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@danielbryantuk
Is Product Led Growth (PLG) the
“DevOps” of the DevRel World?
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Daniel Bryant
Head of DevRel @ambassadorlabs

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@danielbryantuk 2
tl;dr
● Product-led growth (PLG), when done well, can break down barriers between
departments and teams to drive more adoption (and revenue!)
● DevRel teams have a lot to add to PLG:
○ Empathizing with your user and product to drive effective experiments
○ Focusing everyone on the end-to-end (developer) experience
○ Identifying the user value, aha moments, and opportunities for virality
● Establish a cross-functional team with common goals, language, & understanding

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@danielbryantuk 3
@danielbryantuk (he/him)
linktr.ee/danielbryantuk

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@danielbryantuk
Setting the Scene

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@danielbryantuk 5
What is Developer Relations (DevRel)?
“Developer Relations, also known as DevRel, is an umbrella term
covering the strategies and tactics for building and nurturing a
community of mutually beneficial relationships between
organizations and developers (e.g., software developers) as the
primary users, and often influencers on purchases, of a product”
Wikipedia

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@danielbryantuk 6
What is Developer Relations (DevRel)?
twitter.com/danielbryantuk/status/1550478487437320194

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@danielbryantuk 7
What is Product Led Growth (PLG)?
“Product-led growth (PLG) is a business methodology in which user
acquisition, expansion, conversion, and retention are all driven primarily by
the product”
ProductLed.org
“(PLG) is a software product that allows an end user to start using the
product without any restrictions. This puts the power of buying software in
the hands of end users.”
Correlated

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@danielbryantuk 8
What is Product Led Growth (PLG)?
openviewpartners.com/product-led-growth/

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@danielbryantuk 9
PLG is a “bottom up” go-to-market motion
● No more top down “golf course selling”
● Developers want to get hands-on
○ “Give me a quickstart and searchable docs!”
○ “Show me the value in my workflow”
○ They don’t like talking to sales
● Cloud popularized consumption-based pricing
● DevRel and growth are the bridge between
developers and sales

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@danielbryantuk 10
So, how does DevOps play into this?
The “Wall of Confusion” (h/t Andrew Clay Shafer)

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@danielbryantuk 11
So, how does DevOps play into this? (Let’s swap the silo names)
DevRel Growth Sales
Product
The “Wall of Confusion” (h/t Andrew Clay Shafer)

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@danielbryantuk
My Experiences

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@danielbryantuk 13
Allow me to introduce Ambassador Labs quickly
● Series B funded K8s tooling company
● Creators of two popular CNCF K8s projects
○ Emissary-ingress API gateway
○ Telepresence “remocal” dev/debugger
● Product-led and sales-led GTM motions
○ Edge Stack SaaS(ish) & on-prem/cloud
○ Telepresence SaaS(ish)
● DevRel team reports to the CMO

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@danielbryantuk 14
Break down the silos: “ProdLedBizEngRel”?
● Heavily lent into PLG for Telepresence in 2022
● Created cross-functional team
○ Growth / marketing
○ Growth engineering
○ Product
○ DevRel
○ Sales
● Weekly reviews of funnel, results, & hypotheses
○ PQLs, PQOs, opportunities

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@danielbryantuk 15
Example experiment (large bet for KubeCon)
● Hypothesis
○ If we guide users through a typical case study,
there is an increased probability they will activate
and become PQLs across multiple products
● Implementation
○ K8s in 8 challenge
● Metrics
○ Landing page visits
○ Cloud sign ups
○ Percentage completion of challenge
○ PQLs, PQOs
○ MAU

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@danielbryantuk
Top 3 PLG Takeaways for DevRel

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@danielbryantuk 17
Empathize with your users to drive effective experiments
DevRel can help a lot with hypothesis generation
● Does this idea pass the end-user (developer) sniff test?
● But, our “gut feel” isn’t always going to be right
● Data analysis and storytelling are a PLG superpower
Data doesn’t lie, but it doesn’t tell the whole story
● Qualitative data can be very useful – this is the domain of DevRel
● Don’t discount the value of talking to actual users and your community

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@danielbryantuk 18
DevRel, waiting for the data scientists to ask us about
getting qualitative feedback… :-)

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@danielbryantuk 19
Focus everyone on the end-to-end (developer) experience
● Rapid experimentation is a super power, but with all great power comes…
● It’s easy to get caught in small optimizations
● Reflect on the (end-to-end) experience of the product
○ Engage beginners mindset
○ Think about “jobs to be done”
○ Regularly run through the sign up, activation, and aha moments

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@danielbryantuk 20

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@danielbryantuk 21
Identifying value, “aha” moments, and potential for virality
DevRel can provide insight on the value users get from the product
● We’re often the stakeholder closest to the community
● Sales can provide great insight from users and buyers
● And don’t underestimate the value of support/CX input!
DevRel can help tell the story of the user’s path to value
● What, where, when, why, and who gets value
(and how do we observe/instrument this?)
● Where is the friction?
● How do we get to the “aha” moments (and make these viral)

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@danielbryantuk 22
Focus on the user's path to value, not on monetization

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@danielbryantuk
Wrapping Up

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@danielbryantuk 24
DevRel and PLG: We’re learning (and we will make mistakes)
● We’re all in new territory here…
● Need strong growth marketing leadership
○ Clear goals, charter, language, etc
● Cross-functional teams for the win!
● Embrace the scientific method (and data)
● Regularly retrospect (as a team)
h/t twitter.com/salaboy/status/1570688751776694273

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@danielbryantuk 25
Conclusion
● Product-led growth (PLG), when done well, can break down barriers between
departments and teams to drive more adoption (and revenue!)
● DevRel teams have a lot to add to PLG (which is a “bottom up” motion):
○ Empathizing with your user and product to drive effective experiments
○ Focusing everyone on the end-to-end (developer) experience
○ Identifying the user value, aha moments, and opportunities for virality
● Establish a cross-functional team with common goals, language, & understanding

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@danielbryantuk 26
Personally, I’m all about the DevOps “ProdLedBizEngRel”*
(*but we might want to simply call it PLG)

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@danielbryantuk 27
Questions? Contact details and more info
Email: db@datawire.io
Twitter/LinkedIn: @danielbryantuk
Correlated: The Product Led Revenue Podcast (Breezy Beaumont and team)
Product Led Podcast (Wes Bush and crew)
What's 🔥 in Enterprise IT/VC (Ed Sim)
Lenny's Newsletter (Lenny Rachitsky)
Product-Led Growth for Dev-First Business: Is It Inevitable?
(Kelsey Evans, Daniel Bryant, Adam LaGreca, and team)

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@danielbryantuk
Fin.