---
title: Developer Relations as Growth · RGM Compendium
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/compendium/developer-relations/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/learn/compendium/developer-relations/
---

**Sources & attribution.** DevRel as a discipline was popularized by Mary Thengvall (The Business Value of Developer Relations, 2018), the developer relations communities at Stripe and Twilio, and the DevRel collective. Specific patterns described here are publicly visible in those companies' operating models.

## What developer relations actually does

Developer relations (DevRel) is the function that helps developers succeed with your product. The work crosses marketing, education, support, and product feedback. When done well, DevRel becomes a primary growth channel for technical products — sometimes the only one that matters.

The category was popularized by companies like Stripe, Twilio, Vercel, MongoDB, HashiCorp, Postman, and GitHub. Each treats DevRel as a strategic function with real budget, real headcount, and direct revenue impact.

## The DevRel skill stack

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### Measurement & Attribution

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A modern DevRel team usually includes a mix of:

- **Developer Advocates.** Public-facing engineers who write, speak, build demos, and engage on social. Often the most visible role.
- **Documentation engineers.** Technical writers with code chops. Documentation is the highest-traffic DevRel surface.
- **Community managers.** Run Discord, Discourse, Slack, GitHub Discussions.
- **Education / curriculum designers.** Build tutorials, courses, certification paths.
- **DX engineers.** Build internal tools that make the developer experience better — sandbox environments, sample apps, integration test harnesses.

## Measuring DevRel impact

The classic measurement debate: is DevRel a top-of-funnel marketing function (measure by reach, signups, accounts) or a developer success function (measure by adoption depth, API call growth, retention)? The answer is both — and the right metric depends on the company stage.

Early-stage developer products care most about top-of-funnel signups and time-to-first-API-call. Scale-stage products care about depth of integration (number of APIs used per account, monthly active developers, expansion revenue per developer). The DevRel team's KPIs should shift as the company grows.

## DevRel content patterns that work

- **Tutorials with code.** Step-by-step guides with copy-pasteable code blocks. Rank well, convert well.
- **Reference docs.** Comprehensive API reference. The most-trafficked pages.
- **Open-source examples.** Sample apps on GitHub. Lowest-effort adoption surface.
- **Conference talks & YouTube.** Long-form developer education at scale.
- **Office hours / livestreams.** Synchronous community access to engineers.
- **Certifications.** Recognized credentials drive depth of engagement.

## Common failures

Hiring developer advocates without giving them engineering credibility — developers smell marketing-disguised-as-advocacy from a mile away. Treating documentation as low-priority — it's the most-trafficked content you have. Optimizing for vanity metrics (Twitter followers) instead of depth metrics (API call growth, retention). Not budgeting for community sustainability — Discord servers die without active moderation.

Sources & further reading

1. Stripe Press & Stripe developer documentation — gold-standard DevRel.
2. Twilio developer relations history — early category-defining work.
3. Vercel and Next.js community building.
4. MongoDB University — certification-based DevRel.
5. HashiCorp open source DevRel model.
6. Postman API workspaces — community + product integration.
7. *The Business Value of Developer Relations* — Mary Thengvall (2018).
8. RGM operator notes — DevRel engagements with technical products 2024-2026.