11 October 2025
tl;dr Two years ago, I started creating a pattern language for developer relations activities, and I published an early draft of what they looked like to this website. In the time since, they've been refined, expanded, and collected into a single paper volume, available from APress in December of 2025.
The book, titled, Developer Relations Activity Patterns: A Unified Approach to DevRel, DX and Community Management, is visible here and I believe available for pre-order. Amazon has it here, for those who prefer the Amazon infrastructure, and the back cover blurb reads like so:
Developer relations (DevRel) go beyond just blog posts, conference talks, and clever tweets. It is a discipline grounded in intention, empathy, and consistent actions. This book outlines foundational strategies employed by successful DevRel teams in just 39 focused patterns.
Using a tactical approach to effectively engage in developer relations, each pattern is based on real-world experience and designed for scalability. By using a pattern form to describe the various activities of developer relations in detail, the book clearly lays out the intention, shows how to create empathy with your audience, and provides a clear guide on how to execute it. Within this book, you'll discover how to extend your reach, enhance meaningful interactions, and align your initiatives with both developer communities and company strategy without compromising your values or experiencing burnout.
Whether you're a solo advocate, managing a small startup team, or leading DevRel on a larger scale, Developer Relations Activity Patterns is your practical playbook for refining strategy and amplifying your impact.
You will:
- Gain a greater understanding of what developer relations means and the range of activities under its remit
- Learn the tools, approaches, and new tactics for developer community engagement
- Understand how and when to apply each tactic, based on your aims and objectives
For those who are curious, this is the culmination of the work started back in 2023, and the originals are still available on this website, for those who are curious to get an early (or free) peek at what's in the book. But the process of getting them book-ready involved the four of us authors (myself, Woody, Scott, and David) each turning each pattern over in our heads, collectively looking to expand each entry and, perhaps most importantly, looking to identify metrics that a DevRel team can use to determine if a given activity is accomplishing its goals. It was an early realization for us that metrics are the "silent killer" of any DevRel effort, so leaned hard into that, looking to identify or suggest metrics that would emerge from each activity.
I'm pretty sure that these aren't exhaustive, either. People who've been running DevRel teams for years will probably identify a few that we missed, or have issues with how we break these down. And, if you ask me, that's good! Patterns are never meant to be ready-to-eat solutions, but help foster communication and discussion and provide a vocabulary for people "in the space" to be able to discuss these ideas and concepts at a higher (and more productive) level. With any luck, this book will help DevRel teams better execute on their efforts.
Thanks for reading!