AI-Enhanced DevRel: Building Permiossionless Developer Communities in the Age of Autonomous Agents

Okay, okay, okay, can you guys hear me? So first, a big shout out to you guys that stayed until the last talk. It's a big responsibility, and we're missing a couple of, I think, 20 minutes, and then we're ready for dinner. Okay, let's just start to speak a little bit. So this talk is a little different for anybody that, I don't know, never hear me speak.

I will speak about DevRel specifically, but I also like trying to leverage all the interviews that I did with a bunch of agents, builders in the space, and how to optimize agentic economies and workflow for specific for DevRel. Let's just start with a quick kind of like resume. Yeah, for the people that don't know me, I'm Francesco. This is an old picture that I take in Denver a couple of years ago in a buffy corn. It's quite fun, but yeah, I'm leading DevRel, a company called ConsenSys, the mother company of Metamask, Infura, Linea, and I've been around developer communities for quite a long time.

I'm excited to speak about DevEx and onboarding developers and really building sustainable and out of sustainable communities, and I think now that we're going into kind of this agentic era, we're speaking more about how we can optimize. Workflow is super important that we're speaking the same language. Let me start with my frustration. My frustration was when a couple of years ago, I was in different DevRel meetups, and everybody was speaking about different type of activation, different type of kind of like arrow eyes, different type of like, oh, this is working, this is not working. We're really not speaking the same language as, I don't know, how many people are actually developers here in the audience?

I'm not really, okay. Sounds good. How many DevRels do we have in the audience? Okay, so shout out to you guys that stayed. So it felt kind of like randomly.

I think like the space is a little bit kind of fragmented because you have a bunch of like different type of organization, building developer activation, everybody's calculating the same. That's why I kind of like, I thought about, let's build kind of like universal framework for actually like debating and speaking the same language, and I came up with like different things like you will see the DevRel pyramid, the builder funnel, this is something I've been working for the past couple of years, but also like been working on a third framework. It's basically like how we can actually bring all the developer main work streams to more AI agent kind of like specific things. So let's get started. I want to give quick context, right?

How many of you guys heard about MetaMask Naps? Okay. Hopefully someone. Okay. Sounds good.

So basically like with Naps, you can extend the functionality of what is MetaMask today. So you can basically do add-ons. There are a bunch of add-ons from kind of like non-EVM add-ons, from like Naps that are non-EVM, right? You can actually like do things around Cosmos. You can do things around BTC.

You can do a lot of different things. For gamers, there is a lot of like Naps around the digital identity. There is also like different things around multiple signing transaction. There is a lot of like interesting things. But the long story short is that I've been around building and drawing like Naps from the start.

And one thing that I really understood was permissionless innovation is key. We need to build a tech stack that is permissionless and also is making builders around the ecosystem being able to build on top and actually like further extend the functionality of what the extension is today. But I just want to also state, I think building cool product is great, but also like building cool technology is not enough. What you want to do is also like building a driving developer ecosystem, meaning also you want to kind of align and having a similar framework when you speak with different stakeholders. I mean, when you are in your organization, you will meet like people randomly coming from engineering.

You will meet people actually driving marketing, product marketing. People are driving product marketing managers, right? So a lot of kind of like different activation, different TGE, you want to make sure you kind of like speak the same language. So basically the first framework that I think a bunch of people saw it already, I've been working on this for quite a long time. But basically this is all about defining what is needed in the ecosystem.

And I basically thought this Maslow Pyramid, I don't know if you guys saw this before, but basically I tried to build a Maslow Pyramid for builder needs. So I came out with something called Hierarchy of Builder Needs. And we actually went to different levels from psychological needs. So being in some of the flagship hackathons, having access to resources, having basic education through your docs, through your story, through the academy, and then you are basically going one level up. So every time we are speaking with company, one thing that you want to make sure is that advocating for this leveling of activation without having the background and the second and the third, you cannot really go up.

We cannot speak about building safe space for developer if you cannot onboard developers on your doc, if you don't have actually credible CLIs that people can just fork and build from it. So I think that was something that I really learned that was really interesting. So just moving on, I also built a paper, if you want to see it, I can also send it over. But basically then I'm asking myself, what's going on around how we can actually engage with people? What do I have to learn?

I think attention, curiosity, thinking about also building safe spaces. So no-shill meetups, kind of like things that are able to make a developer being feeling like safe. And I think this we achieved since we're building something called Builder Nice, where we actually speak about specific topics, specific kind of design architecture. We started with 4.3.

7, we went into Layer 2, we went around scalability, wallet ecosystem, we spoke about stuff like smart account specific. There were a lot of different things. But also one thing I learned was we need to understand in which stage we are and what kind of devs we are targeting. So I actually thought about myself, why we're not actually building a framework that is encompassing this funneling? And then I basically came out with kind of like developer funnel specific.

And this was kind of like a lesson learned after those years, when I actually learned that building a safe space first for developers was actually more important than shilling a specific product on the face to people. And basically that's what I did. So it was all about kind of like value-driven onboarding first, and then product-specific conversion later. So the whole idea was having community calls that are based on the ecosystem. Having a very specific live coding session that are, let's build an app, instead actually let's use this SDK first.

And when you actually have this kind of safe space, what you want to do is involve your kind of like product at a second stage. But it's always very important that you're building your community first, and you're driving this through values. So I think that was one of the kind of framework that I think is useful for people also, like learning around how to build successful developer communities, but also they got into the space and they want to actually like drive strategy further to could be higher up, could be like people and stakeholder inside your organization. Yeah, I mean, these are kind of some of the bullet points, right? I think I cannot specify enough, docs are super important, they are evolving in different things.

And I think also like strategic activation from like ambassador program, and also like automatization is very important, but also fostering, supporting, including environment is something that I learned a lot around building, I think, 14 ambassador programs so far, including in all my career. And I think that was a big lesson learned that scaling is all about actually like driving and amplifying passion. So why AI is changing the game, right? So I think that's all kind of like the fresh talk that I want to give today. What is actually all about, what is this kind of like third framework that I'm trying to work on, implying like agency and gigantic economy will drive innovation, we also like shorten up our timing in delivering the specific activation.

So content, I think everybody kind of like know already, you guys throw like different content around LLMs, optimizing for Twitter threads, there are a lot of like different things around the content distribution. But I think one of the most important things that I kind of like learned as soon as possible was you need to build a doc, they are like LM readable, you need to actually start to think about some API playground for agents. So we need to actually serve both, but also like agents in the future. And basically, like an important part is, Deverell is actually in the middle, right? Deverell needs to understand that there will be agents that will actually like consume our technology, our API, our kind of like framework.

So we need to think about also having agents consume our docs. So we need to serve both. It's a lot of responsibility, right? There is a lot of things that probably like need to be done. But also most important is a long term game.

Even if we saw already, you know, like specific kind of like content being scraped, you see already where is the source of through for agents, you see stuff like Reddit coming back kind of like a top of the list. So there are a lot of different things. So just to define a little bit like what everyone wants here. So obviously we want to run things for humans that are like tutorials, we want to have actually sustainable support from Discord, Disqus, and all this kind of like supporting system. And obviously we want to scale through actually human and relationship like based programs from ambassador program to like academy.

So things are actually maintaining this safe space from the framework before. But also like they are enabling getting like feedback from developers in this space. They're building their docs from kind of like zero to zero. And on the other side, we actually what agents want. They want a standardization.

They want to have structured APIs. They want to have predictable schemas. And a lot of like API playground that we see today in companies are definitely not predictable. And also like JSON RPCs. They're actually consumable from agents that maybe also different type of like direction.

So and then I asked myself, okay, what is happening here around the pyramid? What are the things that can be actually, how we say, like speed it up around this hierarchy, right? I directly thought about, okay, the access to resources, the basic education and training. What we saw right now around, for example, Netamask or LinearDocs is that people are starting to actually like AI search much more. Around like 50% of like people are going to AI searches.

What does it mean? They're also like expecting having like LLMs directly involved in the AI searches. So like I think like we're really cool. Like Debra here in the audience, we are basically like checking different kind of like third-party solution, building our own solution that has enabled people to directly search, not through keywords, but actually through specific kind of like LLMs. And I think, you know, shout out to the guys like from Cookbook, Kappa.

There is a lot of like Kappa. There is a lot of like companies. I think enabling that. And then stuff like ambassadors, community engagement, and then things like virtual hackathon. We are running every month something called Metamask and Linear Developer Cook-Off.

And these are kind of like evergreen hackathon. But the cool thing is that a lot of like prizes are delivered directly by agents. A lot of coordination, a lot of first-time submission to check fresh code, to check actually what people are building. They're actually like due diligence by agents. So there is a lot of categorization.

And then I ask myself, what categories? I came up with these six categories that can be optimized around diverse specific frameworks. So from developer education, community ops, something that I just mentioned, hackathon activation. So around kind of like could be a first-round judging to actually prize coordination distribution. For example, on the hackathon side, we'll be running something called Metamask and Linear Committee Calls.

So something that is happening after the hackathon and is happening monthly. And the idea is to give a space to winners, to developers building cool stuff in the community, to actually like show what they build in front of like 10,000, 15,000 people in those calls. And I think it's been very valuable. And I think the coordination can be always optimized. And then stuff like feedback loops, content distribution.

And then, let's see, I have seven minutes here. I'm just trying to kind of like speed it up here. But basically, like I try to bring what are those categories and what are those workstream examples. I think I kind of like mentioned some that I really like kind of like passionate about is stuff like, for example, translation. We're also like translating doc specific and also adding version directly printed in the IMM.

Version control access, I think that was also super interesting. We're running also like monthly release notes to the SDK. And some of the docs are auto-updated in different languages. So that's actually quite good. Content distribution is something I'm very passionate about.

Because I think the source of true is having your, I don't know, 30 minutes, 45 minutes interview with a founder. And then you distribute the content in different kind of like versions, right? We're using like, for example, NNA to have some of those workflow enabled. They're actually like interacting with different NCPs. It's actually very powerful.

Obviously, this is not like kind of optimal, right? We're going in this direction because it's kind of like needed. Because people obviously want to have content that is better suited for them. But also they want to have personalized onboarding, personalized journey, right? And you see that already with docs specific.

For example, we have for Metamask SDK, we have something called CLI that you can actually build on top. And we saw different kind of like feedback. People actually like to use the CLI in different ways. And I think developer analytics is also something that on the LAM side can be helped a lot. So, why this kind of like third framework?

I think like, you know, I mentioned already, like I think we will speak about agents. We are starting to speak a lot about agent in these different fields. I think there was no kind of like proper breakdown of DevRel workflow in the ecosystem. That's why I thought about, okay, what can we actually optimize and have standardized around our kind of like developer relation professionals in the ecosystem? And this is not just about Web3, right?

Everybody can take this out. And basically, I came with this, boom. So, this is kind of like a human progression. What you can see here from the left is kind of like human led going until kind of like the agent native, right? So, you have like a column that is specific human led, AI assistant, and agent native.

So, we are going in a direction where we want to optimize in terms of like having agency actually running a specific task. And we actually saw some tests already. I think like last year in December, we had a company called Gaia that is doing decentralized AI. I don't know if you saw it, but they run an 100% agent led hackathon judging, hackathon distribution. We're actually super interesting.

And then you see also other tests. For example, Allocapital from Kevin from Gitcoin, they're starting actually to build a retroactive funding and evergreen funding totally optimized and driven by agents. So, I think that's super interesting what is happening around those on the funding side. But I just want to kind of like dive into the specific of like what is happening around those work streams. So, just to give an example, I think you can take a picture.

I can explain a bit more deeper around, for example, the content ops, right? Obviously, like on a human led basis, you will actually like build your videos, tweets, blogs. But what you can actually do is actually much more. You can do auto summaries. You can actually run voiceover to make it like consumable for other stakeholder in the company.

You can actually have a snippet of videos. You can actually have different kind of like distribution of content. And then stuff like from hackathon and activation specifically, you can have frameworks that are going more and more on the automation side. So, I think this is helping a lot of like giving a breakdown on what is happening around the ecosystem in terms of like what can we optimize. And I think it's also helping a stakeholder understanding how to optimize your organization and how to actually like build a functional developer relation team and advocates around the ecosystem.

And as I said, you know, there is a lot of like things that are happening. But one thing that I learned is that we are going in that direction. Things are not optimal. I think you want to test it out, build some experimentation. But I think you also need to drive home three things, right?

Having frameworks is also helping you, your organization, you as DevRel, if you're in the audience, pitching this to your stakeholder. But also making sure you have clear mind where your execution strategy. You have clear idea when you're going to an hackathon what you will do after the hackathon, how you can optimize. You have clear idea if you're running like stuff like a builder night or if you're running like a community call, what you can do after. How you can build this kind of like evergreen cycle where every developer in your ecosystem is able to be feel kind of like safe, but also like supported.

I think, you know, having your door open, but also like having the support always open is super important. So what do we learn today? I think like, you know, you saw a pyramid that is basically like what we are doing, what DevRel is doing in the ecosystem. You see this level, you can actually learn, understand why it's important and how to proceed from level to level. Don't start from the top.

Try to make this that you have your foundation rock solid. Then we saw a funnel. The funnel explaining you when you want to interact, which type of developer and what type of activation you want to do first. And I think this is super important. Trying to understand, build a safe space first and then convert your developer.

Don't just go to workshop to random developer and shield your SDK. I think this is the most wrong thing that you can actually do today. And then we saw a third things grid that actually tell you what can be automatizable, what can actually be native and more assisted. So, and I think I want to kind of close up before everybody is leaving and have some questions. Just want to close up with one question, right?

Are there some risks in this? Will AI take our job? And I want to close up with this picture here. They don't appear to want to take over. They just want to dance.

It's a bit rhetoric, but thank you so much, everyone, for your time. Thanks so much for inviting me here, and I hope you learned something today. All right. Here we have some questions. Right over here.

Hi, Francesco. Thank you for the great talk. Have you implemented yourself some of these automations? Yeah, yeah. This is a good question.

So, basically, what we're doing is for cost and content distribution, where we're running this workflow around the NNH. For example, for hackathon due diligence, for the developer cook-off, for example, we're running first round of due diligence run by basically specific agents. So, what you can do is we're running against kind of like fresh code, and also some of the use cases are done against the bounty verticals. So, those are kind of like the two main things that are on top of mind. But I think the most important for development specific is documentation, documenting things, and also like building this distribution of this content.

Maybe next time I will go to dance, you know. The agents will start running things. Thank you for a great talk. I have a question. What did you see?

What didn't work with AI, what you kind of, you know, predicted? Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is a good question. So, I've been running those interviews, building agents with the basic frameworks from the start. And I think what didn't work was we started to see, we are already seeing like bunch of forks of agents.

I don't know, I'm just literally like re-seeing DeFi summer from a couple of years ago, right? There are around 400 Elisa forks, the building DeFi agents. I think it's really like a space evolving fast, right? But my most important kind of like concern is that we need to make sure that we defend the right for kind of agent consumers to understand which agent is actually providing true value. It's also, I think it's also when you think about DeFi or SocialFi, we're super early.

I mean, we saw Giza one month and a half from production, and it's the only kind of like agent that I see that really provide value. One other kind of like lesson learned that I see is that we need to think about also agents that actually provide value to protocol specific instead of actually like B to kind of like C. And that was actually one lesson learned there. But I think the first part is what scared me the most, that people will start seeing and getting kind of like robbed by forks of forks of forks. That's why before even speaking about let's build more agents, and this is a bit different than this talk.

I think like contributing to, for example, I'm contributing to a DAO called Modder that is basically trying to run standardization and the attestation frameworks for agents. Meaning they will be able to build basically like a unified repo where you will see which agent is kind of like the OG agent that run on the first timer code. And I think that is super important, because if we're going this direction, we will have a marketplace of like 10,000 agents doing the same things and will be difficult to actually understand which one is providing true value and which one is not robbing us, right? The quality question is what makes this audience awesome. What are some of your like most important or like interesting use cases for AI agents in your opinion?

I think optimization community ops. I think what we started right now is, I mean, we're running like this ambassador program. A lot of work has been done around social coordination. I think community ops from the ambassador program side, but also from the virtual hackathon side. We're spending so much time involving different stakeholders in a first-time due diligence and also like running more distribution of the hackathon.

So I think like this specific use case are tangible ones. That's why I try to also break down diverse specific workflows that, you know, from next kind of like week, you can actually start automatizing this. And that's why in the framework, I put kind of like the difference between where we are right now on human-led to actually like assistant AI-led. There is a big difference. I mean, AI agents has been already been around for like Web 2.

0 stuff. Does they have PMF? You know, it's another story. I think like what we want to do is looking at specific niche, optimize specific niche. And at the end of the day, I think unique content, the source of true content will be always people that actually build, how do you say, like relationship-based video tutorials.

It's always like it's been always about people can underestimate, can overestimate always the kind of like networking-based things. But I think DevRel specific now with all the gigantic economies coming, the relationship part of DevRel will play a more important role. Maybe this is an offtake. Nice.