tl;dr
Clear and compelling product messaging is essential for open source projects to attract users, contributors, and funding.
Effective communication for open source success
Clear communication is the hidden catalyst behind successful open source projects. While technical excellence forms the foundation, it's the ability to effectively communicate your project's value that ultimately drives adoption, contribution, and long-term success.
GitHub's 2023 Open Source Survey reveals a sobering truth: 65% of abandoned projects cite "poor documentation and unclear communication" as their primary downfall.
The message is clear—great code alone isn't enough.
Your tech is complex. Your message shouldn't be.
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Product communication can make or break your open source project
When people evaluate free and open source software (FOSS) tools for their next project, they don't just look at technical capabilities. They ask fundamental questions like: What problem does this solve? Why should I trust it? How easily can I implement it?
The answers to these questions don't live in your codebase—they live in your communication.
Clear messaging drives measurable results
- 72% of developers prioritize clear documentation when selecting open source tools
- Projects with effective communication attract more users and contributors
- Clarity translates directly to higher adoption, engagement, and funding opportunities
Standing out in a crowded space
Here's a mind-bending number: GitHub hosts over 200 million (MILLION!!) repositories. That's a lot of noise to cut through! How do you make your project visible in this vast ocean of code?
Attracting funding and corporate support
We must touch on something we don't discuss openly enough in open source: money. Clear communication isn't just about attracting users—it's about sustainability.
In 2024, Microsoft's Open Source Programs Office experimented with a data-driven approach to sponsor 175 open source projects. One key takeaway? Projects that clearly communicated their funding needs—such as by including a funding.yml file—made it easier for sponsors to understand how to support them.
Investing time in your product communication isn't just a nice-to-have—it's essential for building a sustainable future for your open source work.
Some common product communication pitfalls
It is all too common for FOSS projects to deliver technically empirically useful code, but they don’t gain any traction—fiscal, adoption, or community. All too often, this is down to content rather than code. Here are some common communication pitfalls that create barriers between your project and potential users or contributors.
Pitfall: The technical jargon trap
A scenario we see frequently: A brilliant developer builds an innovative utility, such as a caching solution. The README starts with: “A horizontally scalable, eventually consistent, multi-node caching implementation with configurable consistency guarantees.”
Technically accurate? Yes. Helpful for most potential users? Not really.
Even technical audiences appreciate the clarity. Developer surveys, such as the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, consistently show that the vast majority of developers prefer documentation that starts with simple use cases before diving into technical details. Remember, your audience might include:
- Developers from different technical backgrounds
- Technical decision-makers who need to understand business value
- Potential contributors evaluating where to spend their time
- Less technical stakeholders interested in evaluating or supporting the project
Pitfall: The “what” without the “why”
Project descriptions that read like feature lists are not very helpful. Features are important, but they're not enough. Most developers want to understand why a tool exists and what problems it solves before examining its feature list.
A well-crafted README file is crucial for conveying the purpose and value of your project to potential users and contributors. GitHub advises that a README should explain why your project is useful and what users can do with it. Even if it is perfectly obvious to you as the creator of this excellent solution, that features A, B, and C add up to D, not everyone can do the math on their own.
Clear is kind: Tell us what your work is good for!
Pitfall: The missing roadmap
Every potential user asks, “Is this project actively maintained?” Unclear project direction or consistency can lead to hesitation in adoption. For instance, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) emphasizes that a well-defined roadmap provides a clear vision and purpose, aiding contributors in understanding project objectives and aligning their efforts accordingly.
Without a clear roadmap, users can’t plan their dependency strategies, contributors struggle to know where to focus, and potential sponsors can’t assess long-term viability.
Pitfall: The contributor maze
One of the concerning trends in open source is how many first-time contributors never return to make a second contribution. The main reason? Unclear contribution processes and guidelines. Imagine the lost potential community and velocity: You get someone hyped on the idea of being a part of your wonderful FOSS project, but getting onboarded is such an ordeal that they don’t come back for more.
Here are some unintentional barriers to (repeat!) contribution that you can avoid:
- Missing CONTRIBUTING.md files or other contribution guides
- Unclear issue labeling (priority, difficulty, new contributor issues, etc.)
- Undefined/undocumented development workflows and tools
- Lack of mentorship signals
Find out more about overcoming barriers to contribution in our guide:
Four pillars for crafting a compelling product message
Now that we've identified what not to do let's shift to the positive and focus on creating messages that resonate. We've developed a product communications framework that has helped numerous open source projects clarify their communication and boost their community engagement. Here are the four pillars of effective open source messaging:
1) Clarity: The “elevator pitch” test
Can you explain your project in the time it takes to ride an elevator? If not, you might be overcomplicating your message.
Here's a simple starter template: [Project Name] helps [target audience] to [solve specific problem] by [unique approach/solution].
For example: “Terraform helps development teams to manage infrastructure as code, making cloud deployments consistent and repeatable.”
Pro tip: Test your elevator pitch on people outside your immediate team and specialty. If they can explain it back to you, you're on the right track.
2) Relevance: Speaking to pain points
Your message needs to connect directly with your audience's challenges.
A variation on our Value Case formula is a big help here:
- Challenge: What specific problems does your project solve?
- Persona: Who experiences these problems most acutely?
- Solution: How does your technology or offering solve the issues?
- Benefit: What’s in it for me? (WiiFM) Thanks to your solution, how will your target persona’s day, job, or life be better?
Before: “Our library implements efficient memory management.”
After: “Stop worrying about memory leaks in production. Our library automatically handles memory management, so you can focus on building features.”
3) Differentiation: Your unique value proposition
In a world full of alternatives, why should developers choose your project? It's not about having a unique feature set—it's about communicating the benefits of your project's unique approach.
Consider highlighting:
- Your project's specific approach to solving problems
- Community aspects that make your project special
- Performance characteristics that matter to your users
- Philosophy and values that guide development
4) Actionability: Clear next steps
Every piece of communication should guide users toward a clear next action.
Your communication should always answer (at least) these questions:
- How do I start using this?
- Where do I go if I need help?
- How can I contribute?
- Where do I learn more?
Putting it all together
Let's look at how a project might evolve its messaging using these pillars:
Before: “A distributed, fault-tolerant message queue with advanced persistence features.”
After: “Build reliable microservices faster. Our message queue handles millions of messages per second while guaranteeing zero message loss—perfect for teams building mission-critical applications. Get started with just three lines of code.”
This improved version:
- Clearly states what it is and who it's for
- Addresses a specific pain point (reliability in microservices)
- Differentiates through performance and reliability claims
- Provides an actionable hook (“three lines of code”)
Need help?
OSP can help you with your communication strategy. Need help refining your open source project's product messaging? Check out our other blog posts for more tips and strategies or contact us for a consultation!