Recruit, retain, foster

A presentation at Online CTO Summit: Onboarding and retention in October 2020 in by Tobie Langel

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Recruit. Retain. Foster. Building a strong open source culture is your key to top software engineering talent. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen tobie@unlockopen.com unlockopen.com

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First, a little bit of context.

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Consume 96% Source: 2019 OSSRA Report

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Contribute 29% often: 10% — sometimes: 19% Industry: financial services Source: “Open Source Programs in the Enterprise - 2019” Survey

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Contribute 56% often: 28% — sometimes: 28% Industry: tech Source: “Open Source Programs in the Enterprise - 2019” Survey

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Building a strong open source culture…

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…and leveraging it to recruit, retain, and foster top talent.

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Agenda 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Why care about building a strong open source culture? Why do developers care? How can you improve your open source culture? How can you make it more visible? How can you leverage that visbility?

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Agenda 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Why care about building a strong open source culture? Why do developers care? How can you improve your open source culture? How can you make it more visible? How can you leverage it? Bonus: hot seat

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  1. Why care about building a strong open source culture?

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  1. Why do developers care? ● ● ● ● ● Your GitHub profile is your resume. Window into a company’s internal culture. Provides intrinsic motivation in jobs where it would otherwise be lacking. Bring your whole self to work. BYOT (Bring Your Own Tools).

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  1. How can you improve your open source culture? ● ● ● ● ● ● People over communities over projects over company. Make your policies less of a hurdle. Make open source part of your whole eng culture. Align it with business goals. Measure it. Reward it.

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  1. How can you improve your open source culture? ● ● ● ● ● ● People over communities over projects over company. Make your policies less of a hurdle. Make open source part of your whole eng culture. Align it with business goals. Measure it. Reward it.

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“Let’s face it, great developers can take their pick of jobs right now. These same developers know the value of coding in the open and will want to build up a portfolio of projects they can show off to their friends and potential future employers. That’s right, a paradox! In order to keep a killer developer happy, you have to help them become more attractive to other employers. But that’s ok, because that’s exactly the kind of developer you want to have working for you. So relax and let them work on open source or they’ll go somewhere else where they can.” —Tom Preston-Werner, Co-founder, GitHub

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Also attention to details…

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…avoid things like these: ● ● ● ● toblan20@company.com, @tobie-company GitHub handles, Huge legal disclaimers at the bottom of emails, etc.

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  1. How can you improve your open source culture? ● ● ● ● ● ● People over communities over projects over company. Make your policies less of a hurdle. Make open source part of your whole eng culture. Align it with business goals. Measure it. Reward it.

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  1. How can you improve your open source culture? ● ● ● ● ● ● People over communities over projects over company. Make your policies less of a hurdle. Make open source part of your whole eng culture. Align it with business goals. Measure it. Reward it.

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  1. How can you improve your open source culture? ● ● ● ● ● ● People over communities over projects over company. Make your policies less of a hurdle. Make open source part of your whole eng culture. Align it with business goals. Measure it. Reward it.

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  1. How can you improve your open source culture? ● ● ● ● ● ● People over communities over projects over company. Make your policies less of a hurdle. Make open source part of your whole eng culture. Align it with business goals. Measure it. Reward it.

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  1. How can you improve your open source culture? ● ● ● ● ● ● People over communities over projects over company. Make your policies less of a hurdle. Make open source part of your whole eng culture. Align it with business goals. Measure it. Reward it.

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  1. How can you make it more visible?

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Open source culture

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Open source culture

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Open source culture

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Open source culture

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Open source culture

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  1. How can you make it more visible? ● ● ● ● ● ● ● GitHub org (github.com/company) Dedicated website (opensource.company.com) company.github.io Engineering blog Fund dependencies (opencollective.org/company) Speak at conferences Sponsor conferences

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  1. How can you leverage it? ● ● ● Brand vs. response marketing Organically (e.g. GitHub can just rely on its brand) Structured: ○ ○ Funnel visitors to open positions Promotion during recruiting

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Bonus: hot seat

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Thank you. Tobie Langel (@tobie) Principal, UnlockOpen tobie@unlockopen.com unlockopen.com