Team 1 - Arbitrum DAO Onboarding Framework Experimental

[ocandocrypto]

Track Number: GovTech

Track Name: GovTech

Challenge Statement:

As Arbitrum DAO grows, the increasing governance activity can overwhelm current delegates, making it difficult to stay updated and vote effectively.

To address this, we propose creating a comprehensive onboarding framework for contributors, delegates, and builders. This framework will provide a clear and structured path for individuals to get involved and contribute, ultimately enhancing the ecosystem and alleviating the workload on existing delegates.

Members:

@ocandocrypto - Angela O

@san - Sandra C

Team Lead contact name: Angela O

Telegram/Forum: @ocandocrypto

Pitch

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Proposal

Abstract

This proposal aims to create and manage a comprehensive onboarding framework for contributors, delegates, and builders in the Arbitrum DAO. The goal is to provide a clear, structured path for individuals to get involved, contribute, and enhance the ecosystem, while reducing the workload on current delegates.

Motivation

The lack of a clear onboarding process for new contributors, delegates, and grantees is a significant barrier to their participation in the Arbitrum DAO. Establishing a structured framework will guide individuals to effectively engage with the community, driving innovation and growth within the ecosystem. The framework targets three main contributor types:

• Contributors: Focus on creating proposals to enhance the Arbitrum DAO, improving their ability to make impactful contributions.
• Grantees: Facilitate understanding of available grants and help identify suitable options for funding projects.
• Governance Analysts: Mentor individuals interested in DAO governance, fostering a skilled talent pool for delegate roles and protocol workflows.

Optimizing DAO resources and operational efficiency, his framework minimizes delegates time spent in answering questions from new members, enhances proposal quality, and cultivates a talent funnel that encourages active participation and growth within governance teams.

These insights stem from active participation in the Arbitrum Onboarding Working Group, which includes representation from @ocandocrypto collaborating with Seed LATAM, L2 Beat, 404 DAO, and Web3 Citizen as a second step proposal for the first experimental one.

Rationale

Establishing a structured onboarding framework is crucial for the Arbitrum DAO as it simplifies entry for new participants, easing the path to contribution for grantees, contributors, and governance analysts alike. This approach reduces barriers, enhances community engagement, and fosters a sense of shared purpose. By investing in this framework, we bolster the Arbitrum ecosystem’s inclusivity, innovation, and ability to attract and retain top talent in the web3 space.

Goals

1. Streamline Onboarding for Contributors, Delegates, and Grantees: Develop a comprehensive onboarding framework that clearly outlines the steps for individuals to get involved in the Arbitrum DAO, whether they are looking to contribute to projects, seek grants, or participate in governance.
2. Enhance Community Engagement and Knowledge Sharing: Create sessions focused on onboard each type of contributor, having sessions with experienced DAO members, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing.
3. Facilitate Access to Resources and Support: Create a centralized Resource Guide that offers comprehensive information, tutorials, and FAQs. This guide will be easily accessible to all newcomers upon their first visit to the forum.

Specifications

Arbitrum DAO Onboarding Framework

1. Weekly Onboarding Calls: The Onboarding Working Group will continue hosting a weekly Arbitrum DAO Onboarding Call, where attendees will share their background and motivations to become part of the Arbitrum DAO. The Onboarding Working Group will share the different options to get involved in the DAO (as contributor, grantee and/or governance) and share that there will be a monthly call focused on each group.

2. Reach out to new members to invite them to Focused Monthly Calls: The Onboarding Framework team will reach out to the new members to remind them to attend the Focused Monthly Call that they could be more interested about.

3. Focused Monthly Calls: These calls will share everything each type of contributor should know for the next steps in their Arbitrum DAO contribution path. Each call will have different content and Q&A time:

   1. Grantees: The session will be “Grants 101” where attendees get to know the current grants they could apply for like Arbitrum Grants (Questbook, Foundation, Thrive, DAO), Arbitrum Funding Programs (GCP, etc.), also they will get an Arbitrum Grants Leader Directory and Application Templates.
   2. Contributors and Governance Analysts: They will have a session called “DAO 101” to explain the current initiatives in the DAO, main leaders, DAO resources and Calendar, how to use the forum and how to write a proposal. This session serves as a filter, participants interested in creating proposals will go to the Fellowships Incubators and the ones interested in becoming part of Arbitrum Governance will go to the Governance Analyst Incubator.

4. Incubators for Contributors and Governance Analysts: 1 month of duration incubators that will accelerate the onboarding of Contributors and Governance Analysts from 0 to bring value to the Arbitrum DAO. Each one will be focused in a different result:

   1. Contributors: They will have a “Fellowship Incubator”, people with similar background will be put together in a group focused on DevRel, Operations, Social Media or Business Development, they will have weekly mentorship on how to write a proposal and the expected deliverable is the submission of a proposal to the Governance Forum.
   2. Governance Analysts: For contributors interested in governance, they will have a “Governance Analyst Incubator” where they will learn how to become delegates, learn the daily governance workflow, how to analyze a proposal and vote for it. They will receive weekly mentorship from experienced delegates on how the Arbitrum DAO governance works, the expected deliverable from this Incubator is to analyze proposals and post feedback weekly.

5. Follow up Incubators results:

   1. Fellowship Incubator: Measure how many proposals were submitted and the feedback they got from delegates.
   2. Governance Analyst Incubator: Measure how much feedback was submitted from the participants to DAO proposals.

6. Context Scaling: 5 participants of the Governance Analyst Incubator that were committed to submit feedback to proposals will be part of two extra months for this incubator, it is focused on match talented onboarded members with delegates that may not have enough time or tools to be updated to DAO proposals and they will support each other as the delegates get help and the newly Governance Analyst get experience from doing tasks l like analyze proposals weekly and give feedback to the DAO.

7. Create a Talent Incubator: outstanding participants from both Incubators will be added to a Talent pool to be shared with Arbitrum DAO community so delegates or protocols can reach them and hire them if they are in need of their expertise.

Steps to Implement

1. Create Onboarding resources: Arbitrum DAO Onboarding Guide and prepare the content for Focused Monthly Calls
2. Meet with stakeholders to sync on the Onboarding Framework
3. Organize Focused Monthly Calls
4. Launch Incubators for Contributors and Governance Analysts
5. Monitor and evaluate Incubator progress
6. Establish Talent Incubator
7. Report results and improve the framework

Timeline

Month 1: Planning and firsts Focused Monthly Calls

• Build Arbitrum Onboarding Framework resources
• Meet with stakeholders
• Raise awareness throughout the Arbitrum ecosystem by hosting online events, creating engaging content, and collaborating with communities such as SheFi, DevRel Uni, and the Arbitrum Foundation.
• Host Focused Monthly Calls (will continue in the rest of the timeline)

Month 2: Launch first Incubators

• Put together Fellowship Incubators groups (divided according their interests and backgrounds: DevRel, BD, Social Media and Ops)
• Start mentorships for Fellowship and Governance Analyst Incubators

Month 3-5: Follow up and launch two more Incubators

• Measure the performance of both Incubators
• Run two more Incubators (1 month of duration)
• Extended Governance Analyst Incubator for the outstanding participants matching them with delegates or protocols.

Month 6: Feedback Loop and analysis of results

• Get feedback from participants and stakeholders (grants managers and delegates)
• Create an impact report
• Analyze how to improve the program and decide if it should continue for another 6 months, if so, a proposal will be submitted.

Onboarding Framework Working Group

The current Onboarding Working Group team is run by Angela from Web3 Citizen, Rika from 404 DAO, Manu from Seed LATAM and Krzysztof and Sinkas as advisors from L2 Beat.

To run this framework, que expect a working group consisting of 4 groups/people with the following roles:

Project Manager (PM)

• Oversees the overall implementation of the onboarding framework.
• Manages project timelines, resources, and dependencies.
• Coordinates with stakeholders, ensures deliverables are met, and addresses risks and issues.

Educational Manager

• Develops and manages educational content for the Arbitrum DAO Onboarding Guide and monthly calls.
• Coordinates the Fellowship and Governance Analyst Incubators, including participant selection, mentorship scheduling, and progress tracking.
• Ensures content clarity, relevance, and alignment with DAO goals, and integrates stakeholder feedback.

Communications Manager

• Manages communications related to the onboarding framework, including internal and external stakeholders.
• Engages with stakeholders such as current DAO delegates, grant managers, and community leaders.
• Facilitates collaboration, gathers feedback, and ensures alignment of onboarding efforts with community needs and DAO objectives.

Operations Manager

• Schedule and organize monthly and weekly calls for the different contributors groups.
• Actively engage with the community to gather feedback and address concerns.
• Provide regular reports on key metrics and progress towards goals.
• Use feedback to identify areas for improvement and implement changes to the onboarding framework and community engagement strategies.

Overall Costs

Team payments: $12000 per month. $72000 for 6 months.

• Project Manager: $3000 per month. $18000 for 6 months
• Educational Manager: $3000 per month. $18000 for 6 months
• Comms Manager: $3000 per month. $18000 for 6 months
• Ops Manager: $3000 per month. $18000 for 6 months

Operational costs (work tools subscriptions ): $500 per month. $3000 per month

Incentives for Governance Analyst Incubator participants (estimation of 5 selected per Incubator, 15 in total): $500 per selected participant, $7500 for 15 selected participants in three Incubators.

Total costs: $82,500

Conclusion

This proposal outlines a comprehensive approach to streamline the onboarding process for new contributors, delegates, and grantees within the Arbitrum DAO, ensuring a more inclusive and effective community engagement.

Additionals

Workflow Framework

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Deck

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[feems]

Great intitiative just a few thoughts and suggestions

Onboarding is indeed an issue within the DAO; however, it might not be the biggest challenge we face. Rather than solely focusing on onboarding new contributors, we should also consider strategies for retaining existing contributors or those with skills that align with current DAO projects (such as individuals who were shortlisted or applied for positions like Council members).

• Strengthening the proposal by including key personas would be beneficial. Who exactly do you want to onboard, why, and how would they contribute to the DAO’s growth? (I emphasize growth because most of the funding has been allocated towards this goal.)
• Include team roles and responsibilities—what will each team member do, and what is their objective?
• Align KPIs more closely with conversion goals, such as retaining skilled talent, tracking the number of onboarded individuals who become delegates, and measuring how many of them remain actively involved in the DAO.

I believe there was an onboarding group before. What were the learnings from that effort in terms of valuable metrics that can drive DAO growth, efficiency, and retention?

Lastly, regarding this question: “This framework will provide a clear and structured path for individuals to get involved and contribute, ultimately enhancing the ecosystem and alleviating the workload on existing delegates.” How exactly will this be accomplished? Are there any existing models or examples that can be used as a foundation for success?