
Community Pulse
Community Pulse is the spot for Developer Relations and Community professionals who are looking for information on building technical communities. Community Builders and DevRel veterans Jason Hand, Mary Thengvall, PJ Hagerty, and Wesley Faulkner interview experts in the field of Developer Relations and Community Leadership on a broad range of topics related to building community.
Latest episodes

Aug 13, 2020 • 53min
Metrics, KPIs, and OKRs - Oh My! (Ep 50)
In this episode we want to discuss the topic of OKRs (or Objectives and Key Results). What are OKRs, and why are they beneficial to an organization? How do they differ from Key Performance Metrics (KPIs)? What even is a North Star? To help us better understand we have invited our guests Donovan Brown and Patrick Collins
Checkouts
Donovan Brown
Vision and Mission worksheet
Objectives and Key Results: Driving Focus, Alignment, and Engagement with OKRs
Patrick Collins
GameJam
DeFi flying to almost $4B
2020th edition of The Pragmatic Programmer
Any League of Legends fans here? Liquid > C9 what WHAT
Jason Hand
Understanding Our Progress Against COVID-19
Dryer Balls
Wesley Faulkner
You’re testing them wrong: Whiteboard coding interviews are ‘anti-women psychological stress examinations’
“Devs” on Hulu
Mary Thengvall
Little Fires Everywhere (book, not tv series)
Liz & Mollie instagram
PJ Hagerty
Vera Thiago’s talk from DevRelCon on North Star Metrics
Hip Hop Evolution new season on Netflix
Jelle’s Marble League on YouTube
Photo by Luke Chesser on Unsplash.
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.Special Guests: Donovan Brown and Patrick Collins.

Jul 7, 2020 • 38min
Advocating for DevRel as a DevRel Professional (Ep 49)
Developer Relations needs to be put into perspective for people outside the team or community. When your Developer Relations department comes under fire, how do we switch from advocating for our community to advocating for ourselves? When DevRel is new, how do you build on activities to show the importance of having a dedicated team working with the communities your organization is involved with? SJ and PJ sit down with Elizabeth Ruscitto and Jaime Lopez to discuss the ins and outs of explaining DevRel to folks on the outside.
Checkouts
SJ Morris
Themed Zoom backgrounds as a team icebreaker - Fave album? Fave movie?
Punk Rock Aerobics
Elizabeth Ruscitto
Spotify’s new Open Source Developer portal - backstage.io
Free Coursera course - The Science of Well-being
Jaime Lopez
10 Ways to Help Accessibility at Conferences as a Speaker by Lindsey Kopacz
Google Tech Writing Course
PJ Hagerty
New Album from punk band Western Addiction
Stay Home, Stay Safe, Buy Local
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.

Jun 18, 2020 • 1h 2min
A Talk about Racism, Privilege, and DevRel: Community Pulse Live - Summer Edition (Ep 48)
These past few weeks have brought us to what we hope will be an inflection point with regard to systemic racism in the United States. We’re now asking the question: How can we work as a community in DevRel to ensure we not only address this critical moment, but actively work toward eradicating systemic racism in our industry?
Links
Anti-racism resources
Kim Crayton’s Introduction to Being an Antiracist course - June 27
Scaffolded Anti-racist Resources
Scene On Radio podcast Season 2: Seeing White podcast series
Wesley Faulkner’s “5 steps to combat racism” video
Wesley Faulkner’s “Are we all racist?” video
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen (summary)
Walk on by: why do we ignore bad behaviour?
Zootopia (animated movie for kids that clearly illustrates racism)
We don’t do that here (a way to shut down racist and/or inappropriate comments)
How to continue without burning out:
Twitter thread from Tatiana Mac
unthreaded/blogpost version from Rain Leander
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.

May 25, 2020 • 19min
After Pulse: Online Community Management
SJ, Jason, and PJ sit down to discuss their recent conversation with Marjorie and Wesley, when what started as a simple conversation about online communities turned into an opportunity to learn from experts at a time when our entire industry seems to have been turned on its head. They then pivot into what makes something ephemeral versus what "sticks" with you and has a lasting impact on your career as well as those around you.
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.

May 11, 2020 • 46min
Online Community Management: how DevRel is going virtual due to COVID-19 (Ep 47)
Connecting with our communities online is more important than ever right now. However, this isn’t something ALL DevRel teams are accustomed to. In some cases, much of the online efforts have been relegated to “community management” or support. Marjorie Anderson and Wesley Faulkner join us to talk about online communities, sharing tips, tricks, and best practices from their combined 20 years of experience.
Checkouts
PJ Hagerty
Beastie Boys documentary on Apple TV
Vito from Tito - New livestreaming platform
SJ Morris
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Marjorie Anderson
Hey Summit - Virtual Summit platform
Inc Founders Project Podcast - stories of entrepreneurs building our future
Wesley Faulkner
Jitsi - open source video conferencing
Jason Hand
Hang out with Jason on Twitch
Streamlabs OBS - Customizable streaming interface
Links
Cover image by Mikayla Mallek.
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.

Apr 27, 2020 • 18min
After Pulse: Developer Relations and Developer Marketing
Join Mary, Jason, and PJ as they reflect on their conversation with Karen and Elizabeth. They share some of their personal experiences that have shaped their opinions of marketing departments in the past and talk through the new concepts that were introduced in this episode.
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.

Apr 22, 2020 • 42min
Developer Relations and Developer Marketing: the differences, the similarities, the partnerships (Ep 46)
It’s not hard to say there is a difference between Developer Relations and Developer Marketing...but where does that line sit? There is definitely overlap, but how do we identify efforts or activities that fall more into one category or the other? To help us define these roles and where those lines might be, we are joined by guests Elizabeth Kinsey and Karen White.
Checkouts
PJ Hagerty
Guided Explorations by RZA
AuxParty! - The much-heralded return of Turntable.fm!
Jen Myer’s Modern Adventuress Newsletter
Karen White
It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders (podcast)
Elizabeth Kinsey
Fiona Apple’s new album (the first 10/10 album on Pitchfork in almost a decade)
Lauren Duca’s newsletter, Pancake Brain, and Sarah Stockdale’s newsletter, We Need to Talk About This: a lovely dose of political action, self-care and clarity without any of the toxic positivity
Mary Thengvall
The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerlins - D&D podcast turned graphic novel
The Daily podcast from New York Times - COVID-19 news plus “A Bit of Relief”
Some Good News - weekly dose of goodness compliments of John Krasinski
Jason Hand
Red Rising Series
365 Meaningful Conversations
Links
Developer Relations and Developer Marketing…they aren’t the same thing by PJ Hagerty
Cover image by Ricardo Gomez Angel.
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.Special Guests: Elizabeth Kinsey and Karen White.

Apr 1, 2020 • 1h 7min
COVID-19 Retrospective - Community Pulse LIVE!
This has been a surreal and historic few weeks across the globe. We recently gathered a group of DevRel professionals to talk about how COVID-19 has impacted them and their DevRel role, from what their current focuses are, how their Q2 goals have changed, whether they're transitioning to online events (and what that will look like in the future), and more. Join us for a special live episode as we dig into the potential long term changes to our industry post COVID-19.
Mentions
Sarah Thiam’s post on online events
Tech Events Cancelled
DevRel Weekly COVID-related resources
Minute on the Mic
Zoom features
Online Events Platforms (outside of Zoom):
Hopin: Online Events Platform
BlueJeans
Mozilla Hubs
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.

Mar 24, 2020 • 26min
After Pulse: The Ethical DevRel
PJ, SJ, and Mary chat further on the subject of ethics following Episode 45. Tune in to hear more from their own unique perspectives once the guests have left.
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.

Mar 17, 2020 • 46min
The Ethical DevRel (Ep 45)
Events have a code of conduct. Projects often have rules of behavior for those who participate. There are expected rules we follow when creating content, from adhering to MLA style to ensuring ideas are delivered in a succinct way with value to the consumer. But when it comes to DevRel, there is no specific rule set or guidelines for practitioners. Beyond the external rules we need to follow as generally good humans, there is nothing to show how to be an ethical DevRel practitioner. So where does that leave us? Coraline Ada Ehmke and Don Goodman-Wilson join us to discuss this difficult topic.</p
Checkouts
PJ Hagerty
Personal Record Club - A spotify API consuming way to share your album choices socially (based on the @PJAlbumoftheDay twitter account)
A Drop of Midnight - Jason “Timbuktu” Diakité’s memoir on growing up African-American in Sweden and what finding his roots really means.
SJ Morris
Burnout Index: A quick pulse on how work is affecting you
This tweet of an otter playing with an iPhone set to Careless Whisper
Mary Thengvall
Geekbot - asynchronous standup bot on Slack for distributed teams
Don Goodman-Wilson
Andrew L. Russell’s Open Standards and the Digital Age: History, Ideology, and Networks
Coraline Ada Ehmke
Title of Conf - A joyful new musical conference showcasing the brilliant talent thriving the tech community.
Enjoy the podcast?
Please take a few moments to leave us a review on iTunes and follow us on Spotify, or leave a review on one of the other many podcasting sites that we’re on! Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue to produce episodes every month. Like all things Community, this too takes a village.Special Guests: Coraline Ada Ehmke and Don Goodman-Wilson.
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