*This entry is a continuation of 3 Role Types: Participant.

Thus far we have established that the foundational roles of someone looking to join a community are:

1. Observer role.

2. Participant role.

3. Contributor role.

Each role comes with its own context, expectations and appropriate actions; and if we can make those easy to understand, follow and execute it makes creating a wonderful experience more likely.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into the Contributor role.

This roles purpose is to answer the questions: how can I add value and can I play here?

Within the context of the Contributor role our ideal member knows she can trust us, and wants to join us on the journey of actively moving the project closer to its north star.

One of the main reasons people are interested in joining dOrgs (digital and decentralized organizations) is because they are ready for a new kind of work environment. They are tired of traditional organizations, where punitive rewards and fear is primarily used for motivation.

Enter the contributor role.

The direction of the organization will of course influence how we frame the contributor role to interested participants. Strategic empathy again plays a major part in figuring out what an ideal contributor profile is, and how we can design an experience that aligns with the needs of this role.

When developing an ideal contributor profile consider the following elements:

• What intrinsically motivates this person?

• What does work and play look like to them?

• Have they interacted well with the other participants?

• Are they aligned with the north start of the dOrg?

A very important component of the contributor experience is that they feel valued. Feeling valued is very different than handing out “compensation” and expecting them to feel grateful. The compensation topic has enough juice to write a whole book about, so for now let’s leave it to this: different people feel valued differently and are therefor incentivized differently. I write explore the difference between infinite and finite incentives here.

We cannot rely on finite incentives if we want our community to thrive. Rather, we must create an environment where our ideal contributors feel intrinsic value for the work they bring to the community in a way that makes sense in their personal context. This does not mean we bend to the whims of every contributor that is eager to work with us, instead we must be very clear about the work that needs to get done, and who we want to join us on the journey.

This is the fascinating challenge we are responsible for as leaders - knowing our ideal contributors well enough to create an environment where they feel confident in how to add value to the dOrg, and make the experience playful.

Without an effective contributor role experience, our ability to create momentum toward the north star will be stifled.

Now that we know the importance of the three roles, how might we implement them into our dOrgs effectively? In the last post in this series I will share one potential solution.

*************

Learn more about DAO Experience Design:

https://daoxd.xyz/

👇 Join my telegram channel by subscribing below 👇

*This entry is a continuation of 3 Role Types: Participant.

Thus far we have established that the foundational roles of someone looking to join a community are:

1. Observer role.

2. Participant role.

3. Contributor role.

Each role comes with its own context, expectations and appropriate actions; and if we can make those easy to understand, follow and execute it makes creating a wonderful experience more likely.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into the Contributor role.

This roles purpose is to answer the questions: how can I add value and can I play here?

Within the context of the Contributor role our ideal member knows she can trust us, and wants to join us on the journey of actively moving the project closer to its north star.

One of the main reasons people are interested in joining dOrgs (digital and decentralized organizations) is because they are ready for a new kind of work environment. They are tired of traditional organizations, where punitive rewards and fear is primarily used for motivation.

Enter the contributor role.

The direction of the organization will of course influence how we frame the contributor role to interested participants. Strategic empathy again plays a major part in figuring out what an ideal contributor profile is, and how we can design an experience that aligns with the needs of this role.

When developing an ideal contributor profile consider the following elements:

• What intrinsically motivates this person?

• What does work and play look like to them?

• Have they interacted well with the other participants?

• Are they aligned with the north start of the dOrg?

A very important component of the contributor experience is that they feel valued. Feeling valued is very different than handing out “compensation” and expecting them to feel grateful. The compensation topic has enough juice to write a whole book about, so for now let’s leave it to this: different people feel valued differently and are therefor incentivized differently. I write explore the difference between infinite and finite incentives here.

We cannot rely on finite incentives if we want our community to thrive. Rather, we must create an environment where our ideal contributors feel intrinsic value for the work they bring to the community in a way that makes sense in their personal context. This does not mean we bend to the whims of every contributor that is eager to work with us, instead we must be very clear about the work that needs to get done, and who we want to join us on the journey.

This is the fascinating challenge we are responsible for as leaders - knowing our ideal contributors well enough to create an environment where they feel confident in how to add value to the dOrg, and make the experience playful.

Without an effective contributor role experience, our ability to create momentum toward the north star will be stifled.

Now that we know the importance of the three roles, how might we implement them into our dOrgs effectively? In the last post in this series I will share one potential solution.

*************

Learn more about DAO Experience Design:

https://daoxd.xyz/

👇 Join my telegram channel by subscribing below 👇