I'd love to tell you a story about how the software I created helped my community. Sadly, I can't: nothing I built ever found an audience. This talk is about how I failed to reach a community, about why it doesn't matter - or rather: what I learned from being stuck in an open source team of one. For years I was convinced that the success of an open source project was determined by the usefulness of the software. My imaginary blueprint of open sourcing was: Build something useful Open source it Everybody wins It turns out that it is much harder than that. This talk is about how I built several tools that would help the UX community to deliver awesome products with a great experience, while never finding an audience for the tools. We'll look at all the mistakes one can make and what to do instead to build a thriving community. And even if you don't find an audience: Zero adoption does not mean zero value. We'll look at how there is great benefit in building and publishing things, if not for others then for yourselves.

1. @bratwurstkomet

2. Memi
UX Designer

3. Memi
UX Designer
Research Design Prototype

4. Prototype
UX Designer
Highly interactive
Prototype feel real
Simulate behaviour
Use realistic data
Visual design secondary
Memi

5. UX Designer
Fake-Stack Developer
Memi

6. Frontend Backend
The anatomy of the Full-stack

7. „Frontend“ „Backend“
The anatomy of the fake-stack

9. It’s amazing
It can do things
that no other
design tool can
I make a living
using it

10. It’s open source
No one else
uses it.
Zero adoption.

11. How and why
I failed at
open source

12. 2010
Prototyping a pain,
Testing is a joke.

13. 2010
Most of today’s tools were either not yet born
or just not good enough.

14. 2011
Scratching my own itch

16. „Our employees in the
field need to go on our
intranet over their mobile
phones.“

17. We needed a tool to
prototype mobile experiences
with real data
It was clear that „prototypes“
like these would not be
enough to see if we were
going in the right direction.

18. A tool like this
(That’s the actual prototype.
It still works, even after all these years.)

19. A tool to prototype
mobile experiences
with real data
This is how Protostrap
came about

20. 2012
„Let’s open Source it“
„This is really helpful!“

21. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
We did. Nobody cared.

22. Assumption
★ Build something useful
★ Open source it
★ Everybody wins

23. Assumption
★ Build something useful
★ Open source it
★ Everybody wins
DREAM
ON

24. Assumption
★ Build something useful
★ Open source it
★ Everybody wins

25. Assumption
Define useful
★ Build something useful
★ Open source it
★ Everybody wins

26. Open sourcing is
like handing out
the keys to a
workshop

27. A messy one.

28. A messy one. No lights, just a torch.

29. Assumptions II
★ They don’t get it
★ Designers don’t care
★ It’s because I’m not using X
★ More tweets will fix it

30. Introspection took
a while to kick in.

31. Mistakes
★ no documentation
★ no allies
★ no plan/roadmap
★ no frequent releases
★ no process

32. Documentation
It’s the hardest easy win.

33. Documentation
It’s the hardest easy win.
★ It’s hard to document so others
understand
★ Documenting software is like math:
examples go a long way

34. Allies
many brains are better than one.
★ find allies early on
★ true allies help you focus
★ development partners, mentors,
advocates, sponsors

35. Make a plan
★ Figure out your pipeline
★ Share it so people see that the
project has a future
★ Maybe the things you’re planning
add enough value for adoption

36. Make frequent releases
★ People see that the project is
active.
★ Don’t neglect minor releases:
they are the pulse of the project

37. Process
Relese early, release often is hard
★ Writing is rewriting
★ Focus on benefit not features
★ Find the balance between new
and refactored.

38. Understanding Adoption

39. Help people become users:
Help them overcome the friction
that comes with adoption.

40. Friction of adoption
★ What are you replacing?
★ To which extent?
★ What burdens are you creating?
★ Is the benefit worth the hassle?

41. Users will be your most
valuable resource

42. Focus on users first
Users become collaborators
★ What do they need?
★ What do they say?

43. Zero Adoption ≠ Zero Value

44. Focus
on users
Build
something
useful
Do your
home
work
Find
allies
Everybody
wins

45. Focus
on users
Build
something
useful
Do your
home
work
Find
allies
Everybody
wins
YOU
win!

46. Stay unique &
keep doing stuff

47. Thanks!
@bratwurstkomet
protostrap.ch