Talk description: A successful working relationship between engineers and community managers is based on trust, shared goals, and a mutual commitment to herding cats. In this talk, we’ll cover the importance of breaking down silos between your DevRel engineers and product leads to give your community the best content at the right times. Carol will go over how to partner with your Dev Advocates on upcoming launch opportunities, how we structure different levels of GTM into every piece of content our Dev Advocates put out, and how to build a tight bond of trust through virtual coffee chats, daily video standups, and shared goals. Bio: Carol Huang is the developer marketing manager at Stripe. She works with engineers, developer advocates, and product leads to make sure developers integrating Stripe have the best experience possible. Previously, Carol grew developer communities at PlanetScale, Codacy, ubersmith, and MongoDB. She lives in NYC and enjoys supporting various subcultures related to folk singing and media analysis.

1. Breaking down silos to better serve your community
Dev Rel & Dev Marketing
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Carol Huang
@thisiscaroltoo

2. Agenda
What dev rel and dev marketing are at Stripe
Why dev rel + dev marketing should work closely together
How dev rel + dev marketing can work closely together
Use case: What this looks like in practice
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

3. 3
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Carol Huang
Dev Marketing Manager
@thisiscaroltoo
carol@stripe.com
About me
Grew up in Los Angeles, CA Live in New York, NY

4. Past roles
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Community Marketing Manager Director of Marketing
Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)
Liaison
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

5. About Stripe
● Stripe is a global technology
company
● We build the economic
infrastructure for the internet
● With the goal of increasing the
GDP of the internet
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

6. Connect
Platforms & Marketplaces
· Verification & KYC
· Funds flows
· Monetize Stripe products
Billing
Subscriptions & SaaS
· Subscription mgmt
· Invoicing
· Quote-to-cash
Terminal
Omnichannel
· Readers & SDKs
· Fleet management
· Unified omnichannel data
Financial Services
Fintech
· Issuing
· Treasury
· Capital for Platforms
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Payments
APIs & mobile SDKs · Payment forms & UI tools (Checkout, Elements) · Global payment methods & currencies · Fast payouts
Payments optimization
Fraud prevention (Radar) · Acceptance optimization (Adaptive Acceptance, Smart Retries, 3Ds) · Cost optimization
Revenue management
CRM & ERP integrations · Revenue recognition · Advanced reporting (Sigma) · Corporate Card · Capital · Climate
Global payments & treasury network
Stripe’s cloud-based infrastructure for programmable money movement
Payments infrastructure for the internet

7. 7
Global payments & treasury network
Stripe’s cloud-based infrastructure for programmable money movement
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
● Make money movement as simple and borderless as
the internet is by
○ Optimizing how businesses accept payments
○ Providing financial services for growing
businesses

8. 👋 Global developer community
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

9. Agenda
What dev rel and dev marketing are at Stripe
Why dev rel + dev marketing should work closely together
How dev rel + dev marketing can work closely together
Use case: What this looks like in practice
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

10. Dev Advocacy (Dev Rel) at Stripe
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

11. Dev Advocacy (Dev Rel) at Stripe
● Within Product & Engineering team → Product and Partner Platform →
Developer Advocacy
Team goals
● Advocate for developers internally
● Drive adoption of Stripe’s developer products through educational and
inspirational content
● Engage with the developer community and ecosystem through events
and outreach
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

12. What is dev advocacy at Stripe?
● Within Product & Engineering team → Product and Partner Platform →
Developer Advocacy
Team goals
● Advocate for developers internally
● Drive adoption of Stripe’s developer products through educational and
inspirational content
● Engage with the developer community and ecosystem through events
and outreach
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

13. Dev marketing at Stripe
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

14. Dev marketing at Stripe
● On Product Marketing team
Team goals
● Know our users and their needs
● Know our products and their features
● Connect the two
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

15. Dev marketing at Stripe
● On Product Marketing team
Team goals
● Know our users and their needs
● Know our products and their features
● Connect the two
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

16. When your teams are in silos

17. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Siloed teams have no alignment of goals
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18. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Siloed teams have no alignment of goals
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● Thinks dev marketing just wants
to get leads rather than educate
● Thinks DA is just doing things
they think are cool rather than
what users need

19. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Siloed teams have no trust or team building
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● Thinks dev marketing just wants
to get leads rather than educate
● Thinks extra validation with user
or market research is pointless
● Thinks DA is just doing things
they think are cool rather than
what users need
● Thinks DA is just YOLO-ing

20. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Siloed teams have no trust or team building
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● Thinks dev marketing just wants
to get leads rather than educate
● Thinks extra validation with user
or market research is pointless
● Doesn’t ask for help
● Thinks DA is just doing things
they think are cool rather than
what users need
● Thinks DA is just YOLO-ing
● Doesn’t ask for help

21. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Siloed teams = poor experience for your devs
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● Thinks dev marketing just wants
to get leads rather than educate
● Thinks extra validation with user
or market research is pointless
● Doesn’t ask for help
● Thinks DA is just doing things
they think are cool rather than
what users need
● Thinks DA is just YOLO-ing
● Doesn’t ask for help
Users suffer as a result 🙁

22. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Siloed teams have no alignment of goals
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● Thinks dev marketing just wants
to get leads rather than educate
● Thinks DA is just doing things
they think are cool rather than
what users need

23. Agenda
What dev rel and dev marketing are at Stripe
Why dev rel + dev marketing should work closely together
How dev rel + dev marketing can work closely together
Use case: What this looks like in practice
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

24. Our team goals are complementary
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

25. Our team goals are complementary
● Know our users
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

26. Our team goals are complementary
● Know our users ➡ so we can advocate for them internally
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

27. Our team goals are complementary
● Know our users ➡ so we can advocate for them internally
● Know our products
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

28. Our team goals are complementary
● Know our users ➡ so we can advocate for them internally
● Know our products ➡ to drive adoption through educational content
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

29. Our team goals are complementary
● Know our users ➡ so we can advocate for them internally
● Know our products ➡ to drive adoption through educational content
● Connect the two
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

30. Our team goals are complementary
● Know our users ➡ so we can advocate for them internally
● Know our products ➡ to drive adoption through educational content
● Connect the two ➡ through outreach like dev rel events
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

31. Our team goals are complementary
● Know our users ➡ so we can advocate for them internally
● Know our products ➡ to drive adoption through educational content
● Connect the two ➡ through dev rel events and outreach
🤝 Greater awareness and adoption 🤝
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

32. Provide everything your developers need to be
successful
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

33. Provide everything your developers need to be
successful without e-mail gating, sales convos,
or one-way development paths
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34. You may not have a dedicated dev marketer
● No dedicated marketing person but 1 or more people with marketing skills
○ Project management
○ Communications/copywriting
○ Public relations
○ Empathy
● Many other colleagues who can contribute piecemeal what marketing
does
○ Data science
○ User experience research
○ Product managers
○ Events organizers
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35. Recognize your shared goals and align them
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

36. Agenda
What dev rel and dev marketing are at Stripe
Why dev rel + dev marketing should work closely together
How dev rel + dev marketing can work closely together
Use case: What this looks like in practice
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

37. How dev rel and dev marketing can work closely together
● Embed and team build
● Build a foundation of trust
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

38. Embed and team build
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

39. What is an embed model?
● You may be familiar with this in product teams
● Someone is “embedded when they organizationally sits in a different
team/org
● 👉 But you work together very closely
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

40. Embedded model in practice
● You may be familiar with this in product teams
● Someone is “embedded when they organizationally sits in a different
team/org
● 👉 But you work together very closely
In practice
● Attend all team meetings
● Participate in daily standups
● Meet bi-weekly with my team members
● Part of the private team channel
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

41. Team building
● Have monthly social “coffee chats”
☕ 🧋 🫖 🍷
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

42. Team building
● Have monthly social “coffee chats”
☕ 🧋 🫖 🍷
○ No tactical work talk on projects
○ High-level brainstorming okay
○ Social chatter to stay connected
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

43. Team building
● Have monthly social “coffee chats”
☕ 🧋 🫖 🍷
○ No tactical work talk on projects
○ High-level brainstorming okay
○ Social chatter to stay connected
● Keep in touch through non-work
channels
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

44. Team building
● Have monthly social “coffee chats”
☕ 🧋 🫖 🍷
○ No tactical work talk on projects
○ High-level brainstorming okay
○ Social chatter to stay connected
● Keep in touch through non-work
channels
● Treat embedded team members
like members of the team for
org-wide events
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

45. Build a foundation of trust
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

46. What is trust (in the workplace)?
● You believe in each other’s skills and experience
● You believe in each other’s promises
● You believe you can ask for help and reliably get it
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

47. How do you build trust?
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

48. How do you build trust?
● To build trust, be trustworthy
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

49. How do you build trust?
● To build trust, be trustworthy
● Make realistic promises about your deadlines and
capacity
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

50. How do you build trust?
● To build trust, be trustworthy
● Make realistic promises about your deadlines and
capacity
● Make it clear how you can help each other out, and
offer your aid
○ Talk candidly about your skillset and what do
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

51. Dev Rel
Marketing
Failure modes of dev rel + dev marketing relationships
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● Focused on MQLs or sales leads
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● Create content without a clear audience
● Focus too much on edge cases

52. Build a foundation of trust
Embed and team build
Align on shared goals
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
How to work tightly together

53. Agenda
What dev rel and dev marketing are at Stripe
Why dev rel + dev marketing should work closely together
How dev rel + dev marketing can work closely together
Use case: What this looks like in practice
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

54. Example project: Dev foundations video series
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

55. Example project: Dev foundations video series
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

56. Example project: Dev foundations video series
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

57. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
● Start early: Work closely as teammates from the planning stage
● Set clear goals: Clarify your audience and impact for GTM/launch
● Communicate: Keep an open exchange of information throughout
What does this look like in practice?
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58. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
● Start early: Work closely as teammates from the planning stage
● Set clear goals: Clarify your audience and impact for GTM/launch
● Communicate: Keep an open exchange of information throughout
What does this look like in practice?
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59. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Work together from the planning stage
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● Want to do a video series
● Idea: basic topics on how to get
started with our client libraries
● Unknown: is this a good idea?

60. Reminder: dev marketing
Team goals
● Know our users and their needs
● Know our products and their features
● Connect the two
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

61. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Work together from the planning stage
61
● Want to do a video series
● Idea: basic topics on how to get
started with our client libraries
● Unknown: is this a good idea?
● Has the user research

62. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Work together from the planning stage
62
● Want to do a video series
● Idea: basic topics on how to get
started with our client libraries
● Unknown: is this a good idea?
● Has the user research
● ✅ Can validate this idea: We
know junior developers struggle
with their integration experience

63. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Dev marketing
Dev advocacy
Work together from the planning stage
63
● Want to do a video series
● Idea: basic topics on how to get
started with our client libraries
● Unknown: is this a good idea?
● Has the user research
● ✅ Can validate this idea: We
know junior developers struggle
with their integration experience
Technical knowledge + user research
= great developer advocacy

64. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
● Start early: Work closely as teammates from the planning stage
● Set clear goals: Clarify your audience and impact for GTM/launch
● Communicate: Keep an open exchange of information throughout
What does this look like in practice?
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65. Clarify audience and impact early before GTM
● Before even starting work, all of our Dev Advocates fill out a checklist
With key questions like:
● Who is this content for?
● How will this content help your teammates?
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

66. What is a go-to-market (GTM) plan?
GTM plan encompasses:
● Audience: Who is it for
● Messaging: What you want to tell them about it
● Channels: How you’re going to tell them about it
● Timing: When are you going to tell them about it
So you can get your DA content out to the maximum number of appropriate
people at the right time
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

67. Clarify audience and impact early before GTM
● Before even starting work, all of our Dev Advocates fill out a checklist
With key questions like:
● Who is this content for?
● How will this content help your teammates?
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

68. Clarify audience and impact early before GTM
● Before even starting work, all of our Dev Advocates fill out a checklist
With key questions like:
● Who is this content for?
Junior developers
● How will this content help your teammates?
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

69. Clarify audience and impact early before GTM
● Before even starting work, all of our Dev Advocates fill out a checklist
With key questions like:
● Who is this content for?
Junior developers who are just beginning to integrate with Stripe
● How will this content help your teammates?
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

70. Clarify audience and impact early before GTM
● Before even starting work, all of our Dev Advocates fill out a checklist
With key questions like:
● Who is this content for?
Junior developers who are just beginning to integrate with Stripe
● How will this content help your teammates?
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

71. Clarify audience and impact early before GTM
● Before even starting work, all of our Dev Advocates fill out a checklist
With key questions like:
● Who is this content for?
Junior developers who are just beginning to integrate with Stripe
● How will this content help your teammates?
Decrease support tickets from junior developers
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

72. Clarify audience and impact early before GTM
● Before even starting work, all of our Dev Advocates fill out a checklist
With key questions like:
● Who is this content for?
Junior developers who are just beginning to integrate with Stripe
● How will this content help your teammates?
Decrease support tickets from junior developers → fewer confused junior
developers
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

73. Clarify audience and impact early before GTM
● Before even starting work, all of our Dev Advocates fill out a checklist
With key questions like:
● Who is this content for?
Junior developers who are just beginning to integrate with Stripe
● How will this content help your teammates?
Decrease support tickets from junior developers → fewer confused junior
developers → greater adoption
73
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

74. What is a go-to-market (GTM) plan?
GTM plan encompasses:
● Audience: Who is it for
● Messaging: What you want to tell them about it
● Channels: How you’re going to tell them about it
● Timing: When are you going to tell them about it
So you can get your DA content out to the maximum number of appropriate
people at the right time
74
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

75. GTM plan example
GTM plan encompasses:
● Audience: Junior developers who are just beginning to integrate with Stripe
● Messaging: We want to convey that it’s easy to get started with Stripe using our
client libraries
● Channels: Twitter (@StripeDev), Dev digest, DEV.to, individual Twitter accounts
● Timing: When are you going to tell them about it?
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

76. DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
● Start early: Work closely as teammates from the planning stage
● Set clear goals: Clarify your audience and impact for GTM/launch
● Communicate: Keep an open exchange of information throughout
What does this look like in practice?
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77. Keep an open exchange of information
● Transparent project management: Tracker, standups, sync meetings
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

78. Keep an open exchange of information
● Transparent project management: Tracker, standups, sync meetings
● Talk about unexpected challenges (requires: trust!)
○ 9 topics: authentication, metadata, idempotency and retries,
pagination, webhook helpers, making requests, versioning, expand,
.env variables
○ 7 languages: Ruby, Python, Go, Java, PHP, Node, .NET
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

79. Keep an open exchange of information
● Transparent project management: Tracker, standups, sync meetings
● Talk about unexpected challenges (requires: trust!)
○ 9 topics: authentication, metadata, idempotency and retries,
pagination, webhook helpers, making requests, versioning, expand,
.env variables
○ 7 languages: Ruby, Python, Go, Java, PHP, Node, .NET
○ Each DA owned a topic across all 7 languages for easier recording
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

80. Keep an open exchange of information
● Transparent project management: Tracker, standups, sync meetings
● Talk about unexpected challenges (requires: trust!)
○ 9 topics: authentication, metadata, idempotency and retries,
pagination, webhook helpers, making requests, versioning, expand,
.env variables
○ 7 languages: Ruby, Python, Go, Java, PHP, Node, .NET
○ Each DA owned a topic across all 7 languages for easier recording
○ So we originally promoted by topic
80
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

81. Keep an open exchange of information
● Transparent project management: Tracker, standups, sync meetings
● Talk about unexpected challenges (requires: trust!)
○ 9 topics: authentication, metadata, idempotency and retries,
pagination, webhook helpers, making requests, versioning, expand,
.env variables
○ 7 languages: Ruby, Python, Go, Java, PHP, Node, .NET
○ Each DA owned a topic across all 7 languages for easier recording
○ So we originally promoted by topic -- but that doesn’t make sense
for most users
81
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

82. Keep an open exchange of information
● Transparent project management: Tracker, standups, sync meetings
● Talk about unexpected challenges (requires: trust!)
○ 9 topics: authentication, metadata, idempotency and retries,
pagination, webhook helpers, making requests, versioning, expand,
.env variables
○ 7 languages: Ruby, Python, Go, Java, PHP, Node, .NET
○ Each DA owned a topic across all 7 languages for easier recording
○ So we originally promoted by topic -- but that doesn’t make sense
for most users
↪ Back to the drawing board ↩
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

83. Keep an open exchange of information
New plan:
● Even though it would mean a slower output of information,
organize and promote by language
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

84. Keep an open exchange of information
New plan:
● Even though it would mean a slower output of information,
organize and promote by language
Biggest marketing lesson here:
● 📣 Workflow ≠ Marketing promotional schedule 📣
● Ship what makes sense for your developers, not what you’ve
finished
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

85. GTM plan example
GTM plan encompasses:
● Audience: Junior developers who are just beginning to integrate with Stripe
● Messaging: We want to convey that it’s easy to get started with Stripe using
our client libraries
● Channels: Twitter (@StripeDev), Dev digest, DEV.to, individual Twitter accounts
● Timing: Promote by language and then in one big collection at the end
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

86. End product: Dev foundations video series
63 videos
Across 7 languages
On 9 topics
DEV.to/stripe for more 🎬
behind-the-scenes details
Subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/c/StripeDevelopers
😜
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021

87. Build a foundation of trust
Embed and team build
Align on shared goals
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Summary

88. Build a foundation of trust
Embed and team build
Align on shared goals
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DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Summary
💪 Increase community reach together 🤝

89. Thank you!
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Carol Huang
@thisiscaroltoo // carol@stripe.com

90. We’re hiring ;)
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
stripe.com/jobs

91. Questions?
DevRelCon Tokyo 2021
Carol Huang
@thisiscaroltoo // carol@stripe.com