community-building
Frameworks for building and scaling product communities from 18 leaders at Notion, Figma, and WordPress.
- Identify your community type (user, agency, or partner) and find the "atomic unit of sharing" that members naturally want to showcase
- Start with listening to early members through 1:1 calls before imposing structure; begin with your 20 most vocal organic supporters
- Design for quality over rapid growth by implementing application processes and cohort-based onboarding to maintain intimacy and avoid the "auditorium effect"
- Align community strategy with enterprise de-risking: widespread adoption signals safety to enterprise buyers and amplifies word-of-mouth growth
Community Building
Help the user build and scale communities using frameworks from 18 product leaders who have built communities at Notion, Figma, WordPress, and more.
How to Help
When the user asks for help with community building:
- Identify the community type - Clarify if they need a user community, agency community, or partner community
- Find the atomic unit of sharing - Determine what community members would naturally want to show off
- Start with listening - Understand why early members are there before imposing structure
- Design for healthy growth - Help them avoid scaling too fast and diluting quality
Core Principles
Build a movement, not just a product
Matt Mullenweg: "Don't just build a product, build a movement... we give people something to believe in, a philosophy, a worldview." The most successful communities unite around a shared mission, not just utility.
Community drives enterprise de-risking
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