Navigating Open Source Software Projects: Stages & Journey
Unraveling the Stages and Metrics for a Thriving OSS Project - [Open Source Software Evaluation - Blog Post Series #3]
In our previous blog post, we delved into the captivating world of OSS projects, discussing the factors that draw investors and the momentum they're experiencing. Now, let's shift gears and explore the stages and metrics crucial for OSS projects to navigate their way toward success. In this blog post, we will walk through the fascinating journey of open-source projects, highlighting the various stages they experience. But before we dive in, let's briefly touch on the crucial metrics to consider at each stage: GitHub stars, forks/stars ratio, and the number of contributors.
GitHub stars: Reflecting the popularity of an OSS project, GitHub stars serve as a rough benchmark (about 2k stars) for early adopter engagement.
Forks/Stars ratio: This ratio demonstrates how actively the community contributes to the project, with over 5% indicating healthy engagement.
Contributors: The number of contributors signals diverse community engagement and interest in contributing to the project.
With these metrics in mind, let's explore the stages of open-source projects. These stages unfold sequentially, but in a mature company, they become pillars that must be maintained and balanced for sustainable success.
The journey starts with Project-community fit as the OSS project cultivates an active developer community. Next, we have Product-market fit, where the OSS project is embraced by users. Lastly, Value-market fit is achieved when the project identifies a value proposition customers are willing to pay for. Each stage is essential for the project's long-term success, as it transitions from relying solely on community support to generating revenue from its user base.
Project Community Fit / Early Adopters
The first pillar of OSS project development, Project-community fit, is all about building a vibrant community and gaining traction with developers. In this early stage, the project is just taking off and piquing the interest of early adopters – those excited to try out new technologies. Typically, these early adopters are developers, researchers, or enthusiasts eager to explore the project's potential.
Key indicators of a thriving OSS community include GitHub stars, the number of collaborators, and the number of pull requests. These passionate individuals are essential in shaping the project's direction in its infancy.
Although open-source projects can come from various sources, what's more important is having a project leader to drive development. This leader often becomes the CEO of the commercial entity.
To progress, an OSS product needs a critical mass of early adopters, which involves raising awareness, showcasing unique features and value propositions, and fostering a community. As the project gains more early adopters and contributors, it becomes more appealing to potential users and investors, setting the stage for growth.
Achieving project-community fit demands continuous engagement and recognition of the developer community. Skilled project leaders balance inclusion and assertion, ensuring everyone's voice is heard and contributions acknowledged. When this balance is struck, the project experiences healthy growth and attracts more contributors.
At this stage, an OSS product usually has about 2,000 GitHub stars, a fork/star ratio of over 5%, and around 50 contributors. Early adopters engage with the project through its GitHub repository, Discord and Slack groups, and social media platforms, and by experimenting with the code, providing valuable feedback on features, bugs, and usability.
Product-market fit / Stable Growth & Feedback Loop
In this stage, the OSS product has garnered a critical mass of early adopters and is gaining momentum. These early adopters become technical champions, offering valuable feedback and contributing code, documentation, and blog posts. When users begin submitting issues on GitHub, it signals the potential for a business – the "crossing the chasm" moment.
With a project leader and an enthusiastic group of collaborators on board, the focus now shifts to understanding and measuring the product-market fit for open-source software. Project leaders need to address several key questions to achieve this:
Identifying the specific problem that the open source software aims to solve, ensuring that it addresses a genuine need within the target market.
Determining who the software is solving the problem for, which includes understanding the target audience and their unique challenges.
Analyzing the alternatives available in the market, assessing the competition, and understanding the unique value proposition that sets the OSS project apart.
A clear understanding of users and their use cases is vital to avoid being pulled in multiple directions and losing momentum. By delving into these critical aspects, project leaders can develop a clearer understanding of their software's place within the market and tailor their strategies for long-term success.
With these questions answered, organic adoption occurs, as evidenced by the number of downloads. Product-market fit serves as a precursor to sales engagement, with OSS users potentially becoming leads for value-added products or services, which we'll explore more in our go-to-market section.
While working on product-market fit, it's essential to consider what will differentiate your commercial product and how to deliver value worth paying for. Sometimes an OSS product can be too good, resulting in no need for value-market fit and no natural extension to drive revenue. As you drive organic adoption, you and your community should think carefully about what you may want to commercialize in the future.
This stage is critical for stability, as the feedback loop between the project and its user base strengthens. The OSS community actively contributes to the product's development, with the DevRel team playing a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the company and the community and establishing strong relationships with technical champions and stakeholders.
Typically, an OSS product at this stage has over a 10% forks/star ratio, around 100 contributors, and a DevRel team. The community is active and collaborative, with members sharing their expertise to improve the product. This stage presents an excellent opportunity for companies to invest in Developer Relations, nurturing engagement and ownership among project stakeholders.
Value-market fit / Production Deployment & Revenue Generation
At this stage, the OSS product has matured beyond development and is being utilized in production environments. Users incorporate the software into their work projects, drawing the attention of their colleagues who also begin experimenting with the product. The value proposition becomes increasingly evident as the product moves from prototyping to integration/testing, and finally, to production.
The most challenging stage is often finding value-market fit and generating revenue. While product-market fit typically focuses on individual users, value-market fit centers on departmental and enterprise buyers. The key to value-market fit is addressing what customers value and are willing to pay for, rather than what can be monetized.
Value-market fit is often more about adoption and the type of value provided than the product's functionality. OSS offers operational benefits and at-scale features, so when considering a commercial offering, ask: does your product solve a core business problem or provide clear operational benefits? Is it difficult to replicate or find alternatives? Are there at-scale capabilities required for teams or organizations not realized in the OSS?
Before deploying in production, the IT team usually conducts a POC to ensure the solution meets enterprise needs, particularly regarding security and scale. OSS companies may offer an open-core or managed service product to generate revenue at this stage. Open-core products often feature a free, open-source version and a paid, enterprise version with additional features and support.
In terms of metrics, an OSS product at this stage generally has over a 15% forks/star ratio, around 300 contributors, and 1,500+ pull requests merged in LTM. The product has a mature codebase, a validated value proposition in production environments, and has reached the revenue generation stage, making it attractive to potential investors and acquirers.
Understanding the stages of open source projects and their respective metrics is crucial for unlocking growth potential and ensuring long-term success. By carefully navigating through the stages of project-community fit, product-market fit, and value-market fit, OSS projects can build a strong foundation for future growth. In our next blog post, we will delve into the various business models associated with Open Source Software Projects, providing valuable insights into the strategies and approaches that can drive success for these projects.
By comprehending the journey and the stages of OSS projects, you'll be better equipped to support and guide your project toward success. It's essential to strike a balance among these stages, ensuring that each one contributes to the overall sustainability and prosperity of the project. With a keen understanding of the metrics and objectives associated with each stage, open-source projects can flourish and become industry game-changers.
It's vital to remember that each stage of an OSS project's journey is interconnected, and understanding the importance of each stage is key to ensuring the project's long-term success. By creating and fostering a thriving developer community, achieving product-market fit, and generating value that customers are willing to pay for, OSS projects can not only survive but thrive in today's competitive market. In the next blog post, we'll explore the various business models that can help OSS projects not only monetize but also achieve success and stand out in the crowd.