Pilot for a Questbook Jumpstart fund for problem definition and DAO improvement

Description

Jumpstart fund for DAO improvement

Non-Constitutional

Challenge Statement: The DAO struggles with funding the initial steps needed for problem definition, alignment and scoping, causing slow progress and overburdening delegates with inadequate proposals. Team Lead: Daniel, @mrjackalop on telegram

Slides presentation

2 min video

Abstract

This proposal allows the DAO to proactively define key problem areas and have the community untangle them, as opposed to having delegates be reactive to proposals that benefit small subgroups of community members. The DAO currently struggles with funding the initial steps needed for problem definition, alignment and scoping, causing slow progress and overburdening delegates with inadequate proposals. To address this, a pilot fund is proposed, utilizing Questbook's small grants model to support early-stage initiatives focused on problem definition (root causes, gathering requirements), alignment, and scoping proposals for operational and governance improvements. A problem gathering exercise will be conducted to inform proposers and the assessor by identifying key problem areas through user research interviews, qualitative surveys of delegates and other stakeholders, and a collective intelligence algorithm, clustering initiatives to ensure alignment between proposals and the DAO's current needs. The pilot fund will prioritize initiatives aiming to improve ArbiturmDAO's operations and governance. An assessor, elected by the DAO, will oversee the proposal assessment, following the established Questbook program rules. The success of this pilot will be measured by the number of initiatives that receive subsequent funding, clarity and alignment generated within the community, and an over 80% approval rate in a Snapshot vote to continue the program.

The Problem:

The DAO has multiple challenges but currently needs a way to fund the initial steps of addressing them. As a result, only groups with a lot to win will invest all the necessary time and effort and take the risk to evolve a proposal without being paid.

Areas like organisation design, strategy, spending plan, and more require not just crafting a proposal but they require problem definition work: significant stakeholder engagement to determine the right approach, understand root causes and requirements, generate buy-in, and craft the right proposal to make. There’s currently no way to fund all this problem definition and preparatory work leading to the DAO advancing slowly, delegates being overwhelmed assessing proposals that don’t quite hit the mark, and meanwhile key decisions and needed proposals don’t happen.

Proposed Solution:

1. A method for the DAO to aggregate challenge statements or problems
2. A funding program for initiatives that will carry out problem definition and initial solution work on one of the challenge statements.

Questbook has shown to be a viable mechanism for distributing small grants to groups. We propose to use this model and set up a pilot fund to evolve proposals that address key Operational and Governance needs to improve Arbiturm DAO.

Additionally, we’ll carry out a “collective intelligence exercise” to identify the key problem areas. And we're including an option in the Snapshot to also fund a Playbook for Proposing to the DAO, where we'll gather the learnings of the grantees who successfully pass a proposal through the DAO and the challenges of those who didn't, and document them as material for future grantees.

What will be funded via the Jumpstart Fund:

• Early-stage initiatives aiming to improve ArbiturmDAO ops and gov
• Priority for funding initiatives advancing problem definition and alignment around key challenges.
• Requirement for being referred by at least 3 of the top 30 delegates.
• Priority for proposals including a last milestone for a successful snapshot vote (i.e. success bonus of at least 10%).
• Initiatives expected to last up to 3 months.
• Initiatives can request up to USD$50k equivalent (subsequent submissions considered).
• product/protocol development will not be funded (that’s better suited for other Questbook tracks or programs).

How are proposals assessed:

• An assessor will be selected by the DAO via an election as conducted for previous Questbook tracks.
• Proposals up to USD $25k can be approved directly by the assessor for this track. Proposals above this amount requires cross-checking with the assessors form other tracks.

Fund governance:

This track will follow the same rules as the ongoing Questbook program (link), whereby funds are held in the multisig operated by the assessors of the multiple Questbook tracks. The totality of the funds are to be transferred there and the signers will provide payment for the service provision parts upon completion (e.g. problem assessment, playbook if completed, etc).

Method to Identify Problem Areas:

Before opening the fund to proposals, we’ll work with the DAO to identify key problem areas that could then lead to proposals for problem definition and alignment work. This work will be carried by RnDAO's research team.

Based on Professor Daniel Kahneman’s work, we have selected a collective intelligence method that provides high efficiency (low time involvement required from delegates) and is credibly neutral. The method is based on the use of a qualitative survey of delegates and other stakeholders to collect a list of statements proposing key challenges. We'll complement this mechanism with user research interviews with the top 30 delegates. The statements are then analysed using a collective intelligence algorithm (SimScore) that identifies a theoretical ‘central’ statement that would be most agreed upon, and then analyses the provided statements to rank them for proximity to said theoretical centre.

The ranked statements, as well as the graph (positioning of statements relative to each other), will then be made publicly available to inform (not mandate, just inform) those proposing initiatives to the pilot fund.

(Further untangling between statements and root cause analysis is part of the work this Questbook track will fund.)

Timeline:

The Pilot is expected to last 4-6 months depending on whether the option to distil learnings into a playbook for proposing to the DAO is approved in Snapshot or not.

• Month 1 for identifying problem areas.
• Month 2-4 for assessing and funding proposals.
• Month 5 for reporting
• month 6 for (optional) collecting learnings about proposal development into playbook

What does success look like?

• Experts in the community can work towards improving Arbiturm DAO.
• The initiatives funded generate clarity, buy-in, and alignment,
• The initiatives funded evolve towards full proposals for the DAO and are funded.
• The delegates love this pilot and want to continue funding it.

KPIs:

• 40%+ of initiatives continued and received subsequent funding
• Over 80% approval in a Snapshot vote asking delegates whether the program should be continued after the pilot

Budget