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Growing AuthenticCommunities
Luke KaniesFounder and CEO, Puppet LabsFounder, Puppet@[email protected]
Sunday, March 3, 13
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Question Authority
`
Sunday, March 3, 13
Some OSS experience, but not muchHad a lot of horrible warnings, not many good examplesTrial and Error, stuck with what worked and tried to quickly ditch what didn’tHanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetenceAlways willing to admit I’m wrong, to change my mind
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Growing,not Building
Sunday, March 3, 13
Wanted to call this ‘building’Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll comeYou build the framework, other people grow the community
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A bit about Puppet
Sunday, March 3, 13
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2005
• 1 user on dev list (me)• No user list• Registered #puppet, no users
Sunday, March 3, 13
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Bad product,hungry Luke
Sunday, March 3, 13
Started product and company at the same time (rare)Had experience with other products, weren’t focused on user successAlways showed this slide at talks, and was clear about commercial goalsSysadmins are used to spending money on software, so this wasn’t scary
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2009
• Roughly 500 people on user list• Averaging more than 100 in IRC• 3 employees• 1 event
Sunday, March 3, 13
50,000% growth in 4 years :)Took Venture capital
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2013
• 5100+ users on user list• 940+ on dev list• Averaging 900+ in IRC• Grew from 260 to 820 Forge modules in 1 year• 30+ events• 120 employees• Full time community manager (Dawn Foster)
Sunday, March 3, 13
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How?
Sunday, March 3, 13
Major changes without major outcry
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Encourage engagement, don’t control it
Sunday, March 3, 13
Empty lists need no moderationNatural first reactions cover “when traffic is too large”You should be so luckyLike investing in a scalable back end on a site with no users
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Answer every question
Sunday, March 3, 13
In early days, answer everything, day or night, right awayBe present enough that it seems like a crowded room
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...even when youdon’t know
Sunday, March 3, 13
Sometimes you don’t knowSometimes you know and don’t like the answerAnswer anywayIt’s early days - the truth is more important than anythingAll you have is credibility, and that’s easy to lose
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...but not alwaysright away
Sunday, March 3, 13
Hand over authority quicklyGive others time to helpOnly got passed as top contributor last year
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Transparency is hard
Sunday, March 3, 13
Early days: Your project sucksMature: Your project is slow and can’t respond quicklyAdmit it, embrace itThere’s probably something you like that you can draw attention to
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FullTransparency
Sunday, March 3, 13
Why, What, and HowEveryone knew I was trying to make moneyEveryone knew what we were doing and whySo almost no one was cynicalI run Puppet Labs this way - everyone knows how much we have in the bank account
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EspeciallyDifficult
for Companies
Sunday, March 3, 13
You’re already suspectEspecially if you aren’t the main devsYou have to work extra hardBut companies are naturally secretiveSuck it, this is open source
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Transparency !=Openness
Sunday, March 3, 13
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PrettyAwesome
Sunday, March 3, 13
One period of working alternating hours with an AussieHe’d file tickets while I slept, I’d fix them while he slept
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Be nice
Sunday, March 3, 13
Intolerant of intoleranceNo religion
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Embracenewbies
Sunday, March 3, 13
You can’t grow without new people
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Word of Mouth
Sunday, March 3, 13
30-50% of conf attendees are new and were referred by friendsJust about no advertisingOnline engagementLots of hustling on the ground
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Hustle atconferences
Sunday, March 3, 13
Walk the floorExpos are useless for community until you’re big, even then just a meeting placeGive talks (like this one!), hold BOFsSpend all day talking to peopleI never ever attended talks - I didn’t sell, I hustled, I practiced, I pitched
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VisitThem
Sunday, March 3, 13
Attend their conferencesFind a community member and ask them to organize a drink-up on every tripSleep when you’re home5 countries in 6 months
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Be Available
Sunday, March 3, 13
Default acceptEveryone who wants it has my mobile phone numberEveryone knows my email addressThe sound of someone mentioning my name in IRC still haunts meI still do long Q&As and will answer basically anything
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LessonsLearned
Sunday, March 3, 13
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Prioritiesand
Community
Sunday, March 3, 13
Sometimes focused on our own priorities, forget othersEmployees don’t automatically get community membershipIndividual focus matters
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Engage,don’t announce
Sunday, March 3, 13
Even announcing in advance, rather than “yesterday” is betterAlways askBig changes need lots of warningYou need to actually listen and engage
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Examples
Sunday, March 3, 13
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James Turnbull
Sunday, March 3, 13
Wanted to write a bookEnded up doing almost all community work for 2 yearsRewrote all of our docs
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Venture Capital
Sunday, March 3, 13
Didn’t seek initial round, but was happy to announce to communityLots of questionsBut I’d always been clear I was here to grow a companyAnd everyone knew I’d been hustling for years and needed some helpI wasn’t selling out, I was hiring programmers to help, and that’s what I did
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GPL2 -‐> Apache 2
Sunday, March 3, 13
Changed in 2011, 2 years after VC, took a long time for CLAs2 people complained (out of 3k or so on the list)Was clear about why: Trading off integrations over potential license revenueMySQL -> Sun -> Oracle kinda poisoned the wellAbsolutely not religious for us, and the community responded in kind
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Questions?
Sunday, March 3, 13