The ultimate DAO survival guide
Hello there and welcome to the Ultimate DAO Survival Guide!
The purpose of this article is to share with you the learnings from experienced DAOists and how they can be applied to your organization.
I made this article thinking of the people who are DAO rookies and want to gain some insights on how to have a smooth start in this space. Nevertheless, I believe that this guide will come in handy with anyone who has anything to do with DAOs.
Here is a summary of what you will find in the article:
- The resources used to write this article
- Self-awareness and its influence on the work in DAOs
- Learning systems and methods to apply once we join a DAO
- Making the best use of the DAO’s community
- Final words and article recommendations
Let me first tell you about the resources used for the article.
This article is based on the feedback given from people who are already deeply into the DAOs. You will see me using this approach frequently in my articles. Why? I want us all to participate in the content creation, evaluate our thoughts and shape new conclusions. Web Three Friday is now officially becoming the voice of this amazing community that we are all building.
So, what should I do to survive in a DAO?
Based on what we have discussed, there are a few key aspects that will either turn it into another amazing experience or lead to frustration.
- Your level of self-awareness and the approach towards self-discovery
- Your learning systems and methods
- Your approach towards the community
How much do you know about yourself?
Let’s start with the first big topic, which is the self-awareness of an individual. When you join a DAO it is all up to you in which direction you want to go. You are the architect of your own fortune. It does not mean that only the people who know everything about themselves will thrive in DAOs. Life is one big process of self-discovery. Therefore, it is crucial to be aware of the following things to spare yourself a lot of time and stress:
- Your strengths and weaknesses
- Your values and goals
- Your skillset
- Your hobbies and interests
- Your time availability
- Your benefits from participating in a DAO.
For some people, it might be too hard to determine all those things. If you are one of them, that’s totally okay. Just be honest with yourself and other DAO members about it. Not knowing all your abilities does not mean that they will not want to work with you, however, it will help them understand how to work with you.
To visualize it better, I have prepared five examples.
Choosing the right DAO
There are many different types of DAOs (for more insights, read this article) and their culture, values, and projects are going to vary. If you want to make new friends, then you are not going to join a venture-type DAO (unless you want to make friends with dollars, I’m not judging), but an entertainment-type DAO.
Presenting your potential to the community
You should be ready to introduce yourself to others in any call that you are joining and to evaluate how your talents could contribute to the community.
I would like to refer here to my personal experience when I joined Aragon. I just wrote a nice introduction about my background in the introduction chat. Just did it out of pure courtesy. Consequently, I got offered to help with content creation and now I am developing new projects with a bunch of amazing people.
It taught me, that knowing your skillset and how it should be presented to the people will automatically open many potential doors to new projects.
Choosing the right bounty
Bounties in DAOs are paid tickets prepared for the contributors.
Again — knowing what you like to do and what you are good at, will help you with finding the right bounty for yourself.
I took up once a bounty in Aragon to take meeting notes, thinking that it is going to help me stay up to date with the ongoing projects. However, I completely disregarded the fact that I have a shitty focus span and ended up taking way too long to finish this simple task. No one got mad at me for f*king up the project, as I helped with finding the next person. But that did teach me a lot about myself. It turned out that I prefer to build thoughtful content, such as this article, instead of meeting documentation.
Finding your resources
In DAOs you have to be your own entrepreneur.
Why? There are so many projects available out there! If I could I would participate in all of them, but the body and the spirit (unfortunately) have their limits. So instead of getting stressed about having too many possibilities or resigning from cool opportunities — think about how to connect them. You will be surprised how many amazing things start to happen once you shift into this mindset!
Be like water, my friend.
In general, the better understanding you have of yourself and your purpose, the easier it will be for you to stay in a DAO. You will know how to adapt yourself to the changing environment and at the same time remain satisfied with the project.
Your learning systems and methods
DAOs are constantly changing and evolving. Every day, there are new technological solutions available.
You should not get too attached to what you currently know and how you do things, but be open to new opportunities and ready to adapt whenever it is needed.
All that requires a lot of learning input. Therefore, I will share with you the tips given by my DAO community.
Read, read, read!
Although this might be time consuming, make sure to read through all the content that is available out there, such as:
- Company’s manifesto, roadmap, and whitepaper
- Notion pages
- Social media accounts
- Proposal pages and forums,
- Bounty boards
There are no stupid questions.
Ask as many questions as you can but also try to learn how to find relevant knowledge using community management tools such as Discord. Sometimes it might feel a bit awkward to ask about obvious things, but you should not worry about people’s reactions. Only people who don’t do anything won’t ask any questions.
Use mental frameworks.
Find a way to depict the whole ecosystem that resonates the best with your imagination.
Using comparisons can be extremely useful when dealing with such complex work structures. You can imagine the DAO as a solar system, where sub-DAOs are the planets. Or as a family. Anything that resonates with you.
Your approach towards the community
Knowing how to interact with your community can spare you so many sorrows and worries. Duh — it can give you the purpose and motivation to keep going in the DAO. It is a challenge to communicate verbally without having any misunderstandings. Then imagine how hard it is to do so with hundreds, even sometimes thousands of strangers from all over the world via a keyboard.
Knowing how to communicate is a fundamental skill of working in a DAO.
Therefore, here is a checklist that will bring your communication game to the next level.
Know when, where, and who.
Stay up-to-date with all the events happening in the organization, especially the ones specifically prepared for the new members. It will help you connect the dots and see, where your participation is relevant.
Build personal relationships.
If you have any questions or ideas, do not only bring them up during group meetings. Approach members in private messages. It would be best if you scheduled a call with them, to make the whole experience as personal as possible. This way you build relationships with the community and strengthen your position.
Read those damned text channels.
Check regularly the text channels relevant to your work. We know that it is easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of content produced daily on Discord. Just pick two-three text channels. It should be the minimum that will help you stay updated with the community, but also will not burn you out from the amounts of unread messages.
Keep your eyes on the watch.
This is more of a practical tip, but be aware that sometimes calls will take place at crazy hours since people are spread all over the time zones. For me, it was a bit of a bummer, as it is not good for my mental health and sleeping quality to work at any time of the day (writing it at 1:06 am, bravo Marta). But for some people, this timing is even more convenient. So you do you, but it’s not 9–5 anymore, it is kinda 1 am- whatever the hell might pop up.
Here is a short sum-up of what we have discussed today:
- The insights from today were provided by experienced DAOists.
- When joining a DAO you should make an effort to raise your self-awareness.
- You need to have some good learning systems and methods to not burn out from the amount of new information and change.
- Knowing how to interact with the community will save your ass.
Let me tell you, this is just the peak of a huge iceberg. There is never a way to be 100% prepared in this space. However, you should at least feel confident, that nothing major will surprise you.
If you want to read in-depth about joining a big DAO, I highly recommend you to read an article written by my colleague, Shawn, from Aragon. He provides some very reflective insights from his personal experience. Click here to go to the article.
Now I want to ask you — which tip did you find the most useful? Is there anything that you think should also be discussed or included in the article? Let me know in the comments!
Thank you so much for reading the article. In the meantime, I would like to invite you to join our UFOstart Discord server where you will learn about insights from the blockchain & marketing world. You will also find me there raising questions for my next articles — let’s write the web3 together!
Stay tuned and stay safe,
Your UFOstart Marta & Co.
