Discovery isn’t step one in community building – it’s the decision

When a community stagnates and drives low engagement, it’s likely not because the teams lacked effort, enthusiasm or belief, the most common culprit is rushing past the discovery stage. 

The discovery stage isn’t just about planning a community – it’s about deciding whether one should exist in the first place. It’s where you clarify what you’re trying to do, why a community might support that, who is involved, and how success should be defined.

The pattern I commonly see: 

• We need a community 
• A platform is discussed 
• A role gets created – or it’s added onto someone else’s already full workload 
• Something launches 
• Engagement is patchy
• Questions start coming in about why it’s not working 

Conclusion? Community isn’t right for us

What’s often missing is the time spent upfront to understand whether a community is the right approach at all, and, if it is, what kind of community will genuinely resonate with your audience while supporting your broader objectives.

Communities are not static products, they are formed of unique people, who react, shape and help build what your community becomes and how it behaves. Taking the time to understand your audience, what they need, and what you can give is a critical step to set up for success. 

Why discovery gets rushed

Discovery can be uncomfortable because it slows momentum. Once a team agrees they “need a community,” the instinct is to capitalize on enthusiasm and move quickly. Your idea has been validated, others believe in it, and now you need to demonstrate that you’re right. What can then happen is: 

• hire a community manager
• launch something lightweight to “test”
• build alongside everything else already on the roadmap

“Build it and they will come”

While that can work for product launches, a community is fundamentally different. Its value is shaped as much by member behaviour and contribution as by the content or platform you provide. Without clarity on what value looks like for your audience, and whether a community supports that, you’re building on assumptions.

Skipping this step can introduce a quiet problem – sunk costs change behaviour.

If you hire a community manager, you’ve already committed. Discovery at that point becomes constrained – consciously or not. It’s unlikely that someone hired to build a community will conclude:

“Actually, a community isn’t the right solution here.”

Not because they’re dishonest – but because the system now needs the community to work.

The same applies when community is added as a side project:

• limited time
• limited focus
• limited patience

When it struggles, it’s often because it was never given the conditions to succeed. 

As a founder or a growth lead, before you commit, make your hire or add community to the company strategy, ensure that it truly is what you need in order to move forward, and if so, define clearly how it will look. A discovery stage before jumping all in, will help you do that. 

The false start most teams make

While many teams do research, it can be too light, fast or close to launch. Pushing the discovery into becoming a check box, “step 1 done”, rather than a phase. The result is a community built on assumptions:

• assumptions about what the audience wants
• assumptions about what “engagement” means
• assumptions about how much effort members will realistically give

Those assumptions harden once something is live – making it harder to step back and rethink.

What discovery is actually for

A true discovery stage exists to answer the harder questions: 

• Is a community the right approach at all – or would something simpler, like a newsletter, resources, social channels, or a mix of these, better serve what you’re trying to achieve?
• What problem would it genuinely solve for members – the value of creating a place to post questions and hope others respond is not enough 
• What would meaningful participation look like in this context? Are you expecting people to read and dip in occasionally, or actively contribute – and why does that matter?
• What would success realistically look like in the first year? Is it member numbers, or is it the right people engaging in the ways that support your wider strategy?

Sometimes the outcome of good discovery is:

Not yet.

Not like this.

There’s a better suited approach for what we need.

Or, not at all.

Getting to any of these answers is no bad thing – you’ve gained clarity around your strategy. But, for the times where it’s a “yes”, then you’ve got a great foundation for success. 

And when it works, boy does it work. A strong, engaged community can become a genuine edge – particularly in emerging areas, competitive markets, or businesses with longer sales cycles.

Done well, a community creates a moat around your business. It builds trust around your products, fosters loyalty from your customers, and gives you direct access to candid insight that can shape future strategy based on real evidence.

If there is one thing I’m passionate about and would cannot advocate more for, it’s this: 

Treat discovery as its own phase. It’s not step 1 in community building, but a decision point. 

Community may not always be the fix, but when it is, the type of community matters far more than it exists. 

Head here for an overview of how to structure your discovery and the key questions to address.