How to Contribute to Open Source as a Community Manager: A Developer‘s Guide

Open source software is eating the world. From server stacks to mobile apps, open technologies and practices underpin much of our modern digital infrastructure. But while the value of open source is increasingly clear, many projects struggle to maintain healthy and sustainable communities. Of the more than 60 million repositories on GitHub, only a small fraction see significant collaboration and growth over time.

This is where community managers come in. Part coach, part diplomat, and part hype machine, open source community managers work behind the scenes to set projects up for success. They recruit and onboard contributors, shape governance policies, and promote best practices for collaboration at scale. In doing so, they create a gravitational pull that keeps communities orbiting even the most challenging projects.

In this guide, we‘ll pull back the curtain on what community managers actually do, why their work is so valuable, and how you can get started yourself. Whether you‘re a seasoned coder looking for a new way to contribute or a people person eager to apply your skills in a technical domain, this article will give you the context and tools you need to hit the ground running.

The State of Open Source Communities

Before we dive into the community manager role, it‘s worth stepping back to examine the state of open source communities more broadly. While the promise of open collaboration is inspiring, the reality is often messier.

According to the 2020 Octoverse report from GitHub, the median number of contributors for all repositories is just one. Even among the most popular projects, contributor churn is high – less than 20% of contributors in a given month are still active a year later. And while the total volume of open source activity is growing, much of that growth is concentrated in a relatively small number of projects.

This data underscores the challenge of sustaining vibrant open source communities over time. Without dedicated effort to Welcome newcomers, engage existing contributors, and coordinate work effectively, even the most Promising projects can stagnate or fracture.

The good news is that research also points to the impact of good community management. A 2019 survey by The New Stack found that projects with documented governance policies and paid community managers were more likely to report high levels of contributor satisfaction and feature velocity. Investments in community infrastructure, it seems, pay dividends in the long run.

Inside the Community Manager Role

So what exactly do open source community managers do? While the specifics vary from project to project, most managers juggle a mix of technical, interpersonal, and strategic responsibilities.

On the technical front, community managers are often responsible for triaging issues, reviewing pull requests, and shepherding releases. They may not write production code every day, but they need enough domain knowledge to assess contributions and keep the development pipeline flowing smoothly.

Interpersonally, community managers act as the face of the project. They welcome new contributors, moderate discussions, and provide guidance and mentorship as needed. They‘re also the first line of defense when conflicts arise, stepping in to defuse tensions and keep interactions constructive.

Strategically, community managers work to align the project‘s goals with the needs and interests of its stakeholders. They gather feedback from users, package it for maintainers, and advocate for changes that will make the project more valuable and accessible over time. They also develop and execute programs to grow the community, from hackathons and conferences to newsletters and social media campaigns.

Drilling down a bit further, a typical week for a community manager might include:

• Responding to questions and comments on forums, mailing lists, and chat channels
• Updating documentation, FAQs, and contributor onboarding materials
• Publishing blog posts, release notes, and ecosystem updates
• Planning and promoting community events and webinars
• Meeting with maintainers and working group leads to discuss roadmap priorities
• Analyzing project and repository metrics to track community health over time

Of course, the actual mix will depend on the project‘s specific needs and priorities. A younger project might focus more on awareness and adoption, while a more mature community may emphasize governance and contributor experience. The key is to stay attuned to the community‘s pulse and adapt your approach accordingly.

Key Skills and Qualifications

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the role, open source community managers tend to be generalists by necessity. While there‘s no one-size-fits-all skillset, there are a few key traits and competencies that serve managers well across contexts:

Technical fluency. Community managers don‘t need to be wizards at the command line, but they should be comfortable navigating codebases, build systems, and development workflows. Bonus points for experience with the specific languages and frameworks used by the project.

Communication skills. Whether you‘re writing a pull request review or presenting at a conference, the ability to convey information clearly and persuasively is essential. Community managers must be strong written and verbal communicators, with the emotional intelligence to adapt their style to different audiences.

Program management. Juggling multiple workstreams is par for the course in community management. Managers need to be adept at breaking down large initiatives, delegating tasks, and keeping everyone aligned and on track. Familiarity with agile methodologies can be a major asset.

Community building. At the end of the day, community managers are in the relationship business. Empathy, cross-cultural competence, and a knack for making others feel welcome and motivated are key. So is the ability to stay positive in the face of the occasional frustrated contributor or heated flame war.

In terms of specific tools, most community managers rely on a mix of:

• Communication platforms like Discourse, Slack, and Gitter for engaging with contributors
• Project management tools like Trello, Asana, and ZenHub for planning and tracking work
• Analytics tools like Orbit and Bitergia for measuring community health and growth
• Social media management tools like Hootsuite and Buffer for amplifying project updates

As for career paths, community management can be a stepping stone to a variety of roles in the open source ecosystem. Some managers go on to specialize in developer relations, product management, or marketing, while others use the skills they‘ve honed to launch their own projects and startups.

The Business Case for Community Management

For many open source projects, investing in dedicated community management can feel like a luxury. With limited resources and endless feature requests, it‘s tempting to focus solely on code and let community take care of itself.

But research suggests that community management pays real dividends in terms of project health and sustainability. A 2019 analysis by the TODO Group found that projects with documented governance policies and paid community managers were more likely to:

• Attract and retain contributors over time
• Ship features and fixes more quickly
• Receive higher user satisfaction scores
• Be adopted and recommended by downstream developers

These findings align with anecdotal evidence from many of the most successful open source projects. Kubernetes, for example, has a team of full-time community managers who work to ensure that contributors feel valued and empowered. As a result, the project has been able to scale to thousands of developers across hundreds of companies while maintaining a cohesive vision and culture.

For companies that rely on open source software, investing in community management can also be a way to influence the direction of key projects and ensure that their needs are met over time. By contributing code, documentation, and mentorship, companies can help shape the ecosystem in ways that benefit their own products and customers.

Getting Started as a Community Manager

If you‘re convinced of the value of community management but not sure where to begin, start by reflecting on your own open source journey. What projects have you contributed to in the past, and what made those experiences positive or negative? What skills and insights do you have that could benefit a community you care about?

From there, look for opportunities to get involved in small ways. Many projects have "good first issue" labels on their issue trackers, or welcome help with documentation, localization, and other non-code tasks. By pitching in where you can and building relationships with other contributors, you‘ll start to get a feel for the community‘s dynamics and needs.

As you gain experience and credibility, you can start to take on more formal roles and responsibilities. This might mean volunteering to moderate a forum, organizing a meetup or hackathon, or even applying for a paid community management position.

When evaluating potential projects to work with, look for ones that align with your values and interests, and that have a track record of investing in community. Some signs of a healthy project include:

• Detailed contributor guidelines and codes of conduct
• Active forums and chat channels with friendly, responsive moderators
• Regular community events and outreach efforts
• Transparent governance policies and decision-making processes

Once you‘ve found a good fit, focus on listening and learning as much as you can. Attend community meetings, read through past discussions, and talk to existing contributors to get a sense of the project‘s history and culture. The more context you have, the more effectively you‘ll be able to identify and address community needs.

A Developer‘s Perspective

As a developer, you might be wondering how community management fits into your own open source journey. While it‘s true that community managers spend less time coding than the average contributor, the role can be a great way to level up your skills and make a bigger impact on the projects you care about.

For one thing, community managers get to see the project from a higher level. By interacting with contributors across different areas of the codebase, you‘ll gain a more holistic understanding of how the pieces fit together and where the pain points lie. This can be invaluable when it comes time to design new features or refactor existing ones.

Community managers also have a unique opportunity to shape the culture and direction of the project. By setting the tone for interactions and advocating for inclusive practices, you can help create an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and collaboration thrives. This, in turn, can lead to better code and more innovative solutions over time.

Finally, community management can be a great way to build your own leadership and communication skills. Whether you‘re mediating a heated debate or presenting at a conference, you‘ll have plenty of opportunities to practice articulating your ideas and influencing others. These are valuable skills in any context, but especially so in the open source world where persuasion and consensus-building are key.

Of course, balancing management and coding responsibilities can be a challenge. It‘s important to set clear boundaries and prioritize your time effectively. One strategy is to block out dedicated coding time each week, and protect it fiercely from meetings and interruptions. Another is to look for opportunities to automate or delegate community management tasks, so you can focus on the work that truly requires your unique skills and expertise.

Measuring Your Impact

As with any role, it‘s important for community managers to be able to measure and communicate their impact over time. This can be tricky in the open source world, where metrics like lines of code or commit counts don‘t always tell the full story.

Instead, community managers need to focus on a mix of quantitative and qualitative indicators that capture the health and growth of the community. Some common metrics include:

• Number of new contributors per month/quarter/year
• Retention rate of existing contributors over time
• Time to first response and resolution for issues and pull requests
• Number and diversity of contributors at community events and meetings
• Sentiment analysis of forums and chat channels
• Survey results on contributor satisfaction and motivation

Equally important is the ability to gather and share qualitative feedback from community members. This might include quotes from contributors on how the community has impacted their work, or anecdotes about successful collaborations or mentorship relationships.

By combining hard data with human stories, community managers can paint a more complete picture of their impact and make a stronger case for continued investment in community-building efforts.

Conclusion

Open source software is a testament to the power of collaborative creation. But as powerful as the open source model is, it‘s not without its challenges. Sustaining healthy and productive communities requires dedicated effort and care, and that‘s where community managers come in.

By providing the infrastructure and support that contributors need to do their best work, community managers help unlock the full potential of open source. They are the unsung heroes of the open source world, working behind the scenes to create the conditions for collaboration and innovation to thrive.

If you‘re passionate about open source and have a knack for bringing people together, community management may be the perfect way to level up your impact. It‘s a challenging but rewarding role that offers the chance to shape the future of the projects and communities you care about.

So what are you waiting for? Find a project that resonates with you, start contributing where you can, and see where the journey takes you. The open source community will be better for it.