[S16 Proposal] INTEGRATED DAO Operations Budget Request

Essential Intent

During Season 16 (S16), DAO Operations will focus on the following Essential Intents (EI) within the DAO:

  • DAO Organization
  • Protocol Adoption
  • Program Success

TL;DR

DAO Ops continues to evolve our service model in service delivery of our workstream partners and cross stream collaboration. In S16, we will continue to support key initiatives to support contributor professional development, and with budget increases to support the success of our Grants Program and Protocol development. Also, in light of recent shifts in our community engagement strategy, we will be winding down our Community Experience initiative to focus even more on cross-stream collaboration, accountability and project management across the DAO.

Based on what we learned in S15, we will be focusing our resources on supporting DAO and contributor success vis-a-vis our cross-stream DAO operations, governance, tooling, people operations and success initiatives.

Amount

DAO Ops requests $348,260 USD in S16. Included in the budget is a placeholder for a Technical Support hire to support our Design Partner Program and 2 months of parental leave for 1 contributor. This request does not include the additional 60 days of reserves per season. A breakdown of the full budget can be found at the end of this proposal.

Season Season 13 Season 14 Season 15 Season 16
Season Budget $450,000 $608,308 $293,000 $348,260
Season Reserves $0 $405,539 $188,585 $232,173
Unspent Reserves % 1) 15% 123.47% 12% N/A
Treasury Request 2) $450,000 $947,846 -$261,423 $558,433

1) The amount of GTC requested and the value of the reserves will be adjusted based on the current market value at the time this proposal is moved to Tally using the lower of the current price or the 20 day moving average, whichever is lower.

2) The Treasury Request amount is an estimate using the price of $1.66 GTC to calculate the total of the reserves rolled over from Season 15.

Milestone Report for Past Season

:green_circle: Success

:yellow_circle: Incomplete, will hit goal or priority change

:red_circle: Incomplete, will not hit goal

:black_circle: Canceled - out of workstream’s control

Initiative Project Key Results Status Value Delivered/Notes
Community Experience Increase engagement and satisfaction among DAO Citizens interested in our grants program or grants protocol. KR1: Increase the average weekly percentage of engaged citizens on the DAO Citizens channels by 20%. :green_circle: Though there isn’t a way to measure engagement on Discord, the average engagement on the DAO Vibes citizen calls has increased between 66-80%.
KR2: 50% reduction in requests to change Discord logic when compared to S14 :green_circle: Discord Managers have been assigned for each workstream. We audited roles, optimized access, and documented the access control process.
Develop a strong “Why” for community management initiatives that aligns with the DAO’s Purpose. KR1: Support the MMM community engagement strategy through weekly syncs, with insights from seasonal community management audits. :yellow_circle: The MMM community audit and strategy creation is still underway. DAO Ops is coordinating with MMM to understand what support is needed in S16.
KR2: Identify and document the community and Discord needs of each workstream. :yellow_circle: Guides and audits are in progress and will continue in S16.
Continuing to improve how we work at CSDO level KR1: Adopt a streamlined budget process ahead of S16. :black_circle: Multiple proposals were made over the past season, but at CSDO member direction, DAO Ops paused this KR in favor of focusing on cross-stream strategic decision making.
KR2: Improve the quality of cross stream meeting processes, and the documentation of reviewed and adopted proposals. :green_circle: Implemented changes to CSDO meetings, including format and facilitation changes and additional process documentation. We will continue to experiment with our format and to improve transparency in the upcoming season.
Community Governance Improve community governance and steward engagement through simplified processes that streamline decision making for the largest GTC delegates. KR1: Create a clearly understood onboarding and incentivization process :green_circle: A new Steward Council proposal is live on snapshot and a proposal for onboarding new Stewards will be posted before the end of October.
KR2: Launch a Governance Documentation Hub for new and existing stewards. :green_circle: A documentation hub has been created and will be shared in the next Stewards meeting.
KR3: 80% of stewards and workstream leads view steward meeting structure, pacing and content favorably. :yellow_circle: Anecdotal feedback about this meeting has been positive, and we have created a standardized survey which will be administered 1x per month. Beginning in S16, DAO Ops will track and adjust meeting structure based on feedback from this survey.
KR4: 80% of top stewards vote on 100% of formal S15 proposals. :red_circle: Current Steward Council voting engagement = 62%
People Ops Ensure contributors are in the right roles, and embrace a DAO-native hiring approach that further develops well supported contributors. KR1: 100% of core and trusted contributors have received a quarterly peer review. :yellow_circle: MMM, FDD, and DAO Ops review complete. PGF and GPC’s reviews should be completed by late October.
People Ops Empower DAO contributors to grow and support our ImpactDAO and protocol development. KR1: Four or more workstreams receive compensation leveling recommendations from People Ops. :green_circle: Recommendations were made to 4 workstreams. Implementation to be completed by workstreams.
KR2: Provide GPC contributors comprehensive support transitioning from holdings to the DAO. :green_circle: We’ve created resources and set up calls to ensure a smooth onboarding.
Tooling Ensure a coordinated and transparent software tooling approach. KR1: Deliver a recommendation for cost reductions based on a deep dive into all tools used by DAO. :yellow_circle: DAO Ops has reviewed access for several tools transferred from Holdings, which led to removing 30+ contributors from paid tools; we have also sunsetted a number of tools that were no longer actively used. We also inventorized access to all tooling and will continue to track access and needs in the upcoming season.
KR2: Facilitate access to all control domain requests within 48 hours. :green_circle: In S15, we implemented changes, including a list of tool owners that facilitated quicker responses to the requests.
KR3: Ensure that all workstreams can use Notion as their primary tool for meeting notes and outward facing workstream description by end of season. :yellow_circle: During the season, the Tooling initiative completed project management guidelines and revamped the Notion contributor database. All workstreams have been transferred to the current structure and have the ability to use Notion.
Support Continue to implement processes that improve our grants rounds and support our transition to a protocol-focused DAO. KR1: During GR15, support tickets (Discord+Email) are resolved within 20 hours (on average). :green_circle: The average handling time of support tickets during GR15 was 13hours and 42 minutes.
KR2: Current state of the Grants program and protocol development is reflected on Knowledge Base within 10 business days of changes. :green_circle: 40+ Knowledge Base updates completed before and during GR15.
KR3: Deliver easily used data to grants round workstream partner post-GR15. :black_circle: Without many trending technical issues, there wasn’t a lot of data to share with workstream partners.

List of Season 16 Commitments

Initiative Essential Intent Outcomes Likely Projects/Initiatives
Cross-Stream Operations DAO Organization Continuing to improve how we work at CSDO level. Identify and implement streamlined budget process design.
Document CSDO’s charter and make it known to the rest of the DAO
Launch a monthly CSDO digest to increase transparency.
Deliver DAO-wide organizational map.
Plan a team retreat.
Cross-Stream Operations DAO Organization Provide ongoing facilitation and internal communication support to cross stream Program and Protocol pods. Develop an updated framework for the Workstream Weekly calls; reformat calls based on framework.
Support cross-stream pods through context sharing and facilitating check-ins.
Community Governance DAO Organization Increase Steward engagement with novel incentive structures; simplify key processes to streamline decision making for the largest GTC delegates. Deliver additional updates to DAOstewards.xyz
Build a performance metric (OKR) between Council members and workstreams to enable rapid iterations and adjustments to the execution of the Steward Council v2.
Develop a “governance satisfaction score” & survey to understand governance perceptions and needs from stewards, contributors, and token holders
People Ops DAO Organization Empower DAO contributors to grow and pivot to support our ImpactDAO and protocol development. Deliver Professional Development guidance to support contributor’s continuing education.
People Ops DAO Organization Ensure contributors are in the right roles, and embrace a DAO-native hiring approach that further develops well supported contributors. Core and trusted contributors can participate in a quarterly peer review
Tooling DAO Organization Continue to engage in operational support, tooling, security and reconciliation to ensure an aligned and transparent software tooling approach meets the needs of the DAO. Facilitate response within 48 hours to all requests within the access control domain.
Identify and document the community and Discord needs of each workstream.
Support Program Success, Protocol Adoption Provide comprehensive support to GR16 participants and Design Partners. Discord tickets are resolved within 13 hours, and email tickets are resolved within 20 hours throughout S16.
Current state of the Grants Program and protocol development is reflected on the Knowledge Base within 10 business days of changes.

Budget Breakdown

View: USD per Initiative/Project

Initiative/Project Amount USD %
General Ops $20,000 5.74%
Cross Stream DAO Operations $119,248 34.24%
Community Governance $41,120 11.81%
Tooling $32,689 9.39%
People Operations $36,200 10.39%
Support $99,003 28.43%
Total $348,260 100%

View: USD per Category

Budget Category Description Amount USD
Core Contributors Workstream Lead - Kris $161,400
Workstream Lead - Jodi
Pod PM Lead - Saf
Technical Support Lead - TBD
Support Coordinator - Rohan
Trusted Contributors Community Governance Lead - Shawn $110,860
Tooling Lead - Puncar
Discord Management - Kyle J.
People Ops Coordinator - Sandy
Support Coordinator - Yuki
Knowledge Base - Joshua
Contracted Knowledge Base Content - Mathilda
Discord Support - Juliet, Emmanuel, Prof
Professional Development Funds approved continuing education for DAO contributors. $20,000
Operating Expenses Contributor reimbursements, parental leave, consulting fees, and tooling $56,000
Total Budget before Rollover and Reserves $348,260
60-day Reserves* Covers workstream costs between seasons, including budget approval delays. $232,173
S15 Rollover (est) Includes S15 reserves and unused budget -$188,585
Total Requested from Treasury (est) $391,847

Notes: A denomination in dollar amount will be prioritized in budget proposals over GTC - if the spot price assumed at the time of posting ($1.66 on November 9th) this document on the forum changes between then and when the budget gets proposed on-chain, the GTC amount will be readjusted to reflect the USD amount above. GTC amounts are rounded values.

Current signers of the DAO Ops Multisig are @Jodi_GitcoinDAO, @krrisis, @DisruptionJoe, @lthrift, @CoachJonathan, and @kyle

11 Likes

This is a huge pain point for many WS leads right now. I’d love to see some more affirmative language around this.

Perhaps instead of “continue to help evolve… and explore new options” we can count on DAO Ops to “identify and implement a new budget process…”.

The rest of the proposal looks great. Looking forward to seeing DAO Ops continue to support all the WSs next season.

6 Likes

Thanks for the thorough request. Seems straight forward to me and I support it.

3 Likes

Thanks for the feedback! We’re aligned on moving fast to solve this pain point and I will adjust the language to clarify our intent in the integrated budget proposal.

I can testify to the effectiveness of the audit! I removed my permissions and somehow I had them since last year, they were removed, came back, etc. Great work with this one! :smiley: At long last my godlike DIscord powers have been destroyed :rofl:

Maybe I’m not knowledgeable around this, but I am quite surprised to see that Gitcoin DAO still doesn’t have a HR department. Or is each WS supposed to have it? I honestly don’t know, sorry!

GL in season 16 :four_leaf_clover:

1 Like

Hey Zer8, happy to hear the roles powers are fixed for you :slight_smile:

We do have an ‘HR department’ in a way, in the sense that we have People Ops as an initiative within DAO Ops. Next to this each workstream also has a talent coordinator who syncs with the People Ops team. It’s a smaller ‘centralized’ team within daoops, but we support all needs within each workstream as good as we can and based on feedback we adapt what people ops means exactly for Gitcoin. Hope this helps!

2 Likes

As just mentioned on the Stewards Call: I d love to see an extension of your perspective on meetings to the whole workflow.

:pray:

3 Likes

This is a great call out. Recent OS insights extend well beyond the facilitation of meetings, and Kris and I sense the need for DAO Ops to take lead prioritizing how we build the overall canvas, document agreements, and implement any changes that come out of these conversations.

We’ll work to refine this language to better reflect the need.

2 Likes

Hi Jodi - again thank you for our conversations and for educating me about DAO ops and about Gitcoin itself. It was a pleasure working with you on this budget review. Thank you for your patience with me.

On the whole - at the risk of being a lonely voice in the wilderness - I think we should consider whether the DAO is leaning forward too aggressively given unavoidable risks.

1 Like

Had a chance to read through and it has my full support. Very excited that there continues to be many improvements and continued planning around increasing Steward engagement and the simplification of key processes. I see that $20,000 is marked for professional development. What sort of continued education is planned for DAO contributors? Or does everyone choose what they want to do individually on their own?

1 Like

Each contributor decides their own professional development path :slight_smile:

2 Likes

It was great connecting! I read the considerations you laid out in your governance post and agree to a degree that coordinating our resources and developing metrics to track our progress are essential to a successful transition.

For our part our budget is flat with exception for one hire to support our protocol work. We’re starting the process now to keep pace with the DevRel initiative and Design Partner launches happening this season.

I also see cause optimism. As I shared in our 1:1, the workstream coordination continues to improve – we’re asking each other better questions, which in turn is building our strategy muscles. The risks you lay out are good call outs, and ones we’re all thinking about.

Either way, I hope we can count on your support this budget cycle. :slight_smile:

4 Likes

@SLBK123 appreciate your support!

To add to @sandy_gitcoinDAO’s response, last season many contributors used the professional development funds to reimburse costs related to ongoing coaching or classes to level-up in their functional areas. Examples of approved reimbursements include a content writing, agile project management, and full stack engineering courses; we also reimbursed ongoing coaching to improve communication, time management and leadership skills.

We are asking for the same funding amount as last season, which was fully utilized.

3 Likes

Thank you Jodi and Shawn for taking the time to chat with me this week – the time you’ve given to help with onboarding has been amazing and is much appreciated! I’m curious what data you typically use to determine salary range, i.e. for the technical support new role?

1 Like

Hi Rachel! We have been using OpenComp as a standard and combine this with insights across other DAOs. Hope this helps!

2 Likes

Hi Rachel! We have been using OpenComp as a standard and combine this with insights across other DAOs. Hope this helps!

2 Likes

Hi! Thank you for the clarification – much appreciated!

1 Like

To note - This proposal is now live on Snapshot and will be open for your vote through Nov 23, 2022, 6:00 AM EST

https://snapshot.org/#/gitcoindao.eth/proposal/0x08bc5d61cf0e939b333187625eb2f3dce3a630a328db2b76f4776107cf6612c3

2 Likes

Why I have $gtc but can’t vote

Brand new Steward, lacking context. Apologies if questions and comments are naive while I get my footing

  1. The previous budget requests and Season Reserves caught my eye—what was going on between S13 & S14 that led to dramatically large jumps in % unspent?

Screen Shot 2022-11-17 at 7.34.22 AM

  1. Saw that you had trouble tracking engagement in Discord. Not certain of your needs, but I think there are several bots or custom integrations you can implement that will help track your most engaged contributors! Check out https://statbot.net/

and some of the documentation here: Understanding Server Insights

If not, maybe its something that could be built—would be a valuable tool for any community and Gitcoin grantee!

  1. I am a brand new steward and have not seen anything about the Steward Council calls or steward-specific channel yet!

  1. The S16 goals around CSDO sound important! However the outcomes/likely projects seem a bit more vague than what I have seen in other workstream budget proposals. Are there specific KPIs you are trying to meet? Is there existing data on where bottlenecks exist, where contributors fall off, where onboarding stalls, topics that get lost between workstreams etc etc?

Thanks for the time & effort everyone put into this proposal—was very detailed and helpful :slight_smile:

2 Likes