The Decentraland DAO Community Pulse is a monthly publication written by the DAO Facilitation Team spotlighting community content creators and diving deep into active governance issues
Creator Spotlight: Angzaar
We are thrilled to highlight Decentraland DAO grantees Lastrum, Mease, and Acrhonomous from the Angzaar team. Their project exemplifies the power of innovation and community collaboration, creating an energetic and dynamic experience that propels Decentraland forward. With a passionate team driving its progress, Angzaar is paving the way for a new era of immersive marketplaces, events, quests, and games. Don’t miss the full interview to learn about the vision, challenges, accomplishments, and goals of this dedicated team.
After working with many Fortune 100 brands, we were nervous how the community would react to our first and only grant submission. Last Slice was born out of curiosity and creativity within the community, so this grant proposal brings us back to our roots. We were overwhelmed and honored when we saw the 12 million VP for our proposal. We are so excited to unleash our creativity on this project — not for a brand, but for all of us, the community. — Lastrum
Want to experience the magic for yourself? Make sure to check out their build! Here are just a few of the things you can currently do at Angzaar Outlet. As community members, visitors can participate in a variety of exciting activities such as:
- Exhibiting their wearables in their own creator tent
- Utilizing the CPC clone machine to make copies of themselves
- Undertaking challenging quests
- Engaging in battles against in-world foes
Additionally, Angzaar Outlet offers in-world DCL dapps that enable the direct purchase of wearables and emotes. Check out their headquarters in DCL here.
🎬Enjoy this highlight Clip
Watch Entire Interview 🎥 👇🏽
Through this series, we aim is to foster a more cooperative, supportive, and inclusive community by showcasing the exceptional work of our grantees. Each grantee’s journey is unique, and we believe that sharing their experiences can inspire and spark new ideas for how you, as a community member, can contribute. We invite you to take a moment to learn and enjoy the show!
💫 Discover more about the Angzaar Grant here
Join us in building the future of Decentraland!
Decentraland DAO Strategic Planning
INTRODUCTION
The idea for Decentraland was first presented publicly to the world in the platform’s “White Paper,” released in 2017 by Esteban Ordano, Ariel Meilich, Yemel Jardi, and Manuel Araoz. This document laid out the “philosophical underpinnings, technical foundations, and economic mechanisms of Decentraland”; however, there is no mention of Decentraland’s DAO, the institution that would grow into the primary representative body of the platform’s most important contributors, its community.”
Since its inception in 2020, Decentraland DAO has grown into a decentralized body that represents a variety of overlapping and often competing interests; however, we are all generally aligned by our commitment to an ethos of decentralization and to the virtual platform we are a part of building. Despite this alignment, different interests have emerged at different times throughout the lifespan of our DAO, as we rapidly moved from an initial period of inception into operationalization and active governance. While a number of proposals providing structure to our governance process, grants program, and other elements of our ecosystem were presented and approved over the past two years, there has yet to be a concentrated effort to develop an underlying DAO strategy, and set of aligning principles for our community at large. While lack of a clear plan or direction does not necessarily prevent a DAO from succeeding or making well-socialized decisions, it can lead to misalignment between stakeholders, resulting in stalled progress and frustration. This frustration can lead to conflict.
Noting the potential for and outbreak of conflict arising from lack of a clear direction at Decentraland DAO, a proposal opening a discussion on the a “DAO Strategy and Roadmap” was submitted by Lordlike, an active Decentraland DAO community member. With passage of the Pre-Proposal Poll, the proposal was elevated into a Strategic Planning Working group, where efforts are currently ongoing to align stakeholder interests and devise a long term and sustainable strategy for our DAO.
STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKING GROUP
The Decentraland DAO Strategic Planning Discord channel is a public forum where stakeholders and the community of Decentraland are gathering to discuss the process of creating a collaborative strategy and roadmap document for the DAO.
The channel conversations have focused on identifying primary areas of interest, goals, objectives, and strategies to find sustainable economic and social models. The proposed standard step-by-step process for strategic planning involves defining the vision and mission, conducting a SWOT analysis, identifying specific areas of interest, developing strategies and tactics, assigning responsibilities and accountability, establishing metrics and targets, and monitoring and evaluating progress.
So far, discussions within this Discord channel covered topics such as financial planning and sustainability, new users, participation/incentives, public space planning, governance automation, transparency and accountability, DAO-foundation synergy, content quality, strategic comms/marketing, collaborations with universities/STEM programs, creating features that appeal to teenagers, and improving platform performance.
The first synchronous session held on April 21st, demonstrated that there is a broad consensus between participants around the need for having these discussions, a safe space for community members to share their ideas, and the willingness of different stakeholders to put aside potential confrontation and conflict to work together in order to think about and develop a long term strategy for the DAO.
The semi-structured session brought concrete definitions about the Mission and Vision fo the DAO, the areas of interest and also served for conducting a SWOT analysis in a Mural Board. With all those insights, the collaborators started to build a draft for the Strategic Planning Manifesto, which has been separated in the following sections: Financial Planning & Sustainability; New Users; Participation/Incentives; Public Space Planning; Governance; Transparency and Accountability; DAO-Foundation Synergy; Platform & Content; Strategic Comms/Marketing; Partnerships; Compliance & Security; Organizational Structure
STRATEGIC PLANNING AND DECENTRALAND DAO
Strategic planning is something that one might immediately associate to the corporate world, international organizations or governments, but it is widely considered as an essential aspect of any organization, including DAOs.
A standard strategic planning exercise involves the process of defining an organization’s goals, identifying the resources required to achieve those goals, and determining the strategies and tactics required to execute those resources. It could be critical for our DAO as a strategic planning process helps to ensure that the organization is working towards its long-term objectives, and that all members (or as many as possible) are aligned on those objectives, reducing the chance for confusion, misunderstandings, or conflicting priorities.
By having a clear vision, objectives, and strategies, decision-making becomes more focused, data-driven, and aligned with the organization’s long-term goals. This would help the DAO to avoid short-term thinking, reactive decision-making, and decision paralysis for allocating resources more effectively.
Our hope is that undertaking the exercise of creating a strategic plan can foster accountability and transparency, while also establishing expectations for crucial areas like financial planning. It will also assist with risk identification and mitigation, and lessening the impacts of unforeseen events. By doing so, a strategic plan for Decentraland DAO could ensure that the organization is able adapt to environmental changes and sustain its long term operations.
A COLLABORATIVE DESIGN PROCESS
Collaborative strategic planning for Decentraland DAO is a bottom-up policy making approach because it involves stakeholders from the community in the planning process. This approach is in contrast to top-down policy making that is frequently usedIRL, which involves decision-making by a small group of leaders.
The goal of involving stakeholders in the strategic planning process is to facilitate a deeper understanding of DAO operations, and integration of core community believes and viewpoints into this operational structure. This will not only could help stakeholders make more informed decisions and contribute more effectively to achieving the plan’s goals but also make the DAO itself more responsive to and representative of this interests.
CONCLUSION
Strategic planning is crucial for both conventional organizations and DAOs, serving as a cornerstone for enduring success and sustainability. Engaging all stakeholders in crafting a strategic planning roadmap can confer numerous advantages on an organization or DAO. These include amplified commitment and sense of ownership, an enriched understanding of the organization, a more diverse perspective, improved decision-making, better communication and collaboration, and increased alignment.
By adopting a grassroots approach to strategic planning, Decentraland DAO can harness the collective knowledge and expertise of its community. This ensures that its strategic orientation aligns with the needs and priorities of its stakeholders. Such an approach can foster community trust and engagement, as stakeholders feel that their contributions are appreciated and their voices are recognized in the decision-making process.
Stay Connected with Decentraland DAO!
- Join the Decentraland DAO Discord
- Follow us on Twitter
- Subscribe to our YouTube
- Subscribe to our Weekly Governance Brief
The Decentraland DAO Community Pulse Report was prepared by the DAO Facilitation Team: @Matimio, @Fractilians, @Fehz
