3 Reasons why Developer Relations can Spur Web3 Adoption
Even if the function ‘developer relations’ has been around for a long time, there’s little consensus on what it entails.
This is despite the fact that Big Tech firms like Apple and Google have taken this function seriously in their lines of business.
After all, not every tech offering is developer-facing in nature. Yet for the tech firms that do, having a developer relations team can be crucial to the adoption of their product, thanks to the robust developer community that is built as a result of its activities.
This holds true for Web3 in particular given how fragmented and nascent the space truly is. If anything, developer relations might hold the key to enabling greater Web3 adoption.
Developer Relations: The Art of Building & Engaging a Builder Community
By definition, developer relations or DevRel, refers to the activities that build and maintain the relationship between a company and the developer community. Since a company cannot build all user apps for its platform, the efforts of third-party developers is key to its success.
So, whether this involves technical evangelism, developer support or community building, the overarching objective involves creating a positive developer experience for its products and services.
Here’s Google’s definition of DevRel: “The Developer Relations’ role is to create a vibrant ecosystem of third-party developers, by being the interface between those developers and your platform’s product, engineering, and design teams.”
So, what we can gather from this definition is that convincing developers of your platform’s benefits can help with greater adoption of said ecosystem. Which, in turn, will result in the creation of products and services for users by developers using your platform APIs.
In addition, their feedback about your platform can improve your offerings as well. Quite clearly, communicating these inputs accurately in both directions ends up in a win-win for everyone involved. However, it’s best to keep in mind that DevRel does not have anything to do with marketing, business development or sales.
Now, getting developers to use the platform for its perceived benefits will not happen just like that. There’s a lot of work that goes into building a strong developer community. Some of these tasks include:
- Writing documentation
- Preparing code samples
- Producing training and technical videos
- Speaking at conferences
- Engaging with developers via social media or at in-person conferences
- Making feature requests and providing info on real-world bugs to product and engineering teams
- Answering technical questions on forums
- Providing best practices
Now, summarizing the goals of any developer relations program is best using the AAARRRP acronym:
Awareness — Creating awareness of the platform and what it can do
Acquisition — Getting developers to sign up, download or install the platform
Activation — Using the platform to build an application
Retention — Continued use of the platform, use of new features
Revenue — Getting developers to pay to use the platform
Referral — Inform other developers about the platform
Product — Getting developers involved in platform building as well as obtaining feedback on its features and bugs
Depending on a company’s DevRel goals, you’ll have to select a combination of these goals and then decide how many developer advocates or evangelists you need. Usually, developer advocates focus on retention and product while developer evangelists focus on awareness and activation.
Why Developer Relations Can Spur Web3 Adoption
Now, while developer relations has proven itself to be very useful in increasing the adoption of centralized technologies, can this feat be replicated in Web3?
An answer in the affirmative seems likely, with emerging technologies in this space gaining ‘critical mass’ when it comes to adoption. Just as it was with Apple in the eighties.
But before we examine why this is possible, let’s look at how DevRel made an impact, in terms of adoption for Vonage, which is a telecommunications company. After one year of including developer relations, there was a sharp uptick in numbers, as presented below:
Impressive for a year’s work, isn’t it?
Yet there are challenges to negotiate in Web3 that are practically non-existent in other domains of Technology. With Web3 still nascent, it’s tough to track the right metrics, simplify low-level engineering tasks as in Web2 or even put together a set of best practices that holds true for developers across Web3.
To say the least, it’s hard for Web3 educators to bring developers up to speed. To make matters worse, DevRel teams in Web3 aren’t as big as they should be to cope with these pressing challenges.
So, why DevRel? Why not pass these tasks to marketing, business development or sales?
See, it’s a known fact that Web3 technologies are new and adoption is slow. What makes things far more complex to negotiate is that there are several platforms that developers can choose from. Still, as in any other domain, developers have and will only adopt said technology based on three important questions:
1: Is trust built between developers and the Web3 community?
Building trust between developers and the web3 community is the first step to greater adoption. Being open and transparent about the various platforms and the state of Web3 is important to onboard developers who are just getting their feet wet. As they get familiar with Web3, trust grows in the technologies that can be used to build decentralized applications. With the aforementioned tasks, developer relations can facilitate such an outcome to the benefit of one and all.
2: Is accessibility to support and resources improved?
Just like any other domain where its technologies are new to developers, getting familiar with Web3 involves gaining access to resources and support. This is where developer relations comes in since some of its tasks include maintaining developer docs and blog posts as well as hosting in-person conferences. In fact, no other organizational function is suited to such a role than developer relations as it prepares relevant content and connects with its target audience at every given opportunity.
3: Does innovation drive development?
Once developers begin building their first few applications, being part of a collaborative community can enhance innovation. Working with other developers can result in the realization of new and brilliant applications that can literally be classified as “killer apps”. It goes without saying that when more of these apps are built and deployed on said platform, user engagement increases, which amounts to wider adoption of Web3 technologies. Yet again, developer relations can be just the intervention needed to spur innovation and the subsequent adoption of Web3.
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