Chances are good that you’ve interacted with a developer advocate at one point or another. Perhaps you’ve chatted with them at a booth at a conference, read their blog post, or cloned their code sample on GitHub. This session will provide you with a deeper understanding of the role of developer advocacy and its significance in the tech industry. What is a developer advocate? A developer advocate advocates for two entities at the same time: at their company, they advocate for the developer community, and, in the developer community, they advocate for their company. Developer advocates have a passion for developer experience and reaching developers where they are, through a variety of mediums, including conference talks, documentation, written tutorials, social media, videos, live streams, code samples, online forums, and more. Come chat with Liz and Lauren about their experiences as developer advocates and discover if developer advocacy could be the right next step for your career. They'll reveal the highs and lows of their positions, how they successfully transitioned into these roles, and how they’ve customized their careers to fit their unique strengths and interests.

1. Developer Advocacy:
A Career Path for Those With a Passion for
Code, Community, and Content
Elizabeth Kenyon
Developer Advocate
Shopify
Lauren Schaefer
Staff Developer Advocate
Grammarly
gram.ly/lauren_ghc

2. ● What is a developer
advocate?
● Our stories
● How to become a
developer advocate
● Q&A

3. ● What is a developer
advocate?
● Our stories
● How to become a
developer advocate
● Q&A

4. “To the community, I represent the company.
To the company, I represent the community;
I must have both of their interests in mind
at all times.”
Ewan Dennis

5. Developer Advocacy
Company
Developer
Community

6. “DevRel, or developer relations, is a process
for nurturing mutually beneficial
relationships between organisations and
software developers. In other words, it’s a
collection of strategies and tactics that help
companies to work better together with
software engineers.”
Matthew Revell

7. Developer Relations and Developer Advocacy
Developer
Relations
Developer
Advocacy

8. DevRel Responsibilities
● Create tutorials (written and video)*
● Capture community feedback*
● Speak at conferences and other
events like live streams, webinars,
and podcasts*
● Build sample code, apps, and tooling*
● Write documentation
● Build the community (online and in
person)
● Craft the developer experience
● Moderate and answer questions in
forums
● Contribute to open source projects
● Sponsor events
● Organize swag
● Engage on social media (personal and
company accounts)
● Manage champions program
*Most likely to be developer advocate responsibilities

9. ● What is a developer
advocate?
● Our stories
● How to become a
developer advocate
● Q&A

10. Education
Liz
BS in Computer Science
University of Manitoba
Lauren
BS & MS in Computer Science
North Carolina State University

11. Job History
Liz Lauren
2022, Developer Advocate, Grammarly
2018, Developer Advocate, MongoDB
2017, Developer Advocate, SugarCRM
2009, Software Engineer, IBM
2017, Developer Intern, Government of Manitoba
2017, Developer Intern, Bold Commerce
2018, Developer Intern, Priceline
2018, Software Developer, Bold Commerce
2021, Developer Advocate, Shopify

12. What We Do Today
Liz Lauren

13. ● What is a developer
advocate?
● Our stories
● How to become a
developer advocate
● Q&A

14. How to Become a Developer Advocate*
1. Learn a technology
2. Build empathy for developers
3. Connect with developers authentically
4. Create content
5. Speak at events
*Everyone’s path will be unique, which is fantastic!

15. ● What is a developer
advocate?
● Our stories
● How to become a
developer advocate
● Q&A

16. Q&A
Elizabeth Kenyon
Developer Advocate
Shopify
Lauren Schaefer
Staff Developer Advocate
Grammarly
gram.ly/lauren_ghc

17. Q&A Ideas
• What are your favorite and least favorite
parts of your job?
• How have you customized your role for
your strengths and interests?
• What is the career path for a developer
advocate? What’s next?
• How much do you travel?
• How much time do you spend coding?
• How do you keep your technical skills
fresh?
• What’s a typical day or week?
• How do you come up with ideas for
talks?
• What are your tips for social media?
• What questions should I ask in an
interview for a developer advocate?
• What is the current job market for
developer advocacy?
• Do you need to be a programmer to be
a developer advocate?
• Should developer advocacy be your first
role in tech?
• What should I look for in my first job?