#1 Amazon best-seller
Marketing to developers is a company-wide job
Picks and Shovels gives founders, marketers, DevRel teams, product leaders, and sellers one practical system for earning developer trust.
Praise for Picks & Shovels
“Prashant has channeled his 30+ years of experience in developer marketing and turned it into the definitive guide for technical marketers everywhere. Level-up your marketing with Prashant's guidance.”
Dick CostoloManaging Partner, 01 Advisors and former CEO, Twitter“If you are marketing to developers, you are going to love this book. Regardless of your role, technology, or organizational maturity, you will find entire chapters that speak to your situation.”
Jeff BarrVP and Chief Evangelist, Amazon Web Services“I've seen the impact Prashant's work has had. This book will help you replicate that in your own company.”
Paul CopplestoneFounder & CEO, Supabase“If you're building the picks and shovels that power the next generation of developers, this book is your playbook.”
Astasia MyersGeneral Partner at Felicis“Prashant and I have spent our careers helping developers - working together across multiple companies and platform shifts. This book captures the strategy we've lived, now reimagined for the AI era. It's thoughtful, practical, and grounded in real experience. Prashant deeply understands how to connect with developers, and this is the playbook for today.”
Jeff SandquistVP and Head of Product (Generative AI), Walmart Inc.“I've worked across some of the world's biggest platforms, and I wish this book existed years ago. Prashant breaks it down with clarity and heart.”
Katie PennVP of Marketing, Planet“Prashant has worked on every side of the dev tools market. That perspective shines through on every page.”
Hemal ShahProduct Manager, OpenAI“This is the most complete playbook I've seen for anyone marketing to developers - tactically deep, philosophically right, and grounded in both unit economics as well as how modern developer products actually grow in an AI-first world.”
Aaron CortOperating Partner, Craft Ventures; first Head of Marketing and former VP of Operations at ClickUp“Every early-stage devtools company should keep this book within arm's reach.”
Bryan ClarkVP of Product, Neon“Prashant captures exactly what developers care about, from building trust through technical credibility and a genuine 'Help First' approach to creating tight, hands-on product feedback loops. This should be required reading for anyone interested in marketing to developers.”
Waqas Makhdumex-Developer GTM, Snowflake and OpenAIWhy this book?
During the California Gold Rush, the people who got the richest weren't the miners. It was those selling picks and shovels. Today's AI Gold Rush follows the same pattern with developer tools. If you're solving a real need, everyone needs your product. But how do you stand out in a crowded market?
Picks and Shovels is the guide to developer marketing, written by someone who has done it all, from positioning and messaging to go-to-market strategy and community building. It blends business strategy with tactical execution: how to connect with developers, the most skeptical audience in tech, and market to people who hate being marketed to.
In this book, you will learn
- Product Marketing fundamentals: positioning, messaging, launch management, and sales enablement
- Content marketing secrets to build content developers love
- Business models and go-to-market strategies for developer products
- How to be (and hire) Developer Advocates who drive business impact
- Advanced community building techniques that support your business
- And so much more
What you'll learn
How to position your developer product in a crowded market and communicate your value to technical audiences.
Introduction
- 0How can I help?
- 1Getting started
Developer Relations
- 2The Developer Marketing and Developer Relations Organization
- 3You are what you measure
- 4Developer Advocacy
- 5Building Great Developer Content
- 6Distributing Developer Content
- 7Building Community and Engaging With Influencers
- 8Developer Events
- 9Building Awareness Through Marketing
- 10Building a Strong Developer Brand
- 11Developer Documentation
Product Marketing
- 12Developer Product Marketing
- 13Segmentation, Positioning, and Messaging
- 14Pricing for Developer Products
- 15Developer Product Launches
- 16Aligning Developer Marketing with Product
- 17Aligning Developer Marketing with Sales
- 18Competitive Analysis and Intelligence
- 19Overview of Acquisition Models and GTM Strategy
- 20Product-Led Growth
- 21Sales-Led Growth
- 22Partner-Led Growth
- 23Public Relations and Analyst Relations for Developer Products
Marketing Leadership
- 24Building and Managing Your Marketing Budget
- 25AI & Marketing
- 26Managing a High-Performing Organization
- 27Your Role in the Industry
One playbook for the people who build, market, and sell developer products
- Founders and executives
- Give the company one way to connect positioning, content, community, product-led growth, sales, and measurement.
- Developer marketing, PMM, and DevRel
- Run Help First, positioning, docs, distribution, and measurement as one operating system instead of separate programs.
- Product and marketing leaders
- Learn what changes when customers expect APIs, integrations, structured data, and product surfaces that agents can read.
Read it with the whole team
Give your team a head start with 35+ years of developer marketing knowledge.
About the author
Prashant is the author of Picks and Shovels: Marketing to Developers During the AI Gold Rush. He has over 30 years of experience running Marketing, Product, and Business Development teams for some of the largest and fastest growing developer platforms in the industry at Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Meta, Twitter, Timescale, Tinybird, and Supabase. He is an advisor to several seed and Series A developer tools and platform startups.
#1 Amazon best-seller