The research, design, and thinking behind the practice.
Twenty-five years of research, strategy, and advisory with companies like Autodesk, Dell, Salesforce, and Siemens have produced a body of work few can match. Frameworks, original research, essays, field notes.
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Ideas created in the field. Yours to put to work.
Every engagement produces something notable: a model, a rubric, a sharper way to see the problem. These are the frameworks we return to, refine across more than a hundred engagements, and share to help organizations create more effective strategies. We will continue to add to the library. Take what is useful into your own work. When you want to go further, reach out.
Community-based Advocacy
A study of twelve leading advocacy programs and the eight characteristics they share, with each advocate action mapped to a component of brand equity. The case for treating advocacy as a brand strategy that compounds across the customer lifecycle.
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Community Innovation
The orchestration that turns scattered idea boards, labs, and venture funds into one connected system, built on eight shared characteristics. Why the real moat is relational, drawn from 200+ programs studied and shown across eleven, from P&G to LEGO.
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Community Group Programs
Seven traits that turn ad hoc meetups into programs members show up for, drawn from a library of 200+ case studies. Explores balancing centralized support with local autonomy to keep leaders from burning out, shown across eight programs from Adobe to LEGO.
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Community Reputation & Motivation
A design guide for community program owners and the executives who fund them, built on a clear thesis: reputation mechanics ship with the platform, and the strategy underneath is what makes them work. Includes a systems map, five strategies, and profiles of Salesforce, Atlassian, and Mendix.
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The Community AI Framework
A working map for community leaders and the executives they work with, built on a clear thesis: community is becoming an ingredient delivered everywhere your customer experience shows up. Includes framework and a “next 90 days” worksheet.
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The latest writing.
Looking Back on the Social Business Era
What we got right, what didn’t survive, and why AI means we have to build a better version. Thirty years from Cluetrain to the answer engine, and the connective tissue we have to rebuild.
Read note Jul 7, 2026Why Community (the AI Edition)
Everyone jumps to what, where, and how. Almost nobody settles why — so every initiative relitigates it. The asset was never the platform; it’s the network of relationships.
Read note Jun 26, 2026The Future of Community Is Up To Us
A model can summarize what a community has already said — it can’t carry a network of relationships for decades. The future of this work isn’t fixed; what it is, is up to us.
Read note Jun 12, 2026The Job We Didn’t Sign Up For
Jobs To Be Done, pointed at social media: the feed is the rent we pay in attention. The job it can no longer do — real connection — has moved to smaller, designed rooms.
Read note