Starting Strong: How to Build a Community from the Ground Up

# Theme: Community Building & DevRel

# Theme: Leadership & Executive Perspectives

# Format: Best Practices & Playbooks

# Challenge: Early Growth

# Gradual: How-To

A step-by-step guide for defining purpose, aligning stakeholders, designing your pilot, and building a foundation for long-term engagement.

December 9, 2025

Joshua Zerkel

You’ve decided to build a community. Maybe your company wants to help customers stay connected to your product, or you want to create a space where peers can share insights and learn from one another. Whatever the reason, you’re starting from zero. It can feel exciting, but also uncertain. Where should you begin, and what should matter most?

The good news is that community building is not about getting everything perfect or reaching scale right away. It starts with clarity, learning, and human connection. This playbook walks through the key phases of launching a new community program, from forming your foundation to running your first pilot. Each step blends strategy, operations, and empathy so you can begin small and grow with purpose.

Start with purpose and alignment

Every strong community begins with a clear purpose. Before you build anything, take time to understand why your community exists and who it is meant to serve. Ask yourself: What problem does this community help solve? How will it create value for members and for the organization?

Write down a simple purpose statement that connects both member value and business value. For example:

For members: “To connect GTM professionals so they can learn from peers and accelerate their growth.”

For the business: “To strengthen customer loyalty by helping people succeed with our product and with each other.”

Once you have a draft, bring in partners from marketing, product, customer success, and leadership. Early alignment helps you build internal champions who understand the role community plays in their own work. These partners will contribute insights, resources, and perspectives that help shape a more meaningful experience.

Invite stakeholders to share how community could support their goals. A product leader might see it as a way to learn from real user behavior, while marketing might see it as a channel for authentic storytelling. When people feel included in shaping the vision, they are more invested in helping it succeed.

Document your shared vision and goals. Capture what success looks like in the first six months for both members and the business. These early definitions help you make clearer decisions later when priorities begin to compete.

Talk to potential members

The best communities begin with listening. Before you create programs or spaces, learn what matters most to the people you hope to bring together. Talk to customers, prospects, or peers who represent your ideal members. Short surveys or live conversations both work well.

Keep your questions open-ended and simple:

What are you trying to achieve in your work right now?

Where do you go when you need help or advice?

What kind of community would feel genuinely useful to you?

What would make participation worth your time?

As you gather insight, look for common motivations and barriers. You might find that people want connection but prefer short sessions. Or that they want benchmarks and examples but do not always have time for live events.

Summarize what you learn into a short member insight brief. This becomes your reference point when deciding which programs, formats, and rhythms to prioritize.

Even a handful of conversations can change your view. You might learn that people want more follow-up discussion rather than more events. Or that recognition and belonging matter as much as skill growth. Listening before building helps ensure you create something that meets real needs.

Turn insights into a program hypothesis

Once you understand what members value, begin shaping a few simple community hypotheses. These connect member needs with business goals in clear and testable ways.

For example:

“If we host a monthly conversation series with industry peers, members will feel more connected and supported, and this will contribute to higher retention and referral rates.”

“If we create a shared space for best practices, customers will contribute more success stories, helping marketing and success teams surface authentic proof points.”

Each hypothesis should link a member behavior with a business outcome. This ensures you build programs that benefit everyone involved.

Next, decide how you will measure success. Member-focused indicators might include event participation, active discussion rates, post quality, or sentiment in feedback. Business-focused indicators could include stronger product adoption, improved renewal rates, faster onboarding, or growth in customer-led content.

Start with only a few clear metrics. As your pilot evolves, refine your measurements to reflect what people genuinely value.

Think of this stage as your prototype phase. You are running structured experiments based on real insight rather than assumptions. Over time, early patterns will tell you where to refine and where to invest.

Choose the right platform

Once you understand your early program ideas, choose where your community will live. Your platform shapes how members connect, learn, and stay involved.

When evaluating platforms, focus on usability and cohesion. A strong community platform helps members move naturally between events, discussions, and shared resources. It should feel intuitive and supportive rather than like an extra task.

Platforms like Gradual help simplify community management by combining events, discussions, and learning paths in one place. This helps you start small, understand engagement patterns, and scale when the time is right.

Look for a platform that supports:

A mix of synchronous and asynchronous engagement

Clear organization through categories or tags

Easy onboarding for new members

Visibility into participation trends and feedback

Avoid adding too many tools at the beginning. A single, cohesive home helps members focus on relationships rather than logistics.

Begin with a pilot

Instead of launching everything at once, begin with a focused pilot. Think of this as your community’s learning phase.

Choose a narrow scope. This might be one program, one member segment, or one recurring activity. For example, a monthly “Founders Forum” or a “Customer Success Exchange” focused on shared challenges.

A pilot typically runs for 60 to 90 days. During this time, test your assumptions about content, cadence, and member behavior. Observe what draws people in, what encourages return participation, and where friction appears.

Keep the group intentionally small, ideally 20 to 50 members. These early participants often become your advocates and help set the tone for the broader community. Ask for honest feedback and involve them in shaping future improvements.

Document what you learn. Capture quotes, behaviors, and participation patterns, and share your findings with internal partners. These stories help build confidence and support for future expansion.

Build systems for learning and growth

As your pilot progresses, patterns will begin to emerge. Use this moment to turn learning into sustainable systems.

Create a simple reflection rhythm. Each month, look at qualitative and quantitative signals. Ask:

Which discussions or events saw the most energy?

What topics created meaningful connection or curiosity?

Are new members able to participate easily?

Use these insights to refine your programs and strengthen your structure. Consider how you will maintain a balance between content and conversation, since both fuel long-term engagement.

You may also begin to formalize roles like moderators or ambassadors. These members help welcome newcomers and keep discussions active.

Celebrate progress along the way. Highlight early wins, member stories, and indicators of growth. Recognition builds confidence and strengthens participation.

Growth is not always about scale. Often it shows up as deeper relationships and stronger collaboration within the group you already have.

Keep it human

No matter how well your systems evolve, the heart of a community is human connection. People want to feel seen and supported.

Lead with warmth and curiosity. Welcome people personally, thank them for contributions, and invite them into conversation. Create space for both professional insight and personal connection. When members feel comfortable showing up as themselves, trust grows, and trust is what sustains engagement.

Be open about what you are learning as a builder. Communities thrive when they feel co-created rather than managed from a distance. Small gestures of care, such as a thoughtful reply or a spotlight on a member’s post, often carry as much weight as any formal program.

They remind people that a community is built on people, not platforms.

You can do this

Building a community from the ground up takes courage, patience, and care. The process will not always feel smooth, and that is normal. Every conversation and experiment teaches you something valuable.

Stay grounded in your purpose, listen deeply, and keep learning. With each step, you will not only build a community. You will build a network of people who believe in what you are creating and want to grow with you.

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