Welcome to another lively session of The Dare Dialogues, broadcast live on LinkedInLive*. This episode - which was live on 27 June '24 - titled "PR Married with DevRel," features Leoni Janssen, founder and CEO of The BaaS Company with 25 years of experience in technology PR, and Tim Benniks, a seasoned professional in developer relations (DevRel). Together, they embark on an journey to explore the relationship between Tech PR and DevRel, two fields that, at first glance, may seem as mismatched as the characters in the 80s sitcom "Married with Children." But just like the sitcom, this odd pairing reveals a strong and complementary dynamic.
Leoni brings her extensive expertise in building trust and managing relationships with various audiences, while Tim, DevRel celeb and currently part of the DevRel team at Hygraph, shares his experiences in engaging and empowering the developer community. Their discussion aims to uncover the definitions, origins, overlaps, and differences between Tech PR and DevRel, offering insights into how these roles can collaborate effectively in tech companies. Join us as we navigate this fascinating area of related yet separate worlds, bringing clarity to the interplay in today’s tech landscape.
The full episode can be found here, but has bad video quality due to bandwidth limitations in the recording.
Here is the summary of what was discussed!
Q: What is DevRel?
Tim Benniks: Developer Relations (DevRel) focuses on building and nurturing relationships between a tech company and its developer community. It involves advocacy, education, and engagement to help developers use and integrate the company’s products effectively. DevRel professionals often come from a development background and understand the technical challenges and needs of their audience.
Q: What is PR?
Leoni Janssen: Public Relations (PR) focuses on building and maintaining a positive image for a company or brand. It involves crafting messages, managing influencer relations incl media, and creating strategies to communicate with different audiences, including consumers, media, politicians, and partner companies etc. The goal is to build trust and credibility with them.
Through a recent LinkedIn Post we (I - at least) learned that most developers think of a ‘Pull Request’ when they see the abbreviation PR. So, although the connection is thick and clear to me, the two worlds are entirely separate today!
Q: How is Tech PR different?
Leoni Janssen: Tech PR is merely a subset of PR, specializing in technology companies. Personally I think it is the coolest area in PR as it is about innovation, novelty, huge transformative trends and interesting societal change and it involves understanding complex technical details and communicating them effectively to a broader audience. Tech PR professionals often have a background in journalism or technical fields to translate technical jargon into relatable content. I happen to be a linguist, which is an odd background :)
Q: When did DevRel start, and how?
Tim Benniks: DevRel began in the 1980s, with notable figures like Guy Kawasaki at Apple. He was one of the first to evangelize a platform to developers, fostering a community around Apple’s products. Over time, DevRel evolved to include roles in companies like Amazon Web Services and Mozilla, focusing on educating and empowering developers.
Leoni Janssen: That’s fascinating, Tim. Guy Kawasaki is also considered a Tech PR hero, which shows how interconnected these roles are.
Q: What’s the overlap between Tech PR and DevRel?
Leoni Janssen: Both PR and DevRel aim to build trust and relationships. They communicate complex ideas, tailor messages to specific audiences, and use media to influence perceptions. The key difference is the audience: PR targets the general public and media, while DevRel focuses purely on developers, making the tactics and terms and the actual materials very different.
Q: How do Tech PR and DevRel differ?
Tim Benniks: The primary difference lies in their audiences and methods. Tech PR uses broader communication strategies to reach various publics, including media. DevRel, on the other hand, engages directly with developers, often through hands-on support, educational content, and community-building activities.
Leoni Janssen: I am also noticing that PR professionals often work behind the scenes, while DevRel folks are very much in the foreground, directly engaging with their audience. The way you do it, you are a speaker, on stage tech-guitarist and you are in video’s all the time showing things.
Q: How can DevRel and Tech PR work together in product companies?
Leoni Janssen: Collaboration between DevRel and Tech PR can enhance both roles. Tech PR can help DevRel craft broader messages and reach wider audiences. Meanwhile, DevRel can provide technical insights and backing up and deepening the Tech PR, ensuring accurate and compelling messaging.
Tim Benniks: Huh. By teaming up, we can ensure that communication is both technically accurate and broadly appealing. No brainer.
Q: What can DevRel learn from PR’s long tradition?
Tim Benniks: I totally agree. There’s so much we can learn from the PR tradition, especially when it comes to crafting messages that resonate and build trust.
Leoni Janssen: DevRel can adopt PR’s strategies for building trust and managing relationships. For example, in case of issue management or crisis.
In conclusion, while Tech PR and DevRel have distinct roles, their collaboration seems a no brainer for success for tech companies. Embracing each other’s strengths can lead to more effective communication, stronger relationships, and ultimately, greater trust and credibility, which they are both working towards!
