There are so many yeps, uh huh, that's accurate, oh yeah, for sure, as I was reading this.
I have almost completely stepped away from creating DevRel content like I used to. Today's content is all about making friends and going to events—about 2% of what DevRel should be doing. Companies looking to hire a dev advocate and no strategic leader have also contributed to this. As your blog post outlines, DevRel is not an easy role to do when done well, and companies seem to think it's a one-person role.
It's a strategic adventure, not a role. I'm working with a client as a fractional dev GTM leader. We're working on sales processes and pitches, pricing, product roadmap, API improvements, support deflection and enhancement, and eventually, dev campaigns. I'm not writing blog posts and hanging with my peers; that time may come to do some of that, but it will be the smallest sliver of my impactful work. And it will follow all the strategic prep work that needs to go into serving developers as an audience.
You can contract someone to write you blog posts and attend events to make friends. Give them the scope of work, and consider it done.
DevRel is about ensuring the company and product are prepared for a dev GTM motion and that all the right resources, platforms, and needs are met for them to do so.
How do we save DevRel from this demise?!