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The Founder's Guide to Developer-led Growth with WorkOS
Developers now control a significant portion of enterprise technology budgets and influence purchasing decisions. To succeed with developers, companies must meet them where they are through authentic channels like Twitter and Hacker News. They should focus on technical specifications over marketing benefits and avoid gated content or hidden motives that developers will see through. Building trust requires demonstrating technical excellence, integrating user feedback, and dogfooding new features before release. Word-of-mouth will drive growth once an engaged base of developers evangelizes the product.
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The Founder's Guide to Developer-led Growth with WorkOS
- 1. 1 Michael Grinich CEO WorkOS Zeno Rocha VP ofDeveloper Experience WorkOS Betsy Calender Developer Success Manager WorkOS The Founders Guide to Developer-Led Growth
- 2. Doing Business withDevelopers
- 3. 3 Why should youbuild for developers?
- 4.
- 5. 5 We have takenthe entire messy and complex world of telephony and reduced it to five API calls. Jeff Lawson, Twilio's CEO “ ” https://avc.com/2016/06/best-seed-pitch-ever
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- 7. 7 Developer-led Growth Self-serve onboarding Cheapercustomer acquisition Typically follow a usage-based model
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- 9. 9 Developers used to influence,but not authorize, technology purchases. That's no longer the case.
- 10. 10 58% of developersindicated they have budget authority, not merely budget influence. Evans Data Corporation (2018) “ ” https://techrepublic.com/article/developers-now-control-a-big-chunk-of-enterprise-budgets-heres-how-to-reach-them
- 11. 11 # of softwaredevelopers worldwide https://www.statista.com/statistics/627312/worldwide-developer-population 23 24 28 29 in millions 2018 2019 2023 2024
- 12. 12 US has the largestpopulation of developers India's developer population will overtake the US by 2024 https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/number-software-developers-world APAC region shows the strongest growth LATAM has the second strongest growth
- 13. 13 Bottom Up Motion DeveloperInput Management Evaluation High Ownership Top Down Motion Management Vision Developer Execution Less Ownership
- 14.
- 15. 15 Pricing Enable developers tosign up for free if possible. Low starting point - easy to put in a credit card. Usage based pricing - only get charged for what you’re using.
- 16. 16 Upsell Designed for expansion. Builda suite of interrelated products. Educate on other features they’re likely to need next vs. just instigating a sales call.
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- 18. 18 Pitfalls to avoid Developershate paying for something they’re not using. Avoid introducing too much friction in the sign-up process. Don’t use language like “unlock revenue”. Developers notice when technical language is not quite right.
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- 20. 20 How to builda brand for developers?
- 21. 21 Love Praise Promotion Small Delight Small Delight SmallDelight Small Delight Small Delight =
- 22. 22 Distrust Indifferenc e Churn Small Annoyance = Small Annoyance SmallAnnoyance Small Annoyance Small Annoyance
- 23. 23 Branding for developers Developersare obsessed with precision. An error in a line of code could be fatal. The fastest way to lose credibility with developers is to include errors in your writing.
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- 25. 25 Focus on features,not benefits Marketers use benefits, not features, to describe their product. With developer audiences, this best practice is counterproductive. Be straightforward about specs and feature comparisons against other product lines or competitors.
- 26.
- 27. 27 Just tell me exactlywhat this is What developers see
- 28. 28 Please don’t send me automated marketing emails Whatdevelopers see
- 29. 29 How they can guarantee this? Whatdevelopers see
- 30. 30 I’m sure there’s a catchhere What developers see
- 31. 31 Yet another fake promise Whatdevelopers see
- 32.
- 33. 33 Avoid lead magnets Developerswill always ignore your attempt to “convert” them. They are not going to register for your special webinar. When you gate white papers, guides, and other resources, developer skepticism increases.
- 34.
- 35. 35 I don’t want read aPDF What developers see
- 36. 36 This could have beena Github Repo What developers see
- 37. 37 or a blogpost... or a web page... or anything but a PDF What developers see
- 38. 38 Not actually my real name Whatdevelopers see
- 39. 39 My fake disposable email address Whatdevelopers see
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- 42. 42 Meet developers wherethey are Exchange cards with a developer and you'll never hear from them again. A Twitter follow is way more effective than a business card. Focus your efforts in channels that are authentic to developers.
- 43. 43 Meet developers wherethey are Hacker News Dev.to Twitter Stack Overflow
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- 45. 45 Explore different mediums Pickand choose the right medium for your targeted audience. Some developers just want to get straight to the source code. Others like to read blog posts or books, others prefer to watch screencasts or pre-recorded presentations.
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- 49. 49 Earn trust byhaving technical excellence Developers are highly resourceful and skeptical of marketing. Prove yourself as a trusted resource by having highly technical content. Demonstrate that you really know what you're doing and they will reward you with their attention.
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- 53. 53 Don't try tohide your real motives A developer’s job is to build software workflows. They reverse engineer your marketing funnel. They’ll look at each field in your onboarding form and wonder why it’s needed.
- 54.
- 55. 55 More like trialfor 30 days, spam for 365 days What developers see
- 56. 56 Why? Are you goingto run a background check? What developers see
- 57. 57 Why can’t Iuse my personal email? What developers see
- 58. 58 Are you going tocall me? Please don’t call me! What developers see
- 59. 59 Am I going tobe treated differently? What developers see
- 60. 60 Maybe lie here to avoidtalking to a sales guy? What developers see
- 61. 61 Finally a field that makes sense Whatdevelopers see
- 62.
- 63. 63 Trust on wordof mouth growth Developers are famously loyal. The best marketing channel is having a truly great product. Once a small base of developers loves and evangelizes your product, you’re in a terrific position to grow.
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- 65. 65 How to supportdevelopers?
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- 67. 67 Utilize a toolDevelopers are already using Shared Slack channels Customer’s customer Have proactive communication: Changelog, Blog updates, Upcoming events/releases, and Error notifications
- 68. 68 What companies do WillI ever a get a response?
- 69. 69 What developers see Ijust want to talk to a real person
- 70.
- 71. 71 Close the feedbackcycle Integrate user feedback directly into your ticketing system Visibility Responsive + Notifications
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- 74. 74 Be developer zero Constantlyput yourself in the shoes of your developer users. Avoid frustrations by having a strict review and QA process. Before a new feature sees the light of day on your platform, your team should have built a full app with it.
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