What a Developer Advocate Does with Ara Pulido from Datadog | 🎙️#42
Tune in for a conversation with Ara Pulido, Staff Developer Advocate at Datadog, and join Leo and Pablo for an exploration of what this job is and why it can be so essential for your company in episode 42 of DevOps Accents.
- Who is a Developer Advocate?
- What do they advocate for and why it’s not just marketing?
- How does successful developer advocacy program look like?
- How developer advocates influence product development through community feedback?
- How to understand that you need a developer advocate in your company?
- Is being a woman in tech more difficult?
You can listen to episode 42 of DevOps Accents on Spotify, or right now:
Developer advocacy has become a vital component in tech companies, especially those whose products are aimed at developers. But what exactly does a developer advocate do, and why is this role essential?
Who is a Developer Advocate?
A developer advocate, such as Ara Pulido from Datadog, serves as a bridge between the company and the developer community. These professionals are not just marketers; they are technically skilled individuals who communicate the value of a product to other developers. With a background in software engineering and extensive experience in various technical roles, developer advocates like Pulido understand the challenges and needs of their audience.
So, developer advocacy, one of the things that happen is that, and I think it happens as well with what a software engineer does. It depends a lot on your specific role and the specific company that you work for. But to give a little bit of a summary, usually, the companies that have developer advocacy roles are companies where either the main product or a sub-product's final users are developers. And by developers, I mean anyone in IT. It could be developers, operators, security folks, or DevSecOps folks if you want to put a name on it. The reason is that these types of products, our engineering products, are built by engineers for engineers.
But the thing is that usually the engineers who are working on the end product are working on a very, very specific thing. They usually cannot, or they have a more difficult time understanding how to see the wider picture. So, developer advocates try to provide a way for people to talk from developer to developer on how to become better engineers by following some patterns and solutions that we are trying to put into place.
For example, Datadog is an observability and security platform. So, we explain why having a good observability strategy when you're coding will help you later on when you have an incident, because you will. We try to help people do their work better by explaining good patterns they can follow. That's where developer advocacy comes in. It takes the form of giving talks at conferences, creating workshops, blogs, example code that people can reuse, and documenting APIs. It has many different forms.
The good thing is that it's a very diverse role. If you like tinkering with technology, like I do, it's almost the perfect role. You get to tinker with a lot of technology and speak to many other developers about their problems and how they are trying to solve them. It's very diverse. For people who are watching, they know that this is a possible career path. If you like tinkering with technology and talking to people, give it a try because it's lots of fun.
Advocacy is kind of a newer role, even though there have been advocates with that title or a different title for a long time. I think it also depends a lot on the company. In some companies, developer advocacy is part of the marketing organization straight away, and their main role is to help the marketing function. In other companies, like Datadog, for example, it's part of product and engineering. The goals are a little different. Obviously, you need to help other engineers understand not just the product but also how to make the most value out of it by explaining how you would use this in unity as well. But I think the goals are a little different. — Ara Pulido
What Do They Advocate For?
Developer advocates work to ensure that developers understand how to best use a company's products and services. They create content, such as blogs, workshops, and talks, that help developers solve problems and improve their work. Unlike traditional marketing roles, which focus on promoting a product, developer advocacy is about building trust and providing value. As Pulido explains, their goal is to make sure that the content is useful to the audience, whether or not they end up using the product.
The company benefits from the role. If not, they wouldn't have the role in the first place. But it's twofold. So, I think the company benefits because the end users who are using your product are going to understand better the value of your product and are going to use it better. And because they are going to use it better and they're going to understand why the product exists in the first place, and they're going to be better engineers because of it, there will be more retention. The customers are going to say, "Okay, I'm going to stay because this is providing a lot of value." So, the benefit is for the company, but it's the same benefit for the end user because they are actually doing their work better because of it. So, I think even if it's for the same reason, I think both benefit. But definitely, there has to be value for the company. — Ara Pulido
A Successful Developer Advocacy Program
A successful developer advocacy program involves close collaboration with various departments within a company, especially product management. Developer advocates gather feedback from the community and relay it to the product team to help shape the product's development. This feedback loop ensures that the product meets the real needs of its users. Building strong relationships within the company is crucial for developer advocates to effectively influence product decisions and ensure that their feedback is taken seriously.
I always have a North Star of what I want to do. And my North Star when I create content is that this has to be useful to people who've never been a Datadog customer, nor will ever be. So, that's my North Star. When I'm preparing content, it's like, even if the person who listens to me is never going to be a Datadog customer, is this going to be helpful for them? And if the answer is yes, I'm on the right path. And if the answer is no, then I have to go for a different thing. — Ara Pulido
Community Feedback
Developer advocates act as the voice of the community within the company. They attend conferences, participate in discussions, and gather insights from developers who use their products. This feedback is then communicated to the product managers, helping to prioritize features and improvements. By building trust with both the community and the internal teams, developer advocates ensure that the product evolves in a way that genuinely benefits its users.
I think one of the important things, if you want to be successful as a developer advocate, is to build a lot of rapport with product managers at your company. Obviously, not everything is like that because of the different backgrounds that people in my team have. For example, some people are front-end engineers, some are back-end engineers, and some have more of a DevOps or SRE background. So, depending on where you are, you're going to be talking about or touching on an area of the product more than others. But I think it's super important, and I think the most critical thing is to build that rapport with the product managers, to meet with them on a regular basis, understand what those teams are doing, etc.
Once you have that ecosystem in your own company, where you understand who those people are and they understand who you are, then you're going to be a lot more successful in writing that feedback because they trust you. It's about building trust. It's very, very important. It's not just some random person in the company giving feedback; it's someone they know who talks to developers on a regular basis, understands the topic, knows what Kubernetes is, and understands Kubernetes. So when the product manager receives that feedback, it's more likely they will take it into account.
I think, as with anything in this type of role that bridges the gap between two communities—one being the internal community at your company, and the other being the external community—it is crucial. — Ara Pulido
How to Understand That You Need a Developer Advocate in Your Company?
If your company develops products or services for developers, having a developer advocate can be immensely beneficial. The primary indicator that you need a developer advocate is if your product's end users are developers or if you offer APIs that developers use. Even smaller companies can benefit from having a developer advocate to help communicate with the developer community and gather valuable feedback.
I would say that the main thing is that whether they're building a product or it doesn't have to be the main product of the company, but a sub-product as well, the main users are developers. That's the main thing. If your product, and it doesn't have to be the main thing, is not meant to be used by developers as the end product, but you have a public API for people who build applications on top of your platform, for example, that product is super important, and the main users are going to be developers. So, if you have a product or a sub-product that is very important and is going to be used by developers, I think it's super useful regardless of the size of the company.
I really think developer advocacy is a global role in the company. So, regardless of whether you decide that the best place to put your developer advocacy is marketing, you have your reasons, and it's probably the right option for your company. If you decide to place them under engineering, it's probably because you have your reasons, and they are the right reasons for your company. If you decide to place them in product, that's also fine. But at the end of the day, it's a global role. So you really have to have buy-in from the higher-ups. You have to, from your execs, they have to understand why this role that could be in different places in the company is important, why that organization is important, because if not, it's going to be very difficult. If it's a single manager in engineering deciding this, it's going to be very difficult first to make that communication more fluid between the different places in the company, but also to help the rest of the company understand why there is advocacy in the first place. — Ara Pulido
Is Being a Woman in Tech More Difficult?
The tech industry has long been male-dominated, and being a woman in tech comes with its unique challenges. Pulido shares her experiences of often being the only woman at technical events and feeling the need to prove her technical skills constantly. Despite these challenges, efforts are being made to create a more inclusive environment. More women are entering the tech industry, and companies are taking steps to support diversity. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve true equality.
I truly think being a woman in tech is more difficult. The reason is because of all these stereotypes that tech people have to be men. One of the things that I would love to do sometimes is to... I remember I was at a conference not long ago and... One of the great things, by the way, if you speak at conferences, is that they usually have a speaker's dinner. So, you go with the rest of the speakers for the conference for a dinner, which is great for networking because in a conference with a lot of people, it is very difficult to really get to talk to too many people and remember who was who. But in the speaker's dinner, it's like a concentration of a small group, and I was the only woman at that dinner.
One of the speakers was giving a cultural talk. It was about engineering culture. It wasn't a technical talk; it was about engineering culture. I remember thinking to myself, I would love to do that sometimes, like giving some cultural talks. But in a way, I force myself to always give technical talks so people know that I'm technical. So people don't assume that I'm not. If you give a cultural talk, sometimes people will say "ok." And it's unfair that I have to refrain from exploring other topics just to ensure that people understand they can talk about technical topics with me.
So that's one thing. But another thing is that a lot of companies are putting a lot of effort, which is very welcome, into trying to be more welcoming, not only to women. There are a lot of underrepresented folks in the industry, and making sure that they feel welcome and have opportunities to be promoted and explore different career paths. I think there are efforts to make things better for sure, but I think there is still a lot to do. — Ara Pulido
Conclusion
Developer advocacy is a multifaceted role that combines technical expertise with excellent communication skills. It is essential for companies that want to build strong relationships with the developer community and create products that truly meet their needs. Understanding the importance of this role and the unique challenges faced by developer advocates, especially women in tech, can help companies and individuals better appreciate the value they bring to the tech industry.
At the end of the day, the product is owned by the product manager and the product owner. That's why I was saying that it's very important to build those relationships. So it's less about saying, "You have to do that because I say so," and more about having those conversations and ensuring it's really advocating for the user. It's less about imposing a thing, but it works. If you've taken the time to build those relationships—again, that's why I mentioned before that the first thing you need to do to be successful is to build those relationships with product managers. Once you do that, your voice is going to be heard a lot more. — Ara Pulido
Show Notes
- Connect with Ara Pulido on Linkedin
- Connect with Ara on CNCF Slack
- Check out an example of what Developer Advocates do at Datadog
- Datadog is a cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform that provides real-time insights into complex IT environments, helping organizations monitor infrastructure, applications, logs, and other data sources in a unified manner.
Podcast editing: Mila Jones / milajonesproduction@gmail.com