FOSS Backstage 2025

Product Strategy for Open Source Projects and Companies
2025-03-11 , bUm Box

What should you prioritize? Why are you building this open source project in the first place? A solid product strategy will help you make better use of your limited resources and increase the chances that the project will be a success. Emily Omier will teach you how to apply product strategy to open source projects and companies built around OSS.


Many, probably most, open source projects don't have a clear way to prioritize what new features to build and/or what bugs to fix. This is an especially big risk for companies building a business around open source projects, because establishing a strategy for how to develop the project and commercial offering is critical to success. In this talk, Emily Omier will talk about how to apply the fundamentals of product strategy to open source projects, including the specific needs of open source companies. Attendees will leave with concrete action items for how to define a strategy for themselves or their organizations and use that strategy to make better prioritization decisions.

Emily Omier is a product strategy consultant for open source companies, the host of The Business of Open Source podcast and the co-founder of Open Source Founders Summit, a conference for founders of open source companies.