DistroFitCommunity building
A place where your users talk to each other, and to you.
What it is
One of the 19 traction channels. S3 Building a community before launch was one of the seven consumer first-thousand strategies, used by Product Hunt and StackOverflow. S18
When it works
When there is a network to build. Chen’s atomic network is a single stable, engaged network that can self-sustain, and the size varies from two people on Zoom to hundreds of listings in an Airbnb market. The early goal is one dense pocket, not more users. S9 Moore’s beachhead logic is the same: references only travel within a segment. S17 Niche communities are one of Chen’s little channels. S25
What it needs from the product
Nothing structural. If a community already exists, the report names it. If not, you would start one.
How it decays
Communities on third-party platforms carry platform risk: a Discord or a subreddit can be removed without notice. S22
What the report checks
The structure gate always passes. The report cites a Discord, Slack, GitHub organisation, subreddit or forum link if the homepage has one, and otherwise says you would start one.
Sources
- S3 Growth Method, "19 traction channels for growth marketers" secondary source
- S18 Lenny Rachitsky, "How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users"
- S9 Sachin Rekhi, primer on The Cold Start Problem (Chen) secondary source
- S17 Lenny's Podcast with Geoffrey Moore on beachheads and the chasm
- S25 Andrew Chen, "Every marketing channel sucks right now"
- S22 Stripe, "Platform risk: how to identify it, assess it, and build a more resilient business"