Consumer to Contributor - Lessons Learned from Kubeflow Development

Learn how to transition from being an open source consumer to becoming an active contributor and maintainer through this conference talk by Alexander Perlman and Michael Zazula from Capital One, presented at a CNCF event. Discover practical strategies for identifying your first contributions, including how to select, structure, and properly scope pull requests for quick merges while authoring code that's easy to review. Explore essential soft skills such as developing empathy for existing maintainers, communicating respectfully within open source communities, and overcoming imposter syndrome when collaborating with experienced project maintainers. Follow the speakers' real journey from simple documentation fixes to delivering large-scale, high-impact features in the Kubeflow project, with actual pull requests serving as case studies. Gain insights into the importance of community engagement and learn how to advocate for and secure time for open source contributions within your professional role, empowering you to embark on your own contributor journey.