AMA with Sharath of Product Hunt. Uncommunity #31
AMA with Sharath of Product Hunt. Uncommunity #31
Hey friends, Rafy here
This is Uncommunity’s bi-weekly newsletter. We bring you community experts interviews, resources related to building and growing communities, tools that you can use to scale your community or events, and books that you can read to become better community builders.
Let’s go. 🚀🚀🚀
Today’s AMA guest is Sharath. 👇
Sharath is known as the “Product guy”. He is a maker and design/product nerd. He co-founded Shout Out which is the recipient of Product Hunt's Maker Grant.
He’s building online communities by solving people's problems through the products he creates.
If we want you to describe a Community Builder, what would you say?
To me a community builder is someone who is extremely service-minded, strives to provide value for others, and roots for them to win.
Each week you create content about founder-mindset and community building.
What should every Community Builder must know when building a community-first product?
That it is a long game and you have to play it with patience.
What are the best qualities to make a better community builder?
Wrote a thread here. Hope this helps:
Is there any specific framework you follow to build communities online?
It’s not something you timebox. Community building takes time and you need to do it to build positive relationships with people.
We have counted more than 30 AMAs on your Twitter account, covering different aspects, from B2C Products, Build in Public, Founder Mindset, NoCode, Playbooks, and a lot of resources.
That’s amazing! It’s like Jab Jab Jab! How do you do it?
I love interacting with the community and share as much as I can what I learn. That is the secret to my consistency.
I once saw a tweet on how to build a startup. You frame it on ten steps, all the same, “Build a side PROJECT” 10 times then build a startup. What is your advice to people who want to build a community?
Build many small products before building a startup. Naval Ravikant tweeted about it, and I lived it by shipping 12+ projects as a maker. Start building these products by looking within, find problems you have, and solve them. The last step to close that loop is launching on Product Hunt. You will learn so many lessons like talking to customers, iterating, validating, gathering feedback, and everything else that requires you to start a startup.
You are a Founder at Shout Out and currently Program Manager at Product Hunt, and a full-time Online Community Builder, would you share with us some productivity tips on time management?
Getting up early in the morning, building systems in a way that serves you and do things that you love the most.
James Clear and other Founders helped you in your early-stage career and personal life. What can you tell to community builders today?
Build community first and then products. I realized this a little late, but it is so important to have a community around you. Start a newsletter, curate content, share your lessons, and more importantly, create value for others. Make sure you bring the community along with you in your journey.
Lastly, have fun doing all the above. You’ve got a long life, so don't worry about results and enjoy the journey!
Follow Sharath on Twitter.
What else we're reading?
You probably heard the news! Twitter Communities are here. It's never been easy to start a community, and since a great number of community builders are using Twitter, now we are seeing "Tweet to your Community" as a way to drive conversations. Twitter Communities allowed creators to create, moderate, and find other communities. Read more here
Not all communities are created equal, a great article by Li Jin, Founder and Investor at Ateliers Ventures, addressing three components to have a truly defensible community. Hallmarks of “real” community she mentioned are:
Intentionality: Members seek out the community as a destination, not just as part of a broader platform’s feed
P2P interactions: Strong engagement and ties between members
UGC content: Members contribute content vs. just engaging w/ what’s broadcasted to them.
Turn an Internet Community into a DAO in 3 Steps. Written by Kevin Liu, who runs Decentralized Economy at Hackernoon. In this article, Kevin, co-founder of MetisDAO, addressed the pros and cons of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) and why should an internet community become a DAO. Read the full piece here.
Step 1: Create a DAC and invite your community members to join
Step 2: Activate your community via various collaborations
Step 3: Accumulate Reputation Power and get incentives.
How to Choose Your First Community Channel? In this article, The Roomies team revealed their first choice of community platform they’re using, then they went dive deeper into the decision-making process. Read about evaluating channels, objectives definition, engagement dynamics selection and tradeoffs assessment.
Twitter Communities release
Optimism is a key for Community builders
Upgrade in the Creator Economy
5000 Community Members process
Events to attend:
Orbit Community Beings Events Series and others:
Higher Education's Role in Creating a Sense of Belonging | October 6
Community Leaders Brain Trust | October 14
Virtual Summit 2021 Community (re) Focus - Building a World of Connected Experiences | October 12, 2021
Before Community: An Orbit Learning Sprint | October 04 - October 08, 2021
Starting Community: An Orbit Learning Sprint | November 01 - November 05, 2021
Growing Community: An Orbit Learning Sprint | November 29 - December 03, 2021
What’s new at Uncommunity?
Like or comment on your favorite community resources.
Products Added:
Book Added:
Customer Community - A Fresh Approach to Customer Success.
Report Added:
State of Community Management, 2021 - India - Get key insights on the challenges, impact, and growth of online communities in India.
Career Corner
Uncommunity job board has exploded with nearly 15 new amazing roles. If you want to have a role featured or are a job seeker, click here! Check out the jobs from companies like Twitter, Morning Brew, Slack, The Souled Store, Notion, and more.
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