Paradigm Internal Document Sharing: How to Recruit Excellent Community Managers?

Original Title: Hiring a Web3 Community Manager

Original Author: Jakerr.eth, Paradigm

Original Compiler: Babywhale, Foresight News

Here is a brief version of the internal resource guide I wrote during my time at Paradigm's talent team. When I joined in 2022, community management was one of the most in-demand positions among the projects Paradigm invested in, and we aimed to provide better guidance on how to hire for this important yet vaguely defined role. I conducted research throughout 2022 and completed the writing in April 2023, with the article published in October 2023.

Founders often ask us how to become a great community manager and how to hire excellent community managers. Among the projects we invested in, a quarter of the teams hired for such positions in 2022. Despite the rapid growth in demand for community managers, there are few articles on the subject, and many teams struggle with where to start. Given the increasing demand and the ambiguity of this role, we interviewed 30 of the best community managers in the cryptocurrency space to gather their insights.

Why is Community Important in Web3?

"The secret to bringing people together is to build community with them, not for them. Amateur leaders try to manage a community, but great leaders create more leaders. Almost every challenge in building community can be solved by asking yourself: 'How can I achieve this goal by working with my people, rather than doing it for them?'" ------“Get Together”, Foreword)

So far, the history of the internet can be told through the connections and communities formed by humans. Today, Web3 is a natural extension of this online community-building trend, with users now having unprecedented power to invest in, shape, and manage online communities.

Many founders view the community as an extension of the projects they are building. ZAGABOND (founder of Azuki) told us, "The core of Web3 is community; you must view the community as part of the team, part of the brand, and the community can own part of the brand. Without a community, the project will fall apart." When users can identify with and shape a brand, cultivating a strong community becomes central to building products and companies.

Strategically, building a strong community can provide legitimacy and credibility for your project, thereby increasing adoption and adaptability over time. Nader Dabit (Aave Lens) explains, "In Web3, network effects and being first to market are much more important than in Web2. Having a strong community can attract more developers, which in turn attracts more projects and more companies… Sometimes, teams don't choose the 'ideal solution,' but rather the solution that seems less risky because it involves collaborating with other top companies in the ecosystem." For mature companies entering Web3, seeing other reputable teams building within an ecosystem signals that it is a safe and attractive space. For example, Polygon has successfully built a strong developer and project community, establishing significant partnerships with Starbucks, Amazon, Reddit, Stripe, Draft Kings, Disney, NFL, and others. Ryan Watt (President of Polygon Labs) commented in a Rolling Stone article, "Bear markets help focus your community. In a downturn, the number of Web3 developers continues to grow, which is a positive testament to the resilience of these communities." Building this flywheel takes time and effort, but as the community and surrounding ecosystem mature, the rewards will follow.

Clearly, many companies in the cryptocurrency space see this role as critical and it will be an important theme for how to build Web3 companies in the future.

Why Hire a Community Manager?

"John Resig, the creator of the Javascript library jQuery, admitted: 'The first person I brought to the jQuery project was not another developer, but someone to help us manage the community. We received too much feedback, too many questions, and too many people using our product. We needed a way to track all of this and ensure we were getting user feedback. So being able to delegate some of that responsibility meant I could spend more time focusing on writing code.'" “Working in Public”, Chapter 5)

Given the philosophical and strategic importance of building community, founders must maintain focus on the community as the project scales, and hiring a dedicated community manager can help address this issue. Latasha (Zora) explains, "I’ve been working at the grassroots level, staying connected with the community, listening to their feedback, understanding what they want to see from Zora, and relaying that feedback to the team. I’m the intermediary between the team and the community… The CEO has a lot on their plate, and it’s hard for them to get into the grassroots." Hiring a community manager allows founders to stay closely connected with the community while managing other aspects of the company.

Additionally, founders rely on community managers to act as a bridge between the core team and the community. Bhaumik Patel has served as a community lead in multiple Web2 and Web3 projects, and he sees his role as advocating for the community within the core team. "My role is to be the voice of the community, their hands-free phone. They don’t have a seat at the core team table, so my job is to be their seat at the table."

Over time, community leaders create a structure that allows others outside the core team to take on responsibilities for the project. Alisha (ENS) empowers community members through various programs. "Building a community is like building a house. The core team is responsible for laying the foundation, building the walls, and creating the blueprint. When people see each room, the expectations are clear, but there’s still enough blank space for community members to contribute their own touches, making them feel at home in the community."

When to Introduce a Community Manager?

As for when to bring in a professional community manager, it depends on the type, maturity, and next steps of the project you are building. Rafa (formerly at Mirror) published an interesting article about the sequence of digital organization development, suggesting that your initial focus at the start of the building process (such as focusing on the protocol, product, or community) will influence when the team prioritizes formally hiring a community manager.

For example, community-driven organizations like Friends With Benefits hired Alex Zahng (Mayor of FWB) early on, while product-driven organizations like Sound.xyz wanted to first drive product-market fit, identify their core users, and then consider incentives and mechanism design (protocol), before seeking to build a strong community.

Another way to consider when to hire a community manager is to decide whether to hire them before or after the product launch. If hired before the product launch, community building can be integrated into the go-to-market strategy; however, if hired after the product launch, assumptions may need to be adjusted regarding the product and community. Starting to build awareness for the project when users have not yet engaged can also be tricky. A developer relations lead told us, "Some people make the mistake of bringing in growth too early, leading to marketing/PR too soon. Now there’s a year until launch, and when people check out your product, they have nothing to gain, and you’ve already spent some social capital with users." If you hire after the product launch, you can gather more data about the community and clearly understand their needs and how to shape the role; however, recruiting and nurturing a strong community leader may take 3-6 months, so you need to be hands-on for a while before you can delegate to full-time team members.

What Should an Excellent Community Manager Do?

Not all community managers do the same things. The Web3/crypto industry your company is in should influence your thinking about the skills needed for a community manager.

In conversations with 30 community managers from various Web3 companies, we learned about the functions and responsibilities of the role:

The above lists all the functions, but we recommend selecting 2-3 areas where community personnel can bring the most value to your company and building the role around those functional areas. For example:

NFT projects may arrange community personnel roles around customer support, growth marketing, and programming, aiming to attract new community members and build excitement and engagement among existing members. Additionally, they can work cross-functionally with the product department to determine how the community can respond to future milestones in the roadmap. Examples of top community managers in this area include Deeze (Tessera), Tyler Chan (Royal), Stevey Trom (OpenSea), and Latasha (Zora).

DeFi projects may position community managers primarily responsible for marketing and business development, aiming to attract new users to provide liquidity and trade on the platform. In these projects, community managers may even play a partner-like role, seeking connections with DApps. Top community managers in this area include Ken and Devin (Uniswap Foundation), Oops (Zapper), and Brent (0x Labs).

Protocol, infrastructure, or platform businesses may primarily arrange community manager roles around developer relations, customer support, and marketing, with the goal of guiding other builders on how to better utilize tools to meet their needs. In these projects, community managers are also experts in developer relations and support; they may provide training and documentation or host hackathons to accelerate adoption. Top community managers in this area include Nader (Aave Lens), Rafa (formerly at Mirror), and Alisha (ENS).

What to Look for When Hiring a Community Manager?

Many excellent community managers are obsessed with the internet.

Luis (Partiful) told us, "When I’m hiring or recommending someone, I look for those who have a deep understanding of internet-native communities… they lead their own Runescape clans, have been mods on Reddit forums, or were people from Club Penguin." Similarly, Deeze (Tessera) is looking for those who are already active in the cryptocurrency space. He calls this "proof of work… because before I joined Tessera, you could see all my tweets, see my involvement in projects, see how I built a community around myself. I did this work for free, spending 12-16 hours a day on Discord, making friends with all the OGs." This experience living in the online space ensures that community managers are adept at communicating online, know how to adjust their tone across different types of communities, and can engage with the community in a way that is neither subservient nor arrogant.

While being internet-savvy is necessary, it is not enough. You also need to find someone with sufficient professional skills to make an impact in your organization and become an ambassador for the community. One project hired an active and enthusiastic Discord member as a community manager. This person had many of the obsessive internet traits you would expect in a community manager. However, they lacked good image and communication skills—they often clashed with other community members and could not handle the other marketing tasks required by the position. Ultimately, the project had to let them go and start the search from scratch.

The ideal candidate should possess internet-native abilities, communication and collaboration skills, and the functional skills mentioned above.

Final Thoughts

Cryptocurrency offers novel tools, mechanisms, and incentives that enable communities to do more than ever before compared to previous internet communities. Therefore, community managers need to possess different new skills to fully leverage the community-building models that cryptocurrency brings. Your approach to community management—the type of people you hire—will be unique to your project, but we are also observing emerging frameworks that will professionalize this exciting new function in this rapidly evolving industry.

Appendix: Additional Resources on Community Management:

Web3 Community Reading List -- A curated reading list of community management resources by Luis Ocampo (Partiful).

“Get Together: How to Build a Community With Your People” -- A book written by some members of the Instagram community team (Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, and Kai Elmer Sotto). It provides frameworks applicable to Web3 communities.

“Building in Public” -- A book by Nadia Eghbal about building open-source software communities. It offers frameworks from Web2 applicable to Web3 communities.

WGMI -- A community for current and emerging community managers. It serves as an information resource as well as a recruitment resource.

Community Tooling -- A list of software tools that community managers can use when designing community management strategies. Compiled by 0xTangle (SushiSwap, LayerZero).

What We Can Learn from Decentralized Community Building -- An in-depth study of several Web3 communities by Bethany Crystal (formerly at Union Square Ventures).

How to assess new community building hires for token networks -- A hiring guide for cryptocurrency community managers written by Peter Pan (1kx partner).