As a data-driven organization, MetricsDAO strives to learn from best practices that other DAOs are implementing. One of our MARCOM team, rplust, talks about his experiences over at Raid Guild (check them out!), with additional commentary in italics.

Overview

Raid Guild (RG) is a Service DAO akin to a project management and dev shop for web3 projects. Their services span from project consultation and one-off product feature developments, to full-on project life cycle management.

The Cohort Approach

I was able to join Raid Guild’s season 3 cohort back in November 2021 by way of an online application and went through season 3 until its “soft close” back in December 2021. I mention soft close because it really depends on the project you will be working on and when it will finish.

Progression

Being part of a Raid Guild cohort allows one to (1) contribute and work on RG’s projects, (2) help out with the DAO’s operations, and (3) become a full member at the end since everyone starts as an “apprentice.” At the end of a season, an apprentice might become a member, a non-member that continuously contributes to Raid Guild, or just hang out in Discord and take part in projects later on.

There are certain milestones per season broken down into “episodes”. Here are a few examples:

• Start
  • Email acceptance and being granted access to the cohort channels on the Raid Guild Discord
• Episode 0
  • A call with the whole cohort and a Raid Guild member who will serve as the cohorts onboarding guide throughout the season.
  • This is mostly an intro to RG, DAOs in general, and an overview on how the season is planned out.
  • Everyone does a quick intro of themselves.
• Episode 1
  • Raid Guild “work roles” are introduced here and you will be able to choose your role/s. I picked Angry Dwarf (Treasury), Druid (Data Analyst/Scientist), and Hunter (BizDev) — very in theme.
  • The concept of “Raids” are discussed which is basically what RG calls its projects, specifically client-facing projects.
  • Here everyone gets to pick what task/s and/or project/s they want to take part in for the season.
  • Most projects are compensated especially if they are client projects. Apprentices are also encouraged to submit compensation proposals on projects that did not have planned compensations at the start if they deem it deserving based on complexity and significance.
• Episode 2
  • Mostly updates on what you’ve been working on since the previous episode.
  • In this episode, a DAO specific to the cohort is built and everyone learns how to pledge wxDAI (sponsored by RG) and become a member. It’s a good way for people to really get hands-on experience.
• Episode 3
  • Again, updates from the last episode.
  • An in-depth overview of the DAOhaus platform, a DAO operations tool.
• Project Demo Day
  • Concluded projects demo what they did through a presentation or pitch.
  • On-going projects are encouraged to present their progress and give timelines on when they aim to finish. Asking for help and resources is encouraged.
• Finish
  • At this point, the season “concludes” but is really dependent on the project/s being worked on.
  • Cohort members are encouraged to keep going on raids and contribute to Raid Guild.
  • A lot of proposals to become full members happen here as well.

Episodes happen every week or week and a half. Schedules are released ahead of time.

All throughout, other Raid Guild members try to involve themselves in the season by way of guidance, membership, and even recruitment into the live projects. There are also plenty of opportunities for cohort apprentices that stand out to be championed by members of the guild to become a full member.

In-Between Times

In between the episodes, there are different workshops conducted by various functions in Raid Guild (marketing workshops, product development guides, smart contract code review/contribution calls, etc).

I myself just recently finished up my main project with Raid Guild back in early February 2022. I was able to work with fellow cohort apprentices, a couple of which are now full RG members. I also worked with RG members and an external client for the project.

Improvements

The cohort season system provides the guild with a steady stream of project contributors and potential members. They gain a significant skills and knowledge base per cohort they onboard who can help further develop the DAO and even come up with new projects and products. Raid Guild continuously strives to improve this system and make it even better for future seasons.

Summary

Several aspects of the Raid Guild Seasonal model are broadly applicable to other organizations, including MetricsDAO:

1. Seasons are based on the length of projects, rather than on hard deadlines
2. Members start off in an “apprentice” role and progress to full contributor status by the end of the season, based on their accomplishments. Alternatively, members can gracefully off-ramp or dial down their contributions at season’s end if they prefer
3. Seasonal milestones help keep the entire DAO focused and enable celebrating wins
4. In-between times (“pre-season”, “off-season”) are useful to get a breather, review learnings from prior seasons, and recalibrate prior to the next season’s launch

Stay tuned for additional pieces on how MetricsDAO intends to design and implement our own Seasonal model! Join our Discord and/or follow us on Twitter.

Credits to GJ Flannery for helping structure this article and for writing the introduction and the summary sections.