Foreword
This report is an outcome of the Fund8 Exit Survey that takes place following the conclusion of each funding round. 693 participants took part in answering the questions posed. There are key questions that track sentiment and perceptions of participants, including the overall Net Promoter Score (NPS) fund over fund.
Survey is widely distributed with frequent calls to action amongst major social channels such as Discord, Telegram, Twitter, Reddit, Catalyst Weekly, Town Halls, Facebook, and Daedalus newsfeed to name a few. Though, limitations are important to note. Sentiment reflected in this report includes only those who have decided to engage/participate with the original survey and does not reflect those outside of the scope.
This report is produced in an ongoing effort to shed more light on existing perceptions/sentiments and build a shared understanding between key stakeholders in the Cardano community. Through such, the Cardano community can build a future that is exciting for all of us to participate in. Thank you for taking time out of your day to understand it more intimately.
Summary of Findings
There is an overwhelming amount of support for the general vision of Catalyst and where it could be in the future. Fund8 scored the highest NPS to date with a score of 8.35 out of 10. This is great news as sentiment remains positive BUT it has started to show relevant and consistent signs of erosion that require our collective intimate attention. In particular, data also suggests a gradual decline in the efficacy of the Quality Assurance stage (CA/PA Trust metric).
There are three key issues based on the author’s POV that come up. Greater detail below.
- User Experience
- Collective effort is being held back by the existing user interface issues and especially user experience as a whole. This is coupled with lack of perceived tangible improvements in these areas going shortly into our 10th iteration.
- Navigation around the ecosystem remains a major challenge when seeking clarity in critical information flow and keeping in sync with the process
- Concerns equally affect those
- Who participate directly in regular Catalyst stages via various functional roles (Proposers, Proposal Assessors, vPAs, Challenge Team members, etc.)
- As well as those engaging less frequently (e.g. Voters - envisioning easier voting UI and to better track the results/outcomes post vote)
- Or simply observing/lurking from the outside (e.g. regular Cardano community stakeholders trying to understand the role and impact of the experiment).
- Provided evidence suggests that resolving these teething issues would improve clarity in understanding shared goals, improve participation, and ultimately overall engagement and collaboration.
- Quality Assurance & Accountability Of Outcomes
- Growing concern for existing processes that address the Quality Assurance stage
- More clarity and legitimacy/credentials of participants desired
- Post funding tracking and transparency of outcomes of projects
- Need for improved feedback loop that would enable channeling successes as well as failures for collective information sharing of these outcomes
- Communication and presentation of Treasury ROI seems pivotal in building trust throughout the ecosystem
- Growing concern for existing processes that address the Quality Assurance stage
- Voting Power Awareness
- Perceived lack of transparency/agency and usability also magnifies the issue of large voting wallets where some of the frustration is channeled towards.
- ‘Whale’ participation in the process is seemingly diminishing the perceived impact of small wallet holders on the overall decision making. In process, deepening the divide on the topic itself.
- This issue is highlighted especially when contrasted with frustrations coming out of UI/UX flow. This further propagates lack of understanding leading to fear of the ‘unknown’.
Food for thought?
All of the above elements have been signaled consistently as key user concerns over consecutive funds to date. It’s author’s compelling recommendation to internalize UX processes in how we design and develop new product features/improvements and/or experiences. Going forward - try to think about the following:
- How does any new feature/process affect existing user flow and experience?
- Who does it impact and how?
- Does it make it better, worse or is there no material change?
- How does any new feature/process affect back end management/admin processes and team/community dynamics?
- Does it improve our workflow efficiency and/or alleviate support pressure on delivery?
- How does it affect relevant key community stakeholders?
- Do these features/processes advance us towards our collective/community OKR/goals?
- How do they map into these and why are any features/improvements useful/critical?
- Are our collective/community OKR/goals well identified, understood and shared/communicated (e.g. publicly accessible roadmaps)?
- What tradeoffs must be considered when weighing on new features/process improvements?
- Test any hypothesis by collecting relevant data to understand status quo impact
- Seek varied opinions/different perspectives to form an informed view on how and which new features/process to introduce/prioritize out of backlog
- How do we ensure these any new features/processes are well documented
- And available for general stakeholders to review, understand and express their perspectives upon?
How to get involved?
To absorb more context, kindly review selection of key quotes throughout this report - listed below each category from both sides of the aisle. You may pick upon even more key learnings. I encourage you as a member of Cardano community:
- To identify opportunities where you can materially impact the outcome in a positive way by addressing key friction points in the user experience and overall accountability
- How to establish and maintain appropriate bidirectional communication channels that serve well as real time feedback loops to improve speed and quality of iterations
- Creating shared understanding - both - internally and externally
Now that you have found them, share topics and bring relevant suggestions to the community floor. You have key insights & perspective, time to put them into action. We’re learning how to listen better to each other.
You can
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Continue reading full report here: Fund8 Feedback Report (public) - Google Docs
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Watch a timestamped Town Hall segment going over key findings here
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Share the tweet version of this report here
Happy reading & iterating,
Danny
Community at Project Catalyst & Governance
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Note:
- You can find the Fund7 version of this report here.
Any additional questions? Need a deeper dive? Here to support you. DM me here or tag me on twitter @danny_cryptofay or via LinkedIn.