Developer Relations

Developer Relations (or DevRel for short) is responsible to increase the awareness of technical activities and products within VSHN to current and prospective customers, through various activities: conference speaking, blogging, video production, podcasting, documentation writing and editing, social media presence, and more.

Key Responsibilities

These are the main responsibilities of a DevRel in VSHN.

  • Technical spokesperson:

    • DevRels represents the voice of the technical VSHN team in public settings, both online or in person.

    • They act professionally in all circumstances.

    • They act as a low-noise, high-signal communication channel between customers, external teams, and the VSHN technical team, eventually putting engineers in contact with each other for the resolution of specific issues.

    • They might also appear as guests in podcasts, or be interviewed for press articles, written or online.

  • Conference speaking:

    • DevRels participate in technical conferences showcasing VSHN’s expertise, products, and know-how.

    • DevRels can also be called to moderate panels about various technical subjects.

    • They prepare and deliver live demos of various technologies.

    • They show presentation slides based on the official VSHN templates, featuring the required fonts, colors, and other branding elements.

  • Meetups:

    • DevRels schedule, organize, and host technical meetups.

    • Keep the events calendar up-to-date with upcoming events.

    • They find speakers, coordinate schedules, and engage with the community.

    • As hosts, they ensure the proper timing of events and make sure that any questions from the audience are properly handled.

    • After the event, upload recording to YouTube if the event was recorded.

  • Webinars:

    • DevRels organize, record, deliver, and publish webinars online about technical subjects, both live or pre-recorded, with or without demos.

    • After publication, DevRels are also responsible to find answers to any questions that the audience might ask in forums or comment sections.

  • Blog posts:

    • DevRels are responsible for all technical content published in the VSHN blog.

    • They coach other VSHNeers wishing to write and publish their own content on the blog, a coaching activity which might involve ghostwriting.

  • Social media:

    • DevRels keep alive social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube) with new content every week, generating traffic to our website, and advertising our products, events, initiatives, and culture.

  • Documentation:

    • DevRels actively write and eventually also edit documentation written by all team members and thus take an active role in the documentation interest group.

    • They create tutorials and detailed instructions to help others learn about VSHN products or technologies.

    • They organize documentation artifacts following the Divio Documentation System: Tutorials, How-To Guides, Explanations, and References.

    • They ensure a common voice across all documentation bundles.

    • They gather feedback from end users about the quality of the documentation, and continuously strive to the betterment of said artifacts.

    • They maintain the various tools used in documentation production: Docker images, command line tooling, CI/CD pipelines, presentation slides, etc.

    • They teach other VSHNeers about how to use those tools more effectively.

  • Reports:

    • DevRels participate in the creation and edition of VSHN’s yearly reports about the state of the DevOps industry.

  • Consultation role in product management tasks:

    • DevRels might be asked for feedback during the development of new products.

    • They have an active role in the creation of documentation artifacts directly related to those products.

Competencies, Qualities and Skills

A DevRel should possess a certain set of skills:

  • A technical background; usually as a software developer, a DevOps engineer, a system administrator, a tester, or other related roles.

  • Proven writing skills; as a blogger, podcaster, book author, or similar.

  • Basic video editing skills; no need to be a YouTuber, although it helps.

  • Speaking experience in events, both in person and online, small and large.

  • Extrovert personality, eager to approach customers and users both in person and online, in order to discover trends, identify needs, and propose solutions to the community.

  • Curiosity to try new technologies, programming languages, or ideas.

  • Eagerness to teach others through workshops or online training sessions.

Evaluation Criteria

These are some of the possible ways in which the work of DevRels is evaluated internally by other VSHNeers:

  • Positive and visible higher awareness of VSHN as a leading provider of innovative, state-of-the-art, or bleeding edge solutions in the markets where VSHN has positioned itself as a leader.

  • Visible increase in social media followership numbers, but also in engagement volume and quality.

  • Documentation products are always up-to-date, reflecting the latest changes in our products.

  • Customer and end user feedback through social media or other channels.