Now more than ever, OSPO alignment with org strategy is key

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