Community engagement

... Hello! You may notice that this title card doesn’t actually contain a title.

Before starting in on the“meat” of this discussion,let’s take a few secondsto provide some context. [ setting the scene ]

The topic for today’sdiscussion is that senseof citizenship thatmakes open sourcecommunities reallycommunities. topic: sense of citizenship

...as opposed to clevermarketing, designed toevoke the sense ofcommunity. Sometimesthat’s difficult todiscern, especially by themarketers.

2000: engineer 2002: engineer I’ve spent my career at companies who endeavor to build community around their products, first in engineering, then in community management.2007: community 2005: engineering mgr2009: community 2010: community 2011: community

These companies feelthat if they cansurround themselveswith an“ecosystem” (withsarcastic quotes), theycan increase their value.Sometimes they’re right.

But I’m not sure the word “citizenship” applies. It suggests membership, possession, special privileges, responsibilities, and rules. It sounds exclusive and restrictive, and companies ultimately cannot afford to be so presumptuous.deﬁne: citizenship

Developers will showallegiance to communitiesbased around commons, butnot based around firms.Well, sometimes ithappens...but it should be apleasant surprise if it does.

citizenship The right word to devotion describe what companies are striving for, therefore, is not citizenship. It’s engagement. attachmentbelongingnesstogethertude engagement

communityengagement A ha! we have a title for this talk now.

This isn’t just about open source.Lots of companies want toengage with technicalaudiences...some of that isbased around open source, someof it isn’t. Either way, the samesocial truths prevail. this topic is broader than open source

[ reasons to engage ]

So why do companies want to buildcommunity?Maybe it’s because building communityallows them to connect with people whoare cooler than they are? After all, howelse could they connect with SanFrancisco hipster intelligentsia like thisguy?

Or maybe it’s becausesomeone told them to?Their investors mighthave suggested it, or acustomer.Some people just like tocheck boxes.

Because they think an assemblyof unpaid code robots willmagically assemble, willinglytake direction, and make theirproduct more valuable?We’ve all debunked that overand over again, but that doesn’tmean people don’t still believe it.

Or - and this is myfavorite - becauseunderneath their meancallous heartlessexterior they really justwant to be loved?

These are all awful reasons, and one of the reasons why we have a community bubble today. The number of people who think they need community is far larger than those who actually do.2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 companies who think they need a community strategy companies who will beneﬁt from their community strategy

I hate to do this to you, but I have to complain about something that irritates all community managers.[ a tangent on wizardry ]

Business people who understand the potential of community but fundamentally misunderstand its spirit often ask you to do some “community magic”.“community magic”

This is patronizing anddisrespectful. Our usersare not orcs. If you everhear the term “communitymagic”, start askingquestions because whoeversaid it doesn’t understandhow people work.

engineersare not all esoteric geniuses

engineersare not allanti-social

engineers are notrock stars “Rock star” is not a term that engineers apply to themselves. It’s a term that other people apply. Don’t call an engineer a “rock star”. The smile you receive in return is not happiness, it’s pity.

Engineers are PEOPLE. People likeyou and me. They like what peoplelike and they behave how peoplebehave. They are all different.People in my profession stand ingiant auditoriums and say stupidthings like “oh, developers lovegetting compensated with beer”.Really? All of them?

engagementius totalus! ...so there is no magic. Only reason. If there’s one secret to community management, it’s this: put your effort into truly understanding the people around you and then simply do what makes sense.

There are things that all community managers do. These are a list of the common tools that we all use.[ standard wisdom ]

mailing lists forums tools SCM IRC governance licensingprocess I’m not going contributor agreements to cover these in much detail, go read Jono Bacon’s book. contests certiﬁcationsprograms hackathons meetups hustle! trade shows speaking PR social media

But someone has alreadybroken all of the rules.Have Apple managed tobuild engagement withtheir app store? You betyour ass they have.

Openness andcommunity areinconsistent with theircorporate strategy. Howdo you surprise peoplewith products if you dontkeep secrets and controlinformation?

People rail against Apple,get pissed off, blog,complain, say they’regoing to revolt and go toother platforms - andmany of them do.

But the Apple App Storecontinues to be wildlysuccessful and highlyengaging. Why?

Because they have adesirable product withuniversal appeal. Users lustfor it, developers flock to itbecause of its marketpenetration and innovativecapabilities. It inspirespeople enough that they putup with all the BS.

mailing lists forums tools SCM IRC governance licensingprocess Does Apple worry about any of these things? Hell no. I mean, contributor agreements they do these things, but let’s face it...they’re not really trying. At my last company, I did all of these things...but I failed because our team didn’t contests certiﬁcationsprograms have a product that the community could build on. hackathons meetups hustle! trade shows speaking PR social media

no amount of hardwork or dedication canovercome bad strategy or bad timing

A guy asks his ailingfriend “what’s wrong?”He replies, “I was tryingto make orange juicefrom concentrate and allI got was a really badheadache”

[ basic ingredients ]

Just like you can’t make orangejuice by concentrating, you can’twill a community into beingsimply through willpower alone.It’s like gardening...you don’tmake the plant grow...you justcreate the space and scatter theseeds.

So what are the seeds? Iwould argue that thereare three keyingredients: substance,opportunity, and charm.They’re all frustratinglyintangible.

I struggled with how to explainwhat “substance” is. If yourproduct is useful, cool,interesting, practical, orother wise desirable, you probablyhave substance. Let’s put it likethis... you can tell how muchsubstance you have when someoneasks you if your product is cool.

If you start tapdancingaround the issue and saysomething like “oh well yait’s cool if you blah blahblah and you are in aparticular situation blahblah”, then something ismissing and you know it.

You also need to providethe opportunity forpeople to engage. Leaveroom for improvement,and make it obvious howpeople should engage..

I’ve heard this describedas a “jagged bindingsurface”...a product withlots of ways for people tostick.

But variety is alsoimportant. You need toprovide opportunities forlots of different kinds ofpeople who want toengage at lots ofdifferent levels.

Make sure this moderate forums chart is full. plan releases write code write docsavailable time web design build extensions translate docs update docs ﬁx bugs review report a bug translate strings help others rate report crashes technical skill

The third essentialingredient is charm. Thisis the most intangibleone. The other t wo arepractical, this one isemotional.

Charm is what will drawpeople to your product orplatform, makes themfeel a connection to you,and compels them toengage with you.

Vision and tone go a longway. “Making the web abetter place” is apractical goal expressedin a passionate way. Itmakes people want to dotheir part.

People look at this billboardand think “I want to relaxwith technology like that.I want it to bend to mywill. That could be me.”Developers think “someday,people will integrate myapp into their life”.

Another inspiringexample. Fast, secure,easy-to-use. Mostimportantly, it’sdisruptive...that’s itscharm.

If your product causes anidea to spring intosomeone’s mind, that’s areally good start.

Arduino has charmbecause it allows peopleto innovate withhardware in ways theynever could before.

World of Warcraft has avery extensive add-onsecosystem because thegame is well-craftedenough that people valuethe experience, yetcomplex enough that thereis room for optimization

So I guess that if I haveto summarize this point,it’s this: If you havesubstance, opportunity,and charm, but no activecommunity managementtactics, there is a chancethat you can succeed.

However, if you havetactics but nosubstance/opportunity/charm, you will fail.

[ engagement resistance ]

Once you have the perfect storm ofengagement, you don’t have to strainand stress over how to createengagement from nothing. You cansimply manage the demand andoptimize people’s experience.For example, at Talend, the next fewslides demonstrate all of thedifferent steps that people have togo through in order to becomeengaged.

these people need an integration solution

these people know about Talend

these people start to download Talend

these people ﬁnish the download (523MB!!)

these people install Talend

these people understand how to use it

these people use it once

these people become regular users

these users help others

this user innovates

? what makessomeone become a Talend user?

?what makes a user engage?

? ? ? ? ? ? ? what can go ? wrong along the way? ?

?Once you understandwhat is in yourcommunity’s way, you’refar better informed tomake good tool decisions.

rossturk.com/twitter /linkedin /facebookwww.talend.com

Community engagement

by rossturk on Sep 23, 2011

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Community engagement — Presentation Transcript

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