A Day in the Life of a Principal Developer Advocate
Dive into the dynamic world of developer relations as I share what a typical day looks like in my role as a Principal Developer Advocate, from content creation to community engagement.
By Michael Lynn • 3/27/2025
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A day in the life of a Principal Developer Advocate
My days usually begin somewhere between 3am and 4am. I'm not much of a sleeper, and I've stopped fighting it. Instead, I lean into the stillness of the early morning ... it's where my best thinking happens.
Morning: Movement, Mindfulness, and Mission
4:45 AM - Gym Time
No matter where I am ... in a hotel room, at home, or traveling ... fitness is my foundation. I hit the gym for strength, cardio, or mobility. That early burn clears my head and helps me manage the pace of the day ahead. There's a kind of spiritual reset in pushing my limits before the world wakes up.
7:00 AM - Recovery Meeting
At 7 AM, I join a recovery meeting. This is a sacred hour for me. It keeps me grounded, accountable, and aligned with my purpose. The work I do as a developer advocate ... connecting, guiding, supporting ... flows directly from this inner work.
8:00 AM - Coffee + Global Community Check-in
Coffee in hand, I check in with the global developer community. Our forums, and social channels are always active. I scan for:
- Developer questions and emerging patterns
- Bugs or pull requests to acknowledge
- Internal team requests and cross-functional convos
- Feedback from overnight events or workshops abroad
This isn't just inbox cleanup ... it's how I stay in tune with what developers are experiencing in real time.
"Listening at scale is a superpower. The community will always tell you what matters ... if you're paying attention."
9:00 AM - Event and Design Review Prep
I'm typically not far from a trip on the calendar and these days, the destinations are usually Developer Days. This event roadshow takes me, and my colleagues around the country to share MongoDB's latest features and best practices and to sit down with some of the countries most amazing developers who are looking to make better use of MongoDB as part of their applications.
Lately, I've been focused on AI workshops like our AI / RAG workshop, and our AI / Agents workshop . I typically need to stay fresh on this content and make sure that I'm ready for questions that may come up.
I might run through the hands-on workshop, and then spend time diving deeper into vector search and building test and sample applications.
Midday: Team Meetings
11:00 AM - Meetings
Midday is usually when I shift from creating to collaborating. I'm part of the Advocacy and Enablement arm of Developer Advocacy and we typically meet weekly for a team stand-up. We discuss recent events, what's on our schedule and any blockers we might need assistance with.
12:30 PM - Learning While Refueling
Lunchtime is also learning time. Whether I'm brushing up on the latest LLM agent frameworks or poking around with something new in the vector space, I carve out time to keep my technical edge sharp. This role requires me to be both deep and broad. Lately, I've been focused on achieving Skills Badges... these are courses offered by our EDU team that are relatively short, achievable in about 30-45 minutes and they serve to keep me fresh on our products.
1:30 PM - Workshop Readiness or App Demos
Afternoons are for hands-on work: prepping for workshops, testing edge cases in our demos, or deploying sample apps to Codespaces or Vercel. Today, I'm debugging a demo app that uses OpenAI, Voyage AI, and Atlas Search.
I'm also finalizing review of slides and docs for an upcoming RAG workshop. These sessions are more than "talk and teach" ... they're interactive, gamified, and tuned for what developers actually struggle with.
Late Afternoon: Direct Dev Support
3:00 PM - Design Review Office Hours / DevDay Touchpoints
Once a week, I run open office hours for the programs I directly support. I'm here to support Solutions Architects and other DevRels studying the enablement program I developed to help them come up to speed on delivering high quality, consistent design reviews.
5:00 PM - Quarterly Plan Check-in
I like to make time at least once a week to check in on progress against my quarterly plan. This might involve reviewing stats, updating Wrike / Jira tickets and checking for pull requests.
6:00 PM - Side Project Time
One of the things I value is the ability to work on side development projects. This serves several purposes... First, I love scratching the creative itch. Second, it helps me stay current on new technologies and trends. Third, it allows me to apply my skills in different ways than I do at work. Lately, I've been building a startup called LightningHire. This is a side project where I'm building an AI-powered resume evaluation service. I'm using MongoDB Vector Search to help recruiters find the best candidates for roles based on their skills and experience and do so without the manual toil they're doing today.
What Makes This Role So Special?
Being a Principal Developer Advocate isn't just about creating content or running events. It's about:
- Seeing patterns before they become problems
- **Keeping tabs on your teammates... where can you help? How can you engage?
- Helping others level up and feel seen
- Turning feedback into momentum
- Bridging product and people
"We don't just teach ... we translate, connect, and elevate."
I love this role because it gives me a front-row seat to the creative chaos of software development. I get to work with incredibly smart people, build things that matter, and help developers unlock their potential.
I'm excited to share more about my journey and the challenges I face as a Principal Developer Advocate. Stay tuned!