I vividly remember a product review at Zalando back in 2018 or 2019 where it became abundantly clear there was no business rational for having an OSPO at Zalando.
I had joined just half a year before, coming from 10 years in an open source startup. A sustainable, successful business, loved by its users, compared to Zalando, it was a simple business with simple challenges and simple solutions.
Joining the complex world of a business like Zalando was somewhat of a shock, you had to get used to aligning with 10s of teams to get anything done and in such a complex world, scalable solutions such as detailed, on point writtten and verbal communication was crucial, it's ineffective to be imprecise when it cascades downwards towards 100s of people.
Back to the product review... that half an hour thought me 2 things: the ability of Jim F. to ask drill down questions in that review to get to the root of a problem was an amazing skill I wanted to master, secondly: Jims questions on the value of having of open source program office showed without a doubt that such a team did not deliver any business value, the delta between the organization other functions handling open source, and having an OSS support team run around cheerleading and checkboxing was minimal.
Instead of open source, I ended up heading up Zalando's product security unit, doing some of what I consider my most impactful and fulfilling work.
And now 5 years later, I finally put together all the thoughts Jim started back then into a presentation at FOSS Backstage on how open source offices are growing increasingly irrelevant within its current definition.
https://lnkd.in/gyVYRBqx
SENIOR CONSULTAN AT CONSULTING ENERGY
3moNuevas y emocionantes obras de arte están en exhibición en el Kendall Houston Public Library Foundation! El Vicepresidente de Recursos Humanos y Servicios de Apoyo de CITGO, Kresha Sivinski se unió a The Energy Corridor District para una presentación de arte de impresionantes piezas hechas con puertas recicladas, pintadas por UP Art Studio en colaboración con nuestra increíble comunidad durante la celebración del Día de eARTh presentada por CITGO 🌎🎨