[Radworks]

Task

Status

Date

Completion Time

Interviewer

Segment

User Details

Radworks: Defining Our Purpose

At the beginning of 2023, we embarked on a research project to better understand the (then called) Radicle community’s composition, motivations, and team dynamics. At the time, it was clear the organization needed to evolve its operations and governance to better achieve its objectives. Before making such significant changes, we wanted to ensure we really understood the goals, needs, and values of the Radicle ecosystem members.

https://radworks.mirror.xyz/2zEd_7MNTtnB0aUeOuhHD3Nl1pbGFkFxPHCNbNBGt5M

Apiary - Community Insights Report

Hi everyone! We are excited to share our Insights/Recommendations Report with you. Since January 2023, we have been reading about, talking to, and analyzing the Radicle ecosystem. As part of Phase I deliverables, we conducted 23 stakeholder interviews, speaking with the general Radicle ecosystem, core contributors, founders, and investors. We’ve summarized what you as a community shared with us in the Insights & Recommendations Report. Our goal with the report is to mirror back as neutrally as...

https://community.radworks.org/t/apiary-community-insights-report/3328

Radicle: Design for community-led governance | Apiary

The Radicle ecosystem has an ambitious goal: to create the infrastructure for a free and open internet. To protect and further this mission over time, Radicle has been transitioning decision-making to its community of developers, users, token holders, investors, and founders.

https://apiary.xyz/articles/radicle-design-for-community-led-governance/

Interviewer Observations

We partnered with Apiary to research our community with the interest of understanding:

How does the community understand and identify with the organization’s purpose?

Who comprises the Radicle community? What are their driving motivations and incentives for participation?

What is the environment within which the community is operating? What are the constraints, incentive structures, and behaviors needed for the network to succeed?

Do people understand the current governance system and how it functions?

Apiary conducted multiple stakeholder interviews and did a deep analysis of existing documentation. The research surfaced several valuable insights from the community – about its culture, organizational processes, and opportunities for improvement.

One key insight was that community members felt they lacked a clear understanding of Radicle’s purpose. What united the community was a shared vision for a free and open internet, enabled through open-sourced technology. Beyond this vision, stakeholders were unsure about the specific role Radicle sought to play in realizing a freer and more open internet. Its purpose lacked definition, making it challenging for individuals to understand how their contributions served a greater goal, which in turn hindered community cohesion and individual participation. This insight, coupled with the decision to evolve Radicle’s brand, prompted the DAO (now referred to as Radworks) to define its purpose.

Drafting Radworks’ purpose was a three-part process:

Part 1 - Facilitated process with founders & core team

Apiary facilitated a 2.5 day in-person workshop for Alexis, Abbey, Sean, Ele, and Ange, integrating learnings from the Insights Report into the conversation to explore the organization, its purpose, culture, and structures. Goals of the facilitation were:

Define a purpose statement that can be communicated to and iterated on with the community and integrated into the Radworks’ operations and governance.

Draft a list of core values to be workshopped and owned by the community.

Facilitation was structured around 4 core questions:

What is the problem the DAO seeks to solve?

What political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental, and legal factors are important for and to the DAO?

What does the DAO believe?

What does the DAO give?

These questions built on one another and led to an exercise where the group collectively drafted a purpose statement for Radworks. The outcome of the workshop was a draft purpose statement.

Part 2 - Community interviews and input

The draft purpose statement was then brought to a select group of community members for feedback. This group was selected from the research Apiary conducted in Q1 2023. We selected community members based on their role in the organization, demonstrated commitment to the project, and for having voiced concerns or dissenting opinions during the research process. The goal was to surface any confusion, tension, or disagreements with the draft purpose statement. The purpose statement was revised and iterated based on this community feedback.

Part 3 - Ratification

The community will have the opportunity to ratify the Radworks purpose in an on-going process using Radicle. Signatures can be submitted by community committee members to signal their commitment to Radworks’ purpose and community.

Community research

To answer these questions for Radicle, we completed a comprehensive qualitative analysis of the community. Over three months, we analyzed all existing documentation and historical decision-making processes. We also conducted more than 20 formal and informal interviews with community members representing the ecosystem’s core stakeholder groups.

The output of our analysis is an Insights & Recommendations Report which presents the information gathered along with a series of recommendations for the DAO’s governance, culture, and future.

Recommendations & next steps

The research revealed several insights into the community: its stakeholder demographics, culture, self-perception, challenges, and opportunities for improved success.

Two insights in particular catalyzed immediate action from the Radicle team:

The community deeply identifies and aligns with the vision of a free and open internet, but lacks a clear understanding of the community’s purpose. As a result, individual contributors fail to understand their contributions, impact, and role in the system, hindering the full potential of the community’s collaboration.

There is confusion about who holds power and how decisions are made. The team is working to provide more transparency and structures to legitimize the ecosystem’s governance and the decisions it makes.

To address these issues, we have been working with the founders, core team, and community to define and communicate Radicle’s purpose. Once defined, this purpose will serve as the foundation for iterating on and advancing the ecosystem’s governance system.

Action Items

[Radworks]

Task

Status

Date

Completion Time

Interviewer

Segment

User Details

Radworks: Defining Our Purpose

https://radworks.mirror.xyz/2zEd_7MNTtnB0aUeOuhHD3Nl1pbGFkFxPHCNbNBGt5M

Apiary - Community Insights Report

https://community.radworks.org/t/apiary-community-insights-report/3328

Radicle: Design for community-led governance | Apiary

https://apiary.xyz/articles/radicle-design-for-community-led-governance/

Interviewer Observations

We partnered with Apiary to research our community with the interest of understanding:

How does the community understand and identify with the organization’s purpose?

Who comprises the Radicle community? What are their driving motivations and incentives for participation?

What is the environment within which the community is operating? What are the constraints, incentive structures, and behaviors needed for the network to succeed?

Do people understand the current governance system and how it functions?

Apiary conducted multiple stakeholder interviews and did a deep analysis of existing documentation. The research surfaced several valuable insights from the community – about its culture, organizational processes, and opportunities for improvement.

One key insight was that community members felt they lacked a clear understanding of Radicle’s purpose. What united the community was a shared vision for a free and open internet, enabled through open-sourced technology. Beyond this vision, stakeholders were unsure about the specific role Radicle sought to play in realizing a freer and more open internet. Its purpose lacked definition, making it challenging for individuals to understand how their contributions served a greater goal, which in turn hindered community cohesion and individual participation. This insight, coupled with the decision to evolve Radicle’s brand, prompted the DAO (now referred to as Radworks) to define its purpose.

Drafting Radworks’ purpose was a three-part process:

Part 1 - Facilitated process with founders & core team

Apiary facilitated a 2.5 day in-person workshop for Alexis, Abbey, Sean, Ele, and Ange, integrating learnings from the Insights Report into the conversation to explore the organization, its purpose, culture, and structures. Goals of the facilitation were:

Define a purpose statement that can be communicated to and iterated on with the community and integrated into the Radworks’ operations and governance.

Draft a list of core values to be workshopped and owned by the community.

Facilitation was structured around 4 core questions:

What is the problem the DAO seeks to solve?

What political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental, and legal factors are important for and to the DAO?

What does the DAO believe?

What does the DAO give?

These questions built on one another and led to an exercise where the group collectively drafted a purpose statement for Radworks. The outcome of the workshop was a draft purpose statement.

Part 2 - Community interviews and input

The draft purpose statement was then brought to a select group of community members for feedback. This group was selected from the research Apiary conducted in Q1 2023. We selected community members based on their role in the organization, demonstrated commitment to the project, and for having voiced concerns or dissenting opinions during the research process. The goal was to surface any confusion, tension, or disagreements with the draft purpose statement. The purpose statement was revised and iterated based on this community feedback.

Part 3 - Ratification

The community will have the opportunity to ratify the Radworks purpose in an on-going process using Radicle. Signatures can be submitted by community committee members to signal their commitment to Radworks’ purpose and community.

Community research

To answer these questions for Radicle, we completed a comprehensive qualitative analysis of the community. Over three months, we analyzed all existing documentation and historical decision-making processes. We also conducted more than 20 formal and informal interviews with community members representing the ecosystem’s core stakeholder groups.

The output of our analysis is an Insights & Recommendations Report which presents the information gathered along with a series of recommendations for the DAO’s governance, culture, and future.

Recommendations & next steps

The research revealed several insights into the community: its stakeholder demographics, culture, self-perception, challenges, and opportunities for improved success.

Two insights in particular catalyzed immediate action from the Radicle team:

The community deeply identifies and aligns with the vision of a free and open internet, but lacks a clear understanding of the community’s purpose. As a result, individual contributors fail to understand their contributions, impact, and role in the system, hindering the full potential of the community’s collaboration.

There is confusion about who holds power and how decisions are made. The team is working to provide more transparency and structures to legitimize the ecosystem’s governance and the decisions it makes.

To address these issues, we have been working with the founders, core team, and community to define and communicate Radicle’s purpose. Once defined, this purpose will serve as the foundation for iterating on and advancing the ecosystem’s governance system.

Action Items