devrel-playbook

DevRel Playbook - Skills & SOPs

Complete collection of community building skills and SOPs for developer relations, community-led growth, and creator ecosystem development. Extracted from real-world experience scaling a product community from zero to a global movement.

Based on analysis of webinars, podcasts, interviews, and public writing.

Notion Database

Open in Notion

27 Skills & SOPs

#	Skill	Category	Phase
1	Spotting Super Fans	Community Building	Observe
2	Cold Outreach to Creators (3-Month Nurture)	Marketing & Growth	Seed
3	Building an Ambassador Program from Zero	Community Building	Formalize
4	Decentralized Community Architecture	Community Building	Scale
5	Template Gallery & UGC Marketplace	Marketing & Growth	Seed
6	The IKEA Effect: Product-Community Loop	Marketing & Growth	Framework
7	Event Strategy: Community-Organized > Company-Organized	Community Building	Formalize
8	Certification Program for Power Users	Community Building	Systematize
9	Influencer Marketing on a Startup Budget	Marketing & Growth	Seed
10	The Side Project as Job Application	Career & Personal	Framework
11	The Next Play Model: Community for People in Transition	Community Building	Seed
12	Pre-Product Community Building (IT Kit Example)	Marketing & Growth	Observe
13	Viral Side Project Creation (Humus Day Formula)	Career & Personal	Framework
14	Program Measurement Without a North Star	Operations	Systematize
15	Scrappy Team Scaling	Operations	Scale
16	Angel Investing as Relationship Building	Investing	Framework
17	MASTER PLAYBOOK: End-to-End Community Growth	Community Building	Flywheel
18	Full Biography & Origin Story	Career & Personal	Framework
19	Champions Community: Enterprise Program	Community Building	Systematize
20	The Community Portal: Central Landing Page	Community Building	Formalize
21	The Creator Economy Flywheel	Marketing & Growth	Flywheel
22	Affiliate vs Ambassador: Two Models	Marketing & Growth	Scale
23	Code of Conduct & Moderation at Scale	Operations	Formalize
24	Using Your Own Product as Community Infrastructure	Operations	Seed
25	The COVID Pivot Playbook	Community Building	Scale
26	Investment Thesis: Community Signals	Investing	Framework
27	Personal Brand Through Compounding Side Projects	Career & Personal	Framework

Phases (Execution Order)

Phase 1: OBSERVE (Month 1-2)     → Skills 1, 6, 12
Phase 2: SEED (Month 2-4)        → Skills 2, 5, 9, 11, 24
Phase 3: FORMALIZE (Month 4-6)   → Skills 3, 7, 20, 23
Phase 4: SCALE (Month 6-12)      → Skills 4, 15, 22, 25
Phase 5: SYSTEMATIZE (Year 1-2)  → Skills 8, 14, 19
Phase 6: FLYWHEEL (Year 2+)      → Skills 17, 21
FRAMEWORKS (Apply anytime)        → Skills 6, 10, 13, 16, 18, 26, 27

Categories

• Community Building (9 skills): Ambassador programs, events, groups, champions, portals
• Marketing & Growth (7 skills): Influencer programs, UGC, viral tactics, creator economy
• Operations (4 skills): Measurement, team scaling, moderation, dogfooding
• Career & Personal (4 skills): Job hunting, side projects, biography, personal brand
• Investing (2 skills): Angel investing, community signal evaluation

Applied Playbooks

Real-world applications of these skills to specific developer ecosystems:

Playbook	Context	Skills Used
mothi Developer GTM Funnel	Growing mothi's developer ecosystem. Discord as community layer, MTUs & GMV as end goal.	01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 12, 14, 17, 21
Reo.dev Playbook Mapping	Which 16 of Reo.dev's 44 playbooks are relevant for mothi DevRel, mapped to funnel stages.	—

Sources

• Tribe Industry Expert Webinar (Notion's Community)
• Invested Podcast
• Passionfroot Jam
• Founders Forum Podcast
• LinkedIn posts and Medium articles

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Extracted and organized by Claude.