Michael Ludden Director Of Product, IBM Watson Developer Labs & Ar/Vr Labs

1. Michael Ludden
@Michael_Ludden
Director of Product, IBM Watson Developer Labs & AR/VR Labs
Developer Relations vs. Developer
Marketing

2. My Background
Developer Marketing Developer Relations

3. First, a few caveats...
• Real World vs. Ideal World
• Big company Problems vs. Startup Problems
• Semantics Matter
• I’m Opinionated, Your Mileage May Vary

4. What is Developer Marketing?

5. It’s Marketing. To Developers.

6. Developer Marketing is…
• Demand Generation
• Customer Lifecycle
• Social Campaigns
• Content Calendar
• Email Campaigns
• Brand Marketing
• Digital Presence
• Contests
• Events
• SEO
• etc.

7. What is Developer Relations?

8. Developer Relations is…
A New Hybrid Role
(This is NOT a unicorn. This is a software engineer who is also gregarious and outgoing and great at
public speaking while also writing flawless sample code and is active in online communities and has
great rep on StackOverflow, Github, among other places.)

9. Developer Relations is…
Evangelism Advocacy

10. Developer Relations is…
Evangelism
• Public Speaking
• Social Media
• Conferences
• Office Hours
• Blog Writing
• Online Q&A
• Hackathons
• Demos
• Code
• Etc.
Advocacy
• Product Specific Feedback
• Documentation Feedback
• Feature Request Issues
• Developer Quotes
• Tooling Feedback
• Market Research Roadmap
Advice
• Web Feedback
• User Feedback
• Etc.

11. But Isn’t There Overlap?

12. Overlap
Overlapping Metrics
• Developer Satisfaction
• Product Improvement
• User Retention
• Market Growth
• Revenue
• Adoption
• Etc.
Overlapping Job Functions
• Online Community
• Public Speaking
• Outreach
• Strategy
• Content
• Events
• Etc.

13. Overlapping Org Structures

14. Overlapping Org Structures
Real World Ideal World
“Developer Relations”
Marketing
CMO
CEO
CTO
Marketing
CMO
CEO
CTO
Developer Relations
Note: Big Company Problems differ from Startup Problems & The Importance of Org Structure Changes

15. Key Takeaways
• Naming Matters – So Let’s All Agree On These Definitions & “Baptize” Our Companies
With Then ;)
• Job Role Specificity Matters (If You Want To Keep Your Job Anyways & Also For
Company Success)
• Developer Relations Done Right Matters
• Developer Relations Done Wrong Can Kill Developer Marketing Efforts
• Great Developer Advocacy Is Invisible But Is Nonetheless Marketing (Developers Are
Humans, Too)
• Collaboration Between Developer Marketing & Developer Relations Is Unavoidable (And
Can Be Mutually Beneficial)
• Don’t Leave These Things Unsaid: Have These Uncomfortable Conversations To Get
Comfortable Results

16. Thank You!
My sub-title is funny, clever or just insightful