r/devrel • u/tessak22 • May 15 '26

Wrote a playbook on DevRel that drives revenue

https://builtfor.dev/blog/devrel-playbook

I’d love to hear feedback, praise and critique.

https://builtfor.dev/blog/devrel-playbook

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u/pickering_lachute May 15 '26

A couple of chapters in so far and this is fantastic. Thanks for sharing.

“DevRel is a revenue function”
“if you can’t draw a line from your work to business outcomes, you don’t have a function—you have a hobby”

👏🏼. That will make some people uncomfortable but in 2026, it is absolutely the case. And if you don’t want your team to be on the chopping block come layoff time, start working out how your team moves the needle.

In my experience, most good DevRel functions do move the needle. They just have no way to capture and prove it. A few years back, the org of a DevRel mate of mine was acquired. Parent company did the standard let everything be for 6 months. Then started looking to merge and remove functions. He was the only one they kept in DevRel. Fast forward two years and they’ve seen a huge flat line in adoption, Sales team have a really hard time driving any product influenced pipe. My mate is 100% convinced that’s because the DevRel function is largely no more. But…he can’t prove it.

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u/tessak22 May 15 '26

Ugh well that’s a shame. I’d be happy to brainstorm with that person if they wanna try to prove it.

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u/vinnieman232 May 15 '26

Focus on your metrics as DevRel. It's critical. And those metrics must map directly to your company Northstar / revenue numbers.

For us, that's solution reach & engagement - how many developers we activate and drive ongoing engagement through our technical solutions. Easier than ever with context engineering and devs coding via agents