How to Become a Developer Advocate: Part 2, Building Empathy

To build empathy with technical audiences, developer advocates need to work on building trust and authenticity. This involves living and showing their work, being an ally by presenting themselves authentically and visually differentiating themselves from sales teams, asking questions and offering options that meet users' constraints, following up with them in a timely manner and providing additional information required, and asking for feedback to create meaningful working relationships and build better tools. By taking these steps, developer advocates can establish trust and empathy with their technical audience, which is critical for success in roles such as developer advocacy, technical pre-sales, and community management.