Funding the Analytics Working Group (#2)
Situation
I am proposing the funding of the Analytics Working Group (AWG) for 3 months ending on Oct 1, 2021. This is the second iteration of the AWG. Here are the initial proposal and updates:
Initial Proposal: Proposal: Analytics Working Group
April Update: AWG April Progress Report
May Update: AWG May Progress Report
June Update: (will update here, should hit forums in the next 24-36 hours)
What is the core problem(s) you want to solve?
The Coop relies on data to make decisions on product methodology and prioritization, engineering decisions, KPIs, treasury management, growth opportunities, liquidity management, and more. As the Coop grows (both community and products), we need consistent analytics contribution to allow the DAO to operate from a place of objectivity.
Why is this worth addressing today?
The Coop is now supporting 4 products (DPI, MVI, ETH2x-FLI, BTC2x-FLI) with two more launches planned (SMI, BED). We are still on pace to support 10+ products by the end of 2021. The Coop’s near-term priorities are transforming into a product and engineering powerhouse. With the advent of Uniswap v3 and with Layer 2’s upon us, liquidity management is becoming more and more a core function of the Coop. More on Layer 2 - strategic decisions will need to be made to drive the Coop to prosperity as we layer up. Our Treasury continues to become more and more active and sophisticated. Growth is constantly dialing in on crypto personas, markets, and opportunities to level up the Coop’s products. All this to say, analytics is a key function within each of these initiatives.
The analytics capabilities within the Coop must scale in order to support the Coop through this rapid growth. The Coop prides itself on being data-driven. Data is one of the life-bloods of efficient collaboration and decision making within a DAO. The Coop must operate from a foundation of facts and truth, and the AWG will work to make sure that is always the case.
How will you address it?
- Supporting work team analysis and product methodologists
- Contributing directly to the liquidity management/strategy working group
- Building Coop-level and product-level KPI dashboards
- Performing ad-hoc user and market analysis to determine growth opportunities
- Building transparency and reporting for the Treasury
- Injecting objectivity into governance discussions and voting
- Creating content to drive Coop impressions
- Facilitate communication regarding analytics needs across the Coop
- Building a world-class open-source analytics organization
Scaling analytics work and contributions is of utmost importance during this iteration of the working group - continually adapting and iterating to best support the Coop as well as enable high-level contributions from both core and new contributors. It is important, during this iteration, for the AWG to not only provide support to major initiatives across working groups, but also find ways to deliver on time-sensitive, ad-hoc requests that are high-leverage and impact decision making.
What impact will this project have?
The AWG is here to support all other working groups and functions in pursuit of impact towards top-level KPIs. Specifically, the AWG will help keep all projects/efforts focused on the North Stars & Core KPIs.
One of the challenging parts of analytics using on-chain data is the shift from user-centered data (in traditional environments) to address-centered data (in crypto environments). By devoting resources to support time and effort to analytics, we can maintain focus on users, our North Star, even when it is not the most natural given the nature of the data. This is critical for the Coop whose mission is to build index products that resonate strongly with specific user segments.
As mentioned briefly earlier, the AWG anticipates being directly involved in the following areas over this next 3-month iteration:
- Product Prioritization
- Product Work Team Analysis
- Product Methodology
- Product KPIs
- Coop KPIs
- Liquidity Management & Strategy
- Personas and Markets for Growth
- Treasury Reporting
- Coop Governance Transparency and Insight
- Layer 2 Strategy
Working Group Leader(s)
JD Cook (@jdcook)
Request for Funding
Proposed Budget
$33,120 + 1479 INDEX
Use of Funds
-
Leader Stipend - 493 INDEX / month = 1479 INDEX
-
Contributor Rewards - $10,000/month = $30,000
- current part-time contributors: @jackiepoo, @Deep, @loren_huang, @gosuto, @tutnyce, @DOC, @aehrenberg
-
Dune Licenses
- $780 in July (2 licenses)
- $1170 in August (3 licences)
- $1170 in September (3 licences)
The Leader Stipend remains the same as the last iteration.
The Contributor Rewards for the last three months were:
April: $1,750
May: $5,000
June: $8,000
At this current point in time, we have a strong number of contributors and are continually improving our processes and efficiency at managing work across everyone’s different schedules. A $10,000/month budget will allow us to take the next step in scaling the AWG, but will keep us focused on high-impact, high-priority work.
In the original proposal, I highly over-estimated the need for Licenses. The Dune Pro Account is great because it allows you to download results as .csvs and pass along or upload. But, not all contributors need one of these licenses - rather, just a handful. We are currently reimbursing 2 licenses (myself and @Deep) every month. I expect that will grow to 3 something in the next couple of months.
Organization
How will it work?
What will you be doing?
How will you interface with the community?
The AWG will be managed by the working group leader (myself), although there are more and more opportunities arising for other core analytics contributors to take ownership of processes or functions within the AWG. The AWG maintains a project board showing projects/requests completed, in-flight, or in backlog. Requests can be made by any community member, but will be weighed against other requests and prioritization decisions will be made to determine what is being worked on at any given time. Up to this point, request intake has been done by simply reaching out to myself or the #analytics channel on discord, but we may experiment with a more formal request intake form soon.
The AWG has functioned as an asynchronous-first group. Meetings have been held between analysts and other contributors as necessary to understand needs/requirements and brainstorm solutions. The AWG may experiment with a weekly or bi-weekly meeting to keep all contributors in sync, unblocked, and focused on top priorities. Analysts will make it a point to attend weekly calls whenever possible and participate in all forum posts to ensure the working group is capturing all opportunities to provide support to the Coop.
Commitments
I am committed to Index Coop principles
I am committed to serving the entire Index Coop with my work.
I am committed to open, rapid communication: I know that clear, constant, public communication lifts up the entire Index Coop community. I am committed to this style of communication.
Shared learnings: I will share my progress, learnings with the entire community. I will ensure that anything I create is accessible beyond my own tenure for future generations of Indexers to access & build on.
Intellectual honesty: I am committed to growth and improvement. I am open to feedback and will use feedback to improve my work for the benefit of the entire Coop community.
I am committed to making Index Coop a welcoming, fun, and engaging community to work in!
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