Attracting a team

"Explicitly thank users for any contribution; for everyone that helps out, there were 100 that were deterred for some reason." - Markus Krotzsch

You really want to ask yourself, why would other people want to join you in this endeavor? So spend some time thinking about the mission of your project. Not only what problem do you currently want to solve, but what is the greater purpose that the project is serving? Craft a one sentence mission statement to rally people to your cause.

Now think about the opportunities and skills that contributors can hope to obtain. Maybe they will gain skills in an exciting framework/technology, or they'll have a chance to give back to an underserved group, or they'll be leading technical decisions about something that will be used by millions of developers in the future. Ask yourself why you care about this project, and see if those reasons don't apply to others as well. When the goals of your project align with the goals of potential contributors, you would have found a motivated team.

Write a CONTRIBUTIONS file to teach others how to join you. Include descriptions of where to file bugs (e.g. open an issue directly on Github), where to ask for help (e.g. join your project Slack channel), where to start when contributing code (e.g. issues with the 'first-timers-only' or 'help-wanted' tags). Add these tags to issues that beginners can help you with on your project.

So now you should have a Github project with starter code, a mission statement, details on how to contribute and a list of benefits for contributors. You've already gone farther than most. Package all of this into a single page/blogpost and send it to everyone you know. If you post it online, other people will find it. And if you post it to Andela by proposing a project, we'll give you a Mentor to help you grow the project.