Hi there, I'm Sanskriti Harmukh, a Developer Relations at Hoppscotch. My journey with FOSS projects spans over 2 years and has been incredibly rewarding. From interning with FOSS projects to organizing events like DelhiFOSS and DurgFOSS, to presenting Hoppscotch at experience labs in IndiaFOSS 3.0 to now working full-time in Hoppscotch, it's been quite a ride. This time around, I want to approach FOSS projects’ functioning from a fresh perspective and help maintainers strengthen their developer community.

Maintaining the momentum of an open-source project after its initial release can be quite challenging. Even if the project gains a lot of attention and first 100 stars, sustaining the engagement over the long term can be difficult. To overcome these challenges, project maintainers need to start focusing on developer outreach and relations from the very beginning, even before hiring a growth team.

In my talk, I'll be throwing some light upon one of the prevalent issues in the open-source community today, the Developer Chasm.

1. I’ll suggest effective set of strategies to overcome it, such as the QUAKE Model and exhibiting my take on Crossing the chasm.
2. We'll also draw an inspiration from Maslow's Theory of Needs to develop a framework known as the Hierarchy of Developer Needs, providing a structured approach to tackling the challenges faced by open-source projects.
3. We’ll also dive deeper into some real-world case-studies to gain an insightful takeaway from successful implementation of developer engagement practices.

By the end of the session, attendees thus will gain a deeper understanding of actionable strategies to open door for sustained developer engagement and project growth.