A project backed by a single company is viewed with suspicion. A project co-sponsored by multiple companies, even rivals, is immediately seen as a potential standard, making it a much safer bet for the community to adopt and contribute to.
While Linus Torvalds made Linux a success, today's enterprises require governance structures that guarantee neutrality and longevity. A project controlled by one person or company is too risky for widespread adoption. Foundations provide this safety.
Unlike proprietary software, open source product management is not about dictating a roadmap. It is a continuous negotiation to find a mutually acceptable path forward among diverse, often competing, stakeholders.
Projects like Kubernetes succeeded because foundations like the CNCF created a trusted space for competing giants to co-invest. This corporate backing assures customers of the project's longevity, making it a safe choice to adopt.
PMs must accept that open source roadmaps are engineering-driven and influenced by competitors. This inherent 'drama' is the price paid for creating a much larger market pie than a single company could achieve alone.
The core open source project acts as a shared standard that creates a market. Companies then compete by building value-added layers on top, such as simplified management software, 'we'll run it for you' services, or guaranteed expert support contracts.
A product manager's core skill of influence without authority extends perfectly to the open source world. A clear, well-communicated vision and rationale for a feature or direction can align engineers regardless of who employs them.
With hundreds of thousands of developers contributing to ecosystems like the CNCF, the pace of advancement is something no single company can match. Product leaders must recognize that opting out means competing against this massive, collaborative force.
While AI can be used to create exploits, its greater impact is on security. AI tools empower a vastly larger pool of contributors to scrutinize open codebases, identify flaws, and submit patches, strengthening the ecosystem faster than is possible in a closed environment.