Playbook: How Executives Can Build Strategic Value Through Community

# Theme: Leadership & Executive Perspectives

# Theme: GTM Strategy & Trends

# Theme: Community Building & DevRel

# Challenge: Early Growth

# Format: Best Practices & Playbooks

A framework for leaders to turn community into a measurable driver of growth and alignment.

December 5, 2025

Brian Oblinger

Joshua Zerkel

Community is no longer a marketing program or support function. It is a strategic system that shapes how companies learn, grow, and make decisions. Yet for many organizations, community still sits at the edge of executive conversations rather than at the center of them.

As Brian Oblinger shared during Executive Insights with Gradual, the shift begins with how leaders think about community.

“Executives need to see community as connective tissue. It’s what ties together customer experience, product insight, and brand trust.”

This mindset reframes community from being about engagement to being about value creation—for customers, teams, and the business.

To move in this direction, executives should start by:

Recognizing community as infrastructure, not a department. It underpins learning, advocacy, and insight across the customer journey.

Defining community outcomes in the same terms as other core business functions: revenue, retention, adoption, or innovation.

Integrating community data into executive dashboards to reveal how participation connects to performance.

When executives make community part of strategic planning, it gains visibility and influence across the organization.

Step 1: Anchor community in business outcomes

The first step to creating strategic value through community is to connect it to goals that already matter to the business.

Brian noted that many community programs struggle because they create their own metrics rather than linking to the company’s priorities.

“When executives start looking at community metrics in the same dashboard as retention or expansion data, they start to see the potential they’ve been missing.”

Practical ways to align community with business outcomes:

Tie participation metrics to retention and renewal rates.

Track community-informed product feedback against product adoption.

Correlate learning or certification activity with expansion or upsell.

When leaders measure community impact in familiar terms, the conversation changes. It becomes about business results, not just engagement.

Step 2: Make community cross-functional by design

True strategic value comes from collaboration. The most successful organizations treat community as a shared responsibility across Product, Customer Success, Marketing, and Operations.

Brian described how leading companies build structure around this collaboration rather than leaving it to chance.

“It’s not about more tools or reports. It’s about teams sitting down together, looking at the same data, and agreeing on what matters most.”

How executives can build alignment:

Establish shared ownership: Define how each function contributes to and benefits from community.

Create regular cross-functional reviews: Bring together team leads to review community insights alongside customer data.

Celebrate joint wins: When insights from community inform a successful product launch or marketing campaign, acknowledge the collaboration publicly.

Cross-functional alignment turns community from a siloed function into an integrated system that accelerates learning across teams.

Step 3: Resource community with intention

Even the most strategic vision needs resourcing to succeed. Leaders who treat community as a business asset invest accordingly—in people, data, and systems.

What intentional resourcing looks like:

Dedicated leadership support: An executive sponsor who advocates for community outcomes at the leadership level.

Integrated tools: Systems that connect community data with CRM, analytics, and product feedback tools.

Clear staffing models: Teams equipped not only to moderate or host events, but to analyze insights and share them across the business.

When executives model that investment, it signals to the organization that community is core to how the company operates.

Step 4: Build a narrative of impact

Measurement alone is not enough. Executives need to tell the story of community impact in a way that connects emotionally and strategically.

Brian encouraged leaders to focus on both the numbers and the narrative.

“Data gets attention, but stories build belief. When executives share real examples of community creating impact, it helps teams see the bigger picture.”

Ways to communicate impact effectively:

Pair metrics with member stories to humanize results.

Share internal updates showing how community insights influenced decisions.

Highlight customer-led outcomes that demonstrate alignment and trust.

When leaders champion community publicly, it becomes a source of pride across the organization rather than a background initiative.

Step 5: Lead with purpose and trust

At its core, community is about connection. The most effective executives approach it not only as a growth driver, but as a way to strengthen trust—with customers, employees, and partners.

Brian reminded us that this trust is earned through consistency. When executives listen, act on feedback, and show up as part of the community themselves, they reinforce its value.

To lead with purpose:

Be visible in community conversations and events.

Model curiosity and openness to feedback.

Reinforce that community is everyone’s responsibility, not one team’s task.

When leaders set that tone, community becomes a reflection of company culture and a source of competitive strength.

Bringing it together

For executives, community strategy is both a leadership discipline and a growth engine. It drives alignment, accelerates learning, and connects the organization more closely to its customers.

The playbook is simple but powerful:

Anchor community in business outcomes.

Build cross-functional collaboration.

Resource community intentionally.

Share the impact story widely.

Lead with purpose and trust.

As Brian put it, “Community is how companies listen and learn at scale. When executives treat it that way, the entire organization gets smarter.”

▶️ Watch the full replay here.

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