Episode 263: Alison Hill on Product Management in Open Source

Guest Alison Hill Panelist Richard Littauer Show Notes We’re
kicking off the new year of Sustain with host Richard Littauer
discussing sustaining open source software with guest, Alison Hill,
VP of Product at Anaconda, and a cognitive scientist with a PhD in
psychology. Alison shares her journey from academia to industry,
emphasizing the importance of statistics and data science in her
career. She explains her role at Anaconda, focusing on developing
secure and compatible distribution of Python packages and managing
the community repository, Anaconda.org. The conversation
covers the significance of product management in open source
projects, particularly those with corporate backing, and how these
roles can help in balancing user needs and business goals. In
addition, Alison shares her thoughts on the challenges and
strategies for maintaining open source projects without corporate
support and touches on the ‘palmer penguins’ project. Click to
download now! [00:01:13] Alison discusses her transition from
academic research in cognitive science to industry and data
science, emphasizing her passion for statistics and education.
[00:02:41] Alison explains her work at Anaconda, focusing on
product management and the Anaconda distribution, aiming to ease
the use of Python and R packages in the industry and academia. She
also elaborates on other projects she oversees, including
Anaconda.org and its role in supporting open source projects and
enterprise needs. [00:05:17] We hear how Anaconda sustains itself
financially through enterprise offerings and the balance of
supporting open source while maintaining a business model.
[00:07:14] Alison shares her previous experience as the first PM of
data science communication at Posit (formerly RStudio) and her role
in enhancing data science education and product development.
[00:12:49] Richard and Alison explore the challenges of sustaining
open source projects without corporate backing and strategies for
maintaining personal and project health in the open source
community. Alison discusses common mistakes companies make by
confusing project management with product management in open source
projects. [00:17:18] Richard asks about the skills needed for
developers to adopt a product-oriented approach. Alison suggests
that successful product-oriented developers often have high empathy
for end-users and experience with the pain points at scale, which
helps them anticipate and innovate solutions effectively.
[00:20:49] Richard expresses concerns about the sustainability of
smaller, community-led open source projects that lack corporate
backing and the structured support that comes with it. Alison
acknowledges her limited experience with non-corporate open source
projects but highlights the difficulty in maintaining such projects
without institutional support, and she shares her personal
challenges with keeping up with open source project demands.
[00:27:41] Alison stresses the importance of clear goals and
understanding the implications of joining larger ecosystems,
reflects on the need for clarity about the desired outcomes when
joining larger ecosystems, and shares examples of successful and
unsuccessful engagements in such settings. [00:29:52] She discusses
alternative sustainability models, including paid support and
subscriptions. [00:33:00] Alison brings up the example of Apache
Arrow and the challenges it faced with corporate sponsorship.
[00:34:23] We wrap up with Richard acknowledging that not all open
source projects require significant funding or formal business
models, and Alison explains the ‘palmerpenguins’ project she did at
the beginning of COVID. [00:37:07] Find out where you can follow
Alison on the web. Quotes [00:22:18] “What is the minimum level of
support you need to not feel like you’re drowning?” Spotlight
[00:38:14] Richard’s spotlight is Bernard Cornwell. [00:38:39]
Alison’s spotlight is the book, Impossible Creatures. Links
SustainOSS (https://sustainoss.org/) podcast@sustainoss.org
(mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) richard@sustainoss.org
(mailto:richard@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS Discourse
(https://discourse.sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Mastodon
(https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) Open
Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute)
(https://opencollective.com/sustainoss) Richard Littauer Socials
(https://www.burntfen.com/2023-05-30/socials) Alison Hill, PhD
Website (https://www.apreshill.com/) Alison Presmanes Hill, PhD
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/apreshill/) Alison Presmanes
Hill GitHub (https://github.com/apreshill) Anaconda
(https://www.anaconda.com/) Anaconda.org (https://anaconda.org/)
The Third Bit-Dr. Greg Wilson (https://third-bit.com/about/)
Sustain Podcast-Episode 64: Travis Oliphant and Russel Pekrul on
NumPy, Anaconda, and giving back with FairOSS
(https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/oliphant) Intercom on
Product Management
(https://www.intercom.com/resources/books/intercom-product-management)
Sustain Podcast-Episode 135: Tracy Hinds on Node.js’s CommComm and
PMs in Open Source (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/135) Hadley
Wickham (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley_Wickham)
palmerpenguins-GitHub
(https://allisonhorst.github.io/palmerpenguins/articles/intro.html)
Bernard Cornwell (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Cornwell)
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
(https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743371/impossible-creatures-by-katherine-rundell-illustrated-by-ashley-mackenzie/)
Credits Produced by Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/)
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest:
Alison Hill.