As someone whose educational background is in Communication Studies, I am fascinated by the DAO as an organizational structure.

I look at DAOs through two primary lenses: organizational communications and industrial-organizational psychology.

Organizational communications encompasses the how and why behind the internal and external communication members of an organization use to achieve organizational objectives.

Organizational psychology is the scientific study of human behaviors in within organizations and the workplace.

This article is the first part in a planned series where I will deconstruct the hierarchies of how various teams within different types of financially viable organizations, and try to re-build them with decentralized autonomy in mind.

I have the most direct experience with the traditional hierarchy of a written content team.

Let’s get started.

Deconstructing the Organizational Structure of Written Content Teams

Part of the complication with building a written content team within a DAO structure is the writers and editors within the contributor ecosystem have experience with slightly different organizational structures. The three main ones are:

• Publishing house
• Journalistic publication
• Content marketing (in house/ agency)

If a DAO is using their Mirror subdomain to write content geared towards the needs of other DAOs or the contributors to DAOs, then they are engaging in content marketing.

Some DAOs may not consciously realize this, though, when they structure their writer’s guild.

In the org chart for a publishing house or journalistic publication, the editor is mostly a middle-management role. Yes, they do some copy editing and proofreading, but they also manage the staff and freelance writers.

The writer in both of these structures has very little power. The barometer of quality is set by the editor’s boss, and the editor uses this to measure the value of a writer’s content.

Such a structure is theoretically antithetical to a DAO. In order to deconstruct the power paradigm between writer and editor, an organization must re-define these roles in a way that more accurately reflects the amount of work each party contributes to the content process.

Defining the Roles of a DAO Writing Team

As we define what each role looks like within a DAO writing team, keep in mind that, while there may be a natural hierarchy in terms of the flow of work, the idea is that any given person could fill any given role at any time. The ultimate goal is to be able to operate as if you are holding all wildcards in a game of Uno.

With that being said, here are the roles of a writing team reimagined for the DAO organizational structure.

• Facilitator of Communications
• Point Creator
• Point Feedback Facilitator
• Support Creator
• Support Facilitator
• Test Reader

Facilitator of Communications

The facilitator of communications is the DAO-ified version of a project manager. Instead of managing the completion of project deliverables, though, they provide support to the team through their organizational skills.

They focus on keeping track of all the tangible moving parts, such as things said in meetings or asynch comms.

Responsibilities:

• Document all team member roles and their proposed work commitments for a given project
• Ensure the project comms have a dedicated thread on Discord and bump as necessary to keep active
• Have check-ins at regular frequencies with all team members document + address team concerns as they arise
• Take notes + mediate debates during feedback discussions.
• Facilitate and document a project post-mortem to see what went well and what could be improved on
• Organize and facilitate any social audio discussions, such as with Discord or Twitter Spaces

Point Creator

The point creator is the head writer on a given project. They are the visionary who maps out the content and envisions any visual aids that may be necessary.

Ideally, the point creator is the person who pitches the idea.

Responsibilities

• Pitch ideas into organization’s pitch submission system
• Conduct background research and interview subject matter experts
• Create article framework
• Discuss research + framework with point feedback facilitator
• Draft and work with point and support team to finish article

Point Feedback Facilitator

The point feedback facilitator is the head editor of a given project. They are called feedback facilitator instead of editor in an attempt to get rid of the psychological power struggle between writer and editor.
The idea is to approach a given piece of content in a truly collaborative sense, where ownership belongs to the whole team and not just one person.

Responsibilities

• Attend point creator interviews with SMEs to provide support
• Contribute to background research doc to assist point creator
• Assist point creator in developing logically and conceptually sound framework
• Lead + facilitate feedback discussion sessions with point creator and support creators/facilitators Copyedit the final version of a given project before it is published on Mirror

Support Creator

The support creator is kind of like an apprentice role. This is ideally filled by a writer who may not feel like they have the experience to take point on an article, or are new and need to see how the DAO operates before they feel like taking point on a project.

They are there more to observe and ask questions, but they do also participate in all of the feedback discussion sessions.

A support creator is not entirely necessary for a project, but it is a perfect apprentice role if you can fill it from your community.

Responsibilities

• Read through all research and interview notes put together by point team
• Contribute support research to core and secondary points
• Participate in asynch and synch feedback discussion sessions
• Write post-publication summary of learnings

Support Facilitator

The support facilitator is pretty much the same role as above, but this person is on the team to provide editorial support and learn how to be an editor in the DAO world.

Responsibilities

• Read through all research and interview notes put together by point team
• Contribute support research to core and secondary points
• Participate in asynch and synch feedback discussion sessions
• Write post-publication summary of learnings

Test Reader

Test reader is the final position and there can be as many of these as would like to participate. These are community members who serve as the focus group for the article. The creation team should come up with a custom test reader questionnaire for each project.

Responsibilities

• Read final draft of content project
• Fill out audience feedback questionnaire

How Should These Roles be Compensated?

There is no official answer, honestly. This is something each DAO figures out based on where they are in their maturity. If you are at the point where you are forming a writing team to achieve a content objective, then you should probably have an ERC-20 token with some tangible value.

I think since the aim with such a structure is a more collaborative process with a more even amount of temporal investment, the compensation percentages will also look different from the traditional model.

Let’s set the budget at 100 tokens for simplicity.

• Facilitator of comms - 20
• Point creator - 35
• Point feedback facilitator - 20
• Support 1: 5
• Support 2: 5
• Test readers: 1 each (10 total)
• (5 set aside for promotion-based rewards)

I think this is a fair ratio to work with based on the efforts each role puts in to create a given piece of content.

What Does This Team’s Work Process Look Like

I think the first position for a project that fills naturally is the point creator, as they are the person who comes up with the idea in the first place.

1. They submit their idea to a discord channel dedicated for idea discussion and approval.

2 - Idea is voted on with a quick emoji-based voting system. Dedicate a “accept” emoji and a “deny” emoji to use for all discord votes.

The idea can either be approved by a simple majority or can be outright approved by someone willing to cover the sponsorship costs.

3 - Once the idea is approved and sponsored, people can reply to the Discord thread to claim roles. First come, first serve basis is the easiest way to do it.

4 - The facilitator of comms sets up all of the Google docs for research and framework.

5 - The facilitator of comms coordinates any necessary SME interviews.

6 - point creator and point feedback facilitator conduct and document research in research doc.

6A - Support team provides support research as asked by point team.

7 - Framework created by point creator.

7A - Conceptual feedback facilitation session with point + support team.

8 - first draft written by point creator.

9 - first draft feedback asynchronously through Google Doc comments with point and support teams.

10 - Second draft completed by point creator.

11 - Second draft reviewed by point editor and put up for emoji-based ready for testing vote.

12 -facilitator of communications sources test readers from the DAO, ideally 10 to get a decent sample size. 13 - Test readers have 24 hours to read and submit their questionnaire to get their incentive.

14 - Article is published by the facilitator of communications.

15 - facilitator of communications coordinates and facilitates an article post-mortem through social audio (Discord ideal to keep it within the DAO).

To actually put this into action, though, you need to put a time constraint on each step, particularly the parts that involve multiple people. Let’s do an example.

• Idea submitted to Discord on the 1st
• Idea approved on the 2nd and team member call opened on Discord
• On the 3rd the Facilitator of Communications creates all of the docs and coordinates any interviews
• Also on the 3rd, the point and support teams can get started on research
• By day 6,the point and support teams create and discuss framework
• By day 9, first draft is done and asynch feedback is happening
• By day 12, second draft is in final review
• By day 15, test readers have read and submitted their questionnaires

I think 15 days for a process like this is pretty efficient. It’s expected to take you longer as you get your team to function cohesively, so don’t get too wrapped up on speed at the beginning.

If you would like to chat about anything in this article, just DM me on Twitter @BrettPucino. Thanks for reading!