SG 0.2a - Market analysis and user research to enhance understanding of $VITA token holder and VitaDAO member needs

[saulthorin]

SG 0.2a - Market analysis and user research to enhance understanding of $VITA token holder and VitaDAO member needs

SUMMARY

VitaDAO is seeking market research proposals to better understand the user profile and needs of both $VITA token holders and VitaDAO members. The aim is to develop an evidence-based strategy to increase the number of membership sign-ups. The proposal focuses on identifying the value proposition for members and detailing the project plan and major executables to achieve this goal.

BACKGROUND

Renee is the founder of TalentDAO and active builder within the DeSci and wider DAO ecosystem. TalentDAO is a web3 native professional services DAO with expertise in organizational science and social system design. Over the last two years researchers I’ve been working full-time in DAOs

Below is the list of key questions this project initiative seeks to address:

• Who are $VITA token holders?
• What products, services, and events would token holders find valuable?
• What ways do Vita members want to be engaged?
• What channels made members aware of VitaDAO?

SCOPE OF WORK

Scope A is a 6-week sprint that involves conducting market and customer research to determine the most valuable services to $VITA token holders. The deliverables include a Member Services scoping plan for 2023 and a summary report outlining the research process, findings, and recommendations. The budget for this scope is $5k USDC paid in $VITA or $ETH.

Scope B is a 12-week sprint that includes data collection and analysis, concept design, testing and validation, and an execution plan for new Member Services offerings. The deliverables include a detailed Member Services scoping plan for 2023, detailed concepts and prototypes for new Member Services offerings, a roadmap for implementation of Member Services offerings, a detailed execution plan for the new Member Services offerings, a summary report outlining the research process, findings, and recommendations, and a presentation to key stakeholders. The budget for this scope is $10k USDC paid in $VITA or $ETH.

The main difference between the two scopes is that Scope B includes concept design, testing and validation, and an execution plan for new Member Services offerings. This allows for more in-depth research and development of new services to increase token holder satisfaction and potentially increase ROI.

It is possible to switch from Scope A to Scope B after the first phase if the results are satisfactory, leaving open more opportunities for further development.

There are two proposed scopes of work each with different levels of commitment.

SCOPE A: 6 week sprint

Objective: To conduct market and customer research to determine what value-added services would be most valuable to $VITA token holders and members, and produce a Member Services scoping plan for 2023 to increase the number of token holders and members.

Duration: 6 weeks

Week 1: Project kick-off and planning

• Set up project team and roles
  • Project Manager - responsible for overall project planning, execution, and monitoring. This includes developing timelines, identifying milestones, and managing project resources and budgets.
  • Senior Leader - provides guidance and oversight for the project, makes key decisions, and ensures that the project aligns with organizational goals and objectives.
  • Research Analyst - responsible for designing and implementing research methodologies, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting findings to the project team and key stakeholders.

Note: If Scope B is chosen, a UX Designer will also be needed to develop concepts and prototypes for new Member Services offerings based on insights gathered from research.

While there may be other roles needed depending on the organization and project requirements, these three roles are essential to the success of both project scopes.

• Define research objectives and scope
• Develop research plan and timeline
• Determine research methodology
  • To conduct effective research for this project, a variety of methodologies could be utilized. One potential approach could be to reach out to existing paid members of the platform and request interviews or surveys to gain insights into their experiences and needs. Another strategy could be to analyze user behavior and engagement data to identify patterns and areas for improvement. Additionally, the #introductions channel could be scouted to further refine user personas, and some of these individuals could be contacted for interviews or surveys as well. By utilizing a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, we can gather a comprehensive understanding of user needs and preferences, and use this information to inform product development and design decisions.
• Identify and recruit target participants using both off-chain and on-chain data

Week 2-3: Data collection and analysis

• Conduct online surveys and focus groups with Vita members to better understand their needs
• Collect and analyze data from social media platforms, community forums, and other sources to identify trends and sentiment among token holders
• Conduct competitive analysis of similar projects in the market such as Foresight Institute and Impetus Grant to identify gaps and opportunities

Week 4-5: Synthesis and reporting

• Analyze and synthesize research findings
• Develop Member Services scoping plan for 2023
• Create a presentation of the findings and recommendations for senior leadership

Week 6: Review and Finalize

• Review and finalize the Member Services scoping plan for 2023 with senior leadership
• Develop a summary report outlining the research process, findings, and recommendations
• Present the summary report to key stakeholders, including the $VITA community

Deliverables:

• A Member Services scoping plan for 2023 that outlines the value-added services to be provided to token holders
• A summary report outlining the research process, findings, and recommendations
• A presentation to key stakeholders

Success Metrics:

• Number of participants in the research
• Quality of insights gathered from token holders
• The feasibility and impact of Member Services scoping plan for 2023
• Feedback from senior leadership and key stakeholders

SCOPE B: 12 week sprint

Week 1: Project kick-off and planning

• Set up project team and roles
• Define research objectives and scope
• Develop research plan and timeline
• Determine research methodology, such as surveys and focus groups
• Identify and recruit target participants
• Set up tools and platforms for data collection

Week 2-3: Data collection and analysis

• Conduct online surveys and focus groups with token holders to gather insights on their needs and preferences
• Collect and analyze data from social media platforms, community forums, and other sources to identify trends and sentiment among token holders
• Conduct competitive analysis of similar projects in the market to identify gaps and opportunities
• Analyze data and identify key themes

Week 4-5: Synthesis and reporting

• Analyze and synthesize research findings
• Create a detailed Member Services scoping plan for 2023 that includes market analysis, strategic priorities, and tactical recommendations
• Create a presentation of the findings and recommendations for senior leadership
• Conduct internal reviews with key stakeholders

Week 6-7: Concept Design

• Develop concepts and prototypes for new Member Services offerings based on insights gathered from research
• Refine concepts through feedback and iteration
• Develop a roadmap for implementation of Member Services offerings

Week 8-9: Testing and Validation

• Conduct user testing and validation of the new Member Services offerings with a sample group of token holders
• Refine and adjust offerings based on feedback and results

Week 10-11: Execution Plan

• Develop a detailed execution plan for the new Member Services offerings, including resources, timelines, budgets, and success metrics
• Finalize and present the execution plan to senior leadership and key stakeholders

Week 12: Review and Finalize

• Review and finalize the Member Services scoping plan for 2023 with senior leadership
• Develop a summary report outlining the research process, findings, and recommendations
• Present the summary report to key stakeholders, including the $VITA community
• Conduct a post-project review and evaluation to assess project success and identify opportunities for future improvement

Deliverables:

• A Member Services scoping plan for 2023 that includes market analysis, strategic priorities, and tactical recommendations
• Detailed concepts and prototypes for new Member Services offerings
• A roadmap for implementation of Member Services offerings
• A detailed execution plan for the new Member Services offerings
• A summary report outlining the research process, findings, and recommendations
• A presentation to key stakeholders

Success Metrics:

• Number of participants in the research
• Quality of insights gathered from token holders
• The feasibility and impact of the Member Services scoping plan for 2023
• User satisfaction with new Member Services offerings
• ROI of new Member Services offerings
• Feedback from senior leadership and key stakeholders

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

• Scope A - Requested budget of $5k USDC paid in $VITA or $ETH
• Scope B - Requested budget of $10k USDC paid in $VITA or $ETH

TEAM BACKGROUND

Renee is the founder of TalentDAO and active builder within the DeSci and wider DAO ecosystem. TalentDAO is a web3 native professional services DAO with expertise in organizational science and social system design. Over the last two years she has been working full time in DAO operations, strategy, and governance. She has helped launch large DAO initiatives at BanklessDAO, Lobby3, and across the DeSci ecosystem.

Appendix A

Potential Interview question bank

1. How did you first hear about VitaDAO and what prompted you to become a member?
2. Why are you interested in supporting longevity?
3. Why support VitaDAO instead of another longevity organization?
4. What do you think VitaDAO can achieve that others can’t?
5. How will VitaDAO help you on your personal journey?
6. What do you see as the biggest benefit of holding $VITA tokens?
7. What do you see as the biggest benefit of being a VitaDAO member?
8. Have you ever been involved in any VitaDAO programs or activities?
9. What other services or products would you like to see VitaDAO offer to token holders in the future?
10. Are there any pain points or challenges you’ve experienced while holding or using $VITA tokens that you think VitaDAO could address?
11. How frequently do you engage with the $VITA community or participate in community events?
12. What do you feel are the most valuable aspects of being a part of the $VITA community?
13. How do you see the future of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) like VitaDAO, and what role do you think $VITA token holders can play in this future?
14. How do you see $VITA evolving over time?
15. Do you have any suggestions for how VitaDAO can improve communication and engagement with $VITA token holders in the future?

• Agree
• Revisions Requested (Detail in Comments)
• Disagree

[jengajojo]

This is relevant research imo and to top that off @saulthorin and crew at TalentDAO have a track record of producing fantastic research and delivering on their commitments. I would suggest opting for option B to get the best out of this initiative

[consigli3re]

Great proposal! However, I’d recommend sticking to the proposal template to ensure uniformity in what the DAO is looking for. Especially when voting for funding, to avoid bias.

[saulthorin]

Interesting reactions given this is a direct response to a requested proposal. If you are opposed to a research community with two years in this space serving your needs please provide actionable feedback to us to improve the proposal. Or provide a rational reason as to why you’re opposed.

[catthu]

It’s always good to see people from other communities interested in VitaDAO! I find this proposal exciting since @saulthorin’s background is uniquely suited to this project, given that she’s an expert in market research and DAOs, AND her DAO also has scientists as DAO members. Would be interesting to see this approved.

[EliMo]

I don’t think you should base your reaction on what happens in the first 12 hours after posting… There will be more internal conversations about this, and people will likely review multiple times. One thing that would help me decide how to vote is to show examples of such projects you’ve implemented, maybe some social proof and/or testimonials.
Thanks for the proposal!

[saulthorin]

Have you not heard of talentDAO? We’ve been doing quantitative and qualitative research on DAOs and writing about it for a while. Here’s our newsletter. Several studies highlighted in here. https://talentdao.substack.com/

@catthu @theobtl both can put in a good word.

[bowtiedshrike]

I do not come from a business background, so I am unconvinced of the need to spend $5k on something like this, or how it will help the DAO achieve its goals.

This sounds like a proposal to try to monetize the DAO membership so that they can be better sold to. Except the purpose of VitaDAO is not to create exit liquidity, (er sales), it’s developing a new model of funding biotech research.

[catthu]

This is a good question to raise, but I feel like it’s raised at the wrong part of the process. This proposal responds to a goal we put forth this season, and one week was given to voice any disagreement with the goals and start an appeal proposal if necessary. Given that no such disagreement was raised, I think we should judge proposals by their ability to address the given goal rather than the goal itself.

To address your point though (but again also emphasizing that it’s raised at the wrong part of the process), I disagree that the membership is for creating sales and exit liquidity. People want to support the mission of longevity, and they could have bought tokens, but instead they opted for the membership (which is also converted to tokens). These people are probably not too familiar with web3. We want to understand who they are, why they are supporting us, and how we can incentivize more support, so we can further get more people to help fund longevity research.

[bowtiedshrike]

When you’re dealing with time-limited people voting on things, you need a process that checks at multiple points in case people miss the initial statement.

I didn’t even realize membership existed as something other than holding $Vita until I clicked on one of the other website proposals.

One important point for Q14 is that $Vita is NOT an investment, and that language should be avoided. I presume it was intended in the sense of ‘invest in your future’ and NOT in the ‘expected financial gain from the work of others’, but fixing that language now may help avoid arguing with the SEC later.

Learning more about members isn’t the issue. As a goal, that’s fine. But I’m not convinced external market research will help. For $5k, why not build it into VitaDAO’s processes so those data remain in-house?

For example, why not just create a survey monkey survey that you send to new members? You’re collecting email and all their other metrics when they join as members, right? Or some of these questions could be built into the membership application. IIRC, a survey monkey membership is ~$100/month, not $5k.

[consigli3re]

@saulthorin

What is your long-term investment strategy with $VITA tokens

$VITA is not an investment token, it is strictly a governance token. Any other classification is false and should be avoided - even if it is taken out of context. I have to reiterate @bowtiedshrike comment because the language is key.

[catthu]

Good point on the investment language.

On research – I used to be a user research professionally (not the same as market research but similar), and I have to hard disagree here. For one, we don’t want to have a lengthy survey before people can subscribe to a membership – they will drop off midway. Can we have one after they’ve signed up? We’ve been sending them actually, including a calendly link to book a call whenever they wanted, and no one has filled out the survey or booked a call so far.

For another, it’s a misconception that research is easy because the activity typically seen as involved in research (interviews, surveys) can be imagined by anyone (unlike, say, software engineering – and I’m saying this as someone who was a researcher and now a software engineer). One of the tasks that I had to do often as researcher was blocking shitty research requests and shitty questions from product managers, like questions that would only confirm whatever they wanted to confirm. Also shitty research protocols that would be meaningless because of selection bias. And anyone can write down a set of interview questions, but it takes a good researcher to actually conduct them, open up the interviewee, and know to follow up where important. Anyway, I could go on and on about this topic, but you get the point.

Not all researchers and research plans are good of course, some are just plain bad and they frankly give research a bad name. But good researchers exist, are rare and are worth their weight in gold.

I hear you on the process missing some people – we’ve done a lot of things to get the message through but due to the fractal nature of available communication channels we often miss things.

[bowtiedshrike]

I don’t want a lengthy survey at all (no way I’d fill out that question bank in Appendix A). But I think 3 easy questions (ie 2 click 1 type) is doable during the sign-up, especially if it’s framed as ‘we want to better serve your needs’.

What’s the email open rate on the follow-up email?

I can see spending money to improve metrics (conversions, surveys taken, website visits, etc) that can be tested, but I generally do not trust these kinds of consulting things. This may be the academic in me, but I want empirical results that are connected to testable outcomes. Also, VitaDAO should already have most of the desired metrics to ‘learn about our users’. You know the impressions/likes/RT on Twitter, source of traffic to various sites, locations based on IP addresses, keyword ranking, etc.

The 3 problems for me with this proposal are all in the sales: 1) I do not feel the pain for VitaDAO for these problems. The goals are nice, but if we meet them, so what? I don’t see how meeting these goals leads to concrete next steps. 2) Not sold that a ‘member services scoping plan’ would fix the problem underlying the goals. 3) Not sold that a member services scoping plan is worth $5k.

[catthu]

I think 3 multiple choice questions won’t really give us much insights. In fact, let alone the people that sign up for the membership, we know much more than 3 questions about the people that join our discord – they post introductions and all – but still, few of us could meaningfully divide them into main groups of personas and I doubt any of us could confidently fill out the answer to the majority of these questions above for them. And we do have the metrics you suggest from Twitter and the website, but that still doesn’t really tell us what we want to know. How would those numbers tell us why they are interested in supporting longevity or how we help them on their personal journey? This is how it is in tech companies too, we have a lot of metrics, many many many more than we have at VitaDAO, and we always needed to do interviews / research to understand the whys and potential roadmaps – otherwise you fall into the trap of listening to the loudest people, who are often already super engaged in a non-representative way.

i understand the distrust towards consulting projects, though that seems like a disagreement with one of the season goal, which is not the fault of this proposal. I think the goal asks for a product / offering roadmap as a deliverable (which will inform us how to make the membership valuable to more people), and this proposal does promise that. I think that addresses your question 1? And also question 2, since I mean it’s not the scoping plan that will help us make the service valuable, it’s the resulting insights and product roadmap. And then I guess we just disagree on 3, but I will say that 1) if there are such easy ways to gain such insights, we’d already done it – I mean we think about those things every day here! and 2) the cost in terms of amount of personnel time and trying ineffective things by guessing likely have passed, or will pass, $5k.

[bowtiedshrike]

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that we learn the ‘why’ for people, and they’re not lying about that to themselves or to the interviewer. There are 3 groups, who partly overlap: 1) they want to feel good about supporting a noble cause, 2) they want DeSci to succeed, and 3) they want to live forever.

Then what?

If you’re worried about listening to the loudest people, why not just put a survey with the chosen directions out on a case by case basis? Do you favor Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, None of these. That’s the info we need, not why they chose the option. (And to tie back to the discussion about disagree votes elsewhere, requiring a comment introduces bias towards the louder people).

Or you measure the amount of traction some idea gets. Did it get 1 vote or 100 votes? If something pulls a lot of interest, stick with it.

Or let people choose avatars, but make them a range of potential user personas, and see which one is most popular. That also engages the community while giving you data.

I think data can be helpful, but it feels like waiting for the data, or fearing users, will kill initiative and innovation. Push forward, and the followers thing takes care of itself, as long as we’re drawing attention with elite-level work.