Developer Advocacy, Empathy, and Imposter Syndrome with Brandon West

Today Corey sits down with Brandon West, Team Lead for Developer Experience and Tools Advocacy at Datadog. They discuss Brandon’s unique career path, starting at SendGrid, working a stint at AWS, and landing in developer relations at Datadog. Corey and Brandon talk about the problem DevRel often has with successfully telling stories about itself and communicating the need for advocacy. They move into a conversation about the relationship between marketing and DevRel, and how the two are often aligned even if they’re not one and the same. Brandon addresses the challenge of metrics and quantifying success for developer advocates and emphasizes the role of empathy in DevRel. Corey and Brandon chat about the impact of branding on the public perception of Developer Advocacy and the amount of consideration it receives. They end the conversation by discussing uncertainty about your role early on versus later in a career.