Community discovery checklist
In a previous post we covered what a discovery is, below find a condensed checklist of the key questions you want to answer at the point before you build a community, or hire a community manager.
Defining the community
- What is the community?
- Why are you building it?
- What will this community do?
- Who is it for and who is it not for?
- What problem or need does it exist to address?
- What value will members get from being part of it?
- How would you describe the community in 1–2 sentences?
- What are the community’s primary objectives?
Market and context
- What’s happening in the market/organisation that makes this necessary now?
- Why is community the right response (vs content, events, support, etc.)?
- What happens if you don’t build it?
- What’s the organisational intent?
- How does success for members align with success for the organisation?
- Which organisational goals will it support (e.g. adoption, retention, insight, trust)?
- How will you know it’s delivering value internally?
Community landscape
- What communities/programmes already exist in this space?
- What format do they take (platform, LinkedIn, newsletter, events, etc.)?
- How active are they, and what engagement signals can you see?
- What’s resonating, and what’s getting crickets?
- Where’s the gap or opportunity to do something meaningfully different?
Community audience
- Who are the core audience segments?
- Do they share the same challenges, or do needs differ by group?
- Are customers the primary audience, or part of a wider ecosystem?
- Do you already have relationships/contacts to seed the community?
- If not, how will you reach and onboard people realistically?
- If this supports a marketplace, which side must you prioritise first?
Engagement strategy
- What type of engagement do you want, and why?
- What member actions matter most (questions, comments, attendance, downloads, etc.)?
- What will motivate members to participate?
- What content, prompts, or activities will drive that behaviour?
- What do you want members to do when they show up?
Metrics and success signals
- What are your 1–2 north star metrics?
- What early signals matter in the first 4–8 weeks?
- What does success look like at 3, 6, and 12 months?
- How will you track and report progress internally?
Roles, responsibilities, and governance
- Who owns the community strategy?
- Who runs day-to-day community operations?
- Who creates content, and who approves it?
- Who handles technical/specialist questions?
- Who decides on major changes and priorities?
- How will feedback be reviewed and turned into action?
Resources and capacity
- What ongoing effort is required beyond launch (weekly/monthly)?
- Do you have the people/time/resource to sustain it?
Risks and mitigations
- What are the biggest risks (engagement, capacity, timing, competition, behaviour)
- What would low engagement look like, and how will you respond?
- What external dependencies could derail delivery?
- What mitigations can you put in place early?
Exit and pivot criteria
- What signals would tell you it’s not working?
- How long will you test before reassessing?
- What would a pivot look like (format, audience, engagement model)?
- If you close it, what does a responsible close-down involve?
The decision
- Based on everything above, does community still make sense?
- Are there simpler ways to achieve the same goal first (mailing list, FAQ, events)?
- Do you have alignment across the team to proceed?
Taking the time to answer the questions above will help guide you in understanding whether a community is the right approach, and if so, set you up with a strong foundation for success and a great reference point for future decisions.
If you’d like a free discovery template or to discuss any of the above, please feel free to get in touch on hello@communityedge.org.