The Role of Product Management in Open Source

A PM (short for Product Manager) works making a bridge between developers and artist. The work revolves around defending a group of users/usecases.

In a project like Blender, design is also interwined into the product role, making it a more unique challenge.

The open source nature of this dynamic (with developers so approachable, and the development so transparent) may rend the PM role unnecessary. But is it so?

Joining us in this conversation, are members of selected open source projects, all with a heavy design and usability components, similar hurdles and users.

Participants:
* Hans Gerwitz - Head of Design - Canonical
* Emilio Coppola - Executive Director - Godot Foundation
* Andrés González - Head of Product - Penpot

The session will be hosted by Dalai Felinto, who has been working as PM at Blender since 2020.

Speakers

  • Graduated in Architecture and Urban Studies, using Blender since 2003 and contributor to the code since 2.47. His participation in the Blender community includes a book, few papers, workshops and talks at Blender events.

    Worked as the development coordinator of Blender Code Quest 2018, and was one of the 2.8x development coordinators.

    Dalai has been living in Amsterdam since 2019 and workin…

    Speaker Profile

  • Emilio Coppola leads the Godot Foundation as its Executive Director, guiding the growth of the free, open-source Godot game engine. He started out making games and teaching others how to use Godot. With his background in web development and startups, Emilio now oversees the Foundation's work. He manages funding, allocates resources, and helps Godot become a top choice for game creators.

  • UX/Product/Interaction Designer and partner at Kaleidos Open Source, the company behind Penpot - a web-based open-source design and prototyping tool that bridges the gap between designers and developers.

    With almost 20 years of experience, he has helped companies design their businesses and digital products by aligning user needs, business objectives and technological capabilities. He also tri…

    Speaker Profile

  • Hans Gerwitz held technology, creative, and business leadership positions serving a variety of industries across three continents. Today, he works as Head of Design at Canonical.

    One of the projects Hans oversees there is an Open Design initiative, which aims to leverage the company's legacy in open source to enhance collaboration between community designers and project maintainers, both withi…

    Speaker Profile