Context

Based on conversations being had in the gov forums around making the DAO leaner and “doing more with less” given the prevailing market conditions, there is a need and a desire to re-evaluate our hiring decisions. We need to make sure hiring isn’t the hammer we’re viewing as an easy solution to all our problems.

There is also an awareness that the DAO’s current hiring processes aren’t very “web3” - many of these are traditional frameworks imported from Gitcoin Holdings, a “web2” company where most of the core contributors originate. We need more DAO-native hiring.

Existing Structure

Kyle defined three existing classes of citizens in the DAO:

1. Stewards and workstream leads - these people have a high degree of context on the DAO and a high degree of cross-stream awareness
2. Those within workstreams - “employees” who have very limited cross-stream awareness and interaction
3. The “community” - stakeholders/people in our Discord who come to our vibez calls/post in the Discord/are eager to contribute but currently sidelined due to a lack of available tasks

At the moment, most work in Gitcoin DAO is completed by the second group - people hired and operating under the “web2” job model - clearly defined JD, often full-time and regular hours, limited cross-stream collaboration.

While this model has many benefits (eg regular and predictable work and pay, clarity of roles, clarity in who to go for what), it does have disadvantages that introduce inefficiencies:

• Roles can be rigid, discouraging growth and exploration within and beyond the DAO
• Limits cross-workstream synergies and collaboration
• Roles can be too “wide” - people may be interested in and good at certain parts of their role, but disinterested/ineffective at others
• Prevents the many keen, talented “contributors” from plugging in because all tasks are picked up by full-time employees of the DAO - if they aren’t, a new role is created to fit the current system
• Traditional hiring becomes the hammer that is seen as an easy solution to many of the DAO’s problems

There are also currently two distinct and disconnected onboarding flows for “contributors” to the DAO (people who come in through the DAO onboarding form) and DAO “employees” (people who apply to AngelList etc). The first group of contributors are currently highly underutilized and underappreciated.

Proposed Solution

We belive that web3 offers solutions to many of the existing problems of human coordination - as a DAO, why aren’t we making our hiring processes more “web3”?

DAO-native hiring (in theory) should be emergent and flexible, and give opportunities to those who are keen to contribute. At the same time it should be minimally extractive, dependable, and sustainable as a career option, unlike like exploitative nature of the current gig economy. How do we build this at Gitcoin DAO, given the resources and the clout we have to be a leader in this space?