Grow & market

How do I tie community to real business outcomes?

The short answer

Pick one primary goal (support, retention, acquisition, or product feedback) using a model like SPACES, then instrument that outcome so leadership sees the value. Community that maps to a business metric survives budget cuts; a 'nice to have' community doesn't. Be explicit about the job the community is doing for the company.

Go deeper, your way

2 hand-picked resources, 1 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Freemium Intermediate

Why we picked it From the founder of CMX and author of The Business of Belonging, a practical framework for deciding whether to build community and tying it to real business goals.

A Founder's Guide to Community

From Lenny's Newsletter by David Spinks ~25 min read

  • To build community you help people help each other, not build an audience.
  • Use the SPACES model to map community goals to business outcomes.
  • Start with founding members and events before scaling to a big open space.
Open lennysnewsletter.com →
📖 Book
Paid Advanced

Why we picked it The definitive playbook for network and community-led products, drawn from Andrew Chen's a16z experience and interviews with Slack, Uber, Tinder, Airbnb and more.

The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects

From Harper Business by Andrew Chen Book (~368 pages)

  • Build the smallest self-sustaining 'atomic network' before trying to scale.
  • Focus on the hard side of the network and give it a magic moment.
  • Networks are anti-viral until they cross a density threshold, so start narrow.
Open coldstart.com →

Terms in this answer

Retention

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