[TEST] 1.4: Developer Enablement Is A $500M Ecosystem

A consequence, (artifact?), (benefit?) of the limited talent in software construction are the support ecosystem vendors that emerge to help fill the void by helping software talent improve their hard and soft skills.

Developer enablement has 33 companies that publish a variety of services generating approximately $500M / year and growing 32% from the past couple years. This excludes the short and long tail of technology consulting and training businesses that is virtually impossible to size, but arguably well over $10B in annual revenues.

1.4.1: Developer Relations (DevRel) Has Emerged As An Extension Of Marketing, Support, and Product Organizations Employing 5000 To Further Enable Developer Users And Buyers.

In the 90s, when I started my career at BEA, I was titled “Technology Evangelist”, but I was a member of a small group in marketing that was tasked with educating the market on the importance and usage of emerging technologies of strategic interest to BEA.

BEA was forward thinking in their use of dollars, aggressively adding marketing programs that were targeted to further enable developers. They did this at a time where developer monetization was perceived to be non-existent. However, BEA’s success was tied to Java and, more importantly, Java EE becoming global standards ahead of .NET. Funding promotion and programs that drove adoption of technology in conjunction with product education was a strategic product and revenue driver for BEA.

Now, DevRel is becoming standard practice for enabling developers for APIs, SDKs, or platforms. DevRel plays a role whether your dev user base is internal or external to your organization. Most organizations invest as a part of their marketing budget, but that is a mistake as connecting developer engagement to revenue is virtually impossible. Fundamentally, DevRel not only acquires and engages developers, but enables and extends them. DevRel is a customer success and support function, and are fundamental to a COGS reduction, GM improvement, and driver of NRR.