Tech Luminaries: A Developer Advocate's Journey in Real-Time Data

This is a special edition of this newsletter where I’m breaking away from my usual technical deep dives and tutorials for a change. I'm excited to introduce "Tech Luminaries: Beyond the Screen," a new monthly segment where I shine a light on the remarkable humans driving innovation and impact in our tech community. Through intimate conversations, I'll explore the stories, insights, and experiences of those shaping the future of technology.

For the inaugural spotlight, I sat down with Fahad Shah , a Developer Advocate at RisingWave Labs, a rising star in the tech world. Working from Pakistan for the past year and a half, Fahad is all about helping businesses harness the power of real-time data. He's your go-to person for stream processing, real-time analytics, and industrial IoT, with a keen eye on how AI fits into the picture. What makes Fahad tick? He loves breaking down complex streaming tech into bite-sized pieces, bringing developers together, and helping shape how we'll handle real-time data in the future.

Through this interview, we explore Fahad's journey into DevRel, his insights on streaming databases, and his vision for the future of developer relations. His story is particularly inspiring for those looking to break into the field of developer advocacy.

Dunith: Can you share your journey into Developer Relations? What drew you to this field, and how has it shaped your career aspirations so far?

Fahad: I earned my bachelor's degree in engineering with a specialization in AI and Machine Learning. Coming from a machine learning background, I developed a strong interest in machine learning-based recommender systems, particularly the TikTok Recommender System, which relies heavily on real-time data processing. This exposure helped me realize the immense potential of real-time data infrastructure, leading me to explore technologies like Kafka and Flink.

However, during my university years, I had little to no exposure to these tools. Driven by curiosity, I started self-learning about Kafka, Flink, RisingWave, and other stream processing technologies from scratch. As I deepened my understanding, I actively engaged with the stream processing community, connecting with experts like Stanislav Kozlovski (The Kafka Guy) and sharing my insights with a broader community.

My contributions to the community eventually caught the attention of Jovana, Head of Community at RisingWave. She introduced me to Rayees, Head of Product at RisingWave, who assigned me a project to build a demo showcasing RisingWave’s capabilities for machine learning and AI use cases. Successfully completing the project led to an opportunity to interview with the RisingWave team. After a series of interviews, I was offered a Developer Advocate Intern role. A few months later, I was promoted to a full-time Developer Advocate, and I’ve been in this role ever since.

Working at RisingWave has been a great experience, allowing me to connect with amazing people, learn from them, and contribute to the community by sharing my passion for real-time data processing and developer education. As I continue my journey, I aim to further contribute to the ecosystem, helping developers leverage the full potential of streaming technologies like RisingWave.

Dunith: RisingWave is an exciting player in the streaming database space. What does your role as an aspiring Developer Advocate involve, and how do you connect with the developer community in this domain?

Fahad: Streaming databases combine the ease of use and familiarity of traditional relational databases like PostgreSQL with the power of stream processing and real-time analytics. There are various streaming databases in the space, including RisingWave, Materialize, ksqlDB, Arroyo, and HStreamDB.

RisingWave is a fully PostgreSQL-compatible streaming database, built from scratch in Rust and open-sourced under the Apache 2.0 license. It offers multiple deployment options, including RisingWave Premium, BYOC, and RisingWave Cloud, and has been adopted by enterprises like Siemens, Tencent, and Henkel.

As a Developer Advocate, my role bridges developers, internal teams, and the broader community. This involves:

• Community Engagement: Actively supporting open-source contributors, gathering feedback, and ensuring developers get timely technical assistance through engineering support, improved documentation, and community discussions.
• Education & Content Creation: Writing blogs, creating demos, publishing integration guides, and showcasing real-world use cases to help developers understand and adopt the technology.
• Developer Relations & Advocacy: Engaging with users to understand their challenges, demonstrating RisingWave’s value, and providing insights that shape product adoption.
• Industry Collaboration: Partnering and collaborating with other professionals to create joint content, integrations, and solutions that enhance the developer ecosystem.
• Events & Outreach: Hosting meetups, webinars, and conferences, as well as speaking at industry events and online forums to share insights and advocate for developer needs.

I maintain an active presence on platforms like LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Reddit, and Slack-based communities, where I engage in discussions, share insights, and learn from the community. However, LinkedIn and Slack remain my primary channels for connecting with developers and engaging in conversations.

Dunith: Streaming databases are becoming essential in modern data processing. What do you find most exciting about working in this space, and what challenges do you see developers facing when adopting streaming technologies?

Fahad: As a Developer Advocate, I find streaming databases really exciting because they bridge the gap between real-time data processing and the familiarity of traditional database systems. What stands out most is the ability to handle continuous, high-velocity data streams while providing developers with the ease of use and querying capabilities they’re accustomed to in systems like PostgreSQL. This opens up new possibilities for building real-time applications, from real-time analytics to event-driven architectures, without sacrificing developer productivity.

However, adopting streaming technologies like RisingWave and Flink does come with its challenges. One of the most significant hurdles is the learning curve. Developers often need to grasp new concepts such as state management, event-time processing, and stream-table duality, which can be quite different from traditional batch processing paradigms. Many organizations already have really mature batch systems in production, and migrating to streaming systems requires not only technical effort but also a clear demonstration of the return on investment (ROI) to stakeholders. This involves proving that the benefits of real-time processing—such as faster insights, improved user experiences, and operational efficiency—outweigh the costs of migration and the initial learning curve.

Another challenge is the cultural and organizational shift required. Teams need to rethink their data architectures and workflows to fully leverage streaming technologies. This includes re-evaluating how data is ingested, processed, and stored, as well as ensuring that the infrastructure can handle the scalability and reliability demands of real-time systems.

Despite these challenges, the potential of streaming systems to transform how we process and act on data in real-time makes this space really rewarding to work in. As a part of developer advocacy, our role is to help developers navigate these challenges by providing clear documentation, hands-on tutorials, easy-to-use demos and best practices to ease the transition and help them to build real-time applications and systems.

Dunith: How do you define Developer Relations, and what do you think makes a great Developer Advocate? Are there any misconceptions about DevRel you'd like to address?

Fahad: DevRel is about building strong, mutually beneficial relationships between a tool and its developer community. A great developer advocate wears many hats, serving as a bridge between developers, internal teams, and the broader community. Here’s what makes a great developer advocate:

• Actively engage with and support the open-source and developer community. This involves facilitating discussions, gathering feedback, and ensuring developers receive timely technical assistance—whether through direct engineering support or by improving documentation and resources.
• Raise awareness and educate developers about the product through compelling content. This includes writing blogs, creating demos, publishing integration guides, and showcasing real-world use cases. A great developer advocate not only creates content but also amplifies valuable contributions from the community.
• Engage with developers and potential users to understand their priorities, challenges, and workflows. Demonstrate how your product can add value, providing insights that help shape product adoption and enterprise engagement.
• Collaborate with industry partners to create joint content, integrations, and solutions that benefit the broader developer ecosystem. Strong partnerships help expand reach and provide developers with more seamless experiences.
• Work alongside the community team to plan and host meetups, webinars, and conferences that foster engagement. Additionally, represent the company by speaking at industry events, panels, and online forums to share insights and advocate for developer needs.
• A developer advocate also plays a crucial role in maintaining an active presence across platforms like LinkedIn, X (Twitter), and Reddit, engaging in discussions and providing valuable insights.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about developer relations is that it’s just about social media engagement and, content marketing and distribution. While advocacy includes content creation and outreach, its core purpose is to help developers, improve the product through feedback loops, and create an ecosystem where developers can succeed.

Another misconception is that developer advocates only engage with users reactively. In reality, they proactively contribute to product improvements, shape developer experiences, and ensure a seamless onboarding journey for new users.

In short, great developer advocates do not just promote the technology; their primary goal is to enable developers to succeed.

Dunith: Outside of RisingWave, are you working on any personal or passion projects you'd like to share with us? How do these align with your goals as a Developer Advocate?

Fahad: Outside of RisingWave, I explore various industry verticals such as manufacturing, financial services, automotive, and energy, focusing on how real-time data processing tools such as RisingWave can be leveraged in these industries. I actively share insights on these topics with the community on LinkedIn and also support my team at RisingWave in building partnerships and collaborations with various companies in these domains.

In this regard, one achievement I am particularly proud of at RisingWave is leading the integration of RisingWave with MQTT vendors. I collaborated with companies like HiveMQ, Coreflux, EMQX, and Solace to develop internal documentation, write joint blogs, create demos, and participate in their panels to represent RisingWave.

Dunith: As someone carving a path into DevRel, what advice would you give to others aspiring to enter this field? Are there any resources, tools, or habits that have been particularly helpful to you?

Fahad: If you're passionate not only about learning and using a particular technology but also about helping others adopt it to solve real-world problems, then DevRel is a great field to explore.

One key advice I’d give is to connect with the people on LinkedIn and X who are actually building the technology. Engaging with them will give you firsthand insights into how it works, its roadmap, and the challenges involved.

Another important step is to network with active professionals in the space such as other developer advocates. Learn from their experiences, what's working, what’s not—since they have the most up-to-date knowledge about their tools.

I think hands-on experience is also crucial. Try out demos, experiment with them, and if possible, enhance them with your own contributions. Share your work with the community through GitHub, Slack, and LinkedIn to showcase your expertise.

Finally, learning how to leverage AI effectively can give you a significant advantage. AI can complement your knowledge, help you create better content, and accelerate your learning journey in DevRel.

Dunith: What excites you most about the future of RisingWave and your potential as a Developer Advocate? How do you envision both your role and the company evolving in the coming years?

Fahad: I think RisingWave is at a critical juncture. After more than three years of development, it has matured into a robust technology ready for large-scale enterprise adoption. The next phase is about positioning RisingWave strategically—particularly in AI applications and within the evolving landscape of lakehouses. These emerging trends present exciting opportunities to expand its adoption across industries.

Now is the time to accelerate RisingWave’s growth from a business perspective by attracting more users and customers. Last year, we successfully met our revenue targets, and this year, we’ve set even more ambitious goals.

As a developer advocate, I see our role evolving to play a crucial part in this growth. Our focus should be on supporting product, marketing, and sales teams by creating industry-specific demos, producing high-value content, and fostering deeper engagement with developers in various industries. By doing this, we can bridge the gap between RisingWave and its real-world adoption, helping it scale to new heights.

Thank you, Fahad, for this insightful conversation! I appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences, challenges, and vision for the future. Your practical advice for those looking to enter DevRel and your insights into the streaming database ecosystem will undoubtedly help guide others in their professional journeys.

We wish you continued success in your role at RisingWave Labs and look forward to seeing your contributions to the developer community grow even further.