Building open source projects requires balancing ambition with resources - whether you're a solo maintainer or part of a team. This collection provides practical, scannable guidance on project scoping, maintenance management, and leveraging AI to work efficiently and sustainably - presented mainly as checklists and visual mindmaps you can reference quickly.
What you'll learn:
- Ten factors that determine whether your project is sustainable long-term (before you start)
- Eight success strategies drawn from years of maintaining a niche open source project
- How to use AI for product design work while maintaining quality and understanding
- Why traditional prototyping advice changes when AI reduces the cost of functional prototypes
Posts in this pack:
- **Sustainable by Design**
Ten factors to evaluate for any open source project: project scope, velocity, required maintenance, communication volume, and passion alignment. A comprehensive framework for long-term small project viability.
- **Strategies for Open Source Success**
Eight lessons from building Docsify-This: communicate purpose clearly, twin development with documentation, engage users where they are, and maintain focus on first-use experience.
- **Leveraging ChatGPT for Open Source Product Design**
Clear boundaries for AI assistance. Do's: secondary research, microcopy improvements, explaining code. Don'ts: replacing direct user research or using code you don't fully understand.
- **How Generative AI is Changing my Approach to Design Prototyping**
AI reduces the sunk-cost barrier of functional prototypes. What this means for designers who've been taught to avoid prototyping in code—and why disposable fidelity changes everything.
Explore other topic packs:
🎯 **Project Clarity Framework Pack** - Keep projects focused for both developers and users
🧡 Building Open Source with Heart Pack - Foster projects that users and contributors enjoy
Or: View all of Paul’s blog posts →