Mission:

Curate and propose a product roadmap based on research, user feedback/behavior, future market opportunities, and informed vision. Align with the mission and goals of the ShapeShift DAO and other workstreams for efficient execution.

Goals:

• Goal 1: Iterate & Execute on the Portfolio of Bets (POB) inside of the Themening strategy
• Goal 2: Talk to Our Users & Deepen Ecosystem Partnerships
• Goal 3: Refine Retention and Build Towards the North Star (150 MM per month by June — growth case)
• Goal 4: Conduct Scoped Beneficial Experiments, Kill Under-performant ones, and remove bloat

Abstract -

As a product-centric DAO, the Product Workstream is accountable for a number of activities: cross workstream alignment on execution, retaining/acquiring users, growing the FOX ecosystem, speccing/launching new product lines, and achieving Shapeshift’s mission.

There are monhtly cost reductions, and the budget is the same as the September budget. We have executed more users tests which is a plus and have plenty of FOX so will reduce that line item monthly.

Additionally all of the product workstream contributors have started taking double digit FOX to retain USDC runway, as per our last vote:

“Additionally, if things reach a more dire state on the DAO’s runway by January— through market conditions or through governance actions or through unknown factors— I will likely reduce my salary first to offset costs in the DAO. This is accountability folks, at least aspiring for some.”

On product’s last approval, governance approved the portfolio of bets and adaptive roadmapping. Here is the spreadsheet for tracking product inputs and roadmap execution. Though it wasn’t required, we did a goals performance breakdown at the end of the year as well: https://forum.shapeshift.com/t/product-goals-review-dec-1/2837.

It’s become obvious that ratifying the strategy, it’s bullet points, and the living documents therein every 6 months creates governance fatigue instead of alignment. It creates an unnecessary amount of work compared to the agility the DAO needs.

As a result, A YES vote for this renewal verifies the budget and team continuing, and also support for product’s execution strategy namely:

• Supporting for the strategy for 2024 “the themening” https://forum.shapeshift.com/t/the-themening-a-pob-sequel/2888 applying a portfolio of bets every quarter
• approval of the 1st half of the year’s goals https://forum.shapeshift.com/t/goals-1-half-2024/2875/2 and their metrics/KPIs.
• An acknowledgement that all of this is flexible by design so we can capture market opportunities without putting granular items to vote or grand roadmap proposals.

Specification -

We track our goals at every office hours improving our documentation, rigor, and velocity. Since last vote the DAO has begun it’s path towards profitability and voted in the ability to monetize a larger surface area of the app. Onwards and upwards!

Responsibilities

• Prioritize and adjust the roadmap with cross workstream alignment.
• Analyzing and surfacing new revenue streams that are not listed yet in the roadmap, but reporting back to the community with more details.
• Coordinating research and resourcing in partnership with the FOX foundation.
• Organizing and running the Monday afternoon roadmap and timeline meeting and coordinating with product and engineering throughout the week to remove blockers, assist with product related decisions and keep things moving through the feature development process and Product/Engineering status updates throughout the week.
• Product representation at the Weekly Ops Sprint.
• Conducting user tests and mentoring other product team members to manage them on their own.
• Facilitate bi-weekly office hours to provide updates on progress, report on KPIs, and offer space to the community to ask questions, give feedback, and pitch ideas.
• Draft product specs, reviewing designs, work with ENG workstream to evaluate engineering resources, and iterate the feature development process.
• FBL will also spend a significant effort in defining core engagement loops & behaviors for users on Shapeshift, working backwards to activation moments to surface quick wins for development.
  • Orthogonal to this is identifying user buckets or personas, working with MKBD and other workstreams and marketing to them
• Hosting and Leading Spec kickoffs/spikes/breakdowns between Product and Engineering.
• Spinning up regular retros (at either phase completion or large feature completeness)
• Leading and continuing all scheduled team syncs and 1-on-1s.
• Managing Budget and workstream contributor payments made through Colony.
• Coordinating strategy sessions, touchpoint, and retros for launches. Facilitating where necessary.

Budget and team

The Product workstream will consist of 4 members. 3 full-time and 1 part-time.

The total budget breakdown

Aside from the 6% USDC savings, The March - August 2024 breakdown will look familiar and almost a rubber stamp:

Monthly:

• $35650 (6% less)
• $7,850 (USD in FOX — 24% increase)

$43,500 TOTAL

Term Totals come out to:

• $2400 USD in FOX value for user testing
• $47,100 USD of FOX (including $2400 in FOX for user testing)
• *$216,714 USDC

$263,819.40 TOTAL

The change to the DAO topline budget is 1.5% less, thanks Figma for almost pushing us over the edge.

The additional addendums are the earmarked SaaS budget and the retained events budget:

• SaaS
  • current funds: [$629.76] —> continue holding funds in colony.
  • Figma [$69 a mo for the team—nice]
• Events
  • ETH Denver ( I earmarked $200 a team member for flight or stipend [$600]. If they don’t go funds will go back to the DAO as per last budget.)

Benefits -

• Ships the themening + POB, gets the roadmap going in iterative loops
• executes quarterly with full transparency for Goverance.
• Unlocks new features, continues alignment with a strategic lens, and continues execution of the product team’s goals.

Drawbacks -

• We’re moving with more rigor so we aren’t shipping as many shiny features.
• Our team is lean so there is only so many resources to cross allocate