It's Not Rocket Science, It's a Flywheel: Engineering OS Communities with DevEx

Speaker: Jeremy Meiss

Room: HC 204

Time: Sun 11:30 am – 12:00 pm

Format: Lecture (30 Min + Q&A)

Difficulty: Introductory / Some experience required

Track: DevOps

Additional Tags: OSS Distributions, Sustainability & Funding

Presenter Location: In-person

Experience: umpteenth time speaking

At: anywhere

Description:

Thriving open source communities don’t happen by accident — they’re engineered. Sporadic contributions and overworked maintainers often lead to burnout or stagnation, but a well‑designed Developer Experience (DevEx) Flywheel can transform community growth from a struggle into a sustainable cycle.

In this talk, Jeremy connects the everyday concept of a flywheel with DevEx principles to show how communities gain momentum. He explores how feedback loops, “time to joy,” onboarding, documentation, and contributor pathways all work together to create an experience that encourages participation and strengthens project health.

Instead of hoping for community growth, attendees will learn how to intentionally design it through Developer Experience.

Target Audience:

Anyone building or maintaining open source communities

DevOps practitioners

Contributors and maintainers looking to reduce burnout and increase engagement