Leading strategy and execution for building engaged, productive communities.

Community Management

Building communities is hard. While many organizations know the importance of growing an engaged, productive, and passionate community, it can be difficult to know where to start. This work focuses on the connective tissue between people and technology and it can be difficult to know how to create a strategy and execute well. Fortunately I can help. I have spent my entire career working on building communities for a range of organizations. I can help you create your strategy, break it down into executable pieces, and deliver results. I can help you with the many facets of this work such as workflow, infrastructure, governance, hiring, outreach/marketing, social media, metrics, and more. Every organization is different and I am a firm believer in tailoring this work to your needs. So, don’t hesitate in getting in touch and we can explore how we could work together.

How I can help

While every organization is different and we can tune this work to your needs, here are some common areas in which I have helped my clients building their communities:

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Strategy and Execution

Gather company goals and bake them into a clear strategy complete with regular execution plans. This will provide clear community strategy, crisp execution across teams, and accountability for delivery and influencing future decisions.
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Outreach and Engagement

Use a variety of media such as writing, social, video, events and more to attract new community members, get them engaged, help them be successful, and deliver great results. This is all within the goal of building meaningful relationships and retention.

Infrastructure and Communication

Build a clear, productive, and cost-effective infrastructure for community participation and collaboration. This will span development, communication, knowledge, issue tracking, and more, to ensure your community can work as efficiently as possible.

Retention

We will build an overall strategy and execution that focuses on significant and sustained participation and strong retention. The most effective communities have committed members, and we will strive to build this for your community too.

Effective Workflow

Identify different community roles and build effective workflow to make participation productive and simple. This will span the entire lifecycle of community roles and help identify process, product, and infrastructure.

Hiring

For organizations who want to hire a community manager or team, I will help to define the role, assess salary/compensation, and use my network to identify potential candidates, screen, train, and on-board them. This will help build strong community muscle in your organization.

Governance

For organizations that want a governance function, we will explore different governance models and then codify, staff, and build effective governance bodies for the project. This will also cover processes, meetings, transparency, company/community balance, and more.
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More...

These are just a few example areas we can focus on. Every organization is different and we will delve into your specific needs to ensure we put together the very best community strategy and delivery that delivers great results.

Clients Include

“Jono is a master of getting people of widely different backgrounds to work well together. He knows the deep meaning of the word “community”. He combines strategy, execution, and good taste. We are privileged at HackerOne to get his help in expanding and strengthening our community of white hat hackers all over the world.”
Mårten Mickos

Chief Executive Officer, HackerOne

“Jono Bacon is the proven leader in building productive and engaged communities. His experience and ability to work in a truly cross functional capacity is hugely valuable. He is strongly recommended to any company who wants to build a vibrant community”.
Jim Zemlin

Executive Director, Linux Foundation

“Jono is the worldwide expert in community interaction. He knows how to engage a community, train people, and organize events. We’re very happy to have him advising us.”
Sytse 'Sid' Sijbrandij

Chief Executive Officer, GitLab

“Jono’s insight and mastery of the community blueprint provides all the tools needed to lay the proper foundation. However his real craft is using the tools across a number of challenges and scenarios that allows him to efficiently deliver the right strategies and guide the path to community success.”
Chris Olson

Director of Communities and Advocacy, Microsoft Corporation

Get In Touch

Interested in talking more? Drop me an email to [email protected]