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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 16

I think having a clearly outlined strategy with measurable goals is the way to succeed. Impressions on social media can steer you away in the wrong direction, you need to focus on improving numbers you aren't happy with.

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 16

What indicates growth? What moves the needle for a fast-paced startup?

Is it attention someone's getting on social media, or is it their capacity to funnel that attention to awareness about what they do?

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 10

www.literally.dev/resources/d...

Dirty Pirate Metrics Guide for Tech Founders and Open Source Developers

Learn the basics of Dirty Pirate Metrics, a practical framework for tracking growth and success of open-source tools beyond SaaS vanity metrics.

www.literally.dev

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 10

Retention, Revenue, Referral, Team: do they keep using the tool, support you, spread the word, and even want to contribute?

Instead of chasing vanity metrics, you get a system that shows where devs are dropping off and what’s actually moving the needle.

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 10

Foundation & scaling: can your tool even handle real usage?

Attention, Awareness, Activation, Aha! : do devs notice, understand, try your tool, and actually get value out of it?

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 10

If you've heard about Pirate Metrics (AARRR), you'll want to upgrade to Dirty Pirate Metrics (FAAAAARRRT) 🌬️

It sounds ridiculous, but this is how I got millions of website visitors:

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 10

Most devtool founders track “growth” with GitHub stars and social media likes, because vanity metrics make them feel good. However, this isn't how you should approach measuring your success and growth.

1

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 9

If you want to sell to developers:

- Make it easy for developers to make the buying decision on their own,
- Your documentation needs to be spot on!
- Don't force people on calls,
- Don't ask them to show you their credit card instantly.

Just get out of their way.

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 8

I am now on a mission to write about as many recipes as I can, if we don't share and learn from each other, we're all falling behind.

This week is for Pirate Metrics, with a new angle for every developer and open-source maintainer to evaluate how their tools are really doing.

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 8

Developers often share their cookbooks and recipes with others, asking for feedback.

Marketers also have their cookbooks, but they tend to hide them from others out of fear. I found that fear to be irrational.

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 5

Your AI-generated content will be the end of your thought leadership.

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 4

How many of you are using Pirate Metrics or want to implement them?

Moreover, how many are interested in monitoring those with easy to use tools like PostHog?

I am working on sth, and you may want to hear about it before I make it publicly available👂

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 3

www.literally.dev/resources/t...

Trust Technical Writers, Not LLMs

Good documentation drives adoption, unsupervised LLMs create poor docs that cause churn. Skilled technical writers make the difference.

www.literally.dev

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 3

I have worked in devtool companies for a decade. I’ve watched how teams build and ship products with accompanying documentation. There has been a time when we trusted our coworkers and collaborators, now we tend to trust LLMs more.

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 2

Clear and concise messaging is key to selling to devs.

- Don’t force people into a funnel
- Don’t make devs jump through hoops to try your product
- Answer common questions with a simple FAQ page

If you get this right, you don’t need to “convince” developers to use you. They’ll convince themselves

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 2

Do most people do weird stuff when testing new image generation tools?

I have given nano banana a ton of pictures from the zoo and asked it to put us all in a metal band.

1

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Sep 1

The next time someone tells me GPT tools will eliminate content strategists and creators, I'll just show them this.

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Aug 27

www.literally.dev/resources/h...

How to Find the Right Developer Audience for Your Product

Learn how to target the right developers, avoid generic content, and create technical posts that attract potential users.

www.literally.dev

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Aug 27

If you are struggling with figuring out which developers to target, this post should get you going in the right direction.

I talked to a few marketers and a couple of fresh founders who struggled with finding the right audience for their product, and they inspired me to write.

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Aug 26

AI-first companies rely on Literally.dev to create and manage their docs. They have all the tools to generate their docs, yet, they rely on us.

Usage of LLMs in the docs, with no humans to monitor the process, leads to difficulties in onboarding developers. Don't make this mistake.

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Aug 22

Here's the job ad if you're interested

literally.homerun.co/technical-w...

Technical Writer - Literally

We're looking for a freelance Technical Writer to join forces with our agency and deliver amazing content for our clients.

literally.homerun.co

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Aug 22

- 2 pages for a resume is enough, I've seen 5 pages resumes, and no, it doesn't showcase what you've done, it shows that you can't communicate clearly.
- If the role is in tech, focus on that aspect of your work, not your latest gig in sales.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

1

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Aug 22

- "Call me to find out" is also not a good response.
- Asking any GPT tool to write a response for you will make you sound exactly like all the others doing so. Also, we'll instantly decline you.
- Don't put other people's LinkedIn profiles instead of yours.

1

Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Aug 22

I have reviewed ~150 applications to our Freelance Technical Writer job post in the past few days.

Some tips for applicants:

- If the application requires you to answer 3 simple questions, answer them. Don't put random symbols or say "look at my resume".

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Milica Maksimovic @mmaksimovic.bsky.social · Aug 18

- Not just one bullet point
- We're talking
- Tens
- Of
- Bulletpoints
- Or even worse
- Bullet points with sentences that have multiple em dashes.

If you have nothing smart to add to the discussion, don't try to lead it with AI. It makes me trust you even less.