TL:DR
As we navigate the complexities of decentralized governance and product development, we know it’s crucial to have guiding principles to help us make decisions and measure our success. We came together to define these last year and are refining them again as the organization grows.We’ll gather feedback in the community from now until Tuesday, October 10th to refine these intents and ratify within CSDO.
You can read the proposal for our previous Mission & Essential Intents here, read the discussion around the updates here, and learn more about where the team was looking to head back in January 2023 here.
Previous Essential Intents and Their Evolution
Our previous Essential Intents were focused on:
Protocol Adoption:
- Building a widely adopted, modular Grants protocol.
- Build a widely adopted, modular Pluralism Passport protocol that creates a flourishing ecosystem of network effects around a Decentralized Society.
Financial Sustainability: Having a comprehensive, diversified strategy for financial stability.
DAO Organization: Creating and promoting clear and engaging rituals and communication channels.
Grants Program Success: Enabling a successful grants protocol launch. We’re pleased to note substantial progress and positive community impact through the Gitcoin Grants Program. For an in-depth review of our milestones, look out for an upcoming post on what we’ve achieved.
We’ve made significant strides in these areas (you can read more in an upcoming post),but our focus needs to evolve as we grow.The new Essential Intents are designed to encompass and align with our current challenges and opportunities. We’ve developed these intents to better align with our broader objectives and the dynamic landscape of decentralized governance and public goods funding.
New Essential Intents
The new Essential Intents are:
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Network Effects: Maximizing the network effects of our ecosystem to grow product adoption.
- Evolution: Shifting from a focus on “Protocol Adoption & Grants Program Success” to prioritizing product adoption as the cornerstone for generating network effects and ecosystem growth.
- Objective: Prioritize the adoption of Gitcoin’s products as the initial step in creating a self-reinforcing cycle of network effects. We aim to achieve a targeted growth rate in product adoption, initiating a powerful cycle of network effects.
- What that might look like: Community-driven initiatives, partnerships, and collaborations form the core of our strategy. We’re also focusing on cross-workstream collaboration and increased usage of Gitcoin’s products within our organization (‘dog-fooding’). To quantify, we aim for at least 30% of our strategic objectives to benefit multiple Gitcoin products directly.
- How do we know we’re tracking towards this EI? Product roadmap cross-over, increased reciprocal ROI (two work streams see up-tick in their goal progress vs. one)
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Community First: Cultivating a community that thrives on providing positive change and meaningful engagement.
- Evolution: From “Community Engagement” to nurturing a community culture both internally and externally, as well as throughout our various sub-communities
- Objective: To encourage active participation, effective governance, and widespread adoption of Gitcoin’s initiatives and platforms. We aim to create an environment where community members feel empowered to actively contribute to Gitcoin’s evolution.
- What that might look like: Gitcoin Grants Program, Community events, educational content, and governance proposals serve as the backbone of our community engagement. Specifically, our quarterly programs act as community Schelling Points, providing regular intervals for collective focus and action.
- How do we know we’re tracking towards this EI? Community engagement rates, retention rates, governance participation, internal and external community satisfaction
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Financial Longevity: Ensuring the economic health and vitality of Gitcoin.
- Evolution: From “Financial Sustainability” to ensuring long-term financial health so that we can continue to build in public and fund what matters through any market or storm
- Objective: Ensure financial vitality and longevity
- What that might look like: Efficient budget allocation, ROI-driven investments, and transparent financial reporting.
- How do we know we’re tracking towards this EI? ROI on investments, financial sustainability ratios, and treasury growth. Strategic investments in a bull market, high ROI investments in a bear market.
How They Work Together
Our Essential Intents are not isolated pillars; they are more like instruments in an orchestra, each contributing to the overall melody that is Gitcoin’s future.
These Essential Intents are interconnected, each feeding into the other to create a virtuous cycle that drives the value and utility of the Gitcoin ecosystem. For example, a strong network effect can lead to a more engaged community, which in turn can contribute to the financial sustainability of the ecosystem. This interconnectedness amplifies the network effects, making each intent more potent when pursued harmoniously.
Network Effects amplify the Community First by creating a community that is large and deeply engaged throughout our programs, protocols, and products.
Community First, in turn, contributes to Financial Longevity by fostering a community willing to invest time, resources, and capital into Gitcoin.
Financial Longevity then feeds back into Network Effects by providing the financial stability required for sustainable growth and innovation.
What does this mean for our goal setting? Both as a DAO and within the workstreams?
Short-Term: Stabilized Operations
Our EIs aim to improve DAO operations with high-ROI investments and roadmap alignment, setting Gitcoin as a model for DAO sustainability and excellence.
Long-Term: Decentralized and Lucrative
Our EIs serve as the foundation to decentralize Gitcoin across governance, protocol advancement, token holder representation, and computation where applicable. We aim to create lucrative financial, social, emotional, and technological opportunities.
Request to the Community
We are seeking community comment on the draft purpose and each essential intent by October, 10th 2023 (1 week from today). In parallel, we will present the draft language to the Steward Council to seek their advice.
Our Essential Intents serve as the agnostic North Star metrics that our goals will ladder into. They are designed to enable clarification in this state of ambiguity and move us toward decisive action. We’re excited to hear your thoughts and collaborate on shaping Gitcoin’s future.