4 ms·

The two things he mentions as his biggest mistakes are both symptoms of the same thing: hiring outside your comparative advantage. He hired too many developers

The two things he mentions as his biggest mistakes are both symptoms of the same thing: hiring outside your comparative advantage. He hired too many developers for a product that's comparative advantage is in what content is (and is not) shown, and what people say about the content, instead of hiring enough community managers (hence the unruly community problem). Digg and HN aren't differentiated by the features of the website, they're differentiated by the content and community. Hire inside your comparative advantage. Contract/vendor everything else.

tibbon 15y ago
As someone who has worked as a community manager frequently, I will say that startups always underfund and underhire in this area. They always want to hire the best engineers, but when it comes to community managers they generally don't want to hire more than 1-2, and aren't willing to pay for the best. In an engineering heavy culture, community management is sometimes incorrectly viewed as something 'anyone could do'.
- emp_ 15y ago
  This works for design too (but improving lately), we usually model things around what we know best, thus the issues.
- rkalla 15y ago
  Out of curiosity, how do you hire/find the best community managers? I know what an accomplished developer's resume looks like and how to vet it... I have no idea how to vet a community manager effectively. Tips/Suggestions? NOTE: A successful community manager would have the right personality, good sense of fairness, good communication skills, etc... a handful of skills that are hard to assess quickly. That is why I ask.
  - tibbon 15y ago
    I'm a bit stumped actually as to how to advise. Let me think about it. I generally feel that a great community manager has a wide base of skills, is incredibly social (has a large network), knows how to deal with trolls and also has a fairly decent tech background. The questions should be around how big of communities they have managed, what they do to grow them, how they deal with problems (big problems, like a billing fiasco) and how well they know social media. That being said, most "social media experts" make me want to vomit a bit and if someone professes themselves as such, maybe they aren't the right person for you. They are harder to assess, as there aren't as solid of skills. No github acct (although if they have one, thats awesome)
    - rkalla 15y ago
      David, good tips; especially the "Do they have a big network" - I hadn't thought to really dig through a twitter, facebook or G+ account to get a feel for someone.
  - joshklein 15y ago
    Do not under any circumstance hire a social media expert. That's what top users are for! Hire someone who is already doing everything you want a community manager to do in your community. Just make them official, start paying them, and make them full time.

tibbon 15y ago

As someone who has worked as a community manager frequently, I will say that startups always underfund and underhire in this area. They always want to hire the best engineers, but when it comes to community managers they generally don't want to hire more than 1-2, and aren't willing to pay for the best. In an engineering heavy culture, community management is sometimes incorrectly viewed as something 'anyone could do'.

emp_ 15y ago
This works for design too (but improving lately), we usually model things around what we know best, thus the issues.
rkalla 15y ago
Out of curiosity, how do you hire/find the best community managers? I know what an accomplished developer's resume looks like and how to vet it... I have no idea how to vet a community manager effectively. Tips/Suggestions? NOTE: A successful community manager would have the right personality, good sense of fairness, good communication skills, etc... a handful of skills that are hard to assess quickly. That is why I ask.
- tibbon 15y ago
  I'm a bit stumped actually as to how to advise. Let me think about it. I generally feel that a great community manager has a wide base of skills, is incredibly social (has a large network), knows how to deal with trolls and also has a fairly decent tech background. The questions should be around how big of communities they have managed, what they do to grow them, how they deal with problems (big problems, like a billing fiasco) and how well they know social media. That being said, most "social media experts" make me want to vomit a bit and if someone professes themselves as such, maybe they aren't the right person for you. They are harder to assess, as there aren't as solid of skills. No github acct (although if they have one, thats awesome)
  - rkalla 15y ago
    David, good tips; especially the "Do they have a big network" - I hadn't thought to really dig through a twitter, facebook or G+ account to get a feel for someone.
- joshklein 15y ago
  Do not under any circumstance hire a social media expert. That's what top users are for! Hire someone who is already doing everything you want a community manager to do in your community. Just make them official, start paying them, and make them full time.