1. The best programs start with a signal, not an idea
Community programs shouldn’t be invented in a vacuum. They should emerge from listening (and there are more ways to listen than most teams use).
Annual surveys of active members are one reliable source: when members consistently signal a desire to connect with peers in similar roles or industries, that’s a program brief, not just a data point.
But internal signals matter just as much.
Reading team updates, attending all-hands meetings, and identifying where duplicative effort or communication gaps exist can reveal just as much about what the community needs to do next.
When one team is giving the same product demo to different audiences repeatedly, that’s a cue. When customers are asking questions that no one has created a repeatable forum to answer, that’s a cue too.
2. Format isn’t cosmetic, it shapes outcomes
Not every topic deserves a webinar. Not every connection happens in a forum thread. Matching the format to the intention of a program is one of the more underrated decisions in community management.
Educational product updates tend to work well in a larger webinar format. Deep follow-up questions belong in a more intimate AMA. Peer learning and brainstorming are better served by roundtables. These formats can even build on each other, a webinar feeding into an AMA, an AMA surfacing themes for a roundtable, each serving a different kind of engagement.
Virtual programming has become the default for good reason: it removes barriers of travel budget and geography, and it makes global participation possible. But the real skill is knowing when to save in-person moments for situations where they genuinely matter — major conferences, regional gatherings, or occasions where the depth of connection justifies the cost.
3. “Wait, don’t automate”, a smarter approach to scale
There’s a saying worth borrowing: wait, don’t automate.
Before building automation into an onboarding flow, an application review process, or a content distribution system, run it manually first.
You’ll catch any potential unexpected situations that only come up in practice. You’ll see where things break.
You’ll understand what actually needs a human touch before you remove one.
Scaling a community program also isn’t just about adding automation. It’s about knowing when to step back and let members lead.
When community members manage their own event pages, registrations, and hosting, with the community team handling promotion and troubleshooting, the operational weight shifts without quality suffering.
The goal is structural: build distributed leadership into the program design from the start, not as an afterthought when the team is already stretched.
Listen to the full conversation to get more insights on managing requests from across the business, protecting your team’s bandwidth, finding internal champions, and more!
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