Last week, I interviewed for a developer relations leadership role at a company whose product I genuinely use and admire.
I made it to round 2 of 3, but ultimately wasn’t selected.
While I didn’t land the job and a chance to work with an amazing company and incredible team, I’m honored to have been considered and incredibly proud of the work I put in:
- 30+ hours of research and preparation
- 100+ slides across two presentations
- Some of the most meaningful conversations I’ve had with a team in years
I could simply throw up my hands in resignation and leave all that work and content to languish in a folder on a backup drive or in the cloud…
…but instead, I’m sharing it here. Why?
Because:
- Good ideas deserve to circulate! Maybe there’s a framework, approach, or creative solution in my presentations that could help someone else.
- We’re not alone in this. The job market is tough right now, and I want people to know they’re not the only ones putting in extraordinary effort. I know you’re out there, giving it your all!
- Transparency builds community and helps others. Real examples of strategic work are worth way more than hand-waving abstract advice.
I’m sharing the slides that outline my complete developer relations strategy presentation plus my tactical execution plan, anonymized and annotated with speaker notes. You’ll see my “Foundation / Focus / Flywheel” framework, community engagement strategies, and how I approached everything from attribution tracking to expanding into Europe.
- If you’re job searching: Take what’s useful here and build on it! No attribution necessary. We’re all in this together, and your success doesn’t diminish mine.
- If you found this valuable: Please share it! It helps me and others going through this.
- If you’re hiring: This shows how I think about DevRel strategy. If your team builds for developers, let’s chat!
My philosophy is that either I win or I learn. I learned a lot from this process, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have engaged with such a thoughtful team.
Next time, I just might win.
