Funding Proposal for Data and Insights Squad Season 1

[Fabs]

@lee0007 @fartunov @daniel-ospina @b3n @anukriti10

Summary

We are requesting $55,200 for the duration of Season 1 ($12,300 per month + completion bonus) for the purpose of the creation of a Data and Insights Squad within the Ops Guild. This squad will initially have three major objectives:

1. North Star Objective: create a consensual definition of Active DAOs in the Aragon Network and planning for tracking data for Active DAOs
2. Operational KPIs: aid the ESD and the community to assess their performance so teams can have the metrics to deliver on their proposals. This means create, manage, deliver and support the structures within the DAO (squads, working groups and Guilds) with their relevant Metrics and KPIs
3. Alignment with AA: we envision working extremely closely with the AA, specifically Martin Garcia as a member of our Squad.

We will detail below how we will achieve each one of these objectives as well as the methodologies, resources and tools necessary.

Objective 1: Active DAOs

Strategic alignment

Given the importance of the number of Active DAOs (North Star Metric, or NSM) in the Aragon Network as a guiding principle, it is mandatory that a clear and measurable definition exists. Currently, different areas in AN DAO, AA and AL probably have their own definition of what an Active DAO is, resulting in a lack of clarity and focus on the most impactful areas to deliver growth of Active DAOs.

Through the proposed Quantitative (on and off chain) and Qualitative methods described, as well as the workshop process, we will be able to reach a consensual definition of Active DAOs — possibly by segment. We will then put in place the processes necessary to monitor these metrics over time and make them available to the DAO.

Proposed Goal

At the end of Season 1, our objective is to produce a consensual definition of an Active DAO which can be used consistently and widely by the DAO. Once this definition is in place, we will develop the measurements of this Metric and deliver real time data going forwards.

Methodologies

We will be greatly aided by the proposed work to be done by Flour.works. This will provide all the discovery process for on-chain data and a template and starting point to build upon. This depends on the Flower.works proposal being approved.

Therefore, in parallel with the work done by Flour.works , we, the Data and Insights Squad will:

1. Off chain data review - understand other data sources such as: proposals and votes on Aragon voice, discord activity and community numbers, etc. needed for understanding the Active DAOs
2. DAO segmentation - We currently are aware that there is a ‘DAO Universe’ spreadsheet within AA that has every single DAO in the Aragon ecosystem (estimated 5000). We propose to analyze this data source to be able to create a DAO segmentation and prioritization to be taken
   1. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ls8rZuFHgA9jQvdBZJAFYB-9AQaR5EZk8sQdWdWUQ7g/edit#gid=0
3. Qualitative DAO interviews - we will hand select a total of 10 DAOs from the proposed segments to conduct in-depth user (client) interviews and gather qualitative data.
   1. While this is an exploratory type of qualitative research and therefore hard to predict deliverables. However, the primary objective of this research is to uncover the dynamics of operation of different DAO segments (investment, NFT, Gaming, etc.), what do they see as their Key Indices of Operation, what is the likely hood that they will spawn new DAOs, what are the challenges of remaining in operation, gain some insight on how governance and community management is different in different segments of DAOs, understand their perception of treasury management and develop an overview of their expectation to be in operation in the next 12 to 18 months. If the AA team (Martin, Harry, Ramon) would like to add more to these deliverables, everyone’s feedback is welcome!
4. Consensus workshop - We will then conduct and guide a workshop inviting everyone (AN DAO, AA, AL) so that key stakeholders can learn about the different definitions, determine pros and cons and contribute to reaching a consensus on the ideal definition for an Active DAO which will be used in all Metrics henceforth.

Landmarks

Objective 2: Operational KPIs

Strategic Alignment

In order to make sure that squads, working groups and guilds are being efficient and productive it is necessary to measure their KPIs. While some within AN DAO have already organised their own KPIs, the majority of squads, working groups and guilds we have spoken to have asked for our help to develop and monitor these KPIs.

By investigating, collating and presenting performance data for the organisms of AN DAO, the Data and Insights Squad will provide key strategic information for the optimization of the AN DAO Operations. The ultimate goal is to optimize and track the operation of AN DAO to achieve our Chartered objectives.

Proposed Goal

At the end of Season 1, our objective is to have a dashboard displaying the KPIs for different squads and guilds within AN DAO. Moreover, we propose to provide support to the Guilds and Squads to help to interpret, action and develop new KPIs as necessary.

Methodologies

We propose that over Season 1 we will collect the necessary data, analyse it, provide access via a dashboard and conduct monthly meetings to help the teams to incorporate these metrics int their workflow. Namely the priority areas are:

• Executive Sub DAO
• People Guild
  • Community Experience
  • Learning and Experimentation
  • Talent Scouting
• Ops Guild
  • Finance and Treasury
  • Governance squad
  • Growth squad

While we have gathered some of the necessary KPIs we are aware that there are still many KPIs that need to be developed and that these metrics will change over Season 1. We have considered these possible scenarios in the planning.

Overall the methodology for different metrics will vary. Some will be able to be brought straight from the sources while others will require manipulation. For a complete list of metrics we are working towards at this moment please review this spreadsheet (and add yours too!) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KdKie2hOJiv1EIqm__bISmtdZ8UdMqgoqPhsVuse2js/edit#gid=1418176630

Additional Resources

While this is a more “traditional” type of research, we foresee some degree of experimentation. Ideally the data for all metrics (as well as the Active DAO metric above) would be housed in one central, updatable, flexible and quick location. The bounty of Data Engineer would also support this task.

Moreover, we would like the result to be also displayed in the form of interactive dashboards so that everyone will be able to access and manipulate with minimal friction and small learning curve.

There may also be additional tooling necessary, such as a dashboard service or hosting.

Landmarks

New Talent for the Season

We encourage new talent to join our Data & Insights Squad during Season 1. We recognize that there will be new talent willing to join and help us on various tasks throughout the Season 1. We allocate USD 2000 monthly on a Coordinape circle to reward and stimulate new joiners. New joiners will be offered the space to join as contributing members of the Data and Insights Squad in the next season.

Additionally we are proposing the following bounty:

1. Data Engineer — Collaborative Bounty considering ~15 hours per week.
   1. The responsibility of the Data Engineer will be to create a central location to house all the data in a consistent format. The Data and Insights squad will work in conjunction with the Data Engineer to plan and build a ‘Data Warehouse’ (DW), a database for storing raw, clean, standardized and internally consistent data. This data will originate from various sources (Discord chat, AN forums, voting/governance data, AN on-chain data, contributor profiles, financial data, etc).
   2. Timeline & Deliverables
      
      

Foreseeable limitations and risks

• For this plan to succeed we depend on certain Human Resources and their ability to connect in a positive, helpful, timely and supportive way.
• We are proposing a Minimum Viable Product. This means that priorities have to be ruthless and there not every request will be able to be fulfilled.
• If no one applies for the Data Engineer Bounty this could prove to be a bottleneck on the operation as Data Scientists need data to work on. On the very short term we are already without an Engineer so this is not an issue, but maybe I need to work with Tayy if this lasts for more than 2 weeks.
• We acknowledge that the proposed objectives will require a lot of work. Based on the findings, the scope of deliverables may change or we may not be able to deliver in one season alone all the deliverables proposed. We would therefore use Season 2 to complete the delivery.

The Data and Insights Squad Team

Fabs Martins - 20 hours per week

Fabs has extensive research experience. Qualitatively, Fabs add analysis, interviews and reporting. Quantitatively, Fabs will help to develop measurements, reporting and prsentation. Finally, Fabs will be fundamental in the interpersonal aspect of this proposal. https://linkedin.com/in/fabsmartins

Fabs#8423 - 0xbF0f24fD34bC76CD6d8Eb37cc99d4477ed3a98FB

Julija Bainiaksina - 20 hours per week

Julija’s Experience - Background in engineering and data science. Holds PhD in machine learning and NLP. Worked as data scientist in finance and retail industries. Keen to adapt the knowledge & experience in web3.

Julija’s LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julija-bainiaksina-a906764a/

Julija’s wallet - drjulija.eth (0x3ce6268dEaE71b8Cd8C1331b911A4eE58dEBCE38)

Sam - 15-20 hours per week

Github - https://github.com/kimsammie

Streamlit -

https://share.streamlit.io/kimsammie/aragon_discord_metrics/main/app.py

Proposed Budget

Our budget for season 1 is $55,200. We have a monthly budget of $12,300, broken down in the table below, as well as a completion bonus on successful delivery of our objectives.

[fartunov]

Hey, a few comments here:

Given the importance of the number of Active DAOs (North Star Metric, or NSM) in the Aragon Network as a guiding principle, it is mandatory that a clear and measurable definition exists.

The outcomes of Flour.works proposal will be a potential update of the definition of both the NSM the what “active” means.

solution inspired by DeepDAO — but only containing DAOs from the Aragon Ecosystem.

Would appreciate more details, but it sounds like “we’ll make a copy but de-scoped.” which sounds far from the optimal strategy here.

to be able to create a DAO segmentation and prioritization

The prioritization is a very impactful strategic decision. Data should be used to support confirming/refuting hypotheses, and we cannot be building the prioritization framework based on what data is available. Filling out the shared table sounds like it duplicates what flour.works will be doing or at least heavily dependent on that work

Qualitative DAO interviews

That’s dope! On the selection side, I apologize for bringing in information that was not publicly available. With respect to the GTM strategy @Harry @Anthony.Leuts and myself will be making the selection for deep-dives, it would be awesome if we can harmonize the selection criteria somewhat

reaching a consensus on the ideal definition for an Active DAO

Sounds cool but as mentioned above, we are not sure we are sticking with “Active DAOs” so it feels like this is contingent on the outcome of the flour.works deliverable.

Operational KPIs

It is for each workstream to define and propose their respective KPIs. Those KPIs can change across workstreams and also as the teams working on a specific stream change as well.

By delegating this, it creates the incentive for the respective teams to bloat the administrative workload of creating and tracking KPIs. Looking at the current version of the list, it is a process that is already at play. Most proposals that have been submitted have unallocated budget provisions - working with the data squad should come out of that, not be a separate stream funded by the DAO.

[Fabs]

Hi Ivan @fartunov,
thank you very much for the comments and positive feedback!

I think you raise some important points and the Data and Insights team has taken some time to consider and respond. Please find our initial comments here:

The outcomes of Flour.works proposal will be a potential update of the definition of both the NSM the what “active” means.

We are looking forward to the on-chain analysis from Flour.works and this will form an integral part of our work. However:

1. the Active DAO definition is focused on all DAOs within the ecosystem, which is likely not as useful when considering every Vertical/Segment.
2. the Flour.works proposal will indeed offer a suggestion on good metrics to consider on Active DAOs, but it will be 100% based on on-chain data. But, it does not consider off-chain data (such as voting), verticals/segments nor has there been anyone from AA or AN DAO consulting to help reach consensus.

The prioritization is a very impactful strategic decision. Data should be used to support confirming/refuting hypotheses, and we cannot be building the prioritization framework based on what data is available. Filling out the shared table sounds like it duplicates what flour.works will be doing or at least heavily dependent on that work

I apologize that I did not use the correct terminology. We want to start from the GtM’s definition and prioritization of verticals. We will then look if the Verticals are indeed showing up in data or if they are more similar than we thought. This should help us to avoid duplication of efforts. The table attached is the reference to all DAOs in the Aragon ecosystem, which will form the data source for selecting what DAOs to include in our analysis.

That’s dope! On the selection side, I apologize for bringing in information that was not publicly available. With respect to the GTM strategy @Harry @Anthony.Leuts and myself will be making the selection for deep-dives, it would be awesome if we can harmonize the selection criteria somewhat

We are also super excited about this part. We should absolutely use the same criteria! Can we be involved when AA is selecting and developing the deep dive? Maybe work on this together with @fartunov , @Harry and @Anthony.Leuts ??

It is for each workstream to define and propose their respective KPIs. Those KPIs can change across workstreams and also as the teams working on a specific stream change as well.

By delegating this, it creates the incentive for the respective teams to bloat the administrative workload of creating and tracking KPIs. Looking at the current version of the list, it is a process that is already at play. Most proposals that have been submitted have unallocated budget provisions - working with the data squad should come out of that, not be a separate stream funded by the DAO.

Apologies if this was not expressed clearly. Our objective is to work with the stewards of the different squads and guilds, supporting them, to ensure that their metrics are measurable and then track these metrics.

We are not proposing taking over Metric selection. Our role is just to report on the metrics that each squad/guild are placing on their proposals.

Regarding the other points you have made. We are working on them and we will post an answer shortly.

[fartunov]

Hey Fabs, thanks for the response. Considering you are re-working the funding request please adhere to the guidelines as stated here:

Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.

[Fabs]

@fartunov

solution inspired by DeepDAO — but only containing DAOs from the Aragon Ecosystem.

Would appreciate more details, but it sounds like “we’ll make a copy but de-scoped.” which sounds far from the optimal strategy here.

This was the issue that I did not address on the last post. We have decided to remove this line from the proposal to improve clarity. It was a long erm ambition which would never be done in this season.

thank you.

[daniel-ospina]

Simmilar comemnt that I made to the Growth Team proposal. This seems like a solid direction but the ideal would be for the funding to come from the Main DAO as the ESD was not setup to handle large scale recurring funding for teams.
The ESD was intended for quick grants to seed fund initatives or exceptional grants that might be needed.

As such, I’d invite you to submit this proposal to the Main DAO and I’m happy to provide guidance on the process if needed.

[lee0007]

ESD General Meeting 2 May 2022 UTC 1900: ESD S1 funding not approved

Current Statement on the limitations of ESD funding

@lee0007

Limitations

The ESD is a mechanism for bootstrapping growth and so we propose to set maximum limits on projects that the ESD should fund. Specifically, we propose funding projects

• up to a maximum of 20k per month and
• for a maximum of two funding cycles

Projects beyond this scope we believe are better suited to Main DAO proposals. Furthermore, to enable the seasonal cadence there will be no new funding allocation during the final month of each four-month season, instead, this time is used for strategic planning in the lead up to the next season.

These limitations were decided by the ESD in the previous season and included in the documentation that was open to significant discussion before posting in the forum and voting. It would seem unfair to change the standard only after people have committed time and energy to develop ESD proposals given that we have the budget to support these community efforts.

This proposal falls within the current limitations; however, sorry we @fartunov @lee0007 do not see the impact of the proposed deliverables in terms of network growth. We question

1. the overlap with every other team that should be setting their own KPI’s based on proposed deliverables,
2. the reduced accountability of a third-party setting metrics for teams
3. prioritising the search for consensus when “problems are solved by changing data”

It remains our position (as per previous attempts to feedback) that qualitative DAO interviews would sit better as part of the learning & experimentation team cc @Sixto5

We would strongly encourage the DAOOps team @anukriti10 @lion917 to fund metrics and members of this team on either a bounty or coordinape circle basis to continue work on identified tasks such as

• DAO Segmentation bounty
• Operational KPI’s
• Alignment with the AA
• Dashboard development
• Data Engineering

We would welcome future proposals informed by the outcome of the Flour.DAO North Star Analysis cc @jdcook @mroldann

@Ricktik6 for Finance