Developer Relations sits at a fascinating intersection of Marketing, Product, and Engineering. After years in this space, I’ve learned that measuring success is as much Dark Art as it is Science. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some key learnings that I’ve gathered about defining meaningful DevRel success measures that showcase the unique value that DevRel delivers to organizations of all sizes.
What to expect in this series
This series will explore three critical lessons for measuring DevRel success:
- Measure for success, not activity – how to focus on outcomes rather than output
- Embrace DevRel’s unique position – how to reflect your specific organizational context in your metrics
- Communicate relentlessly – how to ensure that stakeholders understand and remember your value
While the topic of KPIs may feel administrative, it’s critical to set the direction and priorities for your team.
A personal lesson in alignment
I first learned this lesson while designing the Azure Developer Audience Marketing motion in 2018 – defining how the Microsoft Product Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Sales, and DevRel teams would align and work together to grow the developer audience.
We initially took a ‘parallel play’ approach but quickly found that even the smallest crack of sunlight between groups in strategy would turn into glaring gaps (and conflict) at the local/IC level. To align at both a strategic and tactical level required:
- Clean KPIs to understand when teams could align
- Clear APIs to define how teams should align
It took some time, but we eventually built some kick-ass developer community and skilling motions by getting everyone on the same strategy. It made steering committee meetings more productive, made cross-functional workstreams more efficient and effective, and accelerated time to deliver programs that made a difference for our developer customers.
The key insight? Focus on [and measure!] the outcomes that matter most. There are a lot of places where a developer motion could play, but it’s up to you to prioritize and pick the most important activities that you have the bandwidth and skillset to do well.
The many flavors of DevRel
For SaaS and enterprise companies where developers matter, Developer Relations (‘DevRel’) sits in that area where Marketing, Product, and Engineering meet. Each of these three organizations need assets and community programs to serve their developer audience, but these activities are often cut in favor of other, higher-priority initiatives.
Eventually, this pain becomes too acute for one or more teams, and DevRel is born. But what DevRel looks like varies wildly between companies:
- It may be one person or it may be a team or a virtual team
- It may formally report into Marketing or Product or it may report up to the CTO or even the CEO…and it may move around between departments over time
- It may be called Developer Relations, Developer Marketing, Developer Experience, or even Technical PMM
- Team makeup will often include diverse skillsets to meet stakeholder and customer needs (e.g., writers, coders, speakers, community managers, PMMs, etc.)
And while this diversity in structure can help solve immediate business challenges, it creates unique challenges for measurement when they feel pressure to express their success and to protect their resources (headcount and/or budget).
I really like how OpenView Partners said in a 2020 blog post – “DevRel is difficult to define, and—like relationships—difficult to quantify. Still, companies want to be able to measure its ROI.” If you haven’t read the post, it uses “the first rule of measuring DevRel ROI is tying DevRel goals to company goals” to reverse engineer success measures from larger company goals.
But critical to all of this is balance – balancing business outcomes with serving your developer audience. Although DevRel activities rarely have a direct correlation to revenue outcomes due to numerous external factors, they can and do influence revenue positively when properly aligned with business objectives. The key is finding the right metrics that demonstrate this connection to the business without forcing DevRel into traditional sales or marketing frameworks that is likely to corrupt/lose its unique value.
The current state of DevRel success measures
According to the 2024 State of Developer Relations Report, measuring success is a growing concern across the industry. In 2024, proving the business impact of DevRel jumped to 2nd place as the biggest developer program challenge for 28.5% of respondents, up from 7th the year prior. And the percentage of teams that don’t measure their program at all has declined from 14.1% in 2022 to 7.3% in 2024, reinforcing this trend towards accountability.
When it comes to current DevRel success metrics used (Q41), active users remain the top success metric (44.3%), followed by content engagement (37.8%) and revenue influenced (17.5%). Although I can’t see the underlying data, I’m assuming that the active user vs engagement/revenue metric is likely connected to organizational placement and who DevRel is reporting their metrics to.
Similarly, Common Room’s 2023 Developer Relations compensation and culture report asked a question on what would most improve DevRel wellbeing (Q8). Respondents ranked access to data to show impact as top (53.8%), followed by increased headcount (47.7%), organizational recognition (43.2%), clearer goals and objectives (35.6%), and aligned performance and role expectations (27.3%).
From both of these reports, it is clear that increased economic pressures are bringing increased scrutiny to DevRel activities. Teams are being asked to focus on activities with the highest impact and justify their contributions in terms of measurable outcomes. This scrutiny makes having a solid measurement framework more important than ever.
Why this series matters
This blog series captures discussions I’ve had over the years with my peers and in mentoring discussions to answer the challenge of connecting with the business without being driven by it. I hope that it helps you:
- Feel more comfortable embracing your unique DevRel situation
- Articulate the unique value that you bring to your organization.
- Build measurement frameworks that secure your team’s future and success
As Mary Thengvall notes in her book The Business Value of Developer Relations, the challenge isn’t just in doing the work, but in “proving the value of that work in ways that resonate with executives.”
Returning to the 2024 State of Developer Relations report, when asked about the biggest challenges for the practice of DevRel, proving impact with data and metrics (60.7%) and awareness of their impact (50%) take the top 2 spots, with burnout (37.6%) and a lack of career path (32.2%) tagging along.
With the current macro-economic environment, these all point to a need to create and drive clarity for DevRel teams. Teams that fail to demonstrate their worth risk finding themselves vulnerable during painful budget discussions – driving up burnout as teams continue to thrash and mistake activity as a demonstration of impact.
In upcoming posts, I’ll dive deeper into each lesson, exploring frameworks like OKRs and the AAARRRP model that can help structure your DevRel strategy and measurement. And throughout this series, I’ll provide practical frameworks and examples that you can adapt to your specific DevRel context, starting with how to focus on outcomes over activity.
If you find these insights useful, or if I missed something important, let me know. Share in the comments below or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Coming next: “Lesson 1: Measure for Success, Not Activity” – how to focus on outcomes that matter most to your business.
