---
id: "what-is-devrel"
title: "What is DevRel?"
description: "DevRel is a lot things: marketing, engineering, product
  management, support; my experience as a Developer Relations Engineer at
  Google."
pubDate: "2022-05-11T00:00:00.000Z"
tags:
  - "code"
  - "devrel"
  - "developer relations engineer"
  - "google"
  - "google maps"
syndicate: false
canonicalURL: "https://justin.poehnelt.com/posts/what-is-devrel/"
relativeURL: "/posts/what-is-devrel/"
markdownURL: "/posts/what-is-devrel.md"
---
There was a short discussion about DevRel that got me thinking about my role and what I do as DevRel. I removed the link to Birdsite. It was a meme stating:

DevRel is marketing

Some aspects of developer relations can certainly be considered marketing, but I think it can and should be far more.

**To me, DevRel is a lot things: marketing, engineering, product management, and support.**

## Background[](#background)

I have a background as a SWE, but joined Google as a Developer Programs Engineer in 2019. At that time there were two different roles in the DevRel ladder at Google: **Developer Programs Engineer** and **Developer Advocate**. The former was more engineering focused, and the latter was more marketing focused. These were eventually merged into a single role, Developer Relations Engineer, but there is still a spectrum of work and responsibilities determined by individual interests and team needs.

## What is DevRel?[](#what-is-devrel)

I’m going to define developer relations by what I do in my work.

### Daily work[](#daily-work)

* Write and maintain open source (client libraries, extensions, etc) -> **DevRel is Engineering**
* Fix and expose interfaces in the product (TypeScript Typings, exporting Errors, etc) -> **DevRel is Engineering**
* Interact with developers on Discord, StackOverflow, GitHub, etc -> **DevRel is Support**
* Provide feedback on API design, use cases, etc -> **DevRel is Product Management**

### Weekly work[](#weekly-work)

* Produce content (blogs, videos, tweets, etc) -> **DevRel is Marketing**
* Capture friction logs and other proposals based upon a deep understanding of the dev ecosystem -> **DevRel is Product**
* Write tutorials, samples, documentation -> **DevRel is Tech Writing**

Sometimes it is about bringing knowledge of the general developer ecosystem back to pm/eng. For example, identifying challenges in using modern web frameworks for a 10+ year old JS product. This requires experience beyond what pm has and what eng is often familiar with.

## Staying technical[](#staying-technical)

Basically, I’m a generalist that biases to the engineering side of DevRel and I mostly act in a software engineering role.

* Adding support for TypeScript to Google Maps Platform
* Taking a design for adding JavaScript Promises to the public interface from PRD to Design Doc to Implementation to Marketing
* Interacting with the open source community to build extensions, component libraries, etc.
* Writing open source that bridges the gap between the product and developer ecosystem ([@googlemaps/js-api-loader](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@googlemaps/js-api-loader), [@googlemaps/react-wrapper](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@googlemaps/react-wrapper)).
* Writing a plugin using WebGL to extends the functionality of Google Maps Platform.

## My favorite role[](#my-favorite-role)

DevRel is my favorite role to date because it is a little bit of everything and is always exciting; allowing me to push the boundaries of current technologies and explore the developer experience. The hardest part is turning that into an outcome that has an impact; it will vary by in the moment, it may be marketing or it could be engineering or both!

The most frustrating part is being perpetually under-resourced and seeing the empathy I have for the developer experience not shared across the organization. In these cases, I turn to open source to find my footing and motivation, by independently making the developer experience better and finding my own creativity and fulfillment.

For me, I still express my creativity through engineering and in my mind, DevRel, is much more than marketing.


[What is DevRel?](https://justin.poehnelt.com/posts/what-is-devrel/) © 2022 by [Justin Poehnelt](https://justin.poehnelt.com/) is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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