This post will outline what developers experience and achieve at each stage of the journey, which tactics to select along the way, and how audience intelligence drives the successful implementation of these tactics.
A Tactical Guide to the Developer Journey
Stage 1: Discover
Our first stop on the journey is discovery, which is all about generating awareness. Simply put, developers can’t recommend or implement something they don’t know exists. This phase is all about placing your product or service in the initial consideration set of developers, so as soon as a need comes up, your brand is already on their radar.
Tactics
When working with clients on driving awareness, we typically recommend a mix of pay-to-play search, display, and events. The ultimate goal in this phase is to position your product where your target developers spend their time, whether on popular forums like Stack Overflow, social platforms like X (Twitter), or at the events they attend throughout the year.
Stage 2: Evaluate
Once developers become familiar with your product, they move to the consideration stage. In this phase, the number one goal is for your product or service to make it into contention without being ruled out in an initial sniff test.
Tactics
To facilitate this process, we often work with clients on high-level content such as use cases, product overviews, and case studies highlighting unique benefits. These resources quickly answer developers' initial questions and showcase the technology's real-world applications. Testimonials and success stories are also useful here: developers often seek recommendations from peers who have benefited from the product or service.
Stage 3: Learn
The learning stage is where developers dive deep into the main capabilities of your product or service with hands-on testing. Marketing takes a back seat during this phase as developers engage in the self-directed learning process. The best way to support your audience throughout this phase is with best-in-class developer experience.
Tactics
At this point, detailed documentation, tutorials, and trials become essential. Interactive tutorials and coding challenges can also provide deeper ways to engage with developers. Additionally, some programs may use this stage in the journey to host webinars and live coding sessions where developers can ask questions and receive real-time feedback from technical experts (not salespeople).
Stage 4: Build
In the build stage, developers start using your product to work on their own projects. This is a critical phase where hands-on support and robust development tools can make a significant difference. Some of the most effective activities at this point are providing strong SDKs, APIs, and sample code repositories. These resources lower barriers to entry and help developers quickly get started with your technology.
Tactics
This is the part of the journey where a strong community becomes incredibly important. Forums, support, Slack channels, and developer meetups all help developers feel like help is available in case they get stuck. Providing space where developers can share their experiences, seek help, and collaborate with others is critical.
Stage 5: Scale
As developers become more proficient with the product or service, they may look to scale their projects. In this phase of the journey, the honeymoon is over and they’re getting into the nitty gritty of using your product or service as part of their workflow. Very often, this is where they will encounter their first set of obstacles and will need hands-on support in a way they haven’t experienced before.
Tactics
The most important tactics here revolve around providing technical support and consulting services that can help them overcome any challenges they face during the scaling process. Beyond that, they can often benefit from advanced tutorials, optimization guides, and best practices documentation that can help them enhance the performance and scalability of their applications.
Stage 6: Advocate
The final (and hardest) stage of the developer journey is evangelism. There is nothing more valuable than having a loyal developer advocate on behalf of your brand. When done right, it’s worth more than anything a brand can buy with advertising dollars. Developers who have had positive experiences with your product are likely to become advocates, sharing their success stories and promoting your product within their networks.
Tactics
Encouraging and recognizing the contributions of advocates through ambassador programs and exclusive opportunities can strengthen their loyalty and commitment. Providing platforms for them to share their experiences, such as guest blogging opportunities and speaking engagements, can amplify their voices and extend your reach within the community.