Developer Experience 2023
Confusion, Opportunity, and a Search for Consensus
The developer experience as an industry is undergoing confusion in many ways and is on the verge of acquiring a consensual definition.
💡The generative AI spawned thousands of startups, all trying to offer developers something to adopt.
💡 The mid-market and above industry had to transform their offerings powered by generative AI, making the “fast” (development or shipping) ability become a requirement in the software industry.
💡 As business opportunities emerge in adding value to the developer community, the developer relations industry is starting to see demand before it’s fully matured.
💡 Every business that started obsessing over KPIs built out like customer support has seen layoffs affect their teams.
💡 For little less than a decade, every(mostly) DevRel professional has written a blog expressing their day-to-day role repeatedly in their own ways.
💡More and more companies are implementing developer relations programs in an optimism — reporting into either marketing, ecosystem, product, or engineering.
💡 Teams from a productivity worldview publish whitepapers to measure experience regarding Flow State and others. Previously, it was DORA, SPACE, and indicators such as Lead time.
💡The recruitment industry is confused with labeling the right title — Technical Support Engineer, Developer Advocate, Developer Evangelist, Developer Marketer, Developer Relations Engineer, DX Engineer, and much more.
💡As companies take platform or ecosystem-oriented approaches, new team units labeled Developer Experience Team arose with a combination of DevRel professionals and DX Engineers.
💡It is now customary for companies to find their first DevRel.
💡 The emerging products are beginning to see a complex consumer persona — It’s not B2D alone; B2D comes with B2B for the seller to see profitability sooner.
💡 More and more talent groups outside the Developer Experience industry, like traditional sales, marketing, partnerships, design, and product, are challenged against their skills to serve this technical audience.
💡The definition of developers spans broader — from engineers within the company to the ones in partnerships at for-profit companies.
💡 The responsibilities span from Opensource -> B2D -> B2B/B2C, and the nature of DevRel spans from Generalist -> Specialist.
💡 Technical Writing as a talent equation isn’t nurtured as much as the pace of this industry demands.
💡 Companies in infrastructure and productivity are looking for DevRel professionals who support internal engineers.
💡 New startups are now bringing variations of customer service unit equivalents into his industry, such as Developer Success.
I’m excited to witness this trend and will look forward to it over the years to see how this settles its course — a massive shoutout to everyone in this space for making this a forward-moving industry.
