In today’s competitive market, it has become crucial to build a thriving community of developers and users around your product. Gone are the days when code alone could make a product successful; the human element now plays a pivotal role. This community becomes the face and representation of your project to the outside world. Having worked on our Open Source project for over 8 years, I have accumulated a wealth of proven strategies for attracting contributors, training newcomers, and expanding the user base. In my presentation, I will explain how to effectively engage with your user community in order to achieve the following objectives: collect feedback, share use cases, contribute to documentation, identify bugs and collaboratively develop code Because improving your product goes beyond just writing code; it involves nurturing a strong community of people.

1. CREATING A COMMUNITY AROUND IT
BUILDING AN AWESOME PRODUCT BY
Alessio Fattorini - Nethesis

2. #neth17
NETHESIS
2003

3. SYSTEM INTEGRATORS
▸ Clear business model
▸ We added value to existing
open source projects

4. 2010

5. ▸ Application hosting platform
▸ Multi-node
▸ Container-based
▸ Designed for hybrid cloud
▸ Run your apps everywhere

6. 100% OPEN SOURCE PROJECT
▸ Completely free to download
▸ Openly developed
▸ Community-driven

7. WE WANTED A COMMUNITY AROUND US
▸ As many people as possibile
▸ As many perspective as
possible

8. NONE OF US WERE ABLE
TO BUILD A COMMUNITY

9. WHO I AM - ALESSIO FATTORINI (NETHESIS)
▸ Community Manager who
writes and takes the stage
▸ Marketing Manager
▸ Ex Linux Sysadmin and Product
manager
▸ Prosecco Evangelist

10. HOW TO BUILD A
COMMUNITY?

11. YOU DON’T LAUNCH
A COMMUNITY

12. NO ONE AT THE PARTY

13. BUILD A COMMUNITY
FROM SCRATCH
IN 8 STEPS

14. WHO DO YOU NEED?
1

15. WHY SHOULD THEY CARE
ABOUT YOUR COMMUNITY?
2

16. UNDERSTAND THEIR NEEDS
▸ Focus people and not only
technology
▸ What your community can offer
them (just support?)
▸ Training, coding skills,
advance career, fun

17. TOGETHER
FIND THEM AND PUT
3

18. PARTICIPATE
HELP THEM CONNECT AND
4

19. REPEAT 4. FOR A
WHILE. DOES IT WORK?

20. PLATFORM
CHOOSE AN ONLINE
5

21. CORE GROUP
INVITE ONLY THE
6

22. ASK THEM TO CREATE
CONTENT
CREATE CONTENT FOR THEM
7

23. SLOWLY
INVITE OTHER PEOPLE
8

24. HOW TO GROW AND
NURTURE A COMMUNITY?

26. IT DOESN’T MATTER
HOW FUN AND AMAZING
YOUR PROJECT IS.
IF PEOPLE DON’T FEEL
SAFE THEY WON’T
CONTRIBUTE.

27. BE INCLUSIVE
▸ Create an environment where
people feel safe
▸ Even if they don’t have strong
technical skills
▸ Create some simple rules and
lead by example

29. EVERYONE CAN BE..
A CONTRIBUTOR

32. Thank you Toolset

36. WORK OUT LOUD
▸ Share what are you working on
▸ What you are about to do
▸ Keep people updated on your
last achievements

38. SIMPLE TIP: BE VERBOSE
▸ Send a montly/weekly
newsletter with the last
updates or top discussions
▸ What happens into the bug
tracker ? Create a brief
summary (understandable by
humans)

39. LEAD THE SUPPORT
‣ Take over all the support
requests
‣ Can’t always be the only one
who helps
‣ Train your community to
answer instead

40. TRAIN YOUR COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT
‣ Understand which skills your
members have
‣ Call upon speci
fi
c people to
help other speci
fi
c people
‣ Say thank you at the end

41. “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”

42. “BUT THAT’S NOT
EVERYBODY AND
DEFINITELY THAT’S NOT
ME. I CARE JUST ABOUT
THE TECHNOLOGY.”
Linus Torvalds

43. BECOME A PEOPLE-PEOPLE
AND CREATE YOUR COMMUNITY
NOW

44. THANK YOU
alessiofattorini
alessiofattorini.it
nethserver.org
nethesis.it