Demand Generation for DevTools - Dino Kukic from Hygraph
Hygraph tripled organic traffic in a year writing general developer content — then noticed a huge gap between visitors and signups. Dino Kukic's fix wasn't more content, it was tying every article's answer back to a specific product feature, not just the topic that got it ranking.
Dino Kukic is head of demand generation at Hygraph, a GraphQL-native headless CMS that's expanding into content federation — pulling in content from other systems like PIM or DAM tools, not just serving as a front-end-agnostic CMS.
We get into the gap between organic traffic and signups that comes from writing content that's too generic, why performance marketing works fine on developers if you target and distribute it right, how the demand-gen and sales teams split accountability past the MQL handoff, and why knowing the market matters more than knowing SEO or paid channels themselves.
The Q&A below is experimental — extracted from the episode transcript with AI. If you spot a mistake, let us know at jack@scalingdevtools.com.
How did Hygraph get started, and how has the product evolved?
Hygraph — we used to be called GraphCMS — started in late 2016 as the first GraphQL-native headless CMS. Historically, a traditional CMS tied your front end directly to the templating layer; a headless CMS separated the presentation layer from the content layer. We're now going a step further with content federation — being back-end agnostic as well as front-end agnostic, meaning you can pull in content not just from us but from other systems, like a product information management tool or a digital asset management system, alongside the typical headless CMS features.
What does your demand generation team actually cover?
We're a small team of three, and I joined originally as senior SEO specialist, so SEO remains a big part of what we do. Demand generation as a function spans SEO, content, performance marketing, lifecycle marketing, and marketing operations. Right now roughly 80% of our effort goes into content and performance marketing, with lifecycle marketing a growing but smaller focus.
What's the biggest mistake you see companies make with developer-focused SEO content — including a mistake you made yourselves?
Early on, we focused on content that targeted the user group generally — developers — and it worked in the sense that we tripled our organic traffic year over year. But there was a real gap between the volume of visitors and the number who actually signed up. The fix wasn't writing less general content, it was tying the actual solution in each piece back to the product, not just the broad topic. For example, we have an article on making a React app multilingual — we could have written that as a purely general guide, but instead we also show how connecting a CMS means a non-technical product marketing manager can update strings themselves, rather than needing a developer every time. You're still solving the reader's stated problem, but you're also surfacing something they might not have been actively looking for that genuinely helps them.
There's a common belief that performance marketing doesn't work on developers. Do you think that's true?
I don't think the problem is performance marketing itself — it's usually what you're advertising and how you're targeting it. If something is genuinely relevant to you and you happen to see it as an ad, you'll still click it. Performance marketing works well for us even with a developer audience — one big use is distributing content that's too niche or deep to realistically rank in search. It's cost-effective and brings in real traffic, as long as the underlying content is genuinely good — the quality bar doesn't change just because the distribution channel is paid rather than organic.
What kind of content specifically works well through paid distribution rather than organic search?
More general topics tend to work well organically, but we also go deeper — architectural walkthroughs of more complex systems, including how Hygraph fits into them — where there simply aren't many people actively searching for that specific keyword. Those pieces get distributed through ads instead, targeting a more senior developer or software architect persona.
How do you actually target something as specific as 'software architect' with ads?
A mix of job-title-based targeting and retargeting people who've already engaged with a piece that proved popular. LinkedIn has quite elaborate targeting by job title and seniority. Facebook, or really Instagram as a placement, is underutilized in our specific ecosystem and works well for us cost-effectively. We use Twitter less than we probably should right now, mostly because we've prioritized other platforms.
How would you think about splitting budget across these channels if you were just getting started in performance marketing?
It depends a lot on your overall strategy, but coming from an SEO background, I'm always inclined to start with search ads first, since there's already some level of intent behind the query. If you choose topics carefully there, the return is usually better than starting with a pure brand-awareness push further up the funnel.
How does demand generation actually work with sales at Hygraph?
We work closely with sales development. The typical demand-gen North Star metric is MQLs, but that creates a split in accountability — the MQL gets handed to sales, who then decide whether to book a meeting or reject it. For us, our real North Star sits a bit deeper in the funnel: meetings actually booked. That keeps accountability on both sides — sales has to do their best to convert what we send them, but we're accountable for sending genuinely qualified leads, not just maximizing MQL volume through a looser lead-scoring model. There's a real feedback loop: we review the leads we've sent because our own targets depend on them converting, and that feedback reshapes which channels and content types we invest in.
Does that feedback loop directly shape your content strategy?
Yes — it strongly influences which gated guides we build, the more elaborate, in-depth pieces that go beyond a standard blog post. If sales tells us the good leads they're actually talking to keep bringing up a specific topic, like translation, that becomes a priority area for deeper content.
What's a common mistake in how marketing and sales teams work together?
Treating them as two separate islands. I've seen setups where sales isn't booking meetings and blames marketing for the pipeline, while marketing blames sales for not converting the leads they're sent, with neither side taking responsibility for the other's part. It has to be genuinely collaborative rather than adversarial finger-pointing across a handoff point.
How does your DevRel team fit into content strategy?
DevRel sits separately from marketing but we collaborate closely — the team is relatively new again, after not existing for a while, currently just a head of DevRel with two more people about to join. We already collaborate on content: our content strategy is largely defined by demand gen, with a feedback loop to DevRel on topics, and once briefs are drafted, DevRel checks whether they're technically sound and actually describe the product accurately. They're also building their own content strategy, more from a product angle, and we collaborate on format. Once DevRel produces something, distribution becomes our job.
If a dev tool startup only has half a person's worth of time for demand generation, where should they focus first?
There's a real chicken-and-egg problem. About a year ago, we pushed a lot of top-of-funnel content, which helped build our website's overall authority, which then let us build effective middle-of-funnel content and, eventually, high-intent landing pages — something like 'headless CMS for React' is fiercely competitive, and you need real accumulated authority to rank for a term like that at all.
So a brand-new site shouldn't try to compete directly on the highest-intent keywords right away?
Right — finding topics that sit somewhere in between tends to work best early on. Beyond that, every space has emergent topics — for us right now that's 'digital experience composition,' which almost nobody is actively searching for yet, but will be as it becomes more established. Getting in early on topics like that helps you rank well later and builds authority in the space beyond pure SEO value — it's one of the better long-term, low-hanging opportunities available to a startup.
Are those emerging topics obvious if you're paying attention, or do they require specific expertise to spot?
They tend to become obvious once you're genuinely immersed in the space. I'd actually say knowing the industry deeply matters more than knowing any specific marketing channel — someone who deeply understands the market will outperform someone who's excellent at SEO or performance marketing in the abstract but doesn't really know the space they're marketing into.
What's the one thing you'd want a startup thinking about demand generation to take away from this?
If you're a sales-led company like us, build a genuinely strong, collaborative relationship with sales rather than operating as separate functions. Try channels that might feel forgotten or unobvious for developer marketing, like Facebook/Instagram in our case. And most importantly, deeply know your industry and look for emerging topics early — that's how you build real authority for yourself, not just short-term traffic.