Original Draft: February 1, 2023
Updated Post: February 13, 2023
Integrated DAO Operations Budget Proposal
S17 will be the last season that DAO Operations functions as a formal workstream. As such, the following post describes how we prepare the DAO to function without a core operations workstream in S18.
In preparing this integrated proposal, we ran several scenarios that we ultimately decided were unrealistic based on 1) feedback from stewards and 2) how it would impact DAO contributors. So the following post will not discuss various scenarios. Instead, this post will focus on what we think is the most realistic alternative to our original S17 budget proposal. We believe this proposal is responsive to the expressed desire to see all teams reorganize this season, while minimizing disruption ahead of the launch event and next grants round.
DAO Operations will wind down or hand off its initiatives over the next 10 weeks. During that time, weâll prioritize the following work:
- Setting DAO leadership up for successful project-based governance initiatives
- Ensuring a soft landing for the Support squad as they transition to Product teams
- Facilitating the team retreat at the end of February
- Clean bookkeeping and tooling closeout or handoff.
Essential Intent
Our revised S17 priorities are focused on the following intents:
- Protocol Growth + Adoption
- Program Success
- DAO Organization
Amount
DAO Operations is requesting nothing from the DAO treasury this season. Instead, we plan to use the reserves and underspent S16 budget available to us in our multisig to meet our S17 commitments. To facilitate this, we will convert most of our funds to stables.
This assumes that the Foundation will pay for approximately $35,000 of the Team Retreat (February 24-27, 2023). It also assumes that:
- CSDO may fund Steward Council remunerations through its multisig and
- Workstreams will fund approved professional development during S17*.
*Note: As of the date of this post, there is approximately $9,500 in professional development funding approved by workstream leadership.
Any funds remaining at the end of the season will be reimbursed to the Foundation on or before April 30.
Gitcoin Season | Season 15 | Season 16 | Season 17 |
---|---|---|---|
Season Budget | $293,148 | $348,260 | $302,368 |
Season Reserves | $188,585 | $232,173 | $320,000 |
Unspent Reserves % | 100% | 100% | N/A |
Treasury Request | -$261,423 | $391,847 | $0 |
S16 Milestone Report
Legend
Success
Incomplete, will hit goal or priority change
Incomplete, will not hit goal
Canceled - out of workstreamâs control
Initiative/Project | Always-on [YES/NO] |
Key Results |
Value Delivered |
---|---|---|---|
Cross-Stream Operations Continue to improve how we work at CSDO level. |
YES | Identify and implement streamlined budget process design | Developed a proposal with recommendations. After consulting Stewards and CSDO members, DAO Ops decided to push off implementation until the community has a clearer strategy for how and when Gitcoin will reorganize. |
Cross-Stream Operations Continue to improve how we work at CSDO level. |
YES | Document CSDOâs charter and make it known to the rest of the DAO | Ratified charter for CSDO, published the document on the CSDO Notion homepage and our forum. |
Cross-Stream Operations Continue to improve how we work at CSDO level. |
YES | Launch a monthly CSDO digest to increase transparency | Published weekly summaries on Discord and monthly digests to our forum. |
Cross-Stream Operations Continue to improve how we work at CSDO level. |
YES | Deliver DAO-wide organizational map. | Created an organizational map that is now maintained by People Operations. |
Cross-Stream Operations Continue to improve how we work at CSDO level. |
YES | Plan team retreat. | Secured accommodations and facilitators for a team retreat in Denver. This initiative will be taken over by People Ops in S17. |
Cross-Stream Operations Provide ongoing facilitation and internal communication support to cross stream Program and Protocol pods. |
NO | Develop an updated framework for the Workstream Weekly calls; reformat calls based on framework. | Experimented with different prompts to facilitate cross stream collaboration through a pods model. Contributor feedback on the model was mixed, but we will refine the pods logic in Discord in S17. |
Cross-Stream Operations Provide ongoing facilitation and internal communication support to cross stream Program and Protocol pods. |
NO | Support cross-stream pods through context sharing and facilitating check-ins. | The pod runner role was distributed across pods. |
Community Governance Increase Steward engagement with novel incentive structures; simplify key processes to streamline decision making for the largest GTC delegates. |
YES |
Deliver additional updates to DAOstewards.xyz |
Re-platformed and improved daostewards.xyz. Extended daostewards.xyz reporting from 98 to 178 stewards. |
Community Governance Increase Steward engagement with novel incentive structures; simplify key processes to streamline decision making for the largest GTC delegates. |
YES |
Build performance metrics (OKRs) between Council members and workstreams to enable rapid iterations and adjustments to the execution of the Steward Council v2. |
Built performance metrics, which we used to measure a 91% positive score for Steward Circle engagement (RR:40%) in S16. There is no data available for Steward Council meetings yet, but performance will be tracked in S17. |
Community Governance Increase Steward engagement with novel incentive structures; simplify key processes to streamline decision making for the largest GTC delegates. |
YES |
Develop a âgovernance satisfaction scoreâ & survey to understand governance perceptions and needs from stewards, contributors, and token holders. |
Launched Gitcoinâs inaugural Community Health Survey, which includes governance questions. This survey was limited to contributors - we did not poll GTC holders or stewards, but will do so in S17. |
People Ops Empower DAO contributors to grow and pivot to support our ImpactDAO and protocol development. |
YES |
Deliver Professional Development guidance to support contributorâs continuing education. |
Instead of documenting guidance, People Ops launched a weekly office hours series to allow contributors the chance to seek advice as they set their professional development goals. |
People Operations Ensure contributors are in the right roles, and embrace a DAO-native hiring approach that further develops well supported contributors. |
YES |
Core and trusted contributors can participate in a quarterly peer review |
Each workstream described a preference for a 6-month peer review cadence. |
Tooling Engage in operational support, tooling, security and reconciliation to ensure an aligned and transparent software tooling approach meets the needs of the DAO. |
YES |
Facilitate response within 48 hours to all requests within the access control domain. |
Responded to contributor requests within 24 hours of request. |
Tooling Engage in operational support, tooling, security and reconciliation to ensure an aligned and transparent software tooling approach meets the needs of the DAO. |
YES |
Identify and document the community and Discord needs of each workstream. |
Trained discord managers within each workstream to handle moderation tasks. Created 5 best practices documents. Implemented & maintained bots to aid contributor security, increase productivity, and improve collaboration. |
Support Provide comprehensive support to GR16 grantees, donors, and Design Partners. |
YES |
Discord tickets are resolved within 13 hours, and email tickets are resolved within 20 hours throughout S16. |
Average resolution time during the season was 27 hours and 35 minutes over email and under 18 hours over Discord. The team attributes higher than average resolution times to longer coordination times for Product Support over the holidays. |
Support Provide comprehensive support to GR16 grantees, donors, and Design Partners. |
YES |
Current state of the Grants Program and protocol development is reflected on the Knowledge Base within 10 business days of changes. |
Published or updated articles within a week of requested changes. |
Preparing the DAO for Nimbler Operations
We recognize that the teams that comprise Gitcoin have become more agile and self-sufficient. Ideally, removing centralized management of certain systems and processes will allow these teams to move faster and with greater autonomy. Those initiatives that are still managed by DAO Operations (e.g. professional development, steward engagement & management, OpSec, discord management, hiring, etc.) can be decentralized or decommissioned with a few months of runway.
As described in the introduction above, we will refocus our efforts in S17 and make immediate changes to the teamâs composition to streamline handovers and closeouts. Five contributors will end their service to the DAO on February 28. Professional development, governance tooling, and future consulting funding are removed from this budget.
List of S17 Outcomes
Transition to Project-Based DAO Governance
Outcomes | Essential Intent | Likely Deliverables/Projects |
---|---|---|
Contributors and the wider community have the information they need keep up with core governance | DAO Operations | CSDO Monthly Digest CSDO Notion Decisions Database |
Stewards have a redefined role in the context of a protocol-focused DAO. | DAO Organization | Build a transition plan to be a more protocol-focused DAO. Propose a renewed seasonal budget plan to CSDO and Stewards. Propose an RFP-based process for Steward Governance for S18. Build a seasonal engagement plan. |
Community Governance executes operational components with excellence. | DAO Organization | Operational work. No projects or initiatives are expected. |
Successfully Transition Support to Product Teams
Outcomes | Essential Intent | Likely Deliverables/Projects |
---|---|---|
Our Developer Community has the documentation and technical support needed to understand and adopt our protocols. | Protocol Adoption + Growth | Work with the DevRel team to improve our developer documents. |
A scalable support solution is available to grantees, donors, and fund during beta round. | Program Success | Test and integrate customer support bot on new Gitcoin website. |
Grantees and donors can easily find the information they need before they open a ticket. | Program Success | Reorganize knowledge base to reflect protocol Work with protocol, marketing and grants ops teams to create knowledge base content that supports grantees. |
Facilitate Team Retreat
Outcomes | Essential Intent | Likely Deliverables/Projects |
---|---|---|
DAO Contributors have the opportunity to meet and connect with each other. |
DAO Organization | Plan and execute Gitcoin team retreat. |
Clean Administrative Closeout and Handoff
Outcomes | Essential Intent | Likely Deliverables/Projects |
---|---|---|
The contributors who accept and join other workstreams feel supported through the transition. | DAO Organization | Compensation and introductions are facilitated for contributors who are staying. Documentation, Notion teamspaces, tooling access controls, and other systems are transitioned to new initiative leads. |
DAO Operations bookkeeping is clearly closed out and archived. | DAO Organization | Severance is paid where necessary. DAO Ops multisig wallet is closed. Budgets for S13 through S17 are made available for audit. |
Discord management enhances communication between contributors and visitors. | DAO Operations | Complete Discord reorganization to ease communication on our server. |
Discord Managers and other contributors can navigate our server. |
DAO Organization | Draft and share best practice guides for navigating Discord Run training sessions on special cases (banning, entry flow, wayfinding within the server, onboarding/offboarding, where to look for documentation, how to receive support). |
Budget Breakdown
View: USD per Category
Initiative/Project | Description | Amount USD | % |
---|---|---|---|
Core Contributors | Technical Support Lead - Lolu Support Coordinator - Rohan Community Governance Lead - Shawn People Ops Coordinator - Sandy Discord Lead - Kyle J Workstream Lead - Jodi Workstream Lead - Kris |
$131,347 | 43% |
Trusted Contributors | Tooling Lead - Puncar Hiring Lead and PM - Saf Support Coordinator - Yuki Knowledge Base Lead - Joshua Discord Support - Juliet, Emmanuel |
$30,366 | 10% |
Team Retreat | Costs of F&B, activities and outside facilitation. | $39,000 | 13% |
Accounting Closeout | Includes severance for 9 contributors and estimated costs to closeout consulting engagements | $101,655 | 34% |
Total | $302,368 | 100% |
Conclusion
As the DAO sets a new vision and course for the protocol work to come, we want to thank the DAO Ops contributors for their hard work and all that they built and maintained over the past few seasons.
We believe that when a core operations practice is working well, it functions in service of an organizationâs vision and business strategy. Itâs with gratitude that we close out our final season recognizing that everyone involved in operations showed a relentless commitment to staying nimble and solving problems. Itâs because of this hard work that the DAO can evolve its operating system. For that, we canât thank them enough and we hope a number of our super talented contributors can find new roles during our last season.
Finally, we want to thank DAO Stewards for their constructive feedback. Since we are no longer requesting funding in S17, we propose that this budget not go to Snapshot vote, unless Stewards feel strongly that components of our refined scope should be voted on. Please let us know in the comments below.