How developer advocacy helps startups

Shivay Lamba: My talk title is how developer advocacy can actually help startups and particularly early stage startups who might be building products for developers. So they might have a product that is especially catered towards developers. Very quick introduction about myself. I'm currently a developer at Kita Fabric, have been a hackathon ambassador for an intel hack, and also leading the open source advocacy efforts at scaler. Now, without wasting any further time, I would want to start off with a common discussion. So let's probably think about one of the common situations that we see today in the startup culture, and that is specifically with respect to early stage startups. So generally early stage startups are always having a great idea and they want to go ahead and showcase that particular product that they want to build and just make it out public and share it with the world. But of course, they have to go through a certain set of challenges when they are going through this entire product development cycle.

And again, just to sort of quickly recap on what would a product development cycle look like at a startup? So we'll start off with the ideation about what the startup idea is really all about and then conceptualising it into creating an MVP based on that particular idea that you have in mind. And then being able to make sure that the MVP that has been built is actually really fit for the market segment that particular product is really built for. And once you are able to get the market fit right, then of course you'll move on to actually the growth aspect or scaling up your product. But of course, especially for early stage startups, this entire cycle is not like a smooth road, right? And some of the common problems that are commonly faced by the early stage startups includes things such as just lack of funds.

I mean, of course, even if you have built a product and you want it to get checked and you want to see the market fit, you don't have millions of dollars that other companies can actually spend on marketing or actually getting the right kind of users for you. And this is a common challenge that is faced by a lot of different product-based companies where they don't really have the ability or the resources really to showcase their product.

So one of the common problems is how can early stage startups really adopt a way in which they are able to actually showcase their product to the right kind of users and actually help them with the market study to make sure that the product that they will come up with is actually going to be a great product and it's actually meant for the right market segment and to help out with a lot of these common issues.

That is where the developer advocacy really comes into the foray. So developer advocates really just hold various kind of facts. They are really communicative. So they know about all the general trends that are currently happening around the world in the field of technology. They are part of various meetup groups, various conferences, various technologies, and they're always keeping up to date with the requirements for developers. And at the same time, they really understand the developer ecosystem as well. They speak from a language of a developer, but at the same time they are also really active in the overall community space.

So the developer advocate role itself is really dynamic role and that can definitely help out the literacy startups or startups in general. And that is what this talk really is going to be all about. So as we go further, I'll be sharing some of the ways in which developer advocates can actually help with the product development cycle of early stage startups.

And we'll see that why today a lot of startups are hiring specifically for developer relations and developer advocate roles. So the first one is that developer advocates can really help connect the product with the right kind of developer audience. So as I mentioned that developer advocates really are active in the committee space. They are always looking out for new kind of technologies. They are involved with communicating with CTOs, with developers, with fellow developers around in the entire world, and they're usually attending conferences, meetups.

And that sort of keeps them up to date with the latest trends, not only the technologies, but also what are the latest trends that developers are following with respect to, it could be adoption of new technologies, it could be what are some of the best mechanisms in which developers actually use a particular technology and they really understand the developer ecosystem from bottom up and that actually can help the product that an early stage startup that might be actually billing.

So let's consider an example of a startup that is really creating an API. So basically this API is to be actually used by developers themselves. So it's a product being built for the developers. So the developer advocate can really just understand what the main idea behind that particular startup is really all about the product itself. And then based on the main idea behind the product, they can help connect that particular product with the right kind of developer audience. So the startup doesn't really have to go and do research on its own to find the right kind of users for the product that they're planning to build because the developer ate can actually help bridge that gap between finding the right kind of users and then actually helping connect with the audience that can actually then consume and use that particular product. Now, if we talk about the next one is that the community can actually help give the right kind of feedback.

So as we speak about the product market fit, this same community that is being built and is being actually curated by the developer advocates for that specific product can now also give their feedback on the earlier releases of the product. And the developer advocates can actually help relay that particular feedback to the product teams and to the developers so that they can actually then make the product itself more focused towards the community or towards the right kind of users for actually giving feedback about that product. Because essentially the product that has to be built has to be meant and has to be curated in such a way that it can serve to a large number of developers. And since let's say if you're building a product that is very specifically being built for developers, this feedback and drilling the feedback in the right kind of language, being able to actually understand developer's point of view when they're actually providing their feedback is something that developer advocates can really efficiently do with their deep knowledge about technology and about the product itself.

And that allows you to mould your product into what the developers actually want because not only you are getting your feedback directly from these developers and these developers are actually telling you how can you improve the overall experience of the entire product. And that is why the community itself can actually become the early adopters and the beta testers for the product. So coming back to the point where we just talked about the early stage startups not really having a lot of resources really to carry out a million dollar worth market research or product marketing. This particular community that is actually being helped to be built by digital advocates can actually serve as the community who can really just become the adopters for the kind of product or the APIs that the early stage startup is really building.

And they can again, just become the beta testers for any new releases that might be actually coming up with the product.

And this really just helps save a lot of time to the startups. This really just helps save them resources as well because they're really just going ahead and targeting the right kind of users. And that is where the expertise of a developer advocate really comes into the pixel. And not only, I mean, it's not just limited to being able to become the early adopters. In fact, the developer arcades can actually help scale and grow the community. And that in itself will actually the scaling of the product because now you're not just catering to the developer audience, but of course with how helpful the networking in any kind of field, especially in technology, is these early adopters can then recommend, can potentially recommend the product to some of their friends or people outside of the developer circles to actually come and use the product. And that can help scale the product as well.

So thus far what we have seen is that developer advocates can really help with a lot of these different initiatives, whether it is helping find the right kind of audience and being able to get their feedback and mould the product in such a way that the product is developer first. Because the developer advocates can actually help write the API documentation. They can understand what the developers really require. So basically whether it's respect to the code itself that is being there or the kind of videos, the kind of API documentation, getting started, guides that are actually being built to help assist the developers, these can actually be moulded into a more developer specific format, whether it's actually the format of or the overall content that is actually present in all of these different resources that will be actually given as part of the product itself. And that is how the developer advocates can actually help mould the product.

And then of course, as we have looked at that as we expand this community who is involved with the product itself, this can actually help scale the product as well. And moreover, the developer advocates really help Ford other partnerships as well because the developer advocates are really active in the developer ecosystem. So the develop advocates are really just going to different kind of conferences for talks.

They're attending meetups and they can help just represent your product from your startup at these particular events. And they can just help make the product more visible. They can help get in a lot more potential partnerships. It could be just with the help of creating some kind of third party extensions, a third party, let's say plugins that they can actually create with their knowledge. And that just helps your product be available outside of the original intended place, but also then be available in other avenues as well at the same time because the developer advocates are really great at doing that.

And that just makes your product reach out to more number of people and reach out to more number of developers. So that what makes the overall essence of the developer advocate position at any kind of startup, really at any company that more important because as I mentioned at the start, that the developer advocates sort of wear different hats. And given that they do have bits and pieces of knowledge and of course expertise in a lot of these different fields, that what really makes them kind of an all rounder of course.

I mean, not every developer advocate will be equally good at each and every different thing, but of course with the kind of expertise that they have and the passion that they really have for being able to actually help developers and the passion that they have for the product that they represent that makes them just the ultimate candidate to really help grow these kind of startups.

And with that, that sort of brings an end into my talk, but of course, I mean my talk just doesn't really end up here. The main aim really is that more and more startups can actually benefit from having well advocates at their own companies, at their own startups, because I truly believe having experienced this myself, being part of an early stage startup and helping seeing that kind of an experience, how you are given the liberty and you're given the kind of stage where you can actually help forward connections and you can help really bring the product cycle to become more and more prevalent with what really the developers want in case you are actually building a product that is more specific for developers. And that is why developable advocacy today is being adopted a lot more as compared to let's say, a few years ago.

Because as more and more companies and startups realise the potential and the overall impact that a developer advocate can help drive the product and can help actually overcome some of the common issues that startups face, we are seeing really a lot more of developer advocates in this particular space. And that's what makes this space so much more impactful and somewhat more fun. With that, that brings an end into my talk. I hope that you learned something from this talk, and I just cannot wait for seeing a lot more startups actually adopt the developer advocacy.

In case you have any other questions, feel free to connect with me on my Twitter at heart develop, and I'll be more than happy to take up your questions. And of course, developer advocacy is really all about networking, all about being able to connect with each other. So keep up the networking and of course, I hope that you have a really great time watching some of the other talks at Decon 2031. With that, thank you so much and I'll take my bio here. Thanks so much.