place. The person doesn’t feel confident in their abilities? It’s the Advocates place to provide whatever support they need – co-authoring, co-speaking, editing, coaching, brainstorming, or simply offering an honest reflection of the work, but also promising not to stop helping until the story is ready to be told.
A 10x DevRel is the person who sees the stories in the people around them, and then creates avenues for those new storytellers to speak their truth.
A 10x DevRel is someone who takes the privileges they have – the credibility, the opportunity, the experience, the access – and uses it to open doors, not for themselves, but to then stand back and let those new voices step through and into the light.
So my question to you (if you’re a DevRel) isn’t “Are you a 10x DevRel”. My question is: “Why AREN’T you a 10x DevRel?”
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