Web3 started with the premise that everything should be code-driven and autonomous. Trustless blockchain interactions initiated through proposals and mediated by smart contracts promised to bypass the bureaucracy and overhead bogging down traditional orgs.
But can we really code away human nature?
Web3 may promise a more objective approach to work, but subjectivity is inherent in human experience. People want to connect and build with other people who share their excitement. They look for collaborators with the competence to contribute something meaningful and a shared passion for creating value. Where connection and competence meet, trust forms—and unleashes the potential for meaningful work. 🚀
In IRL relationships, these connections grow organically over time. But it’s challenging to increase connection and competence between remote team members in DAOs. Coordinape allows remote teams to build connections and increase trust by bringing the subjective experience of human relationships into the compensation process.
You don’t always need subjectivity in compensation. When your DAO has a one-off project, there’s no real need for deeper connection or long-term trust. That’s when bounties make sense: they’re competence-focused and only require that the person you’re paying does what you ask them to do.
This follows the standard of traditional freelance models: outsource a project to a freelancer, decide on a reasonable fee, and pay the freelancer when the project is done. You might work with them again, and you might not—there’s no expectation of an ongoing relationship.
Coordinape allows remote teams to build connections and increase trust by bringing the subjective experience of human relationships into the compensation process.
When you have work that requires ongoing collaboration, Coordinape Circles can provide a framework for building the trust required to keep your team aligned on:
.✔ What they’re trying to accomplish.
💥 The impact they want to make.
🤝🏻 The DAO’s shared values.
So, should you use a bounty or Circles for your next project?
It depends on the type of work you’re doing. If it’s a deliberate, one-off project with a defined scope and specific outcomes, a bounty should do the trick. 💰 Circles can be more effective if the work requires an ongoing commitment—especially if you expect the project to evolve as it progresses. ⭕
It’s not all black and white, though: you’ll likely use a combination of compensation methods to reach your DAO’s goals. Bounties move short-term projects along by outsourcing work to people whose skills supplement your core team’s strengths. Circles keep your team connected and aligned so that you can explore what it looks like to do meaningful long-term work together.
Context is important for assessing the value that each collaborator brings to a project and to your DAO as a whole. Circles work best when context is high, which can look different based on how your org is structured.
Context can emerge in large Circles as collaborators build relationships around shared interests and projects. This gives teammates clarity as to who is making a positive impact and makes it easier to understand how to allocate GIVE.
If you want to expand your core team, a large community circle can act as a hiring funnel where contributors show off their skills. GIVE flows to the people who consistently provide the most value and rewards them for working on exceptional ideas. 💡 This gives your DAO a consistent pool of talent to pull from as the org grows.
Using large Circles this way can work if contributors have agreement about who their personal collaborators are. Mini-teams that form within the Circle have greater context between their members than they do within the Circle as a whole, so there’s more visibility as to what each person is working on and how it contributes to the DAO’s mission.
When that visibility diminishes, or the circle is too large for accountability to remain visible, restructuring to smaller Circles can help restore context. 👀
If you want to expand your core team, a large community circle can act as a hiring funnel where contributors show off their skills. GIVE flows to the people who consistently provide the most value and rewards them for working on exceptional ideas. 💡
Smaller Circles can function as working groups within your DAO. Like the teams that form inside large Circles, collaborators in working groups have high context for what everyone around them is doing.
In small Circles, it’s noticeable when a member doesn’t come to a meeting or stops contributing as much as they used to. Rather than falling through the cracks like they might in a traditional org or a large Circle with less context, these collaborators are likely to receive messages of concern and offers of help from teammates.
Organizing teams into their own Circles has the additional benefit of bringing intangible contributions—like support and encouragement—to light. Collaborators get opportunities to meet regularly and gain intimate knowledge of each other’s goals. Trust can grow as collaborators become more comfortable being open and honest with each other, including in how they allocate GIVE.
The trust and connections that form within small Circles create an environment where collaborators have enough visibility of each other’s work to allocate GIVE based on impact. Collaborators who do the most to move the DAO toward its goals are rewarded for the value they add.
If members in a Circle don’t really know what others are working on, they can feel pressured to allocate GIVE to everyone—even if they don’t understand the value of their teammates’ contributions.
It’s best to avoid this middle ground. Your DAO can benefit more from Circle structures that allow allocations to reflect impact accurately.
GRAPHIC: Big circles vs. small circles [look @ the transcript for more here]—use “how does the cell know when to divide?” in here somewhere; it’s a great line
Experiment with large Circles to bring new collaborators into the DAO and give them time to get a feel for how they fit within the ecosystem. As people with unique skill sets and compelling contributions start to stand out, see what happens when you move them to smaller Circles where they can support and collaborate with core team members. 🔍
No matter the size of the Circle, collaborators benefit from feeling connected. They want to know their work matters and that teammates see and appreciate their efforts.
That’s where notes come in. Notes are a simple—but powerful—part of Coordinape that provides a frame of reference for GIVE. Notes help collaborators understand what their team members appreciated about their work and provide direction and motivation to continue contributing in dynamic ways.
The more specific and authentic notes are, the bigger their impact. Notes turn compensation into a personal experience. Employees in traditional orgs have to wait for annual reviews to know how well they’re doing, but feedback from notes arrives with GIVE at the end of each Epoch. Every cycle is a chance to connect with others in the Circle and show appreciation. 🤗
This consistent cycle of thoughtful feedback has the potential to build trust and deepen relationships between collaborators. It creates constructive environments for discussing differences of opinion and coming to mutual understanding or reasonable compromises. If someone in a Circle feels that the feedback they receive isn’t accurate, shared trust makes it possible to have conversations, gain clarity, and avoid hurtful conflict.
The more specific and authentic notes are, the bigger their impact.
Collaborators also become more comfortable pointing out specific areas where they believe their teammates can do better work. Notes enable specific, positive feedback that encourages others to question their potentially self-imposed limits and push beyond boundaries they didn’t realize they could overcome. As a result, the whole team grows and increases their potential for success as they work together in real, human relationships.
If your team isn’t using notes yet, just start! Even if it’s just a 👍🏻 with a quick line telling a collaborator what you appreciated from them during the last Epoch, it can still have an impact and brighten their day. The more you do it, the more thought you’ll start to put into the process—and the benefits of notes will multiply.
It doesn’t take much more effort to send a great note instead of a good note. The payoff of seeing other team members grow and thrive is well worth the extra time.
Positive notes showing appreciation are good, but great notes go a level deeper to tell collaborators:
✅ Which specific aspects of their work were the most valuable.
👷🏻♂️ How their work benefitted a teammate, the team, or the DAO.
🚀 Where they can do better based on what their teammates know about their strengths, personalities, and passions.
Great notes communicate that collaborators care enough to want everyone around them to reach their full potential. They’re willing to share constructive insights that inspire teammates to improve their work or try different work that stretches their abilities.
It doesn’t take much more effort to send a great note instead of a good note. The payoff of seeing collaborators grow and thrive is well worth the extra time.
Through tools like Circles and Notes, Coordinape is designed to enable humans to do impactful work with other humans. Remote teams working in Circles can build relationships and trust based on connection and context, and Notes provide motivation beyond the compensation received through GIVE. Collaborators feel seen, recognized, and appreciated when they connect this way—which leads to stronger, more productive, and emotionally healthy teams.
That’s how great work happens: frens supporting frens through relationship, giving, and growth. 😻
