The document discusses various case studies of online and offline communities and what factors contribute to their success. It analyzes communities like Product Hunt, Reddit, Alcoholics Anonymous, NextDoor, and Houzz. Some key factors that contribute to strong communities are having ways for users to connect through shared interests, goals, or locations; gamification features that satisfy social, informational, and achievement motivations; and continuous new content to engage users. The document also identifies weaknesses in some communities like how NextDoor and Houzz could improve connection between users and making services or content more actionable. It concludes with tactics for initially building a community through word-of-mouth and influencers before scaling connection features.

1. Community

2. What is community?

3. Not that kind….

4. Community is...
A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of
sharing common attitudes, interests, and
goals.

5. Why do people join a
community?

6. Motivations of...
● The Tribe - Social rewards like empathy, acceptance,
connection, cooperation, competition.
● The Hunt - Search for resources: information, novelty,
money, and entertainment.
● The Self - Intrinsic motivators like mastery, curiosity,
completion, competence, recognition, and control.

7. How do people form
communities?

8. Communities of...
● Location
● Interest
● Organization

9. How do we evaluate and
compare communities?

10. ● Size - MUUs, # Active Users, Reach
● Longevity - History, Time
● Engagement - Revisit Rate, Posts/User/Month
● Growth - Growth Rate, Virality, K Factor
● Impact - Advocacy Score, Influence, $, Stories
Criteria and Metrics

11. Community Case Studies
● Online
o Product Hunt
o Reddit
● Offline
o AA
● Competitors
o NextDoor
o Houzz

12. Case Study 1: Product Hunt
● Started by Ryan Hoover in
November 2013 as a daily email
digest.
● 10k products have been posted.
● 509k comments.
● Driven 15 million views to
products.

13. Why does Product Hunt work?
Tribe - Threading comments on products builds connection, cooperation, and
empathy. Gamification of upvotes spurs competition between products.
Collections and user tagging features enable an even deeper level of
connection based on more granular interests.
Hunt - New content daily plays on our desire for novelty. Products also can
give me a means to accumulate more resources (money and information).
Self - Find new products to share with friends to receive recognition. Upvoting
feature is a very efficient mechanism for surfacing the most engaging content
and instills a sense of control of the experience.

14. Case Study 2: Reddit
● Founded by Alexis Ohanian and
Steve Huffman in June 2005, 1st
Ycombinator class.
● 71.25 billion page views in 2014
● 54.9 million posts in 2014.
● 535 million comments in 2014.
● 3.73 billion upvotes in 2014.

15. Why does Reddit work?
Tribe - Comments on Reddits builds connection, acceptance, empathy, and
cooperation. Gamification of upvotes spurs competition and provides validation
for content producers. Sub-Reddits enable an even deeper level of connection
based on more granular interests.
Hunt - New content plays on our desire for novelty. Content provided can be
inside information that helps users make more money, get more power.
Self - User account gives people an identity in the community. Finding
interesting content to share with friends to give users recognition. Upvoting
feature is a very efficient mechanism for surfacing the most engaging content
and instills a sense of control of the experience.

16. Case Study 3: Alcoholics Anonymous
● Started in 1935.
● Over 2 million members.
● 115k groups.
● In over 170 countries worldwide

17. Why does AA work?
Tribe - First step of the program is admittance which builds acceptance among
the group. The sponsor model builds connection and cooperation toward a
common goal. Weekly meetings build connection and camaraderie.
Hunt - Steps 8-10 of 12 step program are focused on continual self-
improvement. This drives members to continually look for more information and
engagement with the community.
Self - Gamification of achievement through the 12 steps yields intrinsic feelings
of control and completion. The coins awarded for annual sobriety, reflect the
desire to be recognized for an achievement.

18. Case Study 4: NextDoor
● Founded in 2010 by Nirav Tolia.
● Started with Bay Area
neighborhoods.
● 53k active neighborhoods in
2015.
● 5 million daily messages in 2015.
● Partnered with 647 public
agencies as of 2015.

19. Why does NextDoor work?
● Tribe - Organization of the network around neighborhood builds
commonality and connection amongst the group. By commenting on posts,
“welcoming” new members, and “thanking” people for content, users are
given a method to cooperate and connect with one another.
● Hunt - Continuously updated newsfeed provides variety and variable
reward every time you log into your profile. Users can scroll through the
feed, click into categories, or explore other neighborhoods for the search
for new and interesting information.
● Self - Comments and “thank” buttons allow the contributing user to feel
recognized for posting a great piece of content. Top inviter list allows
neighborhood recognition for inviters. Completion step guide that includes
inviting others to join NextDoor.

20. What’s broken with NextDoor?
● Interest based community is poorly executed. NextDoor cannot
become a consumer internet destination without surfacing content that
relieves our itch to not be bored.
● Location community is limited to personal and surrounding
neighborhoods. User’s identity is tied to a neighborhood and they are
unable to connect with people on a larger scale. This is not only a
customer experience problem, but a scaling problem as well.
● Service provider engagement is difficult and unclear. It’s not easy to
actually get problems solved and needs met which is why people are
always asking the forum for advice.

21. Case Study 5: Houzz
● Founded in 2009 by Aki Tatarko
● 25 million MUUs in 2014
● 500k professionals in 2014
● 4 million images in 2014.
● 12 million app downloads.
● 35% of users are outside US.

22. Why does Houzz work?
● Tribe - Ideabooks help build connection between the pros who have
uploaded the photo and the homeowner who has added it to their
ideabook. Commenting allows users to interact with each other which
helps build credibility amongst the community as well as connection.
● Hunt - Constant barrage of beautiful photos let users discover new
content.
● Self - Users get a sense of control and mastery when building their own
idea books. If you see something you like, you can buy it. There is a
feeling of completion from being able to satisfy your need to have
something you want.

23. What’s broken with Houzz?
● Houzz is not a network. The connection between content producers and
content consumers only goes one way. Pros upload photos and
homeowners view, comment, and add them to an ideabook. There is no
engaging homeowner to homeowner experience.
● Houzz is uni-platform. They’ve done a tremendous job accumulating
images, however they do not provide written or video content that is useful,
relevant, and interesting. A picture is worth a thousand words, but videos
tell stories and bloggers produce engaging thousand word pieces in their
sleep.
● Houzz is a place for inspiration, it is not inspirational. Photos on
Houzz give people a dream, but the community isn’t empowered to make
these dreams reality.

24. Tactics

25. How to actually build community
● Non scalable practices that over invest in
delight and personalization early.
● Drive WOM growth from initial set of users.
● Influencer to get to a tipping point.
● Build features to scale the ability to connect.

26. What does community on
Porch look and feel like?