Operating process

Defining a general purpose operating process that can be applied to treasury systems and processes to help with better identifying different problems and opportunities

Web3 ecosystems will often need ongoing amounts of maintenance and improvement to remain competitive in a fast changing environment where new technologies, consumer preferences and approaches continue to emerge that influence how these networks can be most effectively scaled, operated and used.

To better think about how a treasury could be operated and improved we can outline a general purpose operating process. This operating process suggests a simple four step process that can be repeatedly used over and over again when operating or improving the ecosystems treasury. Any ecosystem could apply this process when thinking about how they are operating and improving their own systems and processes.

How effectively an ecosystem is able to repeatedly move through this operating process will influence the quality of the outcomes they are able to produce. We can also explore how this process currently applies to existing ecosystems such as nation states or corporations to better compare how these different ecosystems operate compared to Web3 ecosystems. This comparison can then help with better identifying what problems and opportunities might exist for improving Web3 treasury systems and processes.

1. Knowledge

The first step of this process is to bring together any required knowledge about a selected area of focus. Knowledge is the accumulation of any relevant information around that selected topic area. This could range from research, data, insights, analysis, cultural factors or personal experiences amongst other pieces of information. Decisions and contributions made towards an ecosystem will be highly influenced by the knowledge people have about the ecosystem and that focus area. Knowledge could be explicitly documented and stated within these ecosystems however it also may not be stored online or publicly at all. In some instances it could simply be a shared pool of knowledge that is only currently captured in the minds of the individuals involved.

2. Priorities

The second step looks to apply this knowledge by suggesting priorities along with a decision on which of these priorities are the most important for the ecosystem at that moment in time. Each ecosystem will have its own mission and purpose, these ecosystems will each need to prioritise where they want to allocate their limited capacity and resources. Priorities can naturally emerge from the shared knowledge of the individuals involved in the ecosystem. High quality knowledge about the area of focus will be a vital part of suggesting suitable priorities that could achieve the desired outcomes. New knowledge such as from emerging data, insights, research and analysis, cultural changes or technical advantages could all provide sufficient reason to change the existing priorities or to adopt new ones.

3. Ideas

The third step focuses on creating and selecting the most promising ideas that could help with addressing the most important priorities. Community members could each have a number of ideas about how the current priorities could be addressed. Ideas will help with articulating how a potential solution or approach could help an ecosystem address their priorities and achieve any longer term goals. New ideas could emerge at any time and existing ones may need to be updated once the surrounding knowledge or priorities begins to change over time. Any number of the ideas that emerge within an ecosystem could be executed to try and address the current priorities. An ecosystem will usually have limited resources, meaning they will need to identify the most promising ideas to execute so that the most important priorities can be effectively addressed.

4. Contributors

The final step is to select contributors that will execute the most promising ideas and then measure the resulting outcomes. Measuring the outcome will be an important part of determining whether any of the priorities have been addressed before the ecosystem then repeats another loop of this operating process again. The execution of any idea will require contributors to have the right skills and competencies to take an idea through to completion. The measured outcomes from any contribution efforts will create more data, insights and analysis which can then be fed back into this recurring operating process in the form of more knowledge that can be used within future decisions.

This operating process can be applied to any nation state, corporation or Web3 ecosystem

Nation states, corporations and Web3 ecosystems will repeatedly loop through this general purpose process when operating and improving their own ecosystems. The better an ecosystem is at going through this operating process loop the more accurate and effective their efforts should become on generating the desired outcomes.

A general purpose operating process can be applied to any area within an ecosystem that needs improvement, whether that’s at a high strategic level or at a localised execution level. For example a high level strategy based operating process could be to identify which areas within an ecosystem have the biggest opportunity for improvement. Using this operating process you would look at all of the relevant processes and systems to fully understand how the ecosystem operates (1. knowledge). You would then identify and define where the biggest problems and opportunities exist (2. priorities), generate ideas on how to address those priorities (3. ideas) and then execute those ideas before finally reflecting on whether the priorities have been addressed (4. contributors). Another more localised example of applying this operating process could be at the execution layer, for example a development team could be looking to improve their technical workflow by reviewing and updating the code and tech stack they are using.

Applying this operating process to treasuries

Funding processFunding