Community is an essential part of any project, company, or product. Today, it’s a crucial driving power behind success.
In this article, I want to discuss the principles of community-driven organizations and share some personal experiences in managing a community. A while ago, my company launched a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) project that quickly accumulated an active group of followers. It was almost an overnight success, as we woke up to dozens of messages from eager users.
Unfortunately, that project didn’t take off, but it left me with some experience and knowledge to share.
DAOs And Their Purpose
DAOs offer an alternative to centralized governance models. They employ a horizontal structure in which there is no central authority, and all decisions regarding the functionality of the entity are made by voting.
In a previous article, I've written a more detailed overview of what DAOs are and how they function. But the main takeaway is that a blockchain allows the community to become the de-facto board of directors instead of a group of leaders making all the decisions.
The obvious application for governing communities isn’t the only one. There has already been talk about experimental DAO cities and dreams of DAO-run governments. Still, despite DAO being a self-governing organism, any community requires management, so they still require a team behind the project.
The Power Of Anonymity
When the governing organ is the community itself, a reasonable question comes to mind: Who watches the community?
Usually, you can model the behavioral patterns of any large group on a smaller one. I could write a whole chapter dedicated to the errors and lessons learned in attempting to handle an online community, and it would need to be underlined that an anonymous online group is much harder to navigate than an offline one.
An anonymous user has no fear of consequences. Hiding their true identity protects them from any responsibility. At the same time, these users can very much be one of the deciding votes in the community.
Quality community management is essential in these cases. As any customer-managed relationship (CMR) handbook explains, you have to be both discreet and influential to efficiently control fear, uncertainty, and doubt **(**FUD) and troll activity on the platform.
The Do’s And Don't’s
There’s a considerable amount of work that has to go into making a community better. You will certainly aim to please everyone, and it’s vital to remember that this isn’t always possible. There are always individuals, disappointed with your performance—whether or not you are doing what’s best for the project or the users.
Here are a few factors to keep in mind.
Liaison
First and foremost, you need a skilled and experienced community manager, a person who knows how to keep the people engaged and active, answer their questions and steer them in a productive direction.
This is necessary because every community desires a large amount of attention, and there is no way for the developers to provide that much attention. It’s either work on a project or work with the community. That’s why a designated liaison between the two entities is a must-have.
Information
Your users must remain informed. If the decision-making lies in their hands, they should possess all the necessary information. So don’t share only the good news—keep your "board of directors" up-to-date on negative issues as well.
This is important for another reason: People don’t tend to trust projects that are all pros and no cons. To any experienced user, that would reek of a scam.
Assistance
A huge part of maintaining a healthy community is asking for help from said community. You might know best what works from a technical side, but you have to remember who your user is. And if you have direct access to them, you should take advantage of that access.
Even if the DAO voters influence major decisions, there are dozens of smaller ones, too. Your best bet is to include the community in as many processes as possible. Still, remember that they aren’t always correct: Learn from the feedback, but use your judgment to offer the options you are confident will work and improve the product.
FUD And Trolls
There will always be people who spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt. You can’t win with these users, but they have the power to turn any bit of information, or even your community, against you.
There are several approaches to dealing with them, from the toughest one—i.e., ban hammer—to deep personal involvement and attempts to change their view of your project. On this subject, everyone has to choose for themselves.
Whatever your decision is, accept the fact that there will be damage. And all I can say is, be prepared to make tough choices.
The Key To Everything
The main takeaway from my own experience dealing with communities is that empathy is the key. On each step, in the world of total anonymity, understanding that there is a human being on the other side of the conversation is crucial to success. Trying to connect with that human instead of an empty avatar is what we do to make sure that whatever it is we’re doing means something to someone. We show empathy, and we receive it in return.
And here is the most interesting part: One has to show empathy not just to their users, but to themselves. As a leader or a manager of a project, you have an enormous amount of responsibility. You will make mistakes and learn from them. But you have to realize that this is part of the process.
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