GTM Fundamentals for your Community

If building a community is an important part of your strategy (and btw, just because you’re an open source company does not necessarily mean that it has to be), it’s important to know your GTM fundaments for your community, because they are not all the same as those for your product.

Yikes, you’re thinking! Don’t you already say you have to have positioning / GTM fundamentals for both my open source project and my commercial product?! And that I should probably have an umbrella positioning for the entire company?

Yes, indeed I do. Open source startups are more complex, and each component you add to any system increases the complexity. That’s actually why it’s so important to have clarity on the different USPs for each component, for example, and to have it all written down. It’s going to be a challenge for you to keep it all in your head, in the best case scenario. Once you have a team of even 5 or 10, the chances of every team member effectively keeping it straight for themselves, and also effectively communicating it to users/customers/the world, is close to zero.

Here’s the positioning canvas I’ve created. If community building is important, you should fill one out not only for each product/project, but for your community, too.

Your community has to add value that goes above and beyond what people get from your product. The reason people join your community is not the same as the reason people use your project/product. The alternatives and pain points to joining a community are not the same as the alternatives / pain points to using a product.

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Do you know an open source founder whose company is struggling to get clarity on positioning and GTM fundamentals for project, product, company and community? Forward them this email and/or encourage them to reach out.