Playbook: Scaling Peer Circles with Human Touch

# Format: Best Practices & Playbooks

# Challenge: Advocacy

How to expand Peer Circles while preserving authenticity, trust, and the personal connection that keeps members engaged.

December 5, 2025

Jenn Delconte

Joshua Zerkel

Scaling a successful community program introduces new challenges. As soon as something works, the natural instinct is to replicate it widely. Yet scale can dilute the authenticity that made the program succeed in the first place.

That is what Jenn Delconte discovered as Klue’s Peer Circles gained momentum. Customers wanted more sessions, internal teams wanted to replicate the format, and leadership wanted to expand it across products.

“We tried to scale too quickly,” Jenn said. “We over-programmed it and turned it into a lead-gen experiment. It stopped feeling the same.”

Scaling required slowing down and growing intentionally. The goal became protecting what worked, while creating systems to bring it to more people.

Step 1: Protect the core experience

Before expanding, define the elements that make the program effective. For Klue, that meant preserving intimacy, focus, and trust.

Each Peer Circle followed consistent principles:

Six to eight participants per session

Personalized invitations

A single facilitator

A 45-minute time limit

One clear, relevant topic

These guardrails ensured every new session still felt personal. “Bigger isn’t always better,” Jenn said. “The best sessions were the ones where everyone had space to share.”

Step 2: Grow through rhythm, not volume

Scaling does not mean running as many sessions as possible. It means establishing a cadence that participants can rely on and teams can sustain.

Jenn scheduled Peer Circles in four-week cycles, leaving time between each to review feedback, refine questions, and prepare facilitators. The steady rhythm kept energy high without overwhelming anyone.

There are several ways to scale through rhythm:

Create a series focused on a single theme for different customer segments.

Build seasonal rounds tied to product launches or campaigns.

Rotate trained facilitators who can lead independently under a shared framework.

Scaling through rhythm allows the program to grow while maintaining consistency and quality.

Step 3: Build a facilitation network

Long-term success depends on shared ownership. Jenn developed a facilitation guide so others across Klue could host their own sessions with confidence.

The guide included discussion prompts, timing notes, strategies for encouraging quieter participants, and a wrap-up script linking back to the community forum.

“When CS and Product started hosting their own Peer Circles, they became part of the customer dialogue too,” Jenn said.

This distributed model allowed the program to reach new audiences without losing the tone and intent that made it special.

Step 4: Use light automation wisely

Automation can help, but only in service of connection. As the program grew, Jenn used tools to handle logistics such as reminders and registration, but kept invitations and follow-ups personal.

Before each session, she sent short notes introducing attendees to each other and sharing a few details about what they had in common. “People know when something’s automated, and they know when it’s real,” she said.

Use automation to simplify the background work so there is more time for what matters—thoughtful preparation, relationship-building, and meaningful follow-up.

Step 5: Keep the feedback loop tight

As Peer Circles expanded, Jenn worked to maintain a direct link between conversations and company action. Each session was summarized within 48 hours and shared with internal teams to inform decisions.

Participants also received updates showing how their input shaped future initiatives. This created trust and continuity. Scaling became not just about running more sessions, but about ensuring that every conversation still made an impact.

Step 6: Redefine what scale means

In community work, scale is not only about size. It is about reach, repeatability, and cultural influence.

When Klue tried to run Peer Circles across every product area at once, attendance dropped and the energy shifted. Returning to a smaller, more focused scope brought the program back to life.

“True scale happens when others can run the model well and participants keep showing up because it feels personal,” Jenn said.

Scaling thoughtfully means staying close to purpose and making adjustments before quality suffers.

The takeaway

Growth should not come at the expense of connection. Klue’s Peer Circles grew because the team built systems around empathy, clarity, and trust. When programs scale through rhythm, shared ownership, and personal care, they become stronger with each iteration.

Scaling community is not about reaching everyone at once. It is about reaching the right people in the right way, and doing it again and again with intention.

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