Proposal Summary:
The core mission of this proposal is to conduct a business development-focused learning experiment with the goal of helping the Aragon network accelerate growth. The users we are looking to interview and assist are some of the 184 existing inbound leads that reached out in Q4 2021, as well as the net new inbound leads that reach out to Aragon in Q1 2022.
The output of this learning experiment will be a report of the qualitative and quantitative data gathered during 15-30 minute meetings with potential users trying to create a DAO using the Aragon stack. Our hypothesis is that this experiment will help Aragon better understand, qualify, and onboard high-value DAOs in the future.
The output of this experiment will help us:
- Determine the need, role, and possible impact of an Aragon BD Guild
- Improve the conversions from inbound lead → onboarded DAO
- Identify ideal users and potential reference implementations for future products
Proposal Description:
There is an inbound interest of ~200 requests submitted by potential Aragon users and/or community members through two Typeforms on the Aragon website. Those fall in roughly 3 buckets:
- Interested to create a DAO
- Curious about DAOs
- Misc - offering services, partnerships, “partnerships” (listing intermediaries, cross-promotion), general spam
AA currently does not have the bandwidth to engage those “leads”
Objectives:
- Categorize requests to rework the Typeform for pre-qualification
- Understand timeline requirements of prospective DAOs
- If immediate direct to Aragon Client and/or Tech Support Guild
- If they can wait, direct them to the future product early access Typeform
- Identify potential reference implementations for future products
- Qualify and introduce partnership-related and high-value leads to AA
- Track and share:
- Metrics - categorize types of organizations reaching out, # inbound leads → % to onboarded DAO → # of users added to the network, manage pipeline
- Findings - share insights/user feedback from meetings with inbound leads
Requested Resources:
We’re requesting $15,000 USD from the ESD (50:50) to fund this effort from January 17th through March 31st.
In addition to the financial resources stated above, we’re also requesting limited access to key AA members within the Product and Growth & Ecosystem teams. The more aligned we are with the strategic objectives of the AA through 2022 and beyond, the more value we’ll be able to deliver and collectively extract from this learning experiment.
Proposal Rationale:
In Q4 2021, Aragon received inbound interest from 184 potential users. The AA currently doesn’t have the bandwidth to engage those leads, which means that we are:
- Losing potential DAOs/users that need a little hand-holding as they launch their first DAO
- Failing to capture feedback that could help us improve our DAO onboarding experience
- Failing to capture feedback that could help us better understand the needs and challenges of first-time DAO creators
In short, we are sitting on a treasure trove of valuable user insights that we currently are not collecting or organizing. Systematically capturing, categorizing, and sharing these insights could help us build better product experiences, create content relevant to the needs of our users, and ultimately deploy strategies that will accelerate the growth of the network.
Limitations and risks:
Lack of responsiveness - Depending on volume, which is hard to predict, responses might take longer than we would hope. We can mitigate this risk by recruiting and incentivizing help from the broader community if needed.
Infrastructure - Part of this experiment is managing the inbound leads pipeline. Other web3 projects that have experimented with using a web2 CRM as their “DAO-Relationship-Management” tool have failed (e.g. BanklessDAO BD Guild). This shouldn’t be an issue for us for this initial learning experiment… but it is worth noting that whatever tool/system we use to track this data will not scale.
Duration, deliverable/s, and expected outcomes:
-
Duration: January 17th - March 31st (2.5 months)
- ESD can cancel the experiment at any point if the expected value isn’t being delivered.
- Expected Outcomes/Deliverables: Bi-Weekly BD Pipeline Calls, Monthly Progress Reports on Aragon Forum, BD Q1 2022 Learnings Report, Grow # of DAOs/Users on Network
- Potential Future: **Upon successful completion, we’ll lean on the findings from this experiment to design and launch the first iteration of the Aragon BD Guild. Ideally, this guild would report into and receive funding directly from the AN DAO.
Team Information
Mateo Abondano / Teo Vibras#1702 - Steward
Ivan Fortunov - AA Sponsor
Additional community members that have expressed interest in contributing in the future with BD efforts:
Spectra CV#6148
anson parker#4296
shawnzywonzie#4546
Strategic Alignment
This initiative has been aligned with members of the Product and Growth & Ecosystem teams. Notably, it aligns with the objectives of AA to better understand the DAO creator journey to identify opportunities for in-demand products and services as well as improve its onboarding experience.
This initiative is covering tasks and functions the AA does not have the internal resources to pursue, while as mentioned above being well aligned.
Funding Information
The ESD will make direct transfers to this proposals steward in the following cadence and under the following conditions:
- $5,000 USD (50:50) paid out February 15th~
- $5,000 USD (50:50) paid out March 15th~
- $5,000 USD (50:50) paid our upon delivery of Q1 BD Learning Report
