Why Your DevRel Strategies Aren't Working (And How to Fix Them)

As a Content Strategist and Developer Advocate with six years of experience working with various tech and financial companies worldwide, I've witnessed common mistakes in DevRel program implementation. The most significant error? Treating all developers as a homogeneous group when creating DevRel strategies, disregarding their diverse tech skills and unique pain points.

In this article, I'll explain why your DevRel strategies might be falling short and provide insights on crafting approaches that resonate with developers and make your product stand out.

Targeting All Developers Is a Recipe for Failure

There are millions of developers out there. They have different preferences, are located in different countries, use different programming languages, work on different use cases, and the list goes on. Do you think one single strategy will work for all of them? When people think about developer relations, they often put all developers in the same box. But things don't work like that – the Developer Community is huge and unique, and your product can't appeal to everyone, even if you want it to. That's why you need segmentation.

Why Do I Need Segmentation in My DevRel Strategy?

You're probably thinking segmentation is obvious and most companies do it. Well, you're wrong. According to SlashData research, 19% of DevRel programs don't implement any kind of segmentation, while others simply differentiate between developers and students.

Segmentation is about focus. When you create a specific target instead of focusing on the entire developer market, it's easier to create a strategy. By having segmentation, you'll be able to make your messaging more effective, create the right strategies, and think about what resources will be effective for your go-to-market strategy.

It's important to highlight that your segmentation needs to be based on several sources of information. This includes talking with your peers, researching feedback from your community and users already using your product, searching for the types of developers in the market, and taking advantage of quantitative data reports and surveys to help you understand the scenario.

Consider these key categories when segmenting:

1. Technology: Does your product require specific tools or skills?

2. User: What are the needs and motivations of your target developers? Do they influence decision-making?

3. Organization: What size of company can afford your product?

4. Market: Which verticals are experiencing growth?

What Are the Next Steps for my DevRel Strategy?

After creating your segmentation, you'll need to focus on developing your developer persona and refining your messaging. Personas make everything easier for everyone in the company because they bring personality and help you understand what type of developer you're actually focusing on!

After establishing your persona, you need to create your messaging. I'm not going to explain here why messaging is important because I'm assuming you already know it. But just a quick brief:

Messaging is a key part of your DevRel strategy because it's where you can differentiate from other companies and also get the attention of the audience you're targeting.

Conclusion

After putting all these steps into place, you'll need to focus on your Developer Journey, but that's a subject for another article. Creating a segmentation, a developer persona, and messaging might look like simple and quick tasks, but they're not. This is an important part of your DevRel strategy, and you'll need time to create your segmentation strategy. So, keep in mind that this will take time and effort.

All in all, the goal of this article was to help you understand that DevRel isn't simple, and a DevRel strategy requires important steps that need to be done carefully. By investing time in these crucial elements, you'll build a stronger foundation for your DevRel strategy and increase your chances of success.