Overview
Expanding GitHub Sponsors, refreshing the web presence, and consolidating information
I was a copywriter turned Editorial Manager / Content Manager for the GitHub Blog, Product Manager and Content Designer for GitHub Sponsors, and served on the Inclusion Advisory Council.
GitHub Sponsors adds the option to financially support open source work via GitHub.com. It’s Patreon but for open source developers. When I joined Sponsors, they were experiencing growing pains.
After the initial success of GitHub Sponsors, the website was outdated and needed to address both peer contributors and potential sponsors from an enterprise level. At the same time we needed to provide a smoother, informed experience when using the service to reduce churn.
Goals
Unifying information while expanding the program
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Update service pages and web presence
Evolve the front-page and documentation to provide info about the present-day service, including new features and general tax “guidance.”🧩
Onboard users to the service effectively
Redesign onboarding for a frictionless experience that informs a user where they are in the process.🔐
Bonus: Reduce churn and fraud
Provide information on what kind of tax guidance can be offered legally, set expectations and checkpoints for users going through signup, and reduce opportunities for bad actors to enter the program.
Challenges
Sharing financial information for a global audience
Without much experience in fintech, I was determined to write copy and provide content that helps individuals understand financial implications without dispensing tax advice. I partnered with the Microsoft Fraud and Security Team to understand the potential for bad actors and strategize processes to maintain a healthy program.
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Information is outdated and isn't centralized
GitHub Sponsors started as a passion project to support other open source developers in the space. As with all passion projects, there is a time when its image and information must be elevated to become an official service offering. As part of elevating GitHub Sponsors, I needed to review and audit everything available to the community, update the information, and present it in spaces that made sense for user flows.👥
Consideration for users and enterprises
Many services need to appeal to multiple audiences, and GitHub Sponsors was no different. While we want to support and be welcoming to an open source contributor to sponsors another open source contributor, we also needed to provide the right language and information to support large enterprises providing significant charable contributions to the program.🌊
User churn and program growing pains
User churn can be dificult to identify and minimize because it can be a combination of problems. Fixing one part of a problem may alleviate the problem, but it can only worsen if other issues are left unaddressed.
Process
Creating a cohesive Sponsors program
Updating program information, creating process to prevent financial fraud, adding support for additional regions were just a few things I accomplished during my time as the Product Manager for GitHub Sponsors.
Audit content
What do we have today? What are our biggest support questions? What churn are we experiencing? These are just a few questions that were answered from auditing the existing information shared internally and externally for the Sponsors program. Auditing content meant understanding the scope of work needed to elevate GitHub Sponsors.
Identify goals
Part of managing a product is identifying priorities. Because of the prevalence of global partners and contributors, helping anyone see themselves contributing to open source was key. Even the "small" details that may not be as important to you, might be the biggest factor for another person deciding to sign up.
Review data and feedback
Creating and establishing baselines for what's working versus what isn't. Using the data to inform some of the hypotheses and bets we're making with the program.
Created roadmap with check-ins
A few considerations from the roadmap:
User personas and mapping flow
Overall scope with priorities
Address content updates
Reduce churn in onboarding
Mockup options
Deadlines and responsible individuals
Success metrics and next iterations
Supporting Individals AND Organizations
Individuals need different information than organizations about what legal documents and tax information they'll be provided. Considering how these intersect and what's important to each audience determined how their experience should be shaped.
Identify goals
What do users want out of a funding platform? These are the questions I considered while collaborating with other product managers, engineers, developers, data analysts, legal, and other collaborators in creating goals for the program.
Elevate our "look and feel"
Our design had the look and feel of a program that was generic, without a focused audience or customer evidence. To elevate our design and get our audience excited about joining, we needed to share FOMO-inducing copy and design.
Unblocking onboarding
One of the bigger issues I inherited was figuring out why we were experiencing so much churn and feedback around the onboarding experience. The sign-up and waitlist left much to be desired, leaving audiences confused about when they can participate and what to do. Addressing these concerns removed the "bottleneck" and reduced churn in the program.
Adding customer evidence
Clarifying who our customers are and identifying that we needed to prioritize enterprise and individuals equally in a program for supporting the community was important to convey in the design.
Show and tell
Engaging and interacting with our customers for feedback helped elevate the overall program experience.
Proration for Enterprise
Setting expectations for fees, payment schedule, and proration was part of the solution for individuals and organizations alike. Help people understand whats owed to who and when.
A Part of the Whole
After so much change, it was important to share our findings internally and consider how GitHub Sponsors fits with the larger GitHub ecosystem, and further, the Microsoft ecosystem. Collaborating with product managers and others across the companies helped with further learnings for future Sponsors updates.
Results
Users have set expectations when joining Sponsors
A more inclusive experience
Representation matters for users to see themselves succeeding in any program. Now when you learn about GitHub Sponsors, you're greeted by a brown octocat.
Relaunching the program
After growing pains, relaunching the GitHub Sponsors program meant people could experience an evolved, more mature program with information, processes, and a greater opportunity for financial success.
Holistic communications
Our audience now knows what to do and when. Setting expectations is part of the success of the program.
Expanded support
More often than not, there's a lot of existing assets and information that can be updated and reused instead of requiring a complete overhaul.
Community earners
Many program members earned more money after our relaunch, and a user, Caleb Porzio, earned $100k/year (USD) in the program.
Tax information
After partnering with legal and tax experts, we were able to provide clear and concise tax information without dispensing non-binding financial advice. This reduced overall support tickets around financial questions.
Customer evidence
Providing information about how corporations, individuals, and teams can benefit from being a part of the program with success stories helped the community understand how they can leverage the program for their own repositories.
Learnings and questions
I learned a significant amount about fraud, financial security for programs, and banking trends on a global scale. A lot of my existing questions and future considerations are still related to how the global majoriy approaches banking. Would "bankless" options have revolutionized the platform we built? What kinds of concerns would we have with bankless options that differ from our current iteration?
These are a few questions that I want to consider for the next time I manage a project like this:
Are we seeing results from people who are predisposed to success based on their existing levels of privilege?
What would the program look like if we were able to incorporate bankless options?
Determining the ease of use for an enterprise is different from an everyday individual user and may require a completely different approach