Based on our conversations with developers in Singapore, we arrived at five examples of success metrics that they considered to be important to their communities.
1. Strength of relationships
The developers agreed that community work and the way its success is measured should be forward-thinking and less dependent on solving tangible problems or fulfilling immediate needs.
The social aspect of communities is just as vital to their success; don’t ignore the importance of understanding and measuring the quality of relationships members of your community have with one another.
The tricky bit is figuring out how to do this. True enough, many developers were uncertain about how to measure the strength and longevity of relationships between members from the outside.
One suggestion is to use social network analysis.
“I have friends who measure the strength of social networks through interviews—some people can be nodes,” shares Cui Fen of Foodscape Collective, a community that seeks to create a fair and circular food system in Singapore.
This video below provides a glimpse into how social network analysis works:
A more unorthodox approach is to use proxy measures that indicate the depth of member connections, such as when members invite each other to important events. For example, Phyllis of Beautiful People shared that mentors have an informal metric of success which is whether they are invited to their mentees’ weddings.
Similarly, Elysa Chen of CampusImpact, a Singapore education charity, shares that long-term success for her is when students invite her to parties or when the community becomes their first point of contact when they’re in trouble. In other words, the level of trust between community members indicates the strength of their relationships.
2. Achievement of personal goals
Every person has a specific reason for joining a community. As previously mentioned, many people define success in the community as having the tools and space to meet their personal goals.
For example, Cui Fen explains that Foodscape Collective’s members join the community for a few common reasons.
“It is about connecting and discovering the landscape of food for me,” she says. “But for others, it may be research. It is important to understand the common values and aspirations to allow different (ways) of doing things.”
As the community developer, your task is not just to bring in people who are aligned with the overarching goals of your community but also to understand how the community helps them achieve their personal goals.
From here, it’s simply a matter of talking to your community members to see if their expectations of joining the community have been met and what they feel can be done to improve their experience.
“In my community, the members who are active care about the environment,” Cui Fen explains. “We use food as a starting point. We spend a lot of time talking about what is the “better” outcome we are working towards.”
3. Member development
Another way to measure community success is to check whether your members have the tools and paths to become leaders in their community, and, if so, whether the community can function without the presence of a developer.
This approach ensures the long-term survival of the community, setting things up so that there’s continuity regardless of whoever takes the helm.
As Lex of co-working space Mutual Works explains, his role as a community developer is to “run himself out of a job.”
“With new people coming in, the other members should be empowered to lead them,” he says.
“The key is to get the members to own and have a share in the community. The concepts of ‘member’ or ‘leader’ or ‘developer’ need to be seen as roles that each person can take on or relinquish in different scenarios based on communal needs rather than as permanent titles that cannot be reassigned.”
Atiqa agrees, adding, “We want the members to live on their own. Success is when the leader can exit.”
To measure this metric, look at whether your community has the tools and processes for members to grow into leaders. This can include training, coaching, and resources, among other things.
4. Stories told in the community
Developers pointed out that while intangible and difficult to quantify, stories play a huge role in helping them understand how successful their communities are.
“A lot of it comes from the microstories,” Michelle explains. “We see shifts and changes, we see people’s lives getting better.”
Likewise, Shi Min of the Company of Good (COG), a community dedicated to empowering Singapore businesses to give better, notes that stories shared by community members offer a wealth of qualitative information. Stories allow developers to discover insights on how their programmes and initiatives affect community members on a personal level. Although purely anecdotal, these stories are a crucial metric for community success.
“Some of them (members) come back to volunteer for our events. It is heartening to hear from one of the volunteers say that COG is their to-go place for CSR activities,” she adds.
One developer reasons that the success of a community can also be measured through social mentions—when members share their experience in the community on social media. In a way, virality can be a measurement point. However, Cui Fen cautions that if too much emphasis is placed on “going viral,” the community could lose its purpose after its members do things for social media views or clout.
5. Overall organisational goals
Finally, communities can experience success when overall organisational goals are achieved. If these goals have been communicated to the community beforehand, and the community has been involved in creating the outcome, they are able to celebrate the collective success.
This boils down to identifying clear goals and getting the entire community involved in achieving them. For example, the community can set its sights on the extrinsic goal of raising a certain amount of money each year for a partner charity. By consistently updating your members of your progress and communicating the community’s achievements through quarterly updates or annual impact reports, members would feel that their efforts are making a difference and that the community is succeeding.
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