Product Circle uses a consent-based decision-making process
For now, we plan to be informal/collaborative about facilitation, but we
will make explicit calls for consensus when required.
At a minimum, each consensus meeting should have 1-2 facilitators and 1
notetaker designated at the beginning of the meeting.
Quorum is 50%, with a 48 hour window for asynchronous weigh-ins. Reversible
decisions can be implemented before the 48 hour window is over and may need
reversed if dissent arises. Difficult-to-reverse decisions should wait for
the end of the window before implementation.
Meetings must have 24 hours notice to be eligible for official consensus.
Anyone can attend and participate in our calls, but only Members count
towards circle consensus.
Summary of things that require Circle consensus
Acceptance into Dating Period
Acceptance into Membership
Activation and Deactivation of non-member accounts in the instance
Salaries
Parameter adjustments on the instance
GitHub org ownership
Changes to these bylaws
Commitment to team-wide deadlines or deliverables
Representing the Circle with unestablished positions
Other policy in the Circle's domain
Membership
To join the Product Circle, start with a 4 month dating period
The first 2 months of the dating period
Goals:
building relationships with the team
building up knowledge capital
demonstrating competencies that directly further the product circle's
aims
demonstrating/developing competency in using our product from the
Instance Maintainer perspective
Mutual Expectations
The Candidate will set up a one-off meeting with each of the circle
members.
The Circle will appoint a Mentor, who will set up a weekly check in
with the Candidate. The Mentor can change through informal
negotiation.
The Circle will prepare as much task curriculum as the Candidate
needs. The Mentor will track this and advocate for the Candidate to
get the curriculum they need.
The Mentor will take responsibility for tracking and advocating for
the Candidate's financial needs in this process.
The second 2 months of the dating period
Goals:
demonstrating leadership and the ability to hold power responsibly
demonstrating/developing accountability skills as applicable
demonstrating reliability and consistency
practicing our governance process and other member-specific skills
Mutual Expectations:
The Circle will create leadership opportunities for the Candidate,
e.g. leading a sprint planning session, leading grooming, planning and
executing a Hackathon or a social space for the Product Circle.
The Candidate will participate in at least half of the circle's
governance meetings, but their "vote" will be non-binding.
The Circle is responsible for approving someone to enter the Dating
Period, to move to the second phase of the Dating Period, and to become a
member at the end of the Dating Period.
Effectively, there are three statuses for contributors:
Casual Contributor - Someone who is contributing to the Product Circle's
aims but is not a member and is not in a dating period. Anyone can be a
casual contributor. Dating - Someone in the dating period, aiming to be
a member. Member - Someone with full participation rights in the
consent-based decision making process. Member is the only status that
contains full voting weight and is semantically considered "inside" the
circle.
Remuneration (compensation)
Anyone is eligible to be activated. Members can self-select activation and
deactivation at any time. Non-member activation and deactivation must be
approved by the circle.
Cred-based income is the default.
Salary-based income is intended for cases where a stronger sense of
stability is needed.
Individuals with salaries will not be eligible for grain in the recent
policy but will be eligible for grain in the balanced policy.
The expectations of Salaried contributors will be agreed upon case-by-case
between the contributor and the Circle.
Salaries are determined and approved on a case-by-case basis by the
circle.
All compensation must be accounted in the instance ledger.
Personal Attributions of cred between members does not need circle
consensus, only consent between the members.
Responsibilities of Membership
Participate in at least half of the following circle rhythms, and
communicate when you will miss them:
Governance meetings
Annual review of this document
Quarterly and monthly peer reviews
Direct contribution to the circle's aims.
Take responsibility for helping with care work including some of the
following:
Admin work / Instance maintenance
Tech support
Mentorship (formal and informal)
Code/PR/Design Reviews
Facilitation / Notetaking
Relationship nurturing / Trust building inside and outside the circle
Revoking Membership/Salary/Advanced Permissions
Members are expected to self-identify when they can't meet the expectations
of their role/salary/membership. The group may revoke or suspend (hiatus)
that membership according to that moment.
Members are encouraged to give feedback, with consideration for consent,
timing, trust.
We will have monthly peer review for Salaried roles and quarterly peer
review for Membership. We will iterate on the How of these evaluations
outside this document.
What is our initial response to someone not meet the standard of the
evaluations?
A buddy from outside the circle (as possible) is selected by the person in
question. The person and their buddy submit a proposal for concrete
demonstration of missed responsibilities within 2 weeks. This should be
prioritized over usual work output during these two weeks. At the end of 2
weeks the Circle meets with the person+buddy to give feedback on the plan,
but ultimately the plan is up to the person+buddy.
In the next month, the buddy and the person are responsible for
documenting examples of the planned concrete demonstrations. If
relationships with other teammates are implicated, the other teammates are
responsible for actively participating in the repairs.
1 month after the plan is agreed upon, another review will take place.
If the responsibilities have been met, the process ends.
If not, the Circle minus the person in question will decide what to do.
This may include extending the process or revoking/altering
membership/salary.
Emergency situations involving sabotage or existential threats to our team
or product can be mitigated short term by a 30% vote.
Representing the Will of the Circle
Individuals shouldn't represent the will of the circle beyond what the
circle has agreed on together. This includes roadmaps, high-leverage
designs, and cross-circle/cross-community diplomacy.
Some tools to avoid misrepresentation:
Check in early and often with the circle when in a position of
representation.
Move at the speed of trust.
Notice and emphasize when you are speaking from personal opinion.
Codified straw poll mechanism for rapid sentiment alignment/validation of
personal perspectives?
Bootstrapping AKA Initial Membership
The initial members will be in a dual state of member and dating phase.
Membership status may change according to the dating phase processes.
Ideas for Offers for Initial Membership:
Thena
Kevin
Haz
Magwalk
Yaz
Ryeder
One of the first responsibilities of the initial circle is to fold in any
dating phase candidates that did not make this list.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the direct collaborators on the first version of this document: