The foundations of Developer Relations
Tags: devrel, community, series
Published: 2023-09-06 22:34:41

_**Author's Note:** What follows is Part 2 of a (currently) 6 Part series on Developer Relations, and how we can move it forward into the years to come. It is not meant as a definitive roadmap, but more as a kickstart down the road of conversation. Please comment as you see fit, and be part of what Developer Relations can become._

## ”Begin at the beginning!”

“Developer Relations”, commonly referred to as “DevRel” for short, is generally defined quite simply as 

>“a business organization or function that builds relationships with Developers”.

Without making this too much of a history lesson, DevRel as a role or function goes back to at least 1995 with [Donna Simonides, who in 1995 was Netscape’s Director of Developer Relations](https://www.fastcompany.com/28639/sleeping-enemy#:~:text=Head%20to%20Head-,Donna%20Simonides). They weren’t alone: Microsoft had a [VP of DevRel and Marketing](https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar97/financial/directors.htm#:~:text=Brad%20Chase%0AVice%20President%2C%20Developer%20Relations%0Aand%20Marketing%2C) (yes, the symbiotic relationship between these two departments is not new) in 1997; Apple had [one of their own](https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-exodus-continues-as-de-luca-departs/#:~:text=In%20February%2C%20Apple%20lost%20its%20chief%20contact%20with%20the%20development%20community%2C%20Heidi%20Roizen%2C%20vice%20president%20of%20developer%20relations.) before Steve Jobs returned (and it was even treated as “the chief contact with the development community”) and then [renewed their developer outreach](https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1998/11/09/250834/index.htm#:~:text=Under%20Jobs%20and,bending%20over%20backwards.%22) in late 1997; and even InstallShield [had a DevRel team in 1998](http://sunsite.uakom.sk/sunworldonline/swol-07-1998/swol-07-installshield.html#:~:text=Jim%20Wright%2C%20the%20director%20of%20developer%20relations%20for%20InstallShield). [Modern DevRel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developer_relations#History_and_roots), as we tend to recognize it today, started at Twilio and Engine Yard, neither of whom still perform DevRel in the same way as they did then. 

I mention all this to say that DevRel is not a new thing. It’s been around for almost 30 years (fwiw 1995 is when I started my tech career, the same year DevRel was mentioned with Netscape).

![coincidence, I think not!](http://i.imgur.com/Odqpt7c.gif)

And as I wrote about in another post on [my path to DevRel](https://dev.to/jerdog/my-long-winding-road-to-devrel-ffl), I was a Technical Liaison at Hallmark Cards in 1999, which was literally Internal DevRel. 

Much has been written on the subject by many people far smarter than myself, so I won’t go further on defining the function. Here are a few for starters:

* Rizèl Scarlett’s [DevRel Journey Series](https://dev.to/blackgirlbytes/series/19293)
* Mary Thengvall’s _[The Business Value of Developer Relations](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-business-value/9781484237489/)_

The next post in this series is going to talk about the different questions that you should be asking when you either a) start a new DevRel role at a company, or b) are wanting to help shape your DevRel Program to gain the maximum impact at your company.

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