The Developer Marketing Flywheel is a guide to what needs to get done, when to do it, and how to measure the results. It’s a roadmap for developer marketing practitioners on how to build successful programs.

Discovery is the starting point for this roadmap, where you’ll build your strategy by figuring out the core principles of product-market fit. This is ultimately what gets the entire flywheel in motion!

In this post, we’ll explore the third phase of Discovery: Primary Research.

After conducting stakeholder interviews and secondary research, you may still have a few unanswered questions about your product, including:

  • How does your audience view your product?
  • How do they engage with your product?
  • What challenges do they have when using your product?

Primary research can help fill in these gaps and set you up for success when you go to market. Not all primary research methods are the same, so we recommend figuring out which of the following three (or which combination) is suitable for you.

Qualitative Research

Category Method Goal
Qualitative

Observation

Interviews

Focus groups

Understand mindset, needs, and pain points

Qualitative research is great for learning about developers' attitudes toward your brand or product. Through interviews, you may discover that developers love your product’s features. Or, through focus groups, you might find that they think it’s difficult to install and use. Other observational methods, like watching them work through a “hello world,” might show that your documentation is slowing them down.

Descriptive Research

Category Method Goal
Descriptive

Sample survey

Panel survey

Describe, explain, and validate research findings

Descriptive research will allow you to collect quantitative data from developers to learn more about who they are, how they work, and what they need to be successful. You can get this data from sample and panel surveys and use it to present objective information about your audience. You’ll find this especially useful for aligning multiple decision makers with conflicting views about how to approach developers.

Scientific Research

Category Method Goal
Scientific

Controlled experiment

Field experiment

Isolating if X causes Y

Scientific research will allow you to test specific situations (aka hypotheses) and give you the last bits of data you need before going to market. Use experiments to isolate these situations and better understand the issues and areas for improvement. For example, you could time developers to see how long it takes them to get up to speed with your product using updated documentation.

What can you accomplish with primary research?

For example, here’s a look at a company based outside the US that wanted to launch its platform in the US. Internal stakeholders assumed the brand was globally recognizable and that awareness of their platform would be high. To test this hypothesis, Catchy surveyed US-based developers on this topic.

Key findings from the survey included low awareness and familiarity and low usage and interest. The corresponding data showed internal stakeholders that there was an awareness gap to overcome and allowed them to realign their developer marketing strategy to address this.

To conclude, primary research will provide the data and insights to answer your final questions before going to market. Together with stakeholder interviews and secondary research, it’ll give you all the information you need to get your program off the ground. Next in our Developer Marketing Flywheel series, we’ll explore how you can accomplish your first strategic goal: Increase Awareness.

Read our entire Developer Marketing Flywheel series:

View

Developer Marketing Flywheel: Stakeholder Interviews

Where can you look for insights to inform your developer marketing plan? Start with the people you already know. As part of our Developer Marketing Flywheel series, we’ll explore the critical first phase: Stakeholder Interviews.
View

Developer Marketing Flywheel: Secondary Research

How can you build a clear understanding of the market for your product? Learn how to use easy-to-access resources to develop a sense of your audience, competitors, and more. Our Developer Marketing Flywheel series continues with the second phase: Secondary Research.
View

The Developer Marketing Flywheel: An Introduction

How can you build a successful developer marketing roadmap? Catchy’s Managing Partner Gary Gonzalez, together with Director of Strategy and Client Services Tom Williams, introduced the “Developer Marketing Flywheel” at last week’s Developer Marketing Summit in San Francisco.
View

Developer Marketing Flywheel: Stakeholder Interviews

Where can you look for insights to inform your developer marketing plan? Start with the people you already know. As part of our Developer Marketing Flywheel series, we’ll explore the critical first phase: Stakeholder Interviews.
View

Developer Marketing Flywheel: Secondary Research

How can you build a clear understanding of the market for your product? Learn how to use easy-to-access resources to develop a sense of your audience, competitors, and more. Our Developer Marketing Flywheel series continues with the second phase: Secondary Research.
View

The Developer Marketing Flywheel: An Introduction

How can you build a successful developer marketing roadmap? Catchy’s Managing Partner Gary Gonzalez, together with Director of Strategy and Client Services Tom Williams, introduced the “Developer Marketing Flywheel” at last week’s Developer Marketing Summit in San Francisco.
View

Developer Marketing Flywheel: Stakeholder Interviews

Where can you look for insights to inform your developer marketing plan? Start with the people you already know. As part of our Developer Marketing Flywheel series, we’ll explore the critical first phase: Stakeholder Interviews.
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