The Master Builder is the most valuable type of DevRel right now

Despite this blog not being all that active, everybody still comes inbound to ask me about hiring devrel, and usually I send them my writing on First DevRel Hiring and ask them to think about how they will be Measuring DevRel.

This year though a lot of AI developer oriented startups have been asking me for stuff specific to them, and I’ve been sending a different link. Per my Three Strikes rule, it’s time to write up the link I’ve been sending.

Specifically, this Lego employee on YouTube:

Look at his channel (1.94M YT subs, 195k Insta, 2m Tiktok at time of writing, but with multiple decimilllionaire shorts) and you can see sometimes coworkers taking over his channel:

and of course you have to wonder at how much Lego is sold because this guy just inspires people about what they can build with Lego.

DevRel is very similar — inspiring and teaching builders what they can build with the things your company sells. Make it short, make it fun, demonstrate mastery, give important bits of advice.

“But my b2b dev api platform is nothing like Lego! we have to Be Serious for the Fortune 500 companies to Take Us Seriously!”

Tell Justin Garrison, the DevRel Guy at AWS:

and of course, these days, you don’t even need to be on-camera talent to be educational and on-brand:

and of course, closer to home, my friend Hassan has built an entire career out of being a master builder at Vercel and at Together AI.

I think this Master Builder short is valuable also because this is a Real Job that has a lot of relatable and translatable activities. I am a fan of taking unconventional business models that work in the “real world” and applying them to tech:

My official job title is Global Master Model Builder for LEGO and LEGOLAND Discovery Centers.
It's a bit of a mouthful, but here's what it really means:

• There are 28 Discovery Centers around the world, and each one has at least one Master Model Builder.

• A Master Model Builder:

  • Designs cool LEGO models

  • Interacts with kids

  • Cares for the big builds on display

  • Runs activities and workshops

  • Designs lessons

  • Talks about the attraction on the news

  • Basically, does a lot of different things to inspire creativity

I was the Master Model Builder in Arizona for 6 years, before Delaney took over that role.
That's when I became the Global Master Builder, which is really just a fancy way of saying an "extra" Master Model Builder who supports all the centers.

In Master Builder Alec’s case, he is also a senior IC, which means functioning as a “player coach” with more enablement and paperwork:

I still live and work in Arizona, but now my work extends to helping all Discovery Centers. Some of what I do includes:

• Making fun, silly YouTube videos for LEGO fans

• Assisting with the hiring and training of new Master Model Builders

• Writing procedures and guidelines used worldwide

• Coordinating brick orders and other logistics

• Handling tasks that aren’t directly about building but help others become better Master Model Builders

At the end of the day, all of us Master Model Builders are trying to do the same thing:
Inspire creativity and fun in others—because that’s what we’re passionate about.

So, if you get a chance, I highly recommend visiting a Discovery Center to meet your city’s Master Model Builder in person!

If I had a oneliner for hiring an AI DevRel today, it’d be this: hire a Master Builder who uses your tools.

• Many devrels can do demos, but few can inspire sharing, excitement, conversation, wonder

• Many devrels can run workshops, but few have the experience/depth to 1) get somewhere interesting, 2) live, 3) under time pressure, 4) make it relatable to customer needs

• Many devrels can do blogposts, but few can set the agenda (blogpost next on How to Thought Lead… subscribe pls)

There are, of course, other kinds of devrel work, with different time horizons of impact and engagement and with a role to play in the overall lifecycle of your customer’s relationship with you, but by the easiest metric, which is view counts on social media, the Master Builder is going to be completely undefeated when you can find them (of course, you should also try to train them up internally, and make it an aspirational position for your fans).