CoachJ (Gitcoin)
Task
Status
Date
Feb 13, 2024
Completion Time
Email
Interviewer
Segment
User Details
Subject info
- Name: CoachJ (Jonathan Miller)
- Role / Job title: Head of Governance (former Head of Marketing)
- Experience
- Purchase summary
Company info
- Gitcoin
- Size:
- Type:
- Maturity
Links / references shared
![[Discussion] Addressing immediate gaps in DAO governance](https://gov.gitcoin.co/uploads/db4391/optimized/2X/a/ada36bc4facbc311b91355ac12dbd8130f4fd6ce_2_1024x326.png)
Interviewer Observations
Current State of Sense-Making at Gitcoin:
- There isn't a strong, centralized sense-making process at Gitcoin currently. The best place to find information is the governance forum, but it's not comprehensive.
- Sense-making responsibility has been fractured across different teams/workstreams (e.g. PGF for grantees, Passport team for passport holders/integrators). It hasn't been anyone's explicit job to update the governance forum.
- Other channels like the Gitcoin Pulse radio show and DAO Digest newsletter exist but have limited reach/engagement.
- There are many different stakeholder groups (grantees, passport holders, delegates, etc.) which makes streamlined communication challenging. Information is siloed.
Recent Delegate Sense-Making Workshop:
- CoachJ recently facilitated a sense-making workshop with ~20 Gitcoin delegates (out of 100s total, with 15-25 who actively participate).
- Used a Miro board to collect input asynchronously, then synthesized insights into a governance forum post. Took 1-2 hours to process.
- Switched format from passive updates to active discussion/feedback. Some tensions around what delegates want to focus on.
- Plans to post meeting notes and potential next steps, but wants to be thoughtful given competing priorities. May run transcript through ChatGPT.
Steward/Delegate Engagement:
- Steward participation is in flux. ~2000 unique voters on Snapshot, but only a couple dozen active on forum. 10-25 join monthly calls.
- Many OG stewards no longer active as they focus on other projects. Hard to track who is still engaged.
- Tension between stewards who think governance should be the priority vs those who want to focus on product-market fit first. CoachJ seeking a balanced approach.
Tools & Techniques:
- Uses Google Forms for surveys but often gets low/irrelevant responses
- Not sure about Discord bot usage for governance
- Heavily uses ChatGPT to help write/brainstorm documents, but hasn't tried using it to synthesize meeting notes yet
- Gitcoin has dabbled in consent-based decision making but it devolved into consensus. CoachJ uses holacratic approach with self-managing teams in his own leadership.
- Hasn't deeply explored Liberating Structures or other facilitation frameworks yet but sees the need as Gitcoin decentralizes more. Most employees aren't familiar with these techniques.
- Artem and CoachJ talk about the challenges of finding information and making sense of it within the Gitcoin community. CoachJ mentions using the governance forum for information, but also acknowledges its limitations. They discuss different methods for facilitating sense-making, including surveys and chatbots, although their effectiveness has been mixed. CoachJ also mentions using ChatGPT to help write documents but hasn't used it to synthesize meeting transcripts yet. They briefly touch on facilitation approaches like sociocracy and holacracy that are used within Gitcoin's leadership team. However, wider adoption of these frameworks among employees is still a work in progress due to other priorities.
- Speakers discussed the challenges of navigating Gitcoin's sense-making process, which involves various stakeholders and user groups. They highlighted the need for a deliberate sense-making exercise to facilitate communication and collaboration among these groups. Speakers discussed effective governance and decision-making in community-led organizations. Speaker 1 shared their experience with using Google forums and chat bots, while Speaker 2 inquired about the use of ChatGPT, sociocracy, and liberating structures. Both speakers acknowledged the need to find a middle ground between addressing governance issues and focusing on product-market fit.
Notes
- Artem asks if CoachJ uses surveys or other solutions for research, and CoachJ mentions sending articles and resources for context.
- CoachJ talks about the citizen grants program and using it to identify opportunities and improve the grantee experience.
- Artem asks about the sense-making call with delegates and how CoachJ prepared, facilitated, and processed the responses. CoachJ explains creating a working session, running a poll on the governance forum, and summarizing the notes.
- Artem asks how long it took to synthesize the input from the workshop, and CoachJ mentions writing a post on the governance forum to make it understandable to others.
- CoachJ talks about changing the meetings from passive updates to more interactive sessions and using Zoom for live feedback.
- Artem asks about next steps after the recent meeting, and CoachJ plans to synthesize the notes, post them on the forum, and focus on the next meeting.
- Artem asks about surveys, and CoachJ mentions mixed responses and not using chat bots on the server.
- Artem asks about using ChatGPT for sense-making activities, and CoachJ explains using it to help write documents but not for meeting transcripts yet.
- CoachJ mentions the need for facilitation when conjuring up answers recently.
Improving Gitcoin's UX and sense-making for various stakeholders.
Sense-making call with delegates.
Governance coordination and delegate engagement.
Governance and decision-making in a web3 ecosystem.
Facilitation techniques and decision-making approaches.
Outline
Chapter 1: Introduction to Sense Making and Governance at Gitcoin
- 00:11 - CoachJ mentions sense-making specifically related to governance or sense-making around what's going on at Gitcoin.
Chapter 2: Proposal and Funding
- 01:09 - CoachJ mentions putting forward a proposal and the funding needed.
- 01:16 - CoachJ talks about the opportunity for someone to apply for a grantee experience.
- 02:19 - CoachJ discusses the need to type up everything into a governance forum post.
Chapter 3: Providing Context through Governance Articles
- 01:38 - CoachJ suggests sending governance articles to Artem to provide context.
- 01:44 - CoachJ mentions sending an article about Gitcoin's endgame and focus on grants.
- 01:51 - CoachJ talks about sending the latest Dow digest and other governance articles.
Chapter 4: Challenges and Streamlining
- 02:54 - CoachJ acknowledges the challenges and the need to streamline initiatives.
- 03:07 - CoachJ mentions the difficulty of finding the right information and pathways at Gitcoin.
- 03:34 - CoachJ highlights the need to cater to different stakeholders' sense-making needs.
Chapter 5: Sense Making Call with Delegates
- 05:09 - Artem asks about deliberate sense-making exercises and calls with delegates.
- 07:48 - CoachJ mentions a summary and continuation of a sense-making conversation.
- 08:39 - CoachJ discusses taking over steward calls and transforming them into working sessions.
- 09:21 - CoachJ describes creating a mirror board and running a poll to understand delegate involvement.
- 09:46 - CoachJ talks about synthesizing meeting notes and posting them on the governance forum.
Chapter 6: Synthesizing Input and Next Steps
- 10:05 - CoachJ mentions brainstorming and converging during the meeting.
- 10:19 - CoachJ plans to synthesize the notes and focus on the next meeting.
- 15:28 - Artem asks about writing a proposal based on the meeting results.
- 15:50 - CoachJ prioritizes synthesizing the notes and posting them on the forum.
Chapter 7: Use of Chat GPT and Transcripts
- 19:26 - Artem asks about the use of Chat GPT for sense making activities.
- 19:48 - CoachJ explains using Chat GPT to create documents and facilitate discussions.
- 20:17 - CoachJ mentions the possibility of using ChatGPT for meeting transcripts.
Action Items
...
CoachJ to send Artem a bunch of governance articles and resources to help him gain context and understanding of Gitcoin's sense-making process.
CoachJ mentioned that he had a sense-making call with the delegates and would be posting a summary of the conversation on the governance forum.
CoachJ acknowledged the need to synthesize the notes from the meeting with the delegates and determine the next steps.
Artem to find the thread of the sense-making call on the governance forum.
Artem to write an article based on the interviews and share it with CoachJ.