A North Star for Gitcoin ⭐️

[owocki]

@Viriya

That said, something I have noticed is that both the grants strategy and Passport strategy is working on different sides of the same coin: funding distribution. Grants Stack/Allo enables,

@Viriya

One thing that’s missing for me in our strategy is a clearly articulated singular focus (aka a North Star) of what we’re trying to achieve as a network (both of products and ppl). I

i dont know if this is what you asked for… but i think each of the products has to go through the following maturity steps along the product maturity spectrum (thing i just made up but might try to meme into existence if ppl like it):

1. Launch - the moment the product makes first contact with market.
2. Product Market Fit - the moment the product is starting to work for a specific market need
3. Network Effects - the product/protocol getting exponentially better the more people use it, up to an upper limit defined by the size of the market.
4. Financial Sustainability - a value capture mechanism is activated that allows the protocol to be financially sustainable. or the network’s overhead fee structure is reduced to 0 and is financially sustainable by having zero costs.

note that a products path along this spectrum is not purely linear, as there can be 1-step-forward-2-steps back or 2-steps-back-1-step-forward situations like

1. in 2021 when we realized the products needed to be protocols, and so we had to go back to stage 1
2. if we realize a market is not big enough to hit nfx, so we have to go back to stages 1/2
3. if a launch fails to meet product market fit

another thing thats not linear is how value increases exponentially as products hit their “network effects” stage.

another tricky thing about this maturity spectrum is that different skills are needed at each stage of the spectrum. as the meme goes “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There”. sometimes teams must evolve as products mature or dont mature.

idk if this helps at all.

1. fwiw, i think grants stack is in step 2/3 right now.
2. and passport is in step 2/3 also right now.
3. allo is likely in step 2.
4. PGN is in step 1 and is retooling before step 2 rn.

another hard thing is focus. imo it might might be good to just focus on one theme (say “gitcoin = grants”) for 2024 and nail that before trying to expand out to do 4 things.

anyway, to answer your question in terms of “what are we achieving as products/ppl” @Viriya … imo these 4 steps are basically it to get there.

i know @DisruptionJoe has also pushed for developing a strategy to hit north star goals. i’d be curious what else people want to see in articulating how we meet our goals.