Reading up on Product Management in Open Source

I've been thinking about Product Management in FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) for a while now and I just spent most of my morning reading up on it. Here are a few good articles I came across : 

Why Product Management is Open Source’s Fatal Flaw - An interesting article (from 2008!) that used an example from the Pidgin FOSS IM Client (I've heard about this in college) to discuss where Product Managers fit into FOSS projects and why there is a need for more Product Management in FOSS.

No Such a Thing as Open Source Product Manager - Here's an article from 2005 that questions whether or not Product Managers add value to the underlying product. The anecdote about a FOSS competitor beating out software from Microsoft (where Product/Project Managers are involved) feels like an outlier rather than the norm.

Rules for product managers at open source companies - Here is a more recent article from 2020 that tries to layout exactly where Product Management can help an open source project and why Product Management can play a larger role in the future of FOSS as the FOSS products mature. The part that I really related to was

In reality, the bulk of requests and opportunities are likely to be around basic documentation, onboarding, helping with pull requests, updating project landing pages, and community management. With time and trust comes a greater ability to handle feedback and feature requests, a deeper understanding of the actual (and potential) users outside of the original team's self-view, and the spectrum of DevRel and marketing activities.

Also, the article pointed me to the Google Associate Product Manager Program! I didn't know this existed and I'm hoping to find more such programs.

What I Learned as an Open-Source Product Manager - The bit that I related to the most in this article was

When we quickly fix a problematic bug, or accept PRs from folks who need a certain feature, or even when we share the minutiae of our decision-making process, we're giving community members a sense of trust and ownership. They trust we care about their needs, and they realize their contributions actually matter to the product (both true!).

Also, I want to know how I can cultivate the culture described below. It doesn't happen as often as I wish it does on the projects I work on and one of my long term goals is to improve this aspect of the project.

There is no "feedback stage", because we hear from users at every step. People open issues on GitHub, where we maintain our backlog. They advocate for certain bug fixes or feature requests to be included in the next sprint. They weigh in on our requirements docs and give feedback on in-progress designs, often sharing use cases we hadn't considered. They QA, help us diagnose bugs, demand progress - it's simultaneously overwhelming and helpful.

Side note : I apologize if there are any spelling mistakes or difference in what I quoted above vs what is originally in the article. I was surprised that I couldn't copy-paste from the Medium article so I had to copy-type out the two quotes myself.

Another side note : The more I read about this topic, the more I understand the difference between two distinct types of Product Management in FOSS. There is PM for FOSS Projects, say the Python Programming Language, and there is PM for FOSS Products, say GitLab. The difference I feel is important because the scope of PM is different. Well, atleast at the moment, I think there are differences. Maybe they aren't too different.

One of the few FOSS Products where I can easily understand the role of a Product Manager is GitLab - https://about.gitlab.com/job-families/product/product-manager/.

Finally, for now i'll stop with this article by Open Collective WANTED: A product manager for Open Source projects. They talk about how the MochaJS project, after raising money on their platform, is thinking of spending the money not for development but rather on tasks that revolve Product/Project Management. The bit that resonated with me was

Someone who can shepherd the project, support developers in building the community, review incoming issues, champion the project externally and generally reduce the non-coding burdens on the existing developers. In many cases, community manager or developer relations end up playing a similar role.

I'd love to hear about interesting articles you know on Product/Project Management and FOSS.

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