🔬Our Framework
Does Community Health matter?
Much like traditional companies, historically, the medical field focused on treating illnesses. Little action would be taken to care for people until something went wrong and immediate actions were needed. As time has passed, we've learnt the hard way that being proactive and preventing is cheaper, more effective and enjoyable than curing.
In web3, where many tokenomics designs depend on network effects, healthy communities can enter a positive feedback cycle of talent attraction, valuable contributions, value creation and advocacy. While unhealthy communities can quickly enter a death spiral.
Importantly, basic metrics like engagement or sentiment tell us little about the underlying dynamics. Some communities come together under pressure while others fall apart; some transform conflict into deeper relationships, while others divide or create permanent bad vibez. What sets them apart? And, can we measure it?
We don't think a community is a collection of people. We also don't think it's a unifying body. It's simultaneously both and neither: It's people with connections, forming cliques with some cliques being connected by bridges, while others are more like isolated islands drifting off the community. All this together is the community.
When is a DAO's community healthy?
A DAO's community is considered healthy in the moment when it contributes (or at least does not destabilise) its nested systems and itself,
This means it:
Satisfies the needs and aspirations of the members (including alignment with their values, e.g. the Ethos of DAOs);
Promotes healthy relationships, and functioning subgroups and cliques;
Advances its collective goals (the community's capacity to generate value for the DAO as a whole);
Exists in a healthy ecosystem;
Resist shocks, adapt and transform as needed
Importantly, communities don't exist in a vacuum but interact with other communities: Members contribute to several communities, joining and leaving DAOs following their needs and aspirations. Over time, it's almost certain that a community will experience a series of shocks and changes, sending ripples through the ecosystem.
How do we approach Community Health?
The definition above invites a series of questions: how do we best satisfy the needs of the members? how do we become more adaptable or resilient? How do we promote functioning subgroups?
Because each community is different and because community health is complex, the answers will vary and will likely require some experimentation. The key is knowing where attention is needed, and how to gauge progress. Which is what we're covering next.
How to evaluate Community Health?
We assess a DAO's Community Health at 3 levels of granularity:
Layer 1 -The vital signs: a frequent, quick check to take the pulse using global indicators and adjust the level of attention given to improving community health. For example, a Layer 1 Health check can tell you:
Is my community aligned on a shared identity?
How engaged is my community and how is retention?
Are we risking losing contributors through an unhealthy community?
Layer 2 - The health assessment of the different nested systems: a more detailed assessment of the health of the different subgroups and cliques, the relationships between members and the well-being of the members themselves. This view allows targeting initiatives with precision. For example, a Layer 2 Health check will tell you:
How many sub-groups exist in my community and which need attention?
Is my community siloed or, on the other side, too connected and overwhelming?
How decentralized is my community?**
Layer 3 - The enabling factors for long-term health: a thorough investigation of predictive factors such as trust, self-empowerment, communication practices, psychological safety, etc. by leveraging data-driven methods and tailored interviews to give you insight into how the health of the community will evolve over time. For example, a Layer 3 Health check can tell you:
What tensions exist between different sub-groups and can we sustain them?
What voices (contributors’ needs and aspirations) are not heard and met?
Why are people leaving us?
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