The field guide
A practitioner's reference to marketing to developers — nine sections, each a topic hub gathering the evergreen state of the art, the practices that implement it, the evidence behind it, the skills that automate it, and the coverage that keeps it honest. Each carries the date it was last checked.
- 00 Start here: the mental model upd 2026-07-11
The one rule that changes everything about marketing to developers, and the three habits that separate campaigns that compound from ones that get blocked.
1 skill·1 mention - 01 Positioning for a technical audience upd 2026-07-27
How developers decide who to trust, why category and clarity beat adjectives, and how to write a positioning that a skeptical engineer will forward instead of eye-roll.
3 practices·1 example·1 skill·6 mentions - 02 Docs as the front door upd 2026-07-26
Why documentation is the highest-leverage marketing surface you own, what a great quickstart looks like, and how docs-led growth turns reading into adoption.
2 practices·2 examples·3 skills·6 mentions - 03 DevRel & community upd 2026-07-07
What developer relations is actually for, the advocacy–education–feedback split, how to build community that compounds, and why DevRel dies when it's measured like sales.
1 skill·2 mentions - 04 Developer experience & activation upd 2026-07-20
Time-to-value as the metric that governs adoption, mapping the developer funnel from first touch to habit, and removing the friction that quietly kills integrations.
1 practice·2 skills·3 mentions - 05 Content that earns trust upd 2026-07-21
Why technical content is the core of developer marketing, how to make things worth a developer's attention, and the fluff patterns that burn credibility.
2 examples·1 skill·2 mentions - 06 Channels & distribution upd 2026-07-17
Where developers actually pay attention, which channels reach them and which repel them, and why earned beats paid for a technical audience.
1 example·3 skills·4 mentions - 07 Launches developers amplify upd 2026-07-08
How to ship an announcement developers share instead of scroll past — substance over spectacle, the assets that matter, and orchestrating a launch across the channels that count.
1 example·1 skill·1 mention - 08 Measurement & metrics upd 2026-07-23
The metrics that tell you developer marketing is working, how to measure DevRel without pretending it's direct-response, and the funnel numbers worth instrumenting.
3 practices·4 mentions