DevRel, a key role at hackathons

Transcript

Siddharth Dayalwal: Hey, everyone. Hope you all are doing great and keeping safe. I hope I'm perfectly audible to each and every one of you. Just in case if I'm stuck somewhere due to some screen or something, please know that. I my audio will be perfectly clear in that case as well.

So here we are. I'm I'm definitely very happy to be here and speaking at DevilCon. This is my second DevilCon as a speaker, and thanks a lot for joining in today for my session. You know, really appreciate that. And as you can see on the screen itself, the title reads as Devil, a key role at Hackathons.

So let's talk about some general aspects first. So developer relations is a broader terminology when we talk about it in the general. You know? But with time, it is becoming one of the most important roles, I say, for community and product led companies or start ups, we and it is crucial for any company to build a loyal and potentially, you know, long term user base that can indeed help them in various ways or maybe indeed help various teams of a company including engineering, product, marketing, and many more out there. So in this talk, I'll be helping you understand how DevRel can play a key role for your company at hackathons.

And I'll also be showing my hackathon journey so far, and I hope this would be something interesting to you. So before we start, I would definitely appreciate if you all would be active on Discord in the talks in progress channel, and even ask your questions in the speaker question channel so that I can answer those questions after my talk in the very end. And I want to keep it as interactive as possible, so make sure to do that and feel free to let us know who you are, where are you joining us from, and anything else as well. Perfect. So first of all, let me give you all the general background.

You know? So myself, Sudhad Delwar. I'm a student from India pursuing computer science and engineering. Now here's the thing. Until last week, I was an aspiring DevRel and community manager.

But now, as you can see, yes, I'm an incoming DevRel engineer, and I'm super happy to share this with every one of you joining me today. Apart from that, I'm a kid of campus expert. Now campus experts are student leaders that, you know, strive to build diverse and inclusive spaces to learn new skills, share their experiences, and build some amazing awesome projects in a very collaborative manner. And I'm also part of the first ever class of digital host since navigator program, where I'm contributing in areas like content and community. Apart from all of this, I'm also the founding organizer of my video on hackathon named Hack this fall.

I have been contributing actively to, you know, communities and helping community members for over three years now and interacting with people, creating opportunities, and content is what I do on a daily basis. I am a hackathon enthusiast and evangelist and have been part of 80 plus hackathons so far. I'm a strong community advocate and definitely enjoy managing them along with an interest of public speaking and developer relations for sure. I am at the rate sedar underscore hacks on Twitter and Instagram. So feel free to connect with me over there and take screenshots while I'm talking so that, you know, you can share your learnings on social media.

You can tag me. You can tag the bell con. This way you can add value amongst your networks and amongst the people who followed you. Well, that was pretty much about me. Now let us jump on to the main topic.

Let's start with very basic. You know? Let's start with dividing the Devil role at hackathons because if we talk about just Devil role at hackathons, this will be much more, you know, general. Or maybe we can try dividing the roles and talk bit by bit. What do you think?

That would be the perfect way. So here's the thing. From my understanding and experiences, I have divided the role into three groups, starting from the organization role, second would be the community role, third would be the person role. Now here's the thing. I'll be diving deep into each one of them and briefly talking about how an individual role is making an impact.

Also, if you think there can be another role apart from these, feel free to let us know. We'll be more than happy to know more about it. Us start with understanding the organization role. And throughout these slides of mine, you'll find me, you know, making some appearances in different images. So you can try keeping a count on it as well.

Now when I say DevRel, a role at hackathons from organization perspective, now you can come up with various answers to, you know, justify this statement of mine. And this can definitely vary from different companies, startups, foundations, etcetera. In simple words, organization role is where Devil focuses on the base with which the organization can be benefited. Let us understand first role with a with a list of parameters. Over here, at hackathons, our dev will create content in multiple ways.

You know? It can be, like, talks, guides, tutorials, starter kits, documentation, videos, and so on and so forth. They will also help to identify the product cycle and allows to understand if the product is market fit by, you know, identifying the target customer, serving them maybe the product, and understanding the customer's needs as well. At hackathons, DevRel helps to increase adoption, you know, with which I mean that it allows an organization to track metrics, understand the developer mindset, and most importantly, build the developer's journey. Next comes the research and observation.

Now this is also a key aspect if you know, because it allows gathering more reliable insights, and it also allows us to understand how the developers or be it hackers when we talk about hackathon, responds to a certain thing or maybe any initiative which your organization has come up with. More or less, it also gives you an extra edge to see things from a user's eye, and that is, like, awesome. Now next up, hackathons allow DevRel to capture feedback, and most of you watching are already aware of how important it is to, you know, complete the feedback loop coming from the users and just distribute it to the internal teams like the product team, engineering team, and so on respectively. Drive r and d and engagement is the next thing, of course, which a DevRel does. This allows an organization to not just check the product market fit, but also allows to identify the needs, you know, from the community or innovate on existing ideas which we already have and also come up with some new features or requests or altogether a new product.

You never know. Again, if you think I miss anything which comes under the organization role of a DevRel, feel free to let us know. Discord is there. You have social media. Feel free to tag us and let us know what are your views.

Awesome. So let us now jump on to the another group, which is community role. Now, by the way, you can find me in this picture holding the red KITA campus expert flag in the middle over here. And this is a picture from one of the in person hackathons I was part of back in 2019. I definitely miss all of those in person events, and I'm sure you all are missing them as well.

Don't worry. We always super soon be meeting at some in person hackathons and your event someday. Let's hope for the best. But moving on, understanding DevRel as a role of as a role at hackathons from a community perspective, you know, It is as important as with the organization. Now, also, this is more related to the interaction that DevRel does with the community, and in a way, it benefits the organization.

Now when I say community, it means everything right from community members, developers, startup founders, colleges, universities, campus clubs, and anyone whom you can find at a hackathon. So let us understand this second role a list of different parameters once again. To start with very basic and very, you know, key terminologies of a YAR, let's start with developer in enablement. So the content which we, as a DevRel, created under the first group of role allow us to help developers by sharing the resources, transferring the knowledge, removing the roadblocks, increasing productivity, and much more. So together, if I need to summarize all of this thing, it all starts with educating the community or developer or whatever your user are.

Right? Next stop is increasing the acquisition. Now earlier we talked about adoption in the first group where we help community to start using the product. Whereas, when we talk about acquisition, it is more regarding, you know, bringing people to your website or maybe joining the communication platform like Slack or Discord, increasing the visitors, and any other acquisition parameter which you, you know, have set up for yourself. So while the acquisition is about getting those visitors, adoption is all about turning those visitors into users.

Next up is bridging the gap between company and community. Now here's the thing. DevRel does a lot of this work on a daily basis, you know, by by simple means like interacting with people, you know, which I'm doing in a way with you all people right now. You know? Communicating on different subjects, exchanging thoughts, asking questions, and in much more meaningful ways, it can happen.

This also allows the community to understand the perspective of the company and vice versa, of course, you know, which allows the company and the community to understand the goals and lead to a more productive and efficient journey, which is, like, quite evident when we do the same thing. You know? And as a Devril, we get an opportunity to build and work on community programs. One of my favorite parts because there we can involve the advocates of the product, advocates of a particular technology or maybe community as a whole. A few of the community programs which I personally look up to are, like, one edge voyages, Twilio champions, you know, postman supernovas, GitHub's community program.

There are lot of programs which GitHub supports, auto ambassador program, digital oceans navigator program, which I'm part of, and and many more altogether. So not to forget, hackathons are a cool place to grow your team. Now developer onboarding is one of those areas where you where we could, you know, hire potential people from the community who who just demonstrates their interest in the product and are very genuine to work and improvise it. And, you know, at the same time, they look forward to seek opportunities in in much more ways. And developer support, there's always an opportunity for a dev rel to go ahead at a hackathon, support developers, solve their queries, see if they are stuck somewhere, you know, help them in the process of maybe building a project or working on a startup or something else altogether.

Last would be definitely creating a bond with communities altogether, be it developers, be it students, or anyone else as well. So these are, like, few of the parameters which is quite important if we talk about DevRel as a role at hackathons with community perspective. Perfect. Last but not the least, let us talk about the third role, which is personal role. Now it goes without saying that, you know, this would be more of a personal level for any devil out there, you know, attending a hackathon.

And, again, a cool picture of me speaking to a bunch of folks at an in person event. I so very much miss all of those things. But moving on. Now a devil a devil individual is an individual. Are you getting my point?

And with that, definitely comes a personal touch here as well. So let us understand DevRel as its role in hackathons from a personal perspective, which you might, you know, relate with yourselves on day to day basis as well. And talking about me, I personally love the DevRel space as it gives me an opportunity to learn everything, you know, interact with as many as people as I want on a daily basis. I could I have that, you know, capabilities of creating opportunities for for folks in my community with people I talk on daily basis, and I get to wear different hats, build relationships, and whatnot. And also learning should never stop.

Whatever you are doing as a DevRel at a company, always care enough about yourself and seek opportunities or situation where you could learn, get the benefit, and become a better version of yourself. And with that, let us understand the third role with a list of, again, quite a few parameters which are listed. To start with, being open to learn, build, and share will open doors of opportunities. And coming from my experience, I definitely can't express enough about, you know, these aspects, which which have personally helped me a lot in multiple ways. So, also, when I talk about collaboration, it is such a strong aspect that that can help you, you know, enhance your growth and just lead you somewhere where you won't even imagine.

If I go with the definition of a collaboration, it is it is a kind of a process of, you know, two or more people or entities or be it organizations working together to maybe complete a particular task or achieve a common goal. So and hackathons, you get to collaborate in teams. You know? You you have an option for pair programming, you know, be a part of main talk in sessions, talk about future potential partnerships. And all in all, you get to be part of a hacker community in the long run, you know, which is which is just awesome.

So and even if this was not enough, on top of it, hackathons allows us to make new friends, you know. So friends with whom we can share our knowledge, discuss discuss common interest, learn from them at the same time. It definitely feels so good to have people who understand you more than yourself with whom you can have, you know, meaningful conversations. And we get to network with amazing folks across the globe and need valuable connections. And these are the connections not just for the day of the event, but for the rest of our lives, which is, like, not at all measurable with any any metrics out there because these are, like, true values.

Now being at a hackathon also means an opportunity to meet so many people from different organization, people like yourself, you know, devils, marketers, engineers, and various other like minded roles. You get to build relationships with the organizers and sponsors, be it just to start the connection on a good note or for a potential collaboration in the future. And hackathon also serves as an opportunity for various kinds of people to just foster their relationships and social and interpersonal skills. And, you know, it it all happens while engaging in something you have a shared and genuine interest in. It allows you to choose how would you conduct yourself.

So people from different backgrounds gather at a single place to, you know, turn to collaborate and grow. Moving on, lastly, I would quickly share my hackathon experience in journey with you all. Now it all started way back in February 2019, and when I attended my very first hackathon as a hacker, coming from a background knowing nothing about hackathons, my team ended up winning the very first hackathon. And I was, like, super amazed by that thing, you know. After after I experienced the environment and the hackathon culture altogether, I never looked back.

I started attending various hackathons at different places and also one of few out of them. So far, I attended 10 plus hackathons as a hackathon. Later in 2020, I thought of let's give back to the community. Let's give back to the hacker community and wanted to teach hackers and share my experience. And I started mentoring and speaking at different hackathons.

And so far, I have been able to mentor in 25 plus hackathons and, you speaker know, in around 35 plus hackathons. I even organized a few hackathons to help hackers solve the shared problems of our society or the shared struggles of our society and give them the opportunity they can grow with. Hack this fall is one of them. Being my very own hackathon, which recently got concluded last month in the month of October, it impacted 4,000 plus hackers, you know, joining in from 55 plus different countries. And all in all, I even represented the companies I've worked with in the past at different hackathons and managed things like, you know, sponsorships, resources, logistics, content, and much more.

On that note, I would like to thank each and every one of you for attending my talk and being with me so far. Thanks for being a wonderful audience. Really appreciate that. Also, a huge shout out to the entire DevRelCon team over here, putting these amazing conferences together and helping spread experiences from spaces like DevRel, communities, hackathons, and whatnot. So definitely kudos to you folks.

And I'd love to connect with you people on social media, so do not hesitate to find me online on my mentioned platforms. And, yes, thanks once again.