🫀How to drive Community-led Growth using Google's HEART Framework
Background: this is an experiment!
This email is about a chat I'm having with our Community Experience Lead, Benedict Corroon (pronounced like 'Macarons', the French treat). The chat is about projects and startups in our wider network. We believe that developing a shared approach to building communities will allow us to learn from each other, and we want to open this discussion up with the Cardano ecosystem ready for Ben O’Hanlon to bring to Dubai for the Cardano summit.
At the bottom of this email will be a Miro Board you can explore and leave comments in! Leave your Twitter and/or email too as we might do some Twitter Spaces.
Introduction
Introducing our version of the HEART Framework. We have expanded on Google's original framework and made it more suitable for communities and ecosystems, including startups, spinouts, and grassroots projects. Our goal is to increase the return on learning and to achieve that, we need a shared language.
How the HEART Framework helps
The HEART Framework goes beyond measuring metrics; it aims to establish a standard that allows teams to evaluate their performance using shared North Stars. Additionally, it offers community managers and developer relations the flexibility to define their own success using customized goals, signals and metrics.
Who should use the HEART Framework?
The original HEART Framework, rooted in product-led thinking, was developed by Kerry Rodden, Hilary Hutchinson, and Xin Fu for UX teams at Google. The main goal was to give researchers and designers tools to improve user experience. It's also useful for founders, teams, community managers, and developer relations to drive community-led growth, make their work more noticeable, and promote knowledge sharing. The system consists of five parts: Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, and Task Success. You can use these as a guide or add your own metrics. The aim is to have a common language when talking about success.
How to use the HEART Framework?
Goals are big things you want to achieve in your community. They are the main things you want to reach before you use the HEART framework. Your team should agree on these goals and make sure they are easy to understand. Knowing your goals from the start helps you choose what to measure.
Signals show if your goals are working or not. They should match with the parts of the HEART framework that matter to you the most. For example, if your feature is made to increase involvement and keep people coming back, your signals should show these areas. Signals can be seen in how users act and help to see if your goals are reached. At this stage, you should also decide how you will collect your data, like through surveys or event logs.
Metrics are the next step, you turn your signals into trackable measurements. These can sometimes be compared with other communities. These measurements help you see if you've met your goals. When setting your measurements, use fractions or percentages instead of plain data. Lastly, ensure every user action is recorded and automated traffic isn't counted.
Happiness
Happiness is finding purpose. Members find the community valuable, and fun and develop a sense of belonging through finding purpose and role within it. It is measured through surveys or feedback to understand user attitudes and satisfaction.
Example: Goal is for Members to find the community valuable and develop a sense of belonging.
Example: Signals could be ‘Good feedback’ and ‘Positive sentiment’
Example: A North Star Metric could be ‘Net Promoter Score’
Engagement
Engagement measures how often and how deeply members engage with the community and it’s mission. It quantifies the level of member involvement and can be measured using metrics like daily active users or pages viewed per session.
Example: Goal is for Members to participate in discussions.
Example: Signal could be more Members spending more time in the community.
Example: Mtric could pair the size of the community with the participation rate for example 11K in Discord with a participation rate of %.
Adoption
Communities help speed up decision-making by offering actionable insights and increasing our understanding of needs and challenges. Making smart choices creates a culture of ongoing learning and innovation. Regular involvement from members strengthens this culture. Members who benefit a lot often become strong supporters, helping the community grow. We can measure this growth by looking at signs like more active members, seen in numbers like new sign-ups or downloads.or sectors within the broader network.
Example: Goal could be to understand what our community needs and wants; and to increase advocacy.
Example: Signal could be to improve decision cycles through moderation and social listening (triage issues into parent categories or narratives and apply to a risk matrix).
Example: Metric could be Priority-Adjusted Time-to-Resolution (PATR): This metric combines issue weight and time-to-resolution. For example, a severe issue resolved quickly would result in a lower PATR, which is desirable.
Retention
Retention measures how many members continue to engage with the community over time. It evaluates members’ loyalty and can be measured by tracking the number of returning members and referrals over a specific time period.
Example: Goal could be a sustainable community where people can build lasting relationships
Example: Signal could be Returning Members and if People would be upset if they lost access to the community
Example: A Metric could be a Community-Member-Fit Score (CMFS).
Task Success
Task Success evaluates how easily and efficiently users can achieve their goals using the product. It relates to effectiveness, efficiency, and error rates. This can be measured by tracking how quickly and successfully users can complete specific tasks.
Example: Goal could be to Create and develop Ideal Community Profiles
Example: Signal could be a good welcome and onboarding experience and most valuable tasks being completed.
Example: Metrics might be Community Effort Score (CES) and Task Completion Rate (TCR) for three most valuable tasks.
THANKS FOR READING. NOW JUMP INTO THE MIRO BOARD, EXPLORE,
AND JOIN THE DISCUSSION BY LEAVING COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK.
