DevRel and the dotted line

One of the biggest unresolved debates for developer relations is the reporting structure for the DevRel team.

As I apply for a new position here at the end of 2023, I am reading dozens of job descriptions. Each description describes the reporting hierarchy for the developer relations team, and there is a *lot* of variation. Some report into marketing, engineering, customer success, product teams. In smaller organizations, they might report straight right into the CEO. There isn’t any standardization for how developer relations reports inside a company… I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing.

The reason it isn’t a terrible thing is that *every* devrel position has dotted line reporting into different (every?) parts of the organization.

Dotted Line reporting

Dotted line reporting means that while you directly report into <team name>, you’ll also be receiving tasks, assignments and feedback from *other* teams. Probably every team. This means that, in addition to your goals and expectations from your team, you’ll also be working closely with customer success, product, marketing, engineering, etc., and they will have expectations and goals for developer relations.

Pros of dotted lines

• Learning: By working across silos, I learn more about the issues customers are facing, the engineering pipeline, the marketing plans – you get a good taste of everything that is going on. I can do a better job delivering content to developers!
• Collaboration: Teams that are communicating with one another collaborate better. When everyone is in sync, things can move like a well-oiled machine. When teams are working in a vacuum, work is duplicated, or completely out of sync. Good collaboration keeps everyone in sync.

Cons of dotted lines

• There are a lot of relationships to maintain. It is easy to focus on certain relationships and fall out of sync with others.
• Burnout: If everyone expects work to be completed by the devrel team – the workload can get too high.

While the devrel team may report to one specific member of the team, there is an expectation that there will be many different reporting relationships inside the company – to the point where the DevRel team begins to appear at the center of a web of dotted line reports.

Clearly, some of the dotted lines might be darker and used more often than others, but as a DevRel professional, it is important to keep all lines of communication open and keep the relationships strong.

But wait, There’s more!

In addition to all of the dotted line reporting and collaboration inside your company, the developer relations team is often tasked with building and supporting the developer community.

What does building and supporting a developer community look like? To me, it is building relationships; asking questions; delivering content; creating solutions; providing updates and more. If I were doing these things with an internal team, I’d add a dotted line to my reporting structure.

Are Customers Really a Dotted Line?

What do you think? Leave a comment below!