Developer Marketing and Developer Relations – Roles and Responsibilities
In my upcoming webinar, “Developer Marketing & Developer Relations – Similarities & Differences” (August 8 & 10, 2017) I’ll be comparing and contrasting the educational background, skills set, organizational reporting, roles and responsibilities, work done and shared. In this blog post I’ll list a wide range of the roles, responsibilities and work done by members of the developer marketing and developer relations teams. Some of these items will be primarily done by one group of the other. At the same time, there may be a secondary role and a shared role in some of the aspects of a well coordinated developer outreach and advocacy program. Depending on the size of the company, developer program and team member background, there may be less or more items to cover. There may also be more overlap of responsibilities for some companies.
As I look inside companies that currently have developer relations programs, I find a common set of program features. In larger developer focused companies you’ll usually find a dedicated team of developer marketing and developer relations staff. Looking deeper into most developer outreach programs and identifying the active team members, I find a wider collection of marketing specialists, partner managers, developer advocates, customer success staff, R&D engineers, business development managers and community leaders. To orchestrate such a wide variety of helpers takes a clear list of roles and responsibilities.
Roles and Responsibilities
Here is my extended list of developer marketing and developer relations roles and responsibilities. These are listed in no specific order or priority. I’ve added my own assignments (primary, secondary, and shared) for each of the aspects listed. Your organization and experience may identify with different items.
| Roles & Responsibilities (primary, secondary, shared) | Developer Marketing | Developer Relations |
|---|---|---|
| Demand Generation | Primary | Secondary |
| Customer Lifecycle | Primary | Secondary |
| Social Media | Shared | Shared |
| Social Ad Campaigns | Primary | |
| Content/Events Calendar | Primary | |
| Email Campaigns | Primary | |
| Brand Marketing | Primary | |
| PR | Primary | |
| Budget | Primary | |
| Contests | Secondary | Primary |
| Events / Meetups | Shared | Shared |
| SEO | Primary | |
| Strategic Planning | Shared | Shared |
| Technology Road Maps / Briefings | Primary | |
| Public Speaking / Presentations | Secondary | Primary |
| Blogging | Shared | Shared |
| Webinars | Secondary | Primary |
| Conferences | Shared | Shared |
| Hackathons | Secondary | Primary |
| Office Hours | Primary | |
| Demos | Primary | |
| Sample Code | Primary | |
| Tutorials | Primary | |
| Online Q&A | Primary | |
| Developer Feedback | Secondary | Primary |
| Market Research | Primary | |
| Success Stories | Primary | Secondary |
| Developer Quotes | Primary | Secondary |
| Product Videos | Secondary | Primary |
| Technical/HowTo Videos | Primary | |
| Online Community | Secondary | Primary |
| Prototypes, POCs | Primary |
What’s on your list of Roles and Responsibilities?
It will be great to hear your thoughts, comments and additional items via email or during the upcoming DevRelate webinar, August 8th & 10th. Send me an email with your own experiences and history.
David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/
