[bisq-network/bisq-website] Add q1 2020 update post (#342)

Wed Feb 12 18:54:29 UTC 2020

cbeams requested changes on this pull request.

Looks good. Just a few minor changes requested.

> @@ -0,0 +1,186 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Bisq Q1 2020 Update: Reorganization"
+author: Chris Beams

Let's make this `Chris Beams and Steve Jain` please. I changed my mind about literally ghost writing this. Much of the underlying content is mine, but you did the work of writing it, and there are stylistic differences to what I would have written if I'd done it myself (all of which are fine, I just want to avoid the dissonance that attributing it fully to me might cause). And it's just more transparent that way. I double checked the jekyll arrangement, and there should be no problem literally just adding ` and Steve Jain` to the `author:` metadata.

> +author: Chris Beams
+excerpt: "After a year of milestone events, Bisq is implementing more purposeful management of priorities and funds to continue building its DAO to handle more contributors and more complexity. <br><br>"
+en-only: true
+---
+
+<div class='responsive-youtube-container'>
+    <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oImSdIAsywA" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
+</div>
+
+The year 2019 was, by almost any reasonable measure, an incredibly successful year for the Bisq network. 
+
+Here is a sampling of the milestones achieved:
+
+- v1.0 launched after 4+ years of work
+- Bisq DAO launched as perhaps the first and only bitcoin-based DAO
+    - Of 20 100 total trades done since the DAO launch in 2019, 8 589 used BSQ to pay trading fees

Any reason to do thousands separation as a space here and throughout the post instead of a comma? Europeans tend to use a period vs a comma, but this format seems jarring to all audiences. Perhaps I'm just less familiar with it. But would prefer comma for ease of parsing.

> +
+As a result, some challenges emerged as a result of Bisq's 2019 success that hampered the project's ability to continue to effectively achieve its vision:
+
+- Lack of management led to suboptimal resource allocation
+    - Overspending on low priorities and underspending on high priorities
+- Contributor base grew, but developer capacity remained limited
+- Volatile volumes resulted in revenues insufficient to support more developers
+- Weak support often left users frustrated, hampering growth and development efforts
+
+It's become clear that while the Bisq DAO provides a solid technical basis for a decentralized operation, the human side of the Bisq DAO wasn't as solid.
+
+## A New Structure
+
+To that end, Bisq is reorganizing its operations into **5 teams** with **goals** and **budgets**.
+
+Until now, Bisq's contributor network didn't really have any structure. Aside from designating people for roles to handle ongoing responsibilities, the project has largely functioned as an amorphous group of people who contributed to the project on their own accord—in other words, a free-for-all—with no real management, no formal constraints, and no analysis. This worked well while the contributor group was small, since priorities aligned nicely with the people who were around to take them on.

`s/didn't really have any structure/didn't have much structure/`?

> +
+As a result, some challenges emerged as a result of Bisq's 2019 success that hampered the project's ability to continue to effectively achieve its vision:
+
+- Lack of management led to suboptimal resource allocation
+    - Overspending on low priorities and underspending on high priorities
+- Contributor base grew, but developer capacity remained limited
+- Volatile volumes resulted in revenues insufficient to support more developers
+- Weak support often left users frustrated, hampering growth and development efforts
+
+It's become clear that while the Bisq DAO provides a solid technical basis for a decentralized operation, the human side of the Bisq DAO wasn't as solid.
+
+## A New Structure
+
+To that end, Bisq is reorganizing its operations into **5 teams** with **goals** and **budgets**.
+
+Until now, Bisq's contributor network didn't really have any structure. Aside from designating people for roles to handle ongoing responsibilities, the project has largely functioned as an amorphous group of people who contributed to the project on their own accord—in other words, a free-for-all—with no real management, no formal constraints, and no analysis. This worked well while the contributor group was small, since priorities aligned nicely with the people who were around to take them on.

`s/amorphous group of people/amorphous group of individuals/` - avoids repeating the word people in the same sentence, flows better.

> +
+We'll track progress on improvements by tracking metrics such as _critical bug incidents per DAO cycle_ and _critical bug incidents per trade_. Known critical bugs will be prominently tracked and displayed, and solutions to such bugs will get the highest priority in the development budget.
+
+For onboarding, we need to make Bisq less imposing for new users. Making your first trade on Bisq is not trivial, and many would-be Bisq users are turned away from the apparent complexity of getting started with it.
+
+Luckily, we already have some excellent mockups for significant improvements. These mockups include a more intuitive interface for the desktop software and (most crucially) a beautiful step-by-step wizard to help new users get started without guesswork.
+
+Moving forward, implementing these new interfaces will be a top priority.
+
+### Growth
+
+**Budget: 10 700 USD**
+
+**Lead: m52go**
+
+Growth efforts were intentionally muted through much of 2019 because of the DAO launch, bank account scammers, and other factors that made it unsuitable to attract new users to Bisq. The v1.0 and v1.2 releases solved many of these issues.

`s/bank account scammers/bank account fraud incidents/`? Scammers, while perfectly true, comes off as unduly scary here.

> +
+For onboarding, we need to make Bisq less imposing for new users. Making your first trade on Bisq is not trivial, and many would-be Bisq users are turned away from the apparent complexity of getting started with it.
+
+Luckily, we already have some excellent mockups for significant improvements. These mockups include a more intuitive interface for the desktop software and (most crucially) a beautiful step-by-step wizard to help new users get started without guesswork.
+
+Moving forward, implementing these new interfaces will be a top priority.
+
+### Growth
+
+**Budget: 10 700 USD**
+
+**Lead: m52go**
+
+Growth efforts were intentionally muted through much of 2019 because of the DAO launch, bank account scammers, and other factors that made it unsuitable to attract new users to Bisq. The v1.0 and v1.2 releases solved many of these issues.
+
+As it stands at the beginning of 2020, the Bisq software isn't perfect, but it's ready for more users and more volume. We're looking to hit and sustain 2,100 BTC of trading volume per month as soon as possible. Although this is a big improvement from Bisq's current monthly volume, there were months in 2019 in which Bisq trading volume far exceeded 2,100 BTC.

Counter-examples here where you're already using commas. Just FYI per my earlier comment about this.

> +Moving forward, implementing these new interfaces will be a top priority.
+
+### Growth
+
+**Budget: 10 700 USD**
+
+**Lead: m52go**
+
+Growth efforts were intentionally muted through much of 2019 because of the DAO launch, bank account scammers, and other factors that made it unsuitable to attract new users to Bisq. The v1.0 and v1.2 releases solved many of these issues.
+
+As it stands at the beginning of 2020, the Bisq software isn't perfect, but it's ready for more users and more volume. We're looking to hit and sustain 2,100 BTC of trading volume per month as soon as possible. Although this is a big improvement from Bisq's current monthly volume, there were months in 2019 in which Bisq trading volume far exceeded 2,100 BTC.
+
+We plan to achieve this higher, more consistent trading volume with a smarter, more consistent approach to market-making and community engagement:
+
+1. Develop and promote strategic market-making bounties. The USD, EUR, and XMR markets are strong on Bisq, but volume fluctuates and liquidity is not consistent. We will incentivize consistent, desirable liquidity by making sure Bisq always has offers key markets that people want.
+2. Develop and nurture stronger ties with community. Bisq already has a good amount of word-of-mouth among those in its key demographics across a range of channels, but it needs to more proactively insert itself into more conversations and give more people more reasons to use Bisq.

"with community" needs an article, e.g. "the" or something else to qualify. Maybe "Develop and nurture stronger ties with target audiences". I don't love that either, though.

> +
+## Moving Forward: Users and Stakeholders
+
+This reorganization of the Bisq DAO was not an easy thing to do. There is no role model for how to structure a high-performing DAO...yet. Maybe Bisq can one day be that role model.
+
+It's important to remember that Bisq's success in 2019 is what required such substantive changes. Without the momentous development milestones, record trading volumes, and growth in contributors, there would be no resources to misallocate or competing priorities to manage.
+
+So we kick off 2020 with the following messages to you, dear users and stakeholders:
+
+- Expect progress on project goals, as stated above, but also on reporting and transparency to manage and prove this progress. This project has always tried to be as open and transparent as possible, and that continues—you can expect any proclamations of progress to be backed up by actual no-BS metrics.
+
+- Better responsiveness and cohesion within functions, particularly support. A lack of stated goals and defined teams—a sort of "tyranny of structurelessness"—sometimes led to confusion of priorities for new and even existing contributors. Often it led to underperformance, with weak support being a prime example. The new conventions in place now seek to dispel this confusion and set a path for team progress.
+
+- Generally filling gaps in the Bisq experience as it is now, making it more useful and more smooth all-around. Organizational changes and metrics improvements mean nothing if they don't translate into tangible improvements for end users. Hence our focus on liquidity, critical bugs, support, and onboarding.
+
+We've rushed to put these changes in place for Bisq DAO Cycle 10 (the current cycle), so you should start seeing the effects soon. 

`s/rushed/hustled/`. The former connotes haste.

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