Our industry once used “Developer Evangelism” to describe our role, which was a marketing function to grow awareness and adoption of developer products. At Google in 2007, we had to decide what to name our team. Should we use ‘Evangelism’? “No” was the overwhelming voice. This talk explores why.

My Developer Relations Mantra

• I do not preach; I educate.
• I do not market; I share.
• I am not religious; I’m empathetic.

Our industry once used “Developer Evangelism” to describe our role, which was a marketing function to grow awareness and adoption of developer products. At Google in 2007, we had to decide what to name our team. Should we use ‘Evangelism’? “No” was the overwhelming voice. This talk explores why.

I’d like to answer several questions

1. Why do we now call our field “Developer Relations”?
2. Organizationally, should we be in Marketing, in Engineering, or in Product?
3. How do we maintain trust and influence in the developer community and industry, when we’re paid by an employer (aka “biased”)?
4. What is our value to the developer? to the business?
5. What is success?