Define a meaningful return
Reopening documentation, shipping a prototype, deploying an integration, and maintaining it are progressively different commitments.
For infrastructure, a small set of maintained integrations can carry more information than a large tutorial cohort.
Map the friction
Installation, environment setup, error handling, cost uncertainty, and version changes can each end a developer journey.
Issues, forum threads, and release histories show whether the team removes recurring friction and how much support the product consumes.
Respect project lifecycles
Experiments, event projects, and production integrations are not expected to persist in the same way.
Segment by intent, then identify the next milestone that would count as progress for each cohort.
Find the economic path
Developer adoption becomes strategically relevant when it connects to product usage, infrastructure revenue, or durable ecosystem value.
The link may still be a hypothesis. Diligence should state who benefits, who might pay, and whether greater usage increases service burden.