Introduction
Arbitrum DAO needs more contributors to thrive in the future. But like many DAOs, it faces challenges with contributor onboarding. Fragmented information, siloed resources, and private communication channels foster a culture of exclusivity that makes it difficult for newcomers to navigate the DAO and contribute meaningfully.
Moreover, a lack of organized processes for managing work in the DAO creates complexity for existing contributors to effectively allocate newcomers to initiatives that need support. Consequently, many initiatives fizzle out after several weeks due to a lack of interest and slow progress.
We propose a 3-month experiment to try to solve these problems. We will act akin to a small recruitment agency, making our best attempts to match people with opportunities in the DAO. We hope to find some learnings along the way and address the following three issues:
- The lack of an outreach pipeline - how and where to find new contributors for the DAO outside of our typical “bubbles”.
- Scattered initiatives that pop up in the DAO - how to ensure that new initiatives get visibility and avoid getting lost in the DAO (as long as there are interested people).
- Initiatives that fizzle out - how to sustain initiatives in the long-term, including funding, organizational support, and operational support.
Our solution consists of three key components:
- An onboarding hub where we consolidate and organize scattered information across the DAO.
- A dedicated team that actively works with the DAO and potential new contributors to determine effective methods for integrating new people into the DAO.
- Weekly onboarding calls and a dedicated Telegram account so new people can directly talk to us.
We believe that our approach to onboarding will not only drive increased quality participation in the DAO but also alleviate the workload of existing contributors. Our goal is to test an MVP during a three-month experiment. After this period, if it works out, we intend to turn this into a long-term initiative for the DAO.
You can see an early version of the onboarding hub in Notion here.
Working Group Team Members
- Angela and Euge from Web3 Citizen
- Rika from 404 DAO
- Manu from SEEDLatam
- Krzysztof and Sinkas from L2Beat
You can find more details about each team member in our Questbook application.
Deliverables
As discussed in the introduction, our solution has two key components:
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An Onboarding Hub in Notion: This hub consolidates and organizes information scattered across the DAO, simplifying the ramp-up process for newcomers and facilitating their understanding of how to contribute meaningfully. We have completed an initial version (V1) of the onboarding hub and are continuing to refine it to ensure it contains the most pertinent information for new members.
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Weekly Onboarding Calls and a Dedicated Telegram Account: These provide newcomers with direct lines of communication with us, fostering a supportive and engaging environment. Two weekly onboarding calls have been scheduled (see Arbitrum DAO Calendar) to accommodate different time zones and a dedicated Telegram account has been created to facilitate ongoing interaction.
Moving forward, we plan to create the following deliverables to enhance the onboarding process and measure success:
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New Contributor List: The onboarding working group will provide a monthly list of potential new contributors to working group leads across the DAO.
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Monthly Reports: Each month we will deliver a report to the DAO assessing the performance of the working group based on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) detailed in the subsequent section of this post.
New Contributors List
We intend to maintain a list of people who expressed interest in actively contributing to the DAO. We will manually onboard each person on this list and collect basic information about their experience, areas of interest, desired involvement in the DAO, etc.
For one month after onboarding, we will actively try to match these individuals with an initiative in the DAO, that they may consider joining, and we will stay in touch with them to provide support and monitor their progress. After one month, we will stop the support but will monitor their contributions to the DAO to see if they stayed active after the onboarding period.
We will treat this one-month period as a deadline for us as well. Essentially, we have one month to identify a meaningful contribution pathway for any individual. After one month, we will evaluate the effectiveness of our approach. If necessary, we will introduce changes accordingly.
Expected Outcomes/KPIs
Qualitatively, our expected outcomes are as follows:
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Increased Participation and Contributions: We expect an uptick in engagement and meaningful contributions from new members who complete the onboarding program.
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Increased Understanding of Governance: By guiding newcomers through our onboarding process, we aim to enhance their comprehension of the Arbitrum DAO’s governance structure and mechanisms, empowering them to actively participate in the DAO.
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Enhanced Community Bonds: Through targeted onboarding efforts and fostering direct communication channels, we anticipate a strengthening of community bonds and collaboration within the Arbitrum DAO.
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Better internal organization within the DAO: Since we’ll be working closely with new contributors to find meaningful ways for them to get involved, we need to know what activities are happening in the DAO, i.e, which initiatives are thriving and which ones are struggling. We hypothesize that a positive side effect of our experiment will be better internal organization of the DAO.
Quantitatively, we will measure against the following KPIs:
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Engagement Metrics: Track the number of people joining onboarding calls and showing interest in joining the DAO.
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Placement Rate: Track the percentage of participants who join a working group in the DAO after the onboarding program concludes.
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Retention Rate: Calculate the percentage of program participants who remain active contributors in the DAO for at least 3 months after the onboarding program concludes. Active contribution is measured by taking on a role in a working group.
Funding
We have received a Questbook grant to compensate the working group’s team members.
Reporting
Within two weeks of the three-month program concluding, we will evaluate the onboarding hub and create a report to share with the DAO. The report will include completed deliverables, the program’s results tracked against KPIs, insights from the participant survey, areas for program improvement, and other relevant insights.
Note: The first onboarding call is TODAY at 11pm UTC/7pm EST. The next onboarding call (to accommodate another time zone) is next Monday at 1pm UTC/9am EST. Please make sure to reference the Arbitrum DAO Calendar for the full schedule and the most accurate times.
We are looking forward to kicking off this initiative!