To create an effective developer relations strategy, you need to understand both your company's objectives and the practical activities that will help you achieve them. While DevRel programs vary widely across organizations, these activities typically fall into four fundamental pillars that form the foundation of any successful DevRel program.
The Four Pillars
Developer Advocacy
Developer advocacy serves as a two-way bridge between your company and the developer community. Advocates bring developer needs and feedback into the organization, ensuring they influence product decisions, documentation, and company strategy. Externally, they help developers succeed with your technology by offering guidance, technical content, and hands-on support.
Key activities:
- Gathering and channeling developer feedback to product teams
- Writing technical content that showcases real-world use cases
- Speaking at conferences and technical events
- Building proof-of-concept projects and reference implementations
- Engaging with developers through forums, social media, and direct support
Developer Marketing
Unlike traditional marketing, developer marketing focuses on surfacing your technology in the right places at the right time—without interrupting or pushing sales-heavy messaging. The goal is to help developers discover your product organically, understand its value, and make an informed decision about adoption.
Key activities:
- Technical content marketing (blogs, tutorials, case studies)
- Developer-focused social media engagement
- Technical SEO optimization
- Event sponsorships and developer conferences
- Developer newsletters and outreach campaigns
- Creating comparison guides and technical benchmarks
Developer Enablement
Developer enablement ensures that once a developer decides to try your product, they can succeed with minimal friction. This pillar covers everything from onboarding to ongoing support and tooling that makes adoption easier.
Key activities:
- Documentation strategy and maintenance
- SDK and tool development
- Getting-started guides and tutorials
- Code samples and reference implementations
- Developer support processes (forums, issue tracking, dedicated support)
- Training materials, workshops, and certification programs
- API design consultation
Developer Community
A strong developer community fosters peer-to-peer learning, collaboration, and long-term engagement. This pillar ensures developers have a place to connect, share experiences, and support each other while working with your technology.
Key activities:
- Managing community platforms (Discord, GitHub Discussions, etc.)
- Facilitating technical discussions and Q&A sessions
- Running developer champions and ambassador programs
- Supporting community-led initiatives
- Organizing community events, hackathons, and meetups
- Encouraging and recognizing open-source contributions
Balancing the Pillars
The most effective DevRel programs find the right balance across these pillars based on the company’s current goals. However, this balance isn’t static—it evolves as both the company and its developer ecosystem mature.
For example:
- Early-stage companies often focus on enablement and marketing to drive initial adoption.
- Open-source projects prioritize community and advocacy to build a sustainable ecosystem.
- Enterprise platforms emphasize enablement and advocacy to support complex integrations and developer success.
- Growth-stage companies may lean into marketing and community efforts to scale their reach.
Measuring Success
Each pillar contributes differently to your DevRel program’s success. While exact metrics depend on company priorities, common ways to assess impact include:
- Developer Advocacy: Influence on product decisions, qualitative developer feedback
- Developer Marketing: Developer acquisition, engagement with content, SEO performance
- Developer Enablement: Time-to-first-success (e.g., first API call), support ticket trends
- Developer Community: Community engagement levels, contributions, discussions, and retention
Conclusion
Understanding these four pillars helps DevRel teams structure their efforts and ensure they’re delivering value across all critical areas. While implementation will vary by company, these pillars provide a reliable framework for building comprehensive DevRel programs that serve both the business and the developer community effectively.
The key is to regularly assess how well each pillar supports your company’s objectives and adjust your investment accordingly. A well-balanced DevRel program creates a virtuous cycle where success in one pillar strengthens the others, leading to sustainable growth of your developer ecosystem.