The Community Building Playbook

After building the PM Hive and Vancouver Tech Week Communities over the past 1.5 years, I’ve written a playbook for other in-person and online community builders to follow!

👋🏻 Why Me?

I can speak from my own experience and subsequent learning lessons.

I started my first community — a product management community called PM Hive — back in December 2023 with a few other co-founders. I’ve gone through hills and valleys with PM Hive, revolving between co-leads who were the best fit for the team. We’ve hosted over 50 events under the brand and co-hosted numerous other events, reaching an aggregate of over 1,000 members in the city. I’ve grown our newsletter from 0 to 1.4k subscribers and boasted an average Luma rating of 4.7.

Likewise, Vancouver Tech Week is a week-long festival (along with side events throughout the year) I co-hosted with fellow leaders Toki Hossain and Irem Ozekes — focusing more on general yet technical content for community members in the tech space.

The playbook will be compartmentalized into two categories:

1. The logistical side

2. The emotional side

📖 Logistical Playbook

Rule 1) Be specific or state your intentions

Now, first of all, underlying any community gathering is the desire for social stimulation; no matter what ulterior motives or goals attendees may have, people will breathe the desire for making connections and socializing. But that’s only the first layer, and usually, it may not be enough for retention. To foster deeper conversations, you must be specific about a particular topic and domain. If not, you should at least clearly state your goals and intentions to your community.

You don’t have to shovel yourself into the lowest depths of specificity, but you do want your community members to know what they’re getting themselves into. It’s like building a product from 0 to 1 — breaking into the community space with a broader topic is harder than jumping in with a more niche lens. I’ve found that in general, with deeper dives comes deeper knowledge advancement, and stronger audience fulfillment. If your community is broader (take, for example, a community for all things robotics), you at least want to position it with the right messaging by always stating your intentions:

• What’s the ultimate goal with my community?

• How do I hope to differentiate from other similar communities?

Topics can range from broad to incredibly niche, but if your community boasts a general umbrella, ensure that:

• Each event has its specific purpose or topic of discussion.

• You state your intentions clearly.

Rule 2) If technical, prove you’re capable

If you’re running a community to gather fans of your favorite video game, you’ll be driving fellow fans whose primary goal is to make new friends or connections that can share their love. I’d be a head-scratcher if you’re not at least somewhat knowledgeable in that particular game or franchise.

This doesn’t need to apply if you’re hosting in-person or online events for the sole purpose of connecting others — in that case, people will rely on you for your circle of connections more than your knowledge of a certain field.

Suppose you’re running a career-oriented community for a specific career path or job title. In that case, you’ll likely get network-focused people who could be job-seekers, knowledge-learners, or those desiring to expand their circle of connections. But they’ll also be expecting you — the community builder — to showcase why you’re leading.

Hint: it helps if you have co-founders! If you’re less knowledgeable in the domain of your community, have at least one co-founder who can fill in the role of SME (subject matter expert).

Rule 3) Test the waters and learn event management basics

-With a few pilots!

If you’re just starting, run your first event casually. Keep it simple and easy to set up, manage, and execute! If you do this:

• It helps validate demand for the community, depending on your attendance, thus confirming whether it’s worth doubling down on.

• Helps teach you (an early community builder) the ropes one step at a time, without over-complicating events.

At PM Hive, our first event was just a basic coffee chat social — we’d call a cafe to inquire about availability, book the space, tell our attendees to buy a drink to give back to the cafe manager, and post the event online. It was important to state the goals of the meetup and the activities involved, no matter what we used. We then got a huge crowd for our first event, thus validating the public demand for it!

If you’re growing your community organically in person, keep the first event simple.

Take it easy on the event you’re hosting. Learn about the free or cheap venues in your city that you can take advantage of — whether that be a local coffee shop or office space that’s open to the public on weekends.

Once you’ve run your first or second event and validated the demand for such a community (did enough people show up?), you can continue growing your audience with similar or varied events that slowly increase in complexity. Maybe you’ll go from a simple social to a workshop or contest. Just remember: start small, but keep growing and never stay stale!

If you’re growing your community online, keep it simple and leverage a trustworthy platform.

Platforms such as Circle.so, or even something broader like Discord or Slack, can act as the main medium that your community members can engage in. Of course, take a look at other online communities that primarily drive energy and growth via online events or interactions to see what works and what doesn’t. For example, some online groups like Crypto circles or a Discord server for a particular video game series drive engagement with daily and weekly polls, contests, games, and online chats.

If you want to host an online event or webinar, look no further than tools that already have community-specific support, like vFairs, Circle.so. Even basic weapons like Zoom or LinkedIn Streams can do the trick.

Rule 4) Set rules

Set up friendly rules that can tailor your events to specific attendees. Now remember, the goal is to remain as inclusive as you can while attendees respect and adhere to your rules — you’re the host!

For example, a set of rules for any in-person or online event can be:

• If an attendee was not accepted to an event, but they arrived at the event anyway, they must be turned away.

• Event attendees automatically consent to getting their photos taken (as per guidelines posted on the event page) for social media unless they raise concerns.

• Event attendees (online or in-person) must remain respectful to other members and are subject to being removed from event spaces if they cause disturbances.

Other Suggestions

1. Ask for advice from other community builders (both in-person and online).

2. Pick an event platform and stick to it for consistency! At PM Hive, we use Luma.

3. Gather feedback from event attendees as much as you can. Also, ask attendees what they’d want the most out of an event.

4. Market diligently but strategically — it’s okay to blast your event on all social media platforms, but also focus your efforts more deeply on tailored channels, like your own WhatsApp group or another person’s community platform (with their permission!).

📖 Emotional Playbook

Community building, unlike product development, is fortunately (and unfortunately) all about your ability to demonstrate emotional integrity and navigate millions of different personalities. It’s not easy leading a group of people who share a common interest, passion, or goal.

In my opinion — and perhaps this is subjective based on my own experiences — anyone can start a community and host a few events, but to scale and grow as a respected leader, emotional maturity is needed. So let’s dive in to understand the chops.

Rule 1) Show compassion no matter what

From my personal experience, success at community-building is a function of high emotional intelligence. You could be hosting a community event for the most technical or sophisticated topic out there — be it neural networks in machine learning or the art of crocheting dolls — but if you don’t show at least elements of empathy, honesty, and sincerity, your growth (and brand) as an inclusive and friendly community leader can be limited.

So, what are some ways you can demonstrate compassion as a community builder, and what are the benefits? Here are some examples:

• Imagine a member of your community developed a poor reputation among everyone else. How could you remain inclusive of that individual while maturely managing (and mitigating) the impact they may have on others?

• What if other community leaders or other loud voices began reaching out, targeting your community for either good or bad purposes? How would you navigate this and remain authentic to your own values?

• If you have co-founders, imagine a fallout between co-founders. How can you manage this while keeping the health (and energy) of the community intact?

Rule 2) Be as inclusive as you can, but draw boundaries

If inclusivity isn’t one of your core values, consider it heavily and the type of brand or platform you want to position your community as. But of course, as an event organizer, you have the power to choose who comes to your events. Just be aware of the impact your selections have on the general public’s perception of your community.

If you’re hosting an in-person event and your venue has capacity constraints, you can either:

• Do first come, first serve.

• Prioritize admission acceptances based on their registration (you can offer a registration form and choose based on the quality of answers).

• Prioritize based on other specific criteria.

But be aware that you may face backlash or complaints if you’re not viewed as inclusive enough (and that’s okay — just be prepared to navigate them). At PM Hive, we do try to be more selective for our conference-based events due to the amount of effort our team puts into ensuring those who put more effort into their registration form are prioritized. However, for our casual monthly socials, we try to be as inclusive as we can with the venue we have. A few tips to navigate this include:

• Providing a message to those on a waitlist that you unfortunately couldn’t fit everyone due to venue constraints.

• Stating clear criteria for admissions on the event page so you have receipts to go back to if people complain.

• Show empathy for those who weren’t admitted — let them know what they need to do to be admitted for next time.

If you’re hosting online events, then of course, the floor is yours on inclusivity — but just be sure to follow moderation rules for a specific online group, and hire (or use systematic rules) mods to keep larger crowds from creating public disorder.

Finally, don’t forget to draw boundaries against those who take advantage of your inclusiveness. This means:

• Preventing salespeople and other folks from taking advantage of your community gatherings (online or in-person) to sell their products or services.

• Showing the door to those who disrespect you or other members.

• Establishing quotas (maximum number of strikes) for those who arrive late, or prioritizing those who are historically punctual.

Rule 3) Navigate conflicts by keeping true to your values

It’s a no-brainer that a community leader should demonstrate kindness and empathy to their community members and treat all members equally, but if you find yourself in conflicts with members or being dealt a tough hand with a disrespectful individual, always pause and remind yourself:

• What type of person do I want to be in this scenario? A community leader who can establish boundaries, or someone who barks back with arrogance?

• You’ll always face people who will challenge your patience — it’s an unavoidable part of being a community leader. So, what can you do now and in the future to manage conflicts peacefully?

Likewise, if other stakeholders like outside community leaders or other partners reach out with conflicting values, always keep to your own (and the community’s) principles.

Lastly, I don’t care if you’re trying to make money off of your community. No matter what, always welcome competition and cross-pollinate if possible. The product of strong community builders is the people, after all.

Rule 4) Demonstrate modesty

Hopefully, this doesn’t need explaining — it’s one thing to be an expert in the field you’re hosting a community for, but it’s another thing to show arrogance over your knowledge.

So keep yourself in check by:

• Always displaying a growth mindset.

• Showing a desire to learn from your community members.

• Being modest yet supportive.

😀 Conclusion

Happy building — and never forget: the world can never have too much community. Cross-pollinate, show respect with clear intentions, display empathy, build smartly, and grow ✨!

Follow Kasey for more blogs and articles, and don’t forget to subscribe to the PM Hive blog!