#77 4 Steps To Navigate Change In Your Community
Maybe you have an alumni space for an old course, a community from a program you never shut down, or you have a membership that is due for a refresh.
It can feel like you’re ‘stuck’ … or to change things would be a HUGE risk.
Change is hard… and some people are more comfortable with it than others. And I’m willing to bet you’re scared to change things that members might love without realizing it.
This week’s issue is based on a submitted question (summarized below) from Brian Withers of Long Term Mindset which is a community for individual investors.
What do you do when you already have a community but want to make a lot of changes? We want to focus the purpose, switch up programming, remove features, and re-organize the forum.
Here’s the thing about community … it’s not top down. At least not when it’s done well.
Of course you’re the business owner and you get to call the shots BUT a community only exists with a collective of engaged members.
That means you have to co-create the change with your members.
Here are 4 steps to help you do just that:
Step 1: Audit your data
What is your community behavior already showing you?
Is there a resource that is never used or spaces that are never posted in? Which events have better attendance than others?
As a step 1 I would go ahead and remove all of the “fat” – anything that isn’t serving your members and potentially causing overwhelm needs to go. The simpler and cleaner your membership interface the better.
As a bonus, when you remove things you could add something new that your members have been asking for or eagerly anticipating. That way when you post an update you have a WIN for them… you're not just "taking things away".
Before you remove things make a forum post or email announcement –– here’s a template:
Hey [community name] heads up that we’re doing a little housekeeping behind the scenes and cleaning up some of the spaces and content sections. We are getting ready for a project to make the community even better and YOU will be a big part of that. Details coming soon!
In the meantime, we’re excited to share [a brand new resources they’ve been wanting] which you can access [link it here]. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
We hope to see you at [plug your next event].
Step 2: Run a community survey
Before making a bunch of changes based on your assumptions you need to find out what could be better from your member’s perspective.
When you’re reorganizing content or discussion spaces you can’t ask directly how they would reorganize it but you can ask what their favorite aspects of the membership are. For example, “What are your top 3 favorite features?” and list all the features out.
Behavioral data is the most valuable for making changes (see above – audit your data) but asking people for their feedback is important for two reasons:
You will get a deeper understanding of WHY spaces or resources might not be used
Your members will feel like they were part of the decisions you’re making (crucial for culture)
Read more about community surveys here.
Step 3: Host a community meet-up
Before you run with YOUR ideas, get ideas from your community!
You want to make this event feel different than anything you've done and campaign attending hard – you could even incentivize being live.
You can try positioning this as a town hall or a for members by members event. I'd recommend sharing a polished version of your survey results with your members (put it in slides) and ideas you have for updates. Then open the floor for their ideas.
When you launch a new community you can do this in the early days too, it helps members feel like they're part of crafting this new community experience. Chenell did this really well with her community launch – read about that here.
Step 4: Over-communicate
Communicate the changes you’re making in every way you can. You need to treat it like a marketing campaign.
Send emails and make dedicated posts in the community about the changes coming. If you're using a platform like Circle you can also automate DMs to send to each member.
What about cancellations?
Some of the changes you make, especially if updating the purpose of the community, may deter some members and you could see cancellations.
You're shifting the culture.
When you make changes or pivots your goal shouldn't be to have 0 cancellations. That's not realistic – there are always going to be people that hate change and you can't do anything about that.
You have to think about the long-term sustainable experience of your product and business. And you have to think about serving the majority of your members.
I know... ouch.
Your goal should be to strengthen the identity and member experience of the community. When you make these updates you may lose some members... but you'll also attract more of the right members and be on a better path for growth.
Follow this process and I promise you, you'll have a better product and happier members in the end.