Making the World Take Notice of Drupal Through Innovation: Owen Lansbury

Owen Lansbury, Chair of the Drupal Association Board and Founder of PreviousNext, has been at the forefront of Drupal’s evolution for over a decade. With a background in user experience design and business sustainability, he saw the potential of open-source early on and built one of the most prolific Drupal service providers in the world. His leadership at the Drupal Association has been pivotal in shaping the Drupal Certified Partner program, driving product marketing efforts, and tackling the financial sustainability of an open-source platform like Drupal.

Speaking with Alka Elizabeth from The DropTimes, Owen reflects on the biggest challenges facing Drupal, from maintaining relevance in a competitive market to ensuring businesses that profit from the platform give back to its development. He sheds light on the power of contribution, the role of grassroots initiatives like DrupalSouth, and why companies must invest in Drupal’s future to secure its longevity. His insights reveal how Drupal’s success is deeply tied to its ecosystem’s ability to evolve, innovate, and sustain itself.  

More than a conversation about governance and strategy, this interview captures the urgency and vision required to keep Drupal thriving. Owen doesn’t just discuss policies and initiatives—he delivers a call to action for agencies, developers, and businesses that rely on Drupal. Whether you’re an industry veteran or new to the Drupal community, his words offer a compelling look at what it takes to sustain one of the most powerful open-source platforms today.

TDT [1]: Can you share how you were first introduced to Drupal and open-source, and what initially drew you to commit to the platform as the foundation for PreviousNext?

Owen Lansbury: In the mid-2000s, I was working as a user experience design consultant and was frustrated by how many of my clients were paying exorbitant license fees for proprietary CMS platforms. This led me to explore open-source options, and Drupal quickly stood out as the most flexible and secure open-source CMS available at the time. By late 2008, PreviousNext’s co-founder [Kim Pepper] and I realised there was a gap in the Australian market to provide enterprise-grade Drupal services, and the company was founded on that premise a short time later.

TDT [2]: As Chair of the Drupal Association Board, you've played a critical role in shaping the project’s strategic direction. What key initiatives are you most proud of, and what challenges remain for the next leadership team?  

Owen Lansbury: Just before I joined the board in 2019, Dries had written an important blog post about “Balancing Makers and Takers to scale and sustain Open Source”. In my first board retreat, this led to discussions about creating a Drupal Certified Partner program to recognise the “Makers” in the Drupal ecosystem which has now signed up over 100 Drupal agencies worldwide. The moment this really came together for me was seeing these Drupal Certified Partners activated to help build Drupal CMS and set the foundation for a whole new era of Drupal adoption.

The Drupal CMS launch was also a showcase of the Drupal Association’s new product marketing capabilities. The innovation demonstrated by Drupal CMS and our ability to market this to the world is proof that the first two pillars of the Drupal Association’s current strategy are well underway. Our biggest remaining challenge is boosting the level of fundraising required to ensure Drupal remains competitive in a very crowded CMS market. I discussed this in my recent talk at DrupalCon Singapore in terms of the real business benefits of contributing both code to the Drupal open-source project and funding for the Drupal Association.

My message to any organisation that relies on Drupal is that by investing in the Drupal Association’s initiatives around innovation and product marketing, you will be helping sustain your own business in the long term.

TDT [3]: With your extensive background in user experience design and business sustainability, how have these perspectives influenced your approach to governance and decision-making at the Drupal Association?  

Owen Lansbury: There are two key aspects to how my background influences my approach at the Drupal Association. Number one is to take creative approaches to problem-solving. The world has changed radically in the 24 years since Drupal was first released and it’s vital that we don’t get caught in a pattern of thinking that what has worked in the past will necessarily work now or in the future. The second key thing is taking a responsible approach to financial management so that the Drupal Association is able to continue supporting the Drupal project well into the future. 

TDT [4]: The Drupal Association has faced periods of change and adaptation. How have you worked to foster resilience and innovation within the community during your tenure? 

Owen Lansbury: For me, this is a very simple answer. If end users aren’t considering Drupal to be the best CMS for their projects, there will be no Drupal community in the long term. That’s why the strategic focus of the Drupal Association is on supporting innovation in Drupal as a product and ensuring that the world knows about Drupal through product marketing. The community will remain resilient if they can see a long future ahead for Drupal, which is essentially what our core mission at the Drupal Association is about sustaining.

TDT [5]: Now that DrupalCMS has been released, what do you believe the Board’s priorities should be in ensuring Drupal's long-term sustainability, both financially and in terms of community engagement?  

Owen Lansbury: Drupal CMS is designed to solve potential users’ first impression of Drupal as a product by showcasing its ease of use underpinned by Drupal Core’s flexibility, scalability, accessibility, and security. Again, it’s very simple for me—if Drupal’s current users stay on Drupal because they understand it meets their long-term needs and more organisations continue to adopt it, Drupal’s future is very secure because more agencies and developers will be attracted to providing Drupal services and more money will be flowing through the Drupal ecosystem. The Drupal Association sits at the heart of that ecosystem, providing the infrastructure to contribute to Drupal’s innovation and opportunities for the community to engage around the project—whether that be through Drupal.org, Slack chats or at a DrupalCon. 

TDT [6]: As someone deeply involved in regional and global Drupal initiatives, how do you see the relationship between grassroots efforts (like DrupalSouth) and the larger global vision for Drupal?

Owen Lansbury: My own view is that the Drupal Association does not “manage” the Drupal community, it provides the tools and governance structures for the community to self-organise. Regional initiatives like DrupalSouth are absolutely essential for Drupal communities to engage with each other at a local level and should be driven by people in those communities. I always like to echo the sentiment that Drupal is a classic “do-ocracy”: If you want to see something happen or change, you need to get involved.

TDT [7]: The Drupal community thrives on contribution and collaboration. What new or existing programs do you think are vital to encourage participation from underrepresented regions or groups?

Owen Lansbury: As I discussed in my DrupalCon Singapore talk, the most important factor in contribution and participation rests with business leaders whose organisations rely on Drupal. While Drupal might have relied heavily on individual hobbyists in the distant past, this is generally no longer the case. If you’re a Drupal developer, you’re probably employed by or contracting to a company that is making millions of dollars by providing Drupal services. It’s those employers' responsibility to ensure that they’re providing their teams with Drupal contribution time as part of their paid roles and sending their staff to Drupal events. 

The business benefits of formalising this within Drupal services companies are immense, whether it’s being a more attractive employer for recruiting staff, raising the quality of a team’s coding standards, retaining the best staff for longer periods or improving profitability. This approach is applicable regardless of where a company is located or how big it is, and PreviousNext is living proof of this—a twenty-person company from Australia is one of the world’s most consistently productive Drupal contributors simply because it’s a core element of our company’s policies.

TDT [8]: How has achieving Drupal Certified Partner (DCP) status contributed to PreviousNext’s business success, and what tangible benefits have you observed in areas such as client trust, project opportunities, and market positioning?  

Owen Lansbury: As I mentioned above, contribution is at the core of how PreviousNext operates as a company and I go into a lot more detail about it in this blog post. The resulting Drupal Certified Partner status provides us with means that we can walk into any client pitch and point to the fact that PreviousNext is independently verified as one of the world’s top Drupal services companies. The value of this is incredibly powerful—especially with C-Level executives who pay a lot of attention to these types of credentials.

TDT [9]: For agencies considering becoming a DCP, what challenges should they anticipate, and how can they effectively balance the commitment to contribution with their commercial goals?  

And don’t consider contribution as a “commitment”—it’s going to enhance your team’s expertise and your competitive positioning, so consider contribution as an investment in your business that will help you fulfil your commercial goals. I should note that for my DrupalCon Singapore talk I did go back through a decade of PreviousNext’s expenses related to all paid contribution time, every Drupal event sponsorship, and sending our team members to Drupal events (all of PreviousNext’s team attend every annual DrupalSouth in Australia). The figure was 4% of total revenue, which covers most of our marketing, staff recruitment and professional development requirements. In comparison, the amount we spent on recruitment fees over the same period was 0.4% of total revenue. In terms of its impact on our business, our profit is quadrupled and average staff retention is triple the industry average for Australia, and we view Drupal contribution as a huge factor in being able to achieve those results.

TDT [10]: PreviousNext has long embraced a culture of contribution. How has the DCP status reinforced or expanded your ability to influence the Drupal ecosystem and collaborate with the global community?  

Owen Lansbury: The single biggest impact of Drupal contribution on our team is that they’re working on something so much bigger than PreviousNext would ever be able to build as a little company in Australia. In the meantime, they’re interacting with and being mentored by some of the smartest developers in the world through contribution. In terms of ability to influence the Drupal ecosystem, 13% of the top 100 Drupal core contributors globally are from PreviousNext - that’s an incredible impact for such a small Australian company for software used on hundreds of thousands of websites.

TDT [11]: The Drupal community in Australia and New Zealand has grown into a robust ecosystem with numerous agencies and contributors. What factors have been crucial in fostering this growth, and what potential challenges lie ahead?  

Owen Lansbury: The single biggest factor in Drupal adoption in Australia was the federal government stipulating that open-source software needed to be considered for all government technology projects. Drupal became the CMS of choice for many government agencies with more than half of federal government sites now using it, many of those on the centralised GovCMS platform that’s based on Drupal. This has a huge impact on Australian taxpayers, as the use of open source obviously saves money on software license fees but means that the majority of the work is done by local companies with local employees, so it keeps taxpayer money circulating in the local community. The primary challenge we have in Australia is that big proprietary CMS competitors will do whatever they can to undermine Drupal’s dominance, playing whatever tricks they can to undermine confidence in using open-source software. We also have a lot of agencies locally that profess to be Drupal experts but have little to no engagement with the Drupal project or community. My personal goal is to convert these “Takers” into “Makers” for the benefit of Drupal as a whole. 

TDT [12]: You mentioned that one of your primary goals has always been to ensure Drupal’s success translates to collective community benefit. Looking back, what key initiatives or moments stand out as pivotal in achieving this?  

Owen Lansbury: I think I may have been referring to the fact that every time a Drupal project goes to an agency that’s a “Taker,” then Drupal loses in terms of contribution to the project and funding for the Drupal Association. What we’re starting to see is that some clients are now specifying that only Drupal Certified Partners can respond to their Request for Proposals and the Drupal Association has started an initiative to help more clients understand why this is so important for the health of the software they’ll be relying on. I’d love to see a time when this is the default approach most clients take when seeking a new vendor.

TDT [13]: On a personal note, what has been the most rewarding aspect of serving as Chair of the Board, and what advice would you give to future leaders looking to make a meaningful impact in the open-source space?  

Owen Lansbury: By far, the most rewarding aspect of any role in the Drupal community is that we’re collectively working on something so much bigger and more impactful than anyone could do alone—Dries included! There are so many disparate skill sets required in a complex open-source project like Drupal that I don’t view my own role on the board as more or less important than someone fixing bugs in an issue queue—we’re all bringing a particular skill to where we think it can help move things forward. As I already noted about Drupal being a do-ocracy, my only advice for anyone interested in getting involved at any level is to focus on what you’d like to see improved or where your skills can add value and get started!