how to make your product awesome building a community around
TRANSCRIPT
Come rendere il proprio prodotto una bomba! creandogli una community attorno
Alessio Fattorini
MILAN 25-26 NOVEMBER 2016
John Vincent Atanasoff
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer
Shockley - Bardeen - Brattain
Thompson e Ritchie
“To go fast, go aloneTo go far, go together
- African Proverb
Hello!Alessio Fattorini
community.nethserver.org
Linux SysadminSupport Specialist and Project Manager at NethesisProsecco evangelistNethServer Community Manager
ale_fattorini
Who
Go FarCommunity is the key to go far
Why?
The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas
Dr. Linus Pauling - American chemist
Innovation
Innovation★ Diversity
Innovation★ Diversity★ No matter who you are, most of the
smartest people work for someone else (Joy’s Law)
Innovation★ Diversity★ No matter who you are, most of the
smartest people work for someone else (Joy’s Law)
★ 90 % of all community feedback is crap○ this means 10% is gold! (J. Atwood)
Ivory Tower Development
Ivory Tower Development
★ It’s dangerous to create an evironment where developers have no idea who the users are
Ivory Tower Development
★ It’s dangerous to create an evironment where developers have no idea who the users are
★ Developers assume everyone else is a developer
Ivory Tower Development
★ It’s dangerous to create an evironment where developers have no idea who the users are
★ Developers assume everyone else is a developer
★ You’re not your users!
From the outside
NethServer is an operating system for Linux
enthusiasts, designed for small offices and medium
enterprise
NethServer is an operating system for Linux
enthusiasts, designed for small offices and medium
enterprise
NethServer is an operating system for Linux
enthusiasts, designed for small offices and medium
enterprise
What’s your audience?
Comparisons
““Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are swallow ” - Eric S. Raymond ”
Testing and Bugs
Content
Spread the word
Support
Development
Translations
Loyalty
Loyalty★ It’s much harder to leave a group
of people you’re connected to than a faceless product
Loyalty★ It’s much harder to leave a group
of people you’re connected to than a faceless product
★ In community you’re building connections with people which is way more powerful than features
How to make your product a habit?
Habit
★ There are at least two ways to build a habit around an infrequently used product: content and community (Nir Eyal)
How to build a community?
In a nutshell
If you build itthey won’t come
But my project is a great idea and my code is solid!
Why?
Code is not the challenge of a product-based
community, people are.
Let’s put them first
Keep your values always in
check
Linus Torvalds
You need to have the people-people, the communicators, the warm and friendly people who really want to hug you and get you into the community, but that’s not everybody and that’s not me. I care just about the technology.
You need a CMGR
You don’t launch a community
Start small and grow organically
Create a founders group
You’ll need to manufacture the first interactions
Create actvity
Be Welcoming
Be Welcoming
★ First experience is critical★ Feel acknowledged★ Know what to do first★ First post prompt response
Be inclusive
Be inclusive
It doesn’t matter how fun and amazing your project is. If people
don’t feel safe they won’t contribute
Be inclusive
★ Create a space of emotional safety★ Be humble - don’t patronize★ Your opinions counts★ Don’t take yourself too serious
Thank you Toolset
Be supportive
Be supportive
★ They join community to get help not to give it
★ Social Debt Culture between members★ Offer opportunities to members to give
help in return
An answer for everyone
★ Don’t let everyone is talking but no one is listening and responding
★ Train your community to answer
Outcomes
Inclined to participate
Leading by example
Be ready to discuss
My opinion counts
The best way to make people feel you’re listening to them is to actually listen to them
Listen to your community
Listen to your community
But don’t let them tell you what to do
- J. Atwood
Half baked ideas
Half baked ideas★ Open discussion★ Don’t approach with a blank state★ Be aware of bikeshedding ★ Make your questions specific and
provide half the answer yourself★ Always a trade off
Be Transparent
Be transparent
★ Work out loud!★ Open roadmap and open discussions★ No changelog! Release
Announcement★ Show what kind of contributions your
looking for and how much they matter
Be transparent
Some of these might seem obvious but plese keep in mind:
THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!
Autonomy
Get the word out★ Go where your future contributors are★ Your project is much more than your
code★ You know everything about what you
have made. Nobody else does★ Blogs, reviews, podcasts, press relations
Rituals
Events
Community is much more than belonging to something
Community is much more than belonging to something
It’s about doing something together that makes
belonging matter - B.Solis
Thanks!Any questions?
You can find me at @ale_fattorini