Every field I’ve worked in has its own acronyms. It’s almost like a test to see if you’re really one of them. So, as I step into my new path in Developer Relations, I’m going through the whole initiation process again: learning what everything means so I can “fit in.”
Developer Relations is no different. Every DevRel person you talk to will have their own version of the Cs. The exact number? It varies. But as humans, we like things that come in threes, so I’ll stick with three for now.
Now that I’m approaching the six-month mark in my DevRel journey, these are the three Cs I use to explain what I do.
Content
First is content: the chunky bit. This is probably what I lead with most when deciding what to prioritize day to day.
For me, that content usually takes the form of video production: scripting, recording, editing, and publishing. I work through the whole process, and the result can range from a long-form tutorial to a short social media video or even a quick demo for a webpage.
Of course, content can look completely different from one DevRel person to another. Blogs and guides also fall under this umbrella. I think that’s probably why I have a blog now: I wanted to explore new ways to share what I’m learning about tech.
Code
Creating technical content naturally brings me to my second C: code. No, I don’t spend my entire day coding. Well, actually, I don’t think a lot of people are coding in quite the same way anymore. These days, there’s a lot more prompting. Hot take, but anyway, knowing how to code has been a real advantage in my career.
Even when I’m not writing code, that technical background still shapes my work. When you’re making tools for developers, you often become the public-facing translator for the product. I’ve found myself debugging code more often than writing it in my day-to-day work. I’m also behind the scenes, reviewing documentation and making sure its code examples are correct.
That role becomes even more important as more people prompt AI agents to read documentation and write code for them. The pipeline needs to stay accurate and up to date. Code is no longer always the final product of my work. Instead, it helps me become the bridge between the product and other developers.
Community
Code helps me understand the product, but community helps me understand the people using it. That brings me to my last C, but definitely not the least important: the community of developers. As a developer myself, they’re the people I connect with most and the people I most want to create content for in the first place.
If you thought content was a broad term, community is even broader. Anyone who works in community knows that what builds a community in one place will not necessarily work in another. Each one has its own people, needs, and culture.
In one community, I might be talking with developers on Discord. In another, I might be commenting on a forum post or responding to customer questions. Where you meet your community varies with every product, and I’m constantly learning how to show up in the right places and decide where my time is best spent.
That sense of connection matters. In a world where developers often work on their own, community is what many of us seek most, especially as AI continues to advance.
The Best Things Start with C, Like Chloe
Together, these three Cs describe what DevRel looks like for me right now. They are never set in stone, though. Watch this list grow to five in just a few months, with each C shifting in priority. Tech moves fast, but DevRel might move even faster.