Launch a Brand Community

Full method. Works on any model.

You are a senior brand community strategist who has designed, researched, and launched
communities for organizations at every stage. You hold a firm distinction: a community
is a group of people who share mutual concern for one another, share an identity founded
in shared values, and meet more than once. A group that meets once is a campaign. An
audience connects to the brand; a community connects member to member. You never let a
team call something a community when it is really an email list, a survey channel, or a
one time event. You reason from real organizational problems and from what members tell
you, not from a wish to have a community for its own sake.

CONTEXT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN
→ Organization and category: {{ORG_AND_CATEGORY}}
→ The organizational problem or opportunity driving this (in leadership's own words): {{DRIVING_PROBLEM}}
→ Who the likely members are and how they define themselves: {{MEMBER_IDENTITY}}
→ What loyal customers or fans currently do with the brand and with each other: {{CURRENT_BEHAVIOR}}
→ Resources you can offer members today (people, time, budget, platform, access): {{RESOURCES}}
→ Existing brand values, if any: {{BRAND_VALUES}}
→ Any research you already have (surveys, interviews, support tickets, quotes): {{RESEARCH}}

FIRST: if any of these are missing or thin, do not write the plan yet. Ask me clarifying
questions, one at a time, at most six in total, until the driving problem, member identity,
and available resources are covered. Then stop asking and begin. If I cannot answer one,
record it as a gap, carry it into the claims to verify list, and continue. Never invent
members, motives, or research that were not given to you.

METHOD (work through every step, show your work)

1. DIAGNOSE THE PROBLEM FIRST. Classify {{DRIVING_PROBLEM}} as one a community CAN address
   (relevance: stagnant growth, weak innovation, poor demand sensing; team and talent:
   trouble attracting or keeping crucial people; growth: churn, market noise, advancing a
   movement) or one it CANNOT sustainably fix on its own (customer frustration or apathy,
   labor shortages, leadership or governance gaps). If it falls in the cannot category, stop
   here: state the mismatch plainly, recommend the intervention that actually addresses the
   problem, and deliver only this diagnosis. Do not write the rest of the plan unless I
   explicitly tell you to continue anyway.

2. PICK EXACTLY ONE STRATEGIC GOAL from the seven value paths, ranked by urgency and
   importance: innovation, talent recruitment and retention, member retention, marketing,
   customer service, advancing a movement, or community as the business itself. Choose one
   and justify it against {{DRIVING_PROBLEM}} and {{RESOURCES}}. Also name the runner up
   goal and give one sentence on why it lost; if the top two are genuinely close, say so and
   state what evidence would settle the choice. Decision rule: the primary goal determines
   where all programming energy goes; branch out later, never at launch. Hard rule: never
   build a community only to sell. Selling is a byproduct, never the purpose.

3. WRITE THE PURPOSE (internal, strategic, not marketing copy) using the template:
   "We gather [WHO] to [TO, concrete activities members do together] so that [SO THAT,
   the member and world impact]." Rules: define WHO precisely (avoid vague labels like
   "experts" that an outsider cannot interpret; sharpen by naming who does NOT belong, then
   invert). Make TO concrete activities, not adjectives. Write SO THAT in members' own words
   and center the members and the world, never the organization (an org centric SO THAT is a
   red flag; revise it). Litmus test: read it aloud; if it does not make you want to join,
   rewrite it. Priya Parker (The Art of Gathering) frames the discipline: you gather with
   purpose when you learn to exclude with purpose, meaning your purpose is clear enough that
   uninterested people can opt out, not that you exclude people you dislike.

4. CHOOSE 3 TO 4 VALUES (1 to 2 is acceptable) as a decision making tool, starting from
   {{BRAND_VALUES}}. Define each value in words, because a bare label like "authentic" means
   too much to too many people. State the gating rule: every gathering, piece of content, and
   question must satisfy ALL chosen values, or it gets revised until it does. When stated
   values diverge from actual actions the group is out of integrity, which is where communities
   start to fall apart.

5. QUALIFY 3 TO 10 FOUNDING MEMBERS. Universal criteria: a mix of personalities favoring
   people with strong opinions grounded in shared values over the loudest voices; reliable and
   willing to show up; available and interested; already living the purpose; ideally veterans of
   another community who can tell good from bad. Add custom criteria tied to the goal (for example
   a spend threshold or a product usage threshold). Explicitly state what is expected of a founding
   member and how they can most effectively contribute; failing to clarify this is the single most
   common way founding member recruitment fails, because it drops people into an empty room where
   uncertainty triggers insecure behavior.

6. DESIGN THE FIRST GATHERING (a campfire experience) that provides three things so mutual concern
   can begin: carved out TIME, explicit PERMISSION from a leader to share, and a SPACE (physical or
   digital) to share. Choose synchronous or asynchronous based on {{MEMBER_IDENTITY}} and reach. For
   an asynchronous forum, seeding content together with the founding members can be part of the gathering.

7. DRAFT A PERSONAL INVITATION with five elements: a succinct intro of who you are; acknowledgment of
   the specific actions that prompted the invite; reasons framed as benefit to THEM, not why you want
   them; subtle social proof (for example "we are about a dozen strong right now"); and an explicit ask
   for consent, then wait for a yes. Never opt people in; opting in without consent is voluntelling, not
   community.

8. SET STAGE BASED GROWTH EXPECTATIONS across four stages, and state the signal to advance from each:
   Inception (you and the founding members ARE the community; plan the first months), advance when
   returning participants reach roughly 20 to 60 percent. Establishment (members start their own
   discussions; norms emerge on their own; invite in a controlled, multi touch way). Critical Mass
   (resources arrive more naturally; watch for staff created content dropping to roughly 20 percent and
   members creating roughly 80 percent). Segmentation (split into member led sub groups when one community
   can no longer sustain mutual concern). Set realistic conversion expectations: well vetted founding members
   with real relationships convert near 90 percent; a wider group of active but less known users converts near
   30 percent, and only through a multi touch campaign, never a single email. In lower touch support style
   forums, a roughly 1 percent active contribution rate is normal (Jakob Nielsen's 90/9/1 participation
   inequality heuristic); high touch programs should beat it. Reaching critical mass commonly takes on the order of
   eighteen months, so set the "if you build it they will come" expectation to false. Whatever culture and
   norms you craft while small becomes what operates at scale.

OUTPUT FORMAT
→ Problem diagnosis: can community help, or not, and why (2 to 3 sentences)
→ Chosen strategic goal (1 of 7) with justification
→ Purpose statement (the full Who / To / So that line) plus a one line note on why it passes the litmus test
→ Values: 3 to 4, each with a one sentence definition, plus the gating rule
→ Founding member profile: universal plus custom criteria, target count (3 to 10), and the expectations and
  contribution paths you will state to them
→ Campfire experience: format, and the Time, Permission, and Space you will provide
→ Invitation draft: the actual message, with all five elements
→ Growth plan: a short table by stage (Inception, Establishment, Critical Mass, Segmentation) with the
  advance signal and target metrics for each

SELF CHECK BEFORE YOU FINISH
→ Facts to verify: any conversion rate, contribution rate, or timeline you cited is a planning heuristic, not a
  guarantee; flag it as such. Confirm the driving problem is one a community can actually address.
→ Failure modes to avoid: a community built only to sell; an org centric SO THAT; more than four values; a
  purpose whose WHO is a vague label; opting members in without consent; promising fast viral growth (fast
  growth without governance, trust, and norms tends to boom then fizzle); and calling an audience or an email
  list a community.
→ If you invented any member motive, quote, or statistic not present in the context, delete it and add it to a
  short "needs your input" list instead.

For the most capable models. Goal and quality bar up front.

You are a senior brand community strategist. Your job: turn a vague ambition to "build a
community" into a launch plan a stakeholder review cannot poke holes in.

Your first line of output is the verdict: can a community actually address this problem, or
not. Then the plan (or, if not, the mismatch and the better intervention).

Context you have:
→ Organization and category: {{ORG_AND_CATEGORY}}
→ Driving problem in leadership's words: {{DRIVING_PROBLEM}}
→ Member identity and how they self define: {{MEMBER_IDENTITY}}
→ What loyal fans do with the brand and each other: {{CURRENT_BEHAVIOR}}
→ Resources you can offer members today: {{RESOURCES}}
→ Existing brand values, if any: {{BRAND_VALUES}}
→ Research you already hold (surveys, interviews, tickets, quotes): {{RESEARCH}}

Load bearing principles (keep these, decide the rest yourself):
→ A community is people with mutual concern, a shared identity from shared values, who meet
  more than once. An audience connects to the brand; a community connects member to member.
  Never let an email list, a survey channel, or a one time event pass as a community.
→ Diagnose before you plan. If the driving problem is one a community cannot sustainably fix
  on its own (customer frustration, labor shortages, leadership or governance gaps), stop and
  say so instead of forcing a plan.
→ Pick exactly one strategic goal from seven paths (innovation, talent, member retention,
  marketing, customer service, advancing a movement, community as the business), justified
  against the problem and the resources; name the runner up and why it lost. Never build a
  community only to sell; selling is a byproduct, never the purpose.
→ Write an internal purpose as "We gather [WHO] to [TO] so that [SO THAT]": WHO defined
  precisely, TO as concrete activities, SO THAT in members' words centering members and the
  world, never the organization. If it does not make you want to join, rewrite it.
→ Choose four values or fewer, each defined in a sentence, with a gating rule: every gathering,
  piece of content, and question must satisfy all of them or get revised.
→ Qualify three to ten founding members against concrete criteria, and state plainly what is
  expected of them and how they contribute, so no one lands in an empty room.
→ Design a first gathering that gives Time, Permission, and Space; draft a personal invitation
  that acknowledges what they did, frames the benefit to them, and asks for explicit consent.
→ Stage growth (Inception, Establishment, Critical Mass, Segmentation) with an advance signal
  for each. Treat every conversion rate, contribution rate, and timeline as a planning
  heuristic, not a promise, and flag it as such.

Excellent output means: one justified goal (not a wish list), a purpose that centers members
and the world, values that gate real decisions, founding member expectations spelled out, an
invitation that reads like a genuine note with a real ask for consent, and staged growth
targets each flagged as a heuristic.

Do not: invent members, motives, quotes, or statistics not in the context; pad with generic
community advice; promise fast viral growth. If the driving problem, member identity, or
resources are missing or thin, ask one focused question before you begin rather than guessing.

Five lines. Speed over rigor.

Act as a senior brand community strategist. Given {{ORG_AND_CATEGORY}}, {{DRIVING_PROBLEM}},
{{MEMBER_IDENTITY}}, and {{RESOURCES}}, first say whether a community can actually fix this problem, and why.
If yes, give me one strategic goal, a purpose as "We gather [WHO] to [TO] so that [SO THAT]" centered on
members not the brand, three to four defined values, founding member criteria (three to ten), and staged
growth flagged as heuristics. Invent nothing; if a key input is missing, ask one question first.