DevRel Consulting

I build developer relations programs for companies that sell developer tools, and hire and train your next Head of DevRel if one is needed. Ten years of developer relations at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, and now as an independent for developer-tool companies.

Who it's for

You have a product that developers use, and either no Developer Relations function yet or a first-hire who needs a playbook. Your engineers own the docs. You know the content you publish should turn into signups and you cannot prove that it does.

The 90-day engagement

Week 1: the stakeholder circuit. I meet the CEO and the heads of Engineering, Marketing, and Sales, agree on what DevRel is for at your company, and secure the engineering time the program needs.

Weeks 1 to 4: the blind build. I build with your product the way a new developer would, using only your docs, SDKs, and APIs. Every place I get stuck becomes a filed issue with a proposed fix. This is the audit.

Day 30: the plan, in writing. A report to leadership with what I found and what we will do about it. By this point the recurring engineering feedback loop is running, the company blog and social channels are publishing, and the developer community (Discord or your equivalent) is open.

Day 60: attribution. Every post and video carries tracked links, so you can follow a reader from click to signup to activation to revenue. I design it; your engineering and go-to-market teams build the two pieces they own.

Day 90: the flywheel is running. Weekly blog posts and biweekly videos, each embedded in the docs it explains. A GitHub organization with samples pushed to production. A livestream setup. A conference strategy with talks submitted six months out. And a hiring plan for your first full-time advocate, drawn from my network.

After Day 90: a month-to-month retainer while I help you hire, then train the hire on the process from their first day.

How I work

• DevRel is the voice of the developer inside the company. It works alongside Engineering, not as a broadcast channel.
• Views and impressions are vanity metrics. Attribution that ties content to signups, activation, and revenue is the metric.
• I promote only what has a good developer experience. Fixing the experience comes first.
• When a customer wants to give you money, let them.

Pricing

• $10,000 per month. The 90-day engagement is three months, $30,000, invoiced monthly.
• Month-to-month after Day 90 at the same rate, for as long as the hiring and training take.
• On-site days: $2,500 per day in addition to the retainer, plus travel at cost. San Francisco Bay Area included.
• You own every piece of content and code produced during the engagement; it publishes through your channels.

Recent work

A nine-episode technical video series for Cognee, each episode with a script, and a demo repo, on the Courses and Video page.

Tell me about your product and your developers: thecodetraveler@gmail.com.