Update: two weeks ago
This week started off rough. I had taken Friday off, and Monday was spent catching up on all the Slack threads, Discord, and Telegram messages. I was stressed out because it felt like the stack of requests was just increasing faster than I was finishing tasks. I decided to go for a walk, and while on the walk, I read that one of the engineers on the team had put together a really nice tech guide. My stomach started turning with slight panic.
Why did it take me so long to put together guides?
It took him just a couple of days. I paused. Let me give you some backstory.
When I was hired, I was the entire DevRel team. In the first six months, my responsibilities have included a variety of tasks like updating docs, creating technical guides, developing workshops, producing and editing YouTube tutorials, setting bounties, managing Discord, triaging GitHub issues, etc.
You get the idea. It probably goes without saying that it hasn't been easy. In fact, it's been a struggle. I'm doing it, but I'm not excelling at anything, and that's a disheartening feeling, especially when you're on a team with a bunch of rockstars.
Fast forward to the present day. There have been some team movements, some coming and some going, so since ETH Denver, the DevRel team is not just me. I have help. Two of our engineers, who I like to call Hybrid DevRels, officially hold engineering titles, but they're both DevRels at heart.
They're exceptional—almost too exceptional.
Here I am, overwhelmed (what's new), and my brain just goes into an autopilot self-destructive mode. I started thinking about how these guys have been on the team for a short time but have contributed more value than I felt like I had in the last six months. This went on for about five minutes before the tricks I have picked up from all the habit books I've read in my life helped me pull myself out of the mental grave I was digging.
I gave myself a mental slap across the face and shook myself a little bit.
I started thinking about how I shouldn't be trying to compete with them. There was no point in competing for a few reasons. One, they are already strong engineers. I knew I was capable of creating the technical guides they were, but it would just take me 2-3 times longer, and that was okay. Two, I needed to remember that I lead DevRel. I needed to think of the Hybrid DevRels as pieces of the overall DevRel puzzle to make it even stronger. Now that I had part of DevRel getting covered, I could focus my efforts on what I was good at, but what was that?
I sat on this question. While thinking about this, an ETHDenver memory came to mind. My team and I were wrapping up after a day at the conference. I mentioned going out after, and most of the team looked at me as if I were crazy to even suggest the idea of socializing with people after socializing with people all day.
I'm really good with people. I put this idea on a mental sticky note.
I looked at Telegram and the number of unread messages. I had messages dating back from October that I hadn't reviewed. If I'm going to lean into this people-person persona, then I probably should be better about getting back to people. One of the DevRels in the space who I look up to was so good about getting back. I remember thinking about how important that made me feel, and I wanted to make others feel important too.
I went through all my messages and left my inbox at zero. Something I learned about recently while taking some time off is—if you're in a conversation where the other party is waiting for your response, do one of two things. One, update my Telegram status to OOO so that people upfront know I'm not ignoring them, just offline. Two, if I'm in a scenario like the one above, I'm going to let people know I'll be OOO for a specific time just to set that expectation. After all, I would appreciate the same heads up.
This felt like I was moving in a positive direction. With my new DevRel Leader hat on, I decided I needed a plan. I needed goals, but not just goals; I also needed ways to measure those goals and determine whether I'm on track or not. Having absolutely no idea where to start, I headed to ChatGPT for some consulting. I got a pretty good outline of how to break up DevRel and examples of what would fall into these different categories.
I felt excited. I recalled a conversation I had with a team member in the first few months of joining. I was sharing my struggle of not knowing how or what to prioritize, and they told me to focus on where I could make the most impact. I realized how I had misunderstood this statement. Instead of focusing on what I could impact more, I thought of how DevRel could have the highest impact.
Let me explain how those are different. When I thought about how DevRel could have the biggest impact, my efforts went straight to the docs. I figured your dev experience really begins at the docs. Knowing from firsthand experience that our docs weren't exactly at the level of Vercel, I decided to pour myself into the docs. Writing good docs is hard. Weekly release updates on multiple products and platforms were daunting. While I was getting by with the docs, I wasn't excelling at this.
Thinking back at that question, I should have thought about where I could make the most impact. This question led me to dig deeper. Why did I want to work in web3? Why did I want to be a developer advocate? I wanted to be in the space for several reasons, including the passion I saw in others. This wasn't your typical Monday to Friday 9-5 schedule. People worked all the time because they genuinely loved what they were doing. Secondly, I loved how international web3 is. Unlike web2, where FAANG companies focused on where you went to college or leetcode, in web3, the barrier to entry isn't based on geography or accessibility to an expensive school; instead, it's all about the value you contribute to your community. It's beautiful.
Pinning those ideas, I started thinking about why I wanted to be a DevRel. I wanted to be a DevRel because I enjoy teaching and helping developers.
I decided to have an ad hoc meeting with one of the Hybrid engineers to see how I could be a better teammate. While explaining my recent epiphany about where I fit in the DevRel puzzle, I shared how I was feeling that he had done such a great job with content, I felt like I had no place there. He listened and apologized because he felt like he was overstepping. The day before, we had a DevRel meeting where he basically ran the show. He did it so well. I asked him how and where he learned to drive so well, and he shared his experience in marketing, community, and engineering over the span of six years. I've been engineering for two and doing DevRel for six months.
I often forget to keep my eyes on my own mat.
After we chatted, he suggested we meet later that week to brainstorm and talk through the new outline I had created. Leaving the huddle, I felt so lucky to work with such a kind human. I felt really fortunate to have a colleague with whom I could be vulnerable.
Update: It's Easter Sunday.
This past week felt like a lot of building blocks. I had to give hard feedback to a potential partner, create work boundaries, and explain to our founder and project manager why I no longer thought attending feature product meetings was a valuable way to spend my time.
I didn't exactly end the week strong. It was a short week (woohoo Easter), and towards the second half of the week, I woke up with a migraine. I hate those fuckers. My head feels like I mixed wine, beer, and gin together the night before, without any of the fun.
Love/Hate: my team works hard. Most of us are OOO for the holidays, but it's like Slack is still going crazy with updates. I get it. There is so much to do, so taking a day off feels crazy. I hate this because it feels like there is no turning off, but I love it because it's addicting to set challenging goals and accomplish them.
In that spirit, signing off here for some werk.