How to measure developer love and reach

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmB7gTaKYI8

Two things a developer relations program should understand are ‘How much do our developers like us?’ and ‘How many people are they telling about us?’ The answers shape the growth of our communities, but it’s not obvious how to put numbers to them. In this talk, I’ll share examples of how real companies use data to calculate the love & reach for their communities and use that data to prioritize DevRel efforts. Then I’ll describe how you can start doing the same today to win the hearts and minds of more developers! No expensive BI tools or data science required.

Transcript

1. @dzello · #DevRelCon How to measure developer Love and Reach with the Orbit Model @dzello · #DevRelCon Josh Dzielak · DevRelCon Earth · July 7, 2020
2. @dzello · #DevRelCon I’m Josh Developer advocate Co-founder & CTO at Orbit He/him Formerly
3. @dzello · #DevRelCon • Product based on the model • Community CRM for developers • Early access: orbit.love
4. @dzello · #DevRelCon Orbit Model backstory November 2014 Keen IO 2016 Algolia
5. @dzello · #DevRelCon Orbit Model backstory 2018 DeveloperMode 2019 - Orbit
6. @dzello · #DevRelCon How do I measure my community's engagement and growth? What contribution should I ask each community member to make? Which members should I prioritize spending time with? How much value are we creating for the community?
7. @dzello · #DevRelCon Today’s agenda • Orbit Model overview • Love: Measuring engagement • Reach: Measuring influence • Discussion! (throughout)
8. @dzello · #DevRelCon Orbit Model overview
9. @dzello · #DevRelCon What is the Orbit Model? Space-themed mental model and visual canvas for building communities, born out of working with developers. A) A metaphor for community, in the way the funnel is a metaphor for marketing and sales. B)
10. @dzello · #DevRelCon What is the Orbit Model? An open source project that you can contribute ideas, documentation, and experiences to. D) Vocabulary and set of metrics for measuring the impact and ROI of community. C) An algorithm for doing a bitwise OR operation E)
11. @dzello · #DevRelCon What is the Orbit Model? D. An open source project C. Vocabulary and set of metrics ✅ A-D are correct! A. Mental model B. Metaphor for community
12. @dzello · #DevRelCon Model objectives Member experience ⚡ Faster community activation Smoother onboarding Higher retention Team impact Metrics and reports Better team organization ⚙ Scalable programs
13. @dzello · #DevRelCon
14. @dzello · #DevRelCon
15. @dzello · #DevRelCon
16. @dzello · #DevRelCon
17. @dzello · #DevRelCon
18. @dzello · #DevRelCon Design and offer mutually beneficial opportunities to members that increase their love and reach. Can we hire you? Can we include your blog post in our newsletter? Do you want mentorship or training? Would you like some swag? Want to give a talk at our next event?
19. @dzello · #DevRelCon Love: measuring engagement “Love is the currency that drives community.” —Erin Frey, Orbit community member
20. @dzello · #DevRelCon ”Love is a member's level of engagement and investment in the community. Someone with high love is highly active and plays key roles in the community like contributing, moderating, and organizing.” —orbit-love/orbit-model on GitHub
21. @dzello · #DevRelCon 5 Steps to Measuring Love 1. Define your activities 2. Give each activity a score 3. Record when activities happen 4. Assign love + orbit level 5. Generate reports and discuss
22. @dzello · #DevRelCon 1. Define your activities What activities matter in your community? Activities are realized opportunities
23. @dzello · #DevRelCon Need activities? The Orbit Model Airtable Templates has you covered http://template.orbit.love
24. @dzello · #DevRelCon 2. Assign scores Give each activity a score from 1-10 based on how much engagement & responsibility it indicates. +1 point: Joined mailing list +10 points: Gave user conference keynote +6 points: ‍♂ Successful support interaction
25. @dzello · #DevRelCon 3. Record activities
26. @dzello · #DevRelCon 4. Assign love Easy way to calculate love: take the highest activity score in the last 6 months.
27. @dzello · #DevRelCon 4. Assign orbit level Choose orbit level base on love + your other knowledge of the member.
28. @dzello · #DevRelCon 5. Generate reports
29. @dzello · #DevRelCon 5. Discuss Member experience Who are our highest-love developers? Who is ramping up? Who’s gone dormant? Do we have activities in place for members with each degree of love? Team impact How is love changing over time? What changes can we attribute to our work as a DevRel team? How does love compare across locations or customer segments?
30. @dzello · #DevRelCon Reach: understanding influence ”Reach is a measure of a community member’s sphere of influence and takes into account their reputation, credibility, and degree of connectedness.” —orbit-love/orbit-model on GitHub
31. @dzello · #DevRelCon 4 Steps to Measuring Reach 1. Define your signals 2. Give each signal a value 3. Record value for each member 4. Discuss
32. @dzello · #DevRelCon 1. Define signals • Social media followers and engagement • Stars and followers on GitHub • Reputation scores on communities like StackOverflow • Title and position inside their company • Pagerank or estimated traffic to their website or blog
33. @dzello · #DevRelCon 2. Give signals a value
34. @dzello · #DevRelCon 3. Record member values
35. @dzello · #DevRelCon 4. Discuss Member experience Who are our highest-reach developers? Do we have programs in place for members with each degree of reach? What are our member’s goals when it comes to increasing their reach? Team impact How is reach changing over time? What changes can we attribute to our work as a DevRel team? How is reach helping drive awareness? Referrals? Brand building?
36. @dzello · #DevRelCon Thank you DevRelCon! Say hello: @dzello Learn more: https://orbit.love/