Now more than ever, OSPO alignment with org strategy is key
A presentation at OSPO OnRamp by Tobie Langel
Now more than ever, OSPO alignment with org strategy is key
Tobie Langel Principal, UnlockOpen tobie@unlockopen.com
Who am I?
Tobie Langel
Tobie Langel Founder & Principal, UnlockOpen
UnlockOpen is a boutique consulting firm specialized in open tech ecosystem strategy. We advise:
- Leading tech firms (Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Intel, Cisco, Thales, Airtable, Postman, GitLab)
- Industry organizations & SDOs (OpenSSF, OpenJSF, OASIS Open, W3C)
- NGOs, philanthropies, and policy makers (Atlantic Council, OpenForumEurope, the EU Commission, United Nations’ Digital Public Goods Alliance)
🪦 RIP 2023
- 2023 was brutal!
- Industry-wide layoffs
- Budget cuts
(Note: 2024 isn’t looking much better. 😱)
What happened?
🦠 Covid 🌻 War in Ukraine 📈 End of “zero interest rate policy” (ZIRP)
=> End of “Free money”
What happened?
Massive impact in tech because free money had:
🚀 Turbo-charged hyper-growth strategies 🧑💻 Artificially increased software engineer wages 🏓 Justified all sorts of extraneous expenses
Perfect storm for OSPOs
- Anything that isn’t either generating revenue or lowering costs is seen as extraneous
- Value of contributing to open source is hard to explain and long to realize
=> Budget & headcount cuts directly impact OSPOs
Perfect storm for OSPOs
Add to that:
🤖 AI stealing the spotlight 🛡 Increased pressure around software supply chain security
Perfect storm for OSPOs
💸 => Fewer resources 🤖 => Less visibility 🛡 => Increased responsibility / risk
So what can we do?
4 ways you can turn the ship around
- Align with company strategy
- Know your internal stakeholders
- Focus on delivering value
- Communicate value delivered
Complete mindset shift
Tactics → Strategy → Mission/Vision
Tactics → Strategy → Mission/Vision
Tactics is the “How” Strategy is the “What” Mission/Vision is the “Why”
Sun Tzu quote
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” —Sun Tzu, The Art of War
inputs → outputs → outcomes → value
examples of inputs → outputs → outcomes → value
inputs: “We spent 6 engineering weeks on this.” outputs: “We launched 3 new open source projects last year.” outcomes: “Open sourcing our solution has made it the industry standard.” value: “Becoming the industry standard has decreased our churn by 1% point.”
inputs → outputs → outcomes → value Tactics
- inputs & outputs are about tactics
- outcomes relate to strategy
- value is about vision and mission
Thank you!
Tobie Langel Principal, UnlockOpen tobie@unlockopen.com
2023 has been brutal for the tech industry. Even more so for OSPOs, which suffered budget and headcount cuts, felt increased pressure around software supply chain security, and saw AI stealing the spotlight.
The very tactical approach that worked when credit was cheap and money was flowing no longer cuts it. In today’s environment, strategic alignment with organizational goals becomes essential to demonstrate value and get executives attention, buy-in, and support.
Tobie Langel has been helping organizations think strategically about their open source involvement for close to a decade. He’ll be sharing some of the frameworks he uses to align external-facing teams with internal stakeholders and become more impactful both internally and externally as a result.
Resources
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
