Prototype Fund coaching
Background and Objectives
Coaching people and teams building open source software (OSS) has been an aspect of Superbloom’s services and work for many years. Often OSS projects lack design input at most stages of development and coaching offers an accessible way for teams to discuss their needs and receive advice that can be implemented when the project is ready.
I have coached over 8 OSS projects that received initial seed funding from the Prototype fund as well as other organisations that have incubated open data and open source software projects in need of OSS expertise. The coaching service offers coaching on multiple topics pertinent to OSS such as licensing, legal advice, sustainability and funding as well as the expertises I offer such as, UI and UX design, design research, community engagement, product management for OSS and visual identity and branding.
The objectives of coaching are to be informed and lead by the project team members and ensure that what we discuss, advise and begin to implement is relevant and sustainable for the long run for the OSS both with and without funding.
Impact
The impact on the OSS per coaching varies, but all projects leave having had valuable discussions and understanding their own needs towards their users better. In most cases the OSS projects leave with tangible contributions made to their OSS at the end of the coaching as well as a growth in knowledge and experience.
The ongoing impact of coaching is aslo important. The more that OSS projects know that user centred design, product management and other aspects of software production is also available within the OSS space is critical. The aspiration is that these projects go on to pass on what they have learned to future OSS projects and similar OSS projects and the under-served aspects of how software is made gets progressively better and more prevelant in OSS.
Many of our coached projects go on to speak highley of coaching as an experience that advanced their knowledge and enlightened how they believe open software is made.
Outputs
- 2-4 hour long coaching conversations with notes and templates for conversation flow
- Post-sessions resources created such as this one on common product management processes in OSS
New skills
Through coaching OSS projects I’ve learned how to better structure learning from both active and passive perspectives towards learning. I also got the chance to create open resources in accessible ways.
