Lessons Learned From Creating My First Community Offering
Creating an offering for a community comes with a set of challenges. Here’s what I learned after my first experience working with the Peruvian Community in New York:
1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Reach out to your network. Opportunities come from when you least expect it. The worst that can happen is someone say no. But the prospect of having a yes is worth it.
I needed to find Peruvians living in New York to interview. I had little knowledge of them even though I’ve been living in the city for 10 years. I decided to tap into my own internal network and posted on Facebook and Twitter asking for referrals. I was surprised to find that I received more leads from acquaintances than close friends. Suddenly, I remember reading Granovetter’s theory of “The Strength of Weak Ties”and how they enable reaching audiences that are not accessible via strong ties.
2. It takes time for people to respond to emails.
If you are asking for a favor, send the email at least a week in advance. Don’t be disappointed if they don’t reply right away. Be patient. If you spent time and effort crafting that email, they will most likely respond.
I spent an hour crafting an email synthesizing and sharing my findings with people I previously interview, hoping to invite them for a brunch to continue the discussion. I was anxious when I didn’t receive any replies, and halfway through the week I started to panic and wonder if I have failed. However, people did end up replying with enthusiasm explaining they had just forgotten to reply because they were busy when they read it.
3. Things don’t always go as plan.
Especially when you don’t have control over them. The best you can do is hope for the best and embrace the unexpected. You might be surprised at the outcome.
On the day of the event I organized, some people canceled due to unexpected circumstances. It was also raining, and I started to fear that nobody would show up. Fortunately, two people did, and even though I was worried about keeping the conversation going because they were meeting for the first time, I was surprised at how natural the conversations went from one to another. It felt authentic, and they were genuinely interested in learning about each other, and sharing opinions and stories.
4. Your first idea might not be the best idea.
Test your ideas in front of real humans as soon as possible. And be ready to be disappointed. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my head about an idea that when I am finally back in reality and put it in front of people, I realize that it is not as good as I thought. Don’t spend too much time and effort on a pixel perfect prototype whose direction may not be worth pursuing. The sooner you find out that you’re wrong, the easier it is to let go.
My initial idea as an offering was to create a Facebook Group as a means to connect the Peruvian Community. From my research, I learned that Peruvians felt disconnected with each other. Based on the insight that, I assumed that they would want to join an online group. However, I realized that I was getting ahead of myself. In order for people to join, they would need to find value on it. Putting every Peruvian in a room just because they were born in the same city does not mean they will all want magically get along. Being Peruvians was not a big incentive.
5. Share your process with the community.
You need to gain your community’s trust before you can get them on board with your project. Sharing your work in progress shows that you care and gets them engaged early on. It is also a good way to test if your idea is strong enough to move on to the next step of your project.
I ended up creating a blog post to share my insights with the community. A significant amount of people saw it, and some even shared it with people outside my network. I received a lot of positive reviews from people I rarely talk to. However, not many people subscribed to the mailing list I provided as a way to stay in touch with my project and receive updates. I realized that I need to do more to gain their trust. But, I feel that I am starting to build a reputation within my community.
