And products worth building around. - Session originally presented at Women Tech Network Global Conference 2021. - For mid-career PMs. Key takeaways: building steps, real examples, and community at work practice. In-focus products: Open Source AI products, AND products that survive hard times. Community-driven #AI is considered to be accelerating #innovation in the same way open-source has impacted the Internet. Great products imply great communities forming. ❓What if we start the other way around? ❓What if we create a community first, and then something worth building a community around? 鱗 Google, Apple, Microsoft, Unity, and fast-growing startups are making use of communities to build better, meaningful and unique products. Building a community around mundane and noise, no matter how hard you try, might be sisyphus work. What makes communities stick, build, disrupt, break the norm - together? Let’s find out. Why NOW? Martin Harbech, from FB, pointed out recently the interconnectedness of 'idea' and 'timing' of the fascinating QR codes. The QR codes were invented in 1994 by an engineer with the Japanese automotive company Denso. For years, businesses and tech pioneers all over the world tried to drive adoption. A few countries succeeded, most notably China, but it wasn't until COVID hit that they finally took off globally. What can we infer from this? We are in the AI R-evolution, where building AI communities and open source AI is a powerful trend that assures the rapid growth, adoption and interest in using AI in various applications across sectors. It took a pandemic to teach us we should aim harder for building products people love and hence survive hard times, we should have enough feedback and info into what to pivot, should a hard time come.

1. And products worth building around.
Create a Community that
Sticks, Builds, Consumes
Alexandra Petrus | June, 2021
@alxpetrus

2. "Creating a community is the
new hot trend that has been
around for decades."
@alxpetrus
ALEXANDRA PETRUS
Bucharest AI Co-Founder

3. Why
now?
It took 26 years and a pandemic,
for the QR code to get adopted.
@alxpetrus

4. How
to ask
The right audience.
@alxpetrus

5. How to
ask
Camo by Reincubate.
(6k beta testers for its iOS/macOS
beta, the right audience)
@alxpetrus

6. Notion.
Built a $2B & 4M+ users SaaS through
Community & Templates.
Its highly engaged community of “Notioners”
was built in <4 years.
@alxpetrus

7. Notion.
Reddit community: 114,000 members
Available in-product templates: 250+
@alxpetrus

8. Microsoft.
MS realised the most important
community IS NOT Windows, rather
Windows DEVELOPERS!
@alxpetrus

9. Timing
Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces.
@alxpetrus

10. Daimler - AI community for internal
networking & info exchange
4k members out of 288,481 employees
(Dec, 2020)
The self-organized group meets at regular
intervals to deepen the content of
selected topics, and to further expand the
professional network throughout the
company. Each appointment has a pre-
defined focus and is always prepared by
other members of the community.
@alxpetrus

11. Open Source AI - is not copying, is creating together!
Honesty
Transparency
Building on top of each other's work.
@alxpetrus

12. Unity
the community driven product-
development-integration company
Educational focus - Resources, Promotion, Support
Unity User Groups with local group focus - ~1k members
Unity Evangelists
Unity Open Beta
@alxpetrus

13. Bucharest AI
From within an AI community,
for a grander AI ecosystem.
Started from a local need in a global context - 2.5k members
Evolved in a regional & global participant to a defined scene
Contributes as a voice in the AI space
Defined its identity: community, learning, and AI early
business acceleration
Fuels online participation - Demo Day 2020 gathered 1k
people
Grows through key partnerships - Elements of AI,
DeepLearning.AI
@alxpetrus

14. Be-AI Pre-Accelerator - Sign up for a Mentor
across 10 AI disciplines
Legal, Strategy, Development, MarCom,
Sales etc. and have an impact with AI
startups /early-stage deep-tech startups!
Applied AI Pod podcast - general AI podcast.
Building AI-fueled products? Want to be my
guest and record an episode together?
BucharestAI & DeepLearning.AI meetups
(200-300ppl audience) speaker for AI topics
Wait! I have an invitation for you!
@alxpetrus

15. Communities are formed mostly by Innovators & Early Adopters
(usually ~15.5% of a market)
Innovators - accept failure, flexible with unfinished UI/UX
Early Adopters - expect receiving an edge advantage
LEARNINGS
@alxpetrus

16. The community commitment curve is real
LEARNINGS @alxpetrus

17. Read more on the 7 Ps of community by Douglas Atkin
Read more on the 7 steps of the CIRCLES method framework by Lewis C. Lin
Join a community OR run the 4-weeks ask 3 people/week exercise
Send questions, comments, feedback to alexandra@bucharest.ai
NEXT STEPS
Comprehend the situation (What? Why? Who? How?)
Identify the customer
Report customer’s needs
Cut, through prioritization
List solutions
Evaluate tradeoffs
Summarize your recommendation
CIRCLES method
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
@alxpetrus

18. Define GOALS & minimum team > Build your narrative & find your identity + values -
ask the right way!
Empower users to play a more meaningful role in defining your community & future
initiatives part of your community - pick up topics worth discussing around & the
right channels
Experiment and reward based on activity - recognize stakeholders & create open
scalable systems
Create Policies, Guidelines, T&Cs - welcome feedback and foster discourse
Stay on the applied side of the discussion - what can you, as a group, do about a
topic / move it in the right direction
Measure what you spend time on - community metrics, reporting success, data
matters! Invest in a CRM early on.
STEPS - bonus
- for building a community in a healthy, danger-free zone -
@alxpetrus

19. Conclusions "Create a Community
that Sticks, Builds, Consumes"
Clear examples on identifying the most valuable
community-label and channel to be formed around
How to ask from the community and serve their
needs
Key steps for building a community in healthy
setups & danger-free zones from trends
@alxpetrus