Moderator: Ange

Note Taker: Brandon

Key Takeaways:

• CONTROVERSIAL - every core team doesn’t need to have input on the strategy
• TO DO - Formalize Radicle values
• Do strategies need to be defined so that they are relevant to all core teams? What if they aren’t relevant to all core teams
• How do core teams express their resistance to the defined Strategy?
• Strategy should not be numbers-based
• How do we put people on the strategy team?
• What is considered strategy? Not objectives and numbers based
• Vision

Questions & Discussion Points:

General Notes:

• Questions
  • What do we need out of it?

    • High level isn’t going to help with quarterly objectives.

    • Alexis - Prioritization of work (Alexis)

      • What should we work on?
      • What are our objectives?
      • Get focus
      • It could be quarterly planning,
      • Initial objectives you create, or quarterly/monthly
      • Could be a northstar
      • MUST be updated at least annually

    • Fintan - How granular is it?

      • 10 year, 5 year, 3 year, 6 month goal

    • Fintan -

    • Ange - does yearly planning make sense?

      • Alexis - yes it makes sense
      • Fintan - it has been helpful
      • Fintan - helps with hiring, if we know what we’re planning, we can hire more effectively
      • Need to figure out how our individual team’s strategy support other teams? - Fintan
      • Ange - Radicle yearly stretegy should help support all teams
      • Finta - Radicle strategy and core teams strategy, don’t have to be the same, but they have to be aligned with Radicle’s strategy for sure
      • We’re all incentivized to work together because we all want the same thing (Alexis)
      • What granularity is needed? (ange)
      • Lucas - no granular strategy, just core teams working with the main strategy. Apply the main strategy to core team objectives
      • Alexis - the strategy team should define objectives,
      • Fintan - the core teams should take these objectives and see how they can do their work to best meet those objectives
      • Ange - 1. strategy pillar has a single yearly strategy 2. informs a core team strategy. 3. every quarter core teams are defining their objectives
      • Alexis - it’s monthly, we don’t have a longer strategy
      • Ange - is monthly too much? Do you need it to be monthly?
        • Lucas - depends on what you’re working on. Maybe you’re doing quick projects or maybe you’re working on larger things?
        • Ange - do you need input from the strategy team?
        • Alexis - don’t want splitting up the year to introduce more processes. That will change the way the team has to operate. If we have quarterly deadlines, it changes how the team has to operate. VS if it’s a “helper process” that helps guide, it doesn’t really change how teams work
        • Ange - don’t know we want strategy pillar to have quarterly interactions.
        • Lucas - maybe it will demoralize teams if they always feel threatened by getting defunded
        • Ange - what do core teams need then?
        • Alexis - Just a guide…
      • Ange - What does the core team need
        • Quarterly input
          • Maybe teams don’t need input quarterly
          • What kinds of inputs are they looking for from strategy pillar?
        • What do we owe the greater community
          • We need some amount of reporting to stay in check with the community
          • Maybe this is all we need?
      • Fintan - what informs the strategy though?
        • In Link we’re more driven by open source values. Growth might be driven by other things
      • Alexis - mission and vision inform the strategy. Values (OS first, peer to peer, etc) informs … these things don’t change
      • Fintan - How do you consolidate opposing values
      • Resistance to putting down values (?)
      • Alexis - We did put our values down in a blog post
      • TO DO Ange - Can we formalize these values in a document?
      • Ange - can we be more sure that things get done? From the growth perspective, can they count on technical teams to deliver things in the timeline?
      • Lucas - When there is a vision, new contributors can evaluate the team based on that.
      • Vision
        • Strategy
          • Core team Principles?
      • Floaters - are they
      • When core teams ask floaters to work on things, it’s very helpful to be able to point together to a global strategy to make sure things they are working on make sense
      • Alexis - “we need to release this product” isn’t a strategy … “we want to onboard this kind of user” is a strategy
      • Alexis - strategy shouldn’t have numbers associated with them, it should just be a direction.
      • Alexis - 2021 the strategy was “onboard as many DAOs as possible”
      • Alexis - Hearing the 2021 goals Strategy should be choosing one thing over another. For example:
        • Instead of doing R&D, we’ll try to grow out user base
        • We’re gonna focus on hiring
        • We’re gonna try to find product market fit
        • We’re gonna build for Ethereum users instead of GitHub users
        • Get GitHub users to use radicle
          • Goal: GitHub importer
          • GitHub login
            • App team would ask the Link team to build a thing that integrates with GitHub.
      • Ange - there’s flexibility in accomplishing your
      • Alexis - if a core team doesn’t have the bandwidth to build something then you’d have to find another way
      • Fintan - But how do teams agree on strategy?

      QUESTION 3:

      • Ange - How should the strategy team form the strategy

      • Ange - Who is involved in the team?

      • Fintan - Can a core team opt out of a strategy?

      • Alexis - a strategy affects a protocol team different than a product or growth team

      • Fintan - do all strategies need to be defined in a way that they are relevant to each core team?

        • Ange - who is part of the strategy team, so that the strategy reflects the core teams
        • Lucas - if you’re closest to the specific thing, then you have more influence over the strategic position
        • Ange - if there are 8 people on the strategy team, and a strategy goal is related to Link, then Link has more weight in deciding
        • Alexis - strategy can be more flexible. If Link is not hindering the strategy then they are part of it. Link’s success if based on what is built on top of the protocol.
        • Ange - Yes, you could enable things to be built on Link. But Link could prioritize who (not clear sorry)
        • Alexis - If one year the strategy is GitHub, doesn’t mean the protocol team has to do something with GitHub.
        • Fintan - so If the strategy is integrate with GitHub, your goal on Link might be to allow more open connections with the protocol
        • Ange - if the strategy team has to read the market.
        • Alexis - strategy should be broad enough that the core teams are negotiating only on objectives
        • CONTROVERSIAL Alexis - every core team doesn’t need to have input on the strategy
        • Lucas - if you don’t feel part of the strategy, you’re less motivated
        • Ange - if you’re part of a core team and on the strategy team then your team is at an advantage because they’re defining the strategy
        • Alexis - You can VOTE for the people on the strategy team
        • Ange - strategy has to have certain skillsets from different people. if we’re voting, how do we make sure to have different skillsets on the strategy team?
        • It’s not encodable so you can’t enforce it
        • Alexis - I agree we should have different skillsets on the strategy team, but you can’t control that in the future because the DAO can change anything

        Big takeaways:

      • CONTROVERSIAL - every core team doesn’t need to have input on the strategy

      • TO DO - Formalize Radicle values

      • Do strategies need to be defined so that they are relevant to all core teams? What if they aren’t relevant to all core teams

      • How do core teams express their resistance to the defined Strategy?

      • Strategy should not be numbers-based

      • How do we put people on the strategy team?

      • What is considered strategy? Not objectives and numbers based

      • Vision

        • Strategy
          • Goals