You often see a DevRel team in an OSS product company because they work along with the developer communities, essentially contributing to the initial growth/adoption. But this has changed a lot with Cloud platform vendors.
DevRel teams create various engagement channels through which developers could use the product/service provided by the company.
Even though it looks overarching, in many cases, a DevRel team manages the developer brand perception, creates content, takes the feedback, or more!
It might be easy to build brand capital or change the perception of a brand by following a specific PR strategy. But DevRel is not so easy, and it takes a good amount of time for any brand to gain the trust of developers.
I have seen many leaders from B2B SaaS misunderstand DevRel, and compare DevRel with PR or think DevRel is an amalgam of āSolution Architecture + Technical Marketingā. It essentially erodes the brand capital built by the respective PR team.
Long story short, both are not the same, but both can work together to create a great brand. Nowadays, I could see more
tech media sites that serve as platforms for C-level audiences, mid-level management, Developers.