Let me introduce the Developer Pour-Over, a way to think about how the culture and practices of DevRel really enable developer adoption. The marketing funnel sits on top of an upside-down adoption funnel, and the critical chokepoint in the middle is the DX & UX onboarding and DevEd learning.

You know, like a pour-over coffee maker! ☕

You do all your little marketing activities, whether that's content, events, etc. Those are the coffee grounds.

Then, the awareness attracts developers and they are poured-over. They percolate in your activities. They pass through your developer experience (DX), user experience (UX), and educational material like docs or courses (DevEd).

In the end, you have community coffee. (Hopefully not too bitter.)

There are a few things I want to draw your attention to:

👉 DevRel is a system, not a disparate set of components. Each piece works together to accomplish the goal of making delicious, hot community coffee.

👉 Quality can be controlled. You decide whether you source organic and fair-trade grounds, or you know, Folgers (🎵 in myyyy cuppp). Or K-cups. Or developers from the tap or mountain springs. OK, I'm stretching.

👉 Not all developer droplets make it through. Some will evaporate.

👉 It's unreasonable to expect water never to evaporate, which is why it's unreasonable to create an OKR of reaching 100% conversion.

👉 Without developer success, the community coffee eventually gets cold.

👉 If Developer Experience (DX), User Experience (UX), and Developer Education (DevEd) cause too much friction, it restricts the flow rate.

It's not a perfect metaphor but it illustrates a lot of what I talk about (and why), which I hope makes it useful.

Have a lovely day,
Kamran