Developer Relations in Web3: How Learning DevRel Helps Build a Career

Hi, Hackernoon fam! This is Daria. I’m the Head of Marketing at ETHWarsaw (the conference and hackathon) and a content creator focusing on the product and culture sides of web3.

Recently, I finished my studies at the DevRel Uni course. I spent six insightful weeks with over 60 great people, most of whom work in the web3 industry. It was crucial to me to have a similar context and understanding of the industry.

In this article, I explain DevRel's value for the tech community and share my insights and conclusions. I also asked Bianca, the course founder, about her mission and talked to a few cohort mates about the trends in DevRel.

The course was free of charge because the Arbitrum Foundation sponsored it. It was an excellent opportunity for me to learn about this L2 network that scales Ethereum; I enjoyed learning about this ecosystem! However, when deciding about participation in any course, I recommend paying attention to the sponsors/partners because some projects may be irrelevant to your career goals.

I’ll share more about my insights later in this article, but now I want to explain the value of DevRel for tech companies.

What is DevRel, and why is it essential for tech companies?

The DevRel role emerged at the end of the 1980s and has evolved substantially, especially with open source and Web3 communities playing a large part in shaping how companies interact with developers. As the internet matured, companies like Microsoft and Apple began to invest in dedicated roles focused on serving developers. These early efforts were often limited to providing documentation, hosting developer conferences, and running basic support forums.

Today, DevRel is recognized as a critical function at technology companies. The responsibilities have expanded beyond advocacy to include community management, ecosystem partnerships, event organization, and strategic content development.

The DevRel profession has many directions regarding the company’s focus and personal skills:

• Engineers
• Developer Experience Engineers
• Advocates
• Evangelists
• Ambassadors
• Marketers

The experts in DevRel, like Advocates or Evangelists, produce educational materials (tutorials, documentation, demos)to teach developers how to use the company's products effectively. They also present at conferences and offer support channels (forums, Discord, Slack, Telegram) to help developers solve problems and enhance productivity.

They also engage with developers through events, forums, and online platforms to collect input and suggestions from the community and bring them back to product teams. This influences the product roadmap and ensures the technology evolves to benefit its user base.

Effective DevRels empower developers and align closely with the company's product, marketing, and support functions to achieve overall success.

With the growth of Web3, blockchain projects, and decentralized platforms, DevRel roles are even more essential for guiding developers through new paradigms, tools, and standards. By doing so, DevRel has become a field that significantly influences product adoption, user retention, and overall platform success.

Today, blockchain infrastructure companies lack products and solutions that can be built on top of their tech. They spend time and money building creative strategies and organizing edutainment events to onboard more developers. This is the photo of the Builder Nights event in Bangkok organized by Francesco Andreoli, the DevRel Advocate at Consensys and Metamask.

My YouTube channel has a dedicated DevRel playlist, where I collect videos from interviews with great DevRel engineers and share my observations about this direction. Here is the video I recorded more than a year ago to explain the idea of developer relations in web3 and key activities in attracting developers to build using the company’s tech stack. This video was reposted to the DevRel Weekly newsletter by Mary Thengvall as an inspirational resource.

Despite the vast number of opportunities, the DevRel profession remains niche, even in tech. The main reason is the unique combination of skills needed for this role. A person must have a deep understanding of the technologies the company offers, have experience in coding, can teach and explain complex concepts, be excellent in communications and building long-term relations with people from different continents and cultures, and, as the icing on the cake, be active on social media and publishing platforms - Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, Farcaster, Hackernoon, and other places.

Finding all these skills in one person seems daunting, right? That’s why the web3 market is now trying to find the best combination of these skills and build the frameworks for hiring such talents to the teams. For many people, including me, this is an excellent opportunity to change their careers, learn about developer relations and become more savvy in building developer-focused communication campaigns.

The purpose for creating a course for DevRels

I asked Bianca Buzea from Chronicle Protocol about her purpose in creating a course for DevRel engineers and the main lessons she learned after six cohorts.

Why did you decide to teach DevRel? What is your key motivation?

Back in 2022, I was looking for DevRel resources and quickly realized that, while there are various programs, bootcamps, and resources aimed at helping developers improve, there wasn’t much available for those looking to transition into DevRel roles.

Similarly, few communities existed for existing DevRels to share learnings with their peers. Meanwhile, companies struggle to attract DevRel talent, and seasoned professionals are scarce in the field. This motivated me to create DevRel Uni to address this gap and help both sides.

On a more personal level, I love teaching and community building, so this initiative aligned perfectly with my ability to make a meaningful impact.

How do you choose the lecturers/mentors for the course?

I always strive to align mentors with the areas of DevRel they are most passionate about within a cohort, as this creates an engaging experience for both students and mentors. Each cohort focuses on key DevRel pillars, such as content creation, documentation, building a personal brand, rapid dApp prototyping, storytelling, and more, with some variations. I’ve been fortunate to receive the support of the best DevRels in the industry, in my opinion, who have generously shared their insights and experience—something I’m deeply grateful for.

What are the main lessons you learned after 6 cohorts of alumni?

DevRel Uni is a program that can open countless opportunities. Participants find a community, strengthen their network, and build a portfolio—and that’s when opportunities begin to arise. However, like any endeavor, the results are proportional to engagement and consistency.

Over time, I’ve become adept at spotting participants who will excel as DevRels and unlock the best opportunities. Since I get to witness all the work everyone creates, as well as the discussions in class and during workshops, it has become easier for me to identify high-potential DevRel talent and the areas where they are most likely to excel.

What did I learn at the DevRel Uni course?

I joined the DevRel Uni course not accidentally. For a long time, I've been interested in developer relations as one of tech companies' vital growth and brand-building techniques, especially in web3, where traditional marketing tools are less effective.

As someone with extensive experience in web3 marketing, product communications, and management, I see the vast possibilities of using DevRel to boost B2D (business-to-developer) companies. In addition to marketing, I see how employer branding and developer relations intersect, especially when attracting tech talent.

If we connect the traditional marketing and sales funnel with DevRel activities, we would have this step-by-step action plan to grow the number of devs and the whole ecosystem:

1. Gain awareness by speaking at conferences, organizing meetups for builders, and creating engaging content on social media.
2. Establish trust: conduct workshops and AMA sessions and be a thought leader and educator.
3. Convert to users (in best cases to loyal ambassadors): updating documentation, working on its usability, producing integration guides, and sponsoring hackathons and developer grants.

Realizing these points helps me to have a holistic picture of DevRel and my role in this niche. I see that there is no need to be excellent in everything. I can focus on gaining awareness and making the following funnel stages smoother and more manageable.

In addition to learning and gaining insights, I met many talented and inspiring people among our mentors and my cohort mates. I liked our sessions because we had an opportunity to ask the best DevRel people about anything related to the profession, productivity, and lifehacks.

This is the screenshot from the class with **Austin Griffith **from BuidlGuidl. He is one of the most prominent builders in the Ethereum ecosystem.

In addition to tons of insights about being DevRel, Austin highlighted two essential things to approach developer relations:

1. You can keep recording videos with tutorials and online sessions for builders without being shy. Just turn your camera on and work for people.
2. Docs should have empathy for developers. Always put yourself in the shoes of someone who builds from scratch using your docs. Is there a user journey or a personal approach? Or are your docs just a collection of dry facts mixed up with the help of AI?

Home assignments

During the course, we had 6 assignments, aka home tasks. I want to share a few of them to give you an understanding of their focus.

Here's the result of my first home task, where we had to plan our 30-60-90 days as Developer Advocates for Arbitrum to drive the adoption of Arbitrum Stylus:

Another assignment was to find new communication channels and resources that complement what is currently available for Arbitrum to generate more value around the Stylus stack and attract more builders:

My favorite assignment is a tutorial explaining Arbitrum Stylus's possibilities and value proposition. Based on my research on developer experience, I chose the audience and messaging. In the form of comics, this tutorial provides insights into Stylus's core value for Rust developers with 2-3 years of experience interested in the Ethereum ecosystem.

So, meet Rusty, a seasoned developer with three years of coding experience! Read the thread to learn the story of Rusty, his friend Arbi, and the impact of Arbitrum Stylus on Rusty's community! My Twitter thread has the full story with a detailed explanation.

The mission of Developer Relations in the tech space

To gain a broader and more holistic view of the DevRel role, I asked a few mates from our cohort to share their impressions about the course and the mission of this niche in the tech space.

Bogdan Vasile, the Business Development Manager at Victus Capital, says he applied to DevRel Uni because it aligns with his passion for combining technical expertise, storytelling, and education. Initially, he was unsure if DevRel was the right path, so he joined to find clarity. This experience confirmed that he has the potential to do a good job in this role.

Bogdan shares his two main insights:

a) Everything centers around purpose - people don’t just buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

b) Empathy for developers (our users) is vital to understanding their needs and building trust.

Here is his answer to the question about the future of DevRel:

As AI continues to advance, the DevRel role might evolve into an orchestrator of AI agents that assist with content creation, education, advocacy, storytelling, coding, and everything else within the scope of the function. It’s an interesting future to imagine!

Artur Chmaro, the full-stack web3 DevRel Engineer from the vlayer project, also shares his opinion about the course and expectations from the DevRel landscape.

Artur: I joined the course to learn from experienced DevRel professionals, grow my network, and sharpen my skills in tech content creation.

I can share two key takeaways from this educational journey:

• Storytelling is a game-changer in any content.
• Smooth docs onboarding and fast "Hello World" examples are crucial.

Artur explained his vision for the upcoming events in the DevRel ecosystem:

DevRel will become a core part of developer-facing products. Traditional marketing doesn’t work for developers, and a good product without marketing is not enough. A mix of personal branding, transparency, and honest communication will make the difference.

Conclusions

At the SheFi Summit, I met Matt Hamilton, the Arbitrum Foundation's DevRel engineer. We discussed some DevRel stuff and even recorded a short video about my students' experience during the DevRel course. I think it’s the best review and conclusion of my DevRel Uni journey.

By engaging developers through big hackathons, meet-ups with pizza and flip charts, or the GitHub page, you show that your organization isn’t just offering jobs but also a platform for communication. Developers thrive in environments where innovation and collaboration are the norm. They are driven by challenges, eager to grow, and want to make an impact.

I continue my journey at the intersection of marketing, DevRel, communications, and growth, being able to contribute to making technology more humanized. It's exciting, and I can't wait to see what's next!

Read my previous articles about Devcon 2024 by Ethereum Foundation, Zero-Knowledge Hackathon Insights and Recommendations, and the challenges of the Web3 hiring culture.

Follow me on social media: LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.