What is DevRel?
Tags: devrel, google
Published: 2022-05-12 17:32:56

---
title: What is DevRel?
published: true
date: 2022-05-11 15:31:22 UTC
tags: devrel, google
canonical_url: https://justin.poehnelt.com/posts/what-is-devrel/
---

There was a short discussion about DevRel on Twitter that got me thinking about my role and what I do as DevRel.

> Let’s do this! [pic.twitter.com/0cTDWDgKCZ](https://t.co/0cTDWDgKCZ)
> 
> — Corey Quinn (@QuinnyPig) [May 11, 2022](https://twitter.com/QuinnyPig/status/1524230834898669568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

 <script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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

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?

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

- 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's 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.
> 
> — Justin Poehnelt (@jpoehnelt) [May 11, 2022](https://twitter.com/jpoehnelt/status/1524435793401434112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

## 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

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.