DEV Community

Max Katz
Max Katz

Posted on • Originally published at maxkatz.org on

From Lean Startup to Big Blue: Adapting Developer Relations to Zillions of Active Developers – my interview with Dave Nugent

Dave Nugent and I sat down together and Dave asked me the following questions about Developer Relations:

  • How do you prove the value of DevRel inside a large company?
  • How valuable is consistent messaging for DevRel?
  • How does leading DevRel differ between a startup and enterprise?
  • How does your team interface inside IBM?
  • How has your mission changed since you started at IBM?
  • Who in DevRel would you like to call out?

Q: How do you prove the value of DevRel inside a large company?

Probably one of the best ways and my favorite is to explain that developers today have a lot of influence. In other words, developers make decisions what software to use and buy. Many years ago software was purchased by executives and pushed down to developers (top-down approach). In most companies today it’s the complete opposite. Developers try software and if they like it they go to their managers/executives (who has the budget) and ask them to buy the software. Instead of top-down it’s now bottom-up approach. In some companies developers not only influence what software to buy but they also have the buying power.

Continue reading the interview.

Top comments (0)