You don’t choose open source software the same way you choose a robot vacuum.
One of the biggest challenges for any startup is identifying and ensuring product/market fit. To make sure we’re all on the same page. I implored the great oracle, Wikipedia, for wisdom and she defined product/market fit as “the degree to which a product satisfies a strong market demand.” The best products seem to innately achieve this result, regardless of whether they’re consumer or B2B products and services. And while it may seem effortless for some companies, achieving product/market fit is really the primary challenge for most startup marketing teams.
The same holds true with software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and even commercial open source products. However, there are nuances worth noting for finding open source product/market fit. That’s because open source software is evaluated and consumed differently than most traditional products. The classic buyer’s journey for commercial products of awareness, consideration and decision doesn’t fit for open source software. While both journeys begin with the awareness of a need, the energy barrier for open source projects is front loaded into the consideration stage.
Consideration and the Open Source Buyer’s Journey
Think about the consideration process for buying a robot vacuum versus choosing open source software. For a robot vacuum, you’d probably look up consumer ratings and user reviews. Maybe you’d price match a few brands and consider various technical specifications. But the bulk of your consideration effort is in doing research, which is a relatively low-energy investment.
But evaluating open source software is hands on and requires significant effort. After researching potential solutions, a developer may evaluate two or three solutions and run a test application. They may even begin a build around one solution, only to start over with another midway through development. All the while, developers are reading volumes of documentation and volunteering hours of precious time toward learning a new open source technology. In other words, consideration is a helluva process for open source software.
Building Open Source Product/Market Fit is a UX Process
So what does this all have to do with product/market fit? Because when it comes to open source software, product/market fit is more about building an effective user experience (UX) than a purpose-fit technology solution.
Developers obviously care that a solution is relevant to their current problem and is technically effective. But they’re just as likely to value a solution that onboards them quickly, so they can move on to solving application-specific challenges. A simple setup process, straightforward documentation, and well curated community resources can all go a long way towards winning open source advocates. By making your product roadmap accessible, and by presenting a clear path for making RFCs or becoming a contributor, you’re encouraging organic growth and community engagement. These are the ways an open source project can “fit” into the open source ecosystem today.
Conversely, failing to consider developer/user experience as part of engineering or marketing efforts can sink adoption of even the most technically promising open source projects. At the end of the day, an engineering roadmap focused on solving a market need is only part of the product/market fit equation. While it’s important to build a useful open source solution, it may be even more important to build an open source solution that is easy to use.
Learn More
Bradley Johnson is a marketing and information technology professional based in San Jose, CA. He specializes in digital marketing and go-to-market strategy for early stage software startups, and is currently the Marketing Director of open source strategy at Swim.ai.
Connect with him on Twitter, LinkedIn, or via email at brad@johnsn.co.