Logo 3sidesClick to open menu
Last updated:  
September 13, 2021

Key questions for your community strategy when starting a community

By
Wilfried Rijsemus

We often talk about the importance of having a community strategy. Success is contingent on a clear and aligned community strategy that ties in with the overall business strategy.

So what are the key questions you should consider when you want to start a community?

When we do a strategy session with our customers we always address these 3 topics:

  • What is the compelling event that drives you to consider a community: What are the main drivers now or in the future that triggers this adoption?
  • What is the biggest customer challenge that you solve: Why should a customer spend time with you? What value are you delivering to your customer?
  • What do you want to get out of the community: What is ‘the one metric’ that ties into your business strategy? What value do you expect to receive in return of your effort?

These are not necessarily easy questions to answer. Especially when you need to agree and align with different stakeholders and departments. Also, what does your target audience think - have you considered it from their perspective?

Taking the time to define and align always pays off. When it is good enough, get going. The strategy is a living thing. It does not have to be perfect, you can adapt and adjust as you learn.

Read more articles

CLF Feb 2024 Debrief: MathWorks part 2 - The Future

Summary of talk by Hans Scharler of Mathworks and discussion on the future of building a large developer community 

CLF Jan 2024 Debrief: Lessons learned from building and growing a 2 million+ developer community at MathWorks

Summary of talk by Hans Scharler of Mathworks on lessons learned building a large developer community

CLF Nov 2023 Debrief: Lessons learned from a community of nuclear power operators

Summary of talk by Justin Lee of INPO on managing a community of nuclear power operators