Developer Product Marketing

1. Use cases- Document how developers can use your product in different situations.See Ask Your Developer for a really good take on how important use cases are to developers.  
2. Data- developers tend to be highly skeptical. Use empirical data and engage their "problem-solver" mind. 
3. Memes- levity has been highly effective for Woven. Humor helps with awareness and makes Developers less resistant to marketing Messages. 

Sales and customers will be your most vital partners for this task. They will have likely have had multiple run-ins with your competitors. As a result, they will give you an excellent high-level understanding of competitive pitches, pricing, what attracted customers to them, and how the market, in general, perceives them. When you want to go deeper on a technical level, SEs, TMEs, and other PMs will be able to assist you with a feature-to-feature comparison, but keep in mind to approach the problem from multiple angles to get a better picture. 

The definition of "Extensive competitive product research" may be different for different people. I suggest asking the CEO and Product / Engineering teams the kind of questions they are looking to answer. Sometimes the high level market research you can get from a 3rd party will not be enough, and you will need to get creative to get the information needed via surveys, primary research or other methods. My best advise here is to define the task in more detail to undertand what people are expecting.

Not sure what mark you're missing. But your CEO and product/eng team are probably looking for (1) an overview of the space, where everyone is going (2) highlighting a few players and going deep dive into why they're building it and who they are building for. [I would hire a secret shopper for the second part] 

The best competitive research I've seen goes beyond the competitor's website, press releases and YouTube videos. They might include competitor customer interviews and tailored sales demos. I've personally worked with great small businesses and consultants who are experts in doing this analysis and research. If you have a little budget, I'd recommend that path. 

A common pitfall in developer marketing messaging is that the marketers spend a bunch of time trying to put things into terms they can understand as a non-developer. Focus on the problem that your product is solving for them, how they would describe it, and what resonates with them. For those new to the developer marketing discipline, this can require a bit of a 

A common pitfall in developer marketing messaging is that the marketers spend a bunch of time trying to put things into terms they can understand as a non-developer. Focus on the problem that your product is solving for them, how they would describe it, and what resonates with them. For those new to the developer marketing discipline, this can require a bit of a 

Start with the facts. Then add in what actual customers or prospects have said. Or if you don't have that yet - a respected third party - like a Gartner. And only then try to make it clever. I think too often marketing folks start with the clever and work backwards - but especially developers, they want to know it works, they want to get into the weeds right away, and they will be put off or blow past any overly clever, overly fluffy marketing. 

This is also why I think a great Dev PMM doesn't really need any PMM experience. Look to solutions architects, pre-sales engineers, or just developers in your space. It's much easier to learn PMM frameworks than it is to learn a new domain, and gain the respect you need to tap into the best insights

Get crystal clear on the developer persona, and establish a framework for regularly updating it. I don't think there's any better use of your time than talking to folks 1:1 and using the way they frame value to write your own messaging framworks. 

I would also take the time to clearly establish roles, boundries, and overlap with any DevRel or DevEx folks at your organization. What are the goals of each. Why are they different? In what ways are they the same? Ensure alignment with that group on core value, voice, and tone.