Four steps to get web3 devs using your tech

Imagine trying to get to a destination you don’t know with no map to guide you. It’s unlikely you’d ever arrive. You might never find out what wonderful things that awaited you there! For developers entering web3, this is a worryingly common experience — but it doesn’t have to be. Creating an adoption journey helps your target devs understand where they want to go and how to get there.

What is an adoption journey?

“Adoption journey” is shorthand for creating a path for developers that leads to the destination you want them to reach. This isn’t manipulation, quite the opposite. Trying to discern the destination is difficult for new developers in web3; having it clearly spelt out is a very refreshing change. As the authority in the tech, you are plotting the journey to make it easy for you both to achieve a shared goal: satisfying and productive work using your tech.

Each adoption journey represents an individual developer’s path. The full map of adoption can encompass many journeys, with many destinations — this is the developer funnel. These interacting journeys allow for multiple decisions along the way and result in various outcomes — each of which may even be part of multiple funnels! — but every developer’s journey will include a few common core elements:

For now, let’s focus on the adoption portion of the developer funnel — we’ll look at engagement and retention in a later post. Adoption is about discovering, exploring, comparing and deciding, and technical learning. This diagram crudely represents the volume of individuals active in each stage — you’ll never convert everybody discovering web3, and probably wouldn’t want to. Some will self-select out, freeing you to help those who want in.

Let’s take a look at each phase in more detail.

Discovering

In this phase you’re reaching out to your target developers where they are. This is the purview of your promotions, marketing, events, and PR teams, with back-up from your technical content teams and DevRels.

Many projects only target experienced web3 “pioneer” developers, blockchain experts who in some cases may also know something about your stack — what we call emerging insiders. Superficially, this makes sense: emerging insiders probably use your Discord or follow you on Twitter, they’re a receptive audience who already know the basics of your tech. And blockchain experts are easy to find, right? Just do a bit of sponsorship, some YouTube interviews, pay a PR firm for some nice profiles on Cointelegraph… 🙄

However, this kind of targeting is easy, and everyone does it. The cacophony of projects calling out to experts and insiders is overwhelming, and it’s hard to differentiate your message over the noise.

A much richer vein of future talent are curious outsiders: people interested in web3 but who have yet to start their learning journey. They are actively looking to discover blockchain technology, they just need to be guided towards your part of it. Curious outsiders could be anywhere, so reaching out to them may seem difficult — but don’t forget: they are curious! The challenge is to identify the type of developer your project needs, and devise messaging that targets that subset of the larger group. Suddenly, it’s not so difficult.

At the top of the funnel (TOFU), devs are curious about web3, about the applications of your tech and its various use cases. During the Discovering phase they want basic technical and non-technical information, to assess if it’s worth continuing a web3 journey or if they should explore other options. Remember: even if your stack is the perfect choice for them, the wrong messaging at this point can easily drive them away and into the arms of your competition.

Exploring

Targets begin Exploring after you capture their interest by clearly explaining the basics and the benefits of your project; now you start answering more complex questions. They will start interacting with people in your space, so expect them to join forums or community groups on Discord or Telegram, maybe ask questions through your website chat, or even email you directly or start going to meetups. You may also find them posting questions on Reddit.

When devs (and non-devs) go to Discords asking discovery questions, around 65% of interactions result in no further interaction over the following months — or worse, questions are asked that get no answer at all. This down to a combination of community teams, project websites, and generally available materials failing to address target groups correctly, or funnelling them in the wrong direction. This is a strategy for pushing devs away.

Correctly funnelled, the exploring phase is when your community team can shine. Answering basic technical queries and directing tougher questions up the chain is their meat and drink. Even better is preparing your community team, promotion teams, and DevRels to identify a developer’s type based on the questions they ask, and direct them towards a journey that will work for them (if you want to learn more about these developer types, read take a look here).

Managing your target devs through the exploring phase doesn’t mean resorting to the dark arts! It is simply a case of anticipating their pain points and helping to resolve them.

Comparing & Deciding

Your tech doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Devs aren’t just assessing your tech, they’re comparing it with tech from other sources. There is a very important point here: it doesn’t matter whether you consider something as comparable, it only matters what they see as comparable. At this phase of their journey, they are not as informed as you — but if you dismiss their notions of what is comparable you’re not helping them choose your solution, you’re alienating them.

This is a problem we’ve seen hundreds of times. Projects get annoyed with being compared to what they see as “inferior” tech. Frankly, this is their mistake, not the dev’s. They haven’t delineated the functionality of their tech in a way that speaks effectively to their targets.

Developers will happily adopt tech that isn’t a perfect fit, if their non-technical questions are well answered — that clarity is simply more valuable to them at this stage. Yes, they will need to solve tech problems, but that’s their passion and it’s rewarding. Their passion is not sifting through outdated tutorials, or repeating the same questions on a dead Discord. Imagining such roadblocks on their path to success will be more than enough to drive them elsewhere.

When it gets to this phase, for better or worse you have little sway over a potential dev’s actions: now it’s entirely down to them. If you have built effective adoption journeys, target devs will be able to properly compare and make informed decisions on which tech to use.

Technical Learning

At last we reach the middle of the funnel (MOFU) in the adoption journey!

For an adopter to get to the Technical Learning phase, they have decided your tech is the one for them. And that’s great! However, they still have a way to go — if they feel friction here they will still abandon you, because it is only now that they really start to spend their most valuable asset: time.

Technical Learning is the culmination of your outreach efforts to your target devs, and their stepping-stone towards becoming Stack Insiders. It is also a deep and complex topic in its own right, and not one we’ll try to reveal here! However, this is a subject we’ve got lots to say about, so watch out for a later post.

Conclusion

Design your adoption journeys right, give your target developers information, guidance, and learning material at each stage of their journey, and you’re likely to convert more of the right type of developers. This means higher ROI for your marketing, developer adoption, and DevRel efforts, as well as increased adoption of your tech and reduced churn. That’s a destination everyone can enjoy reaching.

Nihal is the head of marketing at B9Lab and has over 17 years of experience in marketing and tech.

If you want to know more about the adoption funnel and its features in real detail, download our white paper, The Definitive Guide to Web3 Developer Adoption, and learn how to design a developer adoption strategy that fits your project whether you’re at 50 or 5000 devs.

At B9Lab, we’ve been designing and building developer adoption strategies for leading web3 organisations since 2015. Through our onboarding and learning journeys, we’ve minted thousands of developers. Our team covers the whole spectrum of developer adoption strategy and management. We’re developers, business strategists, marketers, and blockchain educators.