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Building and Nurturing Atlassians Community Leaders Program

Published: April 22, 2019, 9:30 a.m.

When Trello was acquired by\xa0Atlassian,\xa0Erica Moss\xa0went from being a team of one to a community manager with a supportive and specialized team. With this came the challenge of supporting\xa0Atlassian\u2019s Community Leaders program, a group of Atlassian experts that share their knowledge with others. Tasked with taking the community from a Q&A forum to something more, Erica focused on what she thought would keep community members coming back and the \u201cwarm fuzzies\u201d that would help community leaders define their tone and new members feel welcome.

And while Erica has grown the Community Leaders program from 60 to 128 members, it\u2019s not quantity that she\u2019s optimizing for. Because Community Leaders are representatives of Atlassian\u2019s products and brand, she\u2019s focused on finding leaders that can speak with accuracy about the suite of products and with a thoughtful tone.

In this episode of Community Signal, Erica talks about what makes the Community Leaders program successful and a value-add for its members. She and Patrick also discuss:

The different roles on Atlassian\u2019s community team and why specialization is so important
Foursquare\u2019s 10-year anniversary and why Erica is proud to be a superuser
The \u201cinvisible work\u201d involved in community management and how Erica\u2019s team brings transparency to their work

Big Quotes

The story behind the Atlassian community: \u201cInitially, the community looked more like a Q&A forum. Someone would post a question, users who felt that they could offer any value would jump in and it was very transactional. That works in some context but I think what we find with products in the Atlassian suite specifically is there\u2019s a lot of nuance. There\u2019s a lot of value in [having] multiple opinions. \u2026 We really wanted to double down on that and nurture that, so that\u2019s where you see two years ago where we switched from a Q&A forum to what is now our community built on Lithium. In doing so [we said], \u2018We really want to create a sense of ownership and a sense of, \u201cLet\u2019s really build this thing that we know is special and we know is magical.\u201d Let\u2019s get some stewards of the community and really create some ownership there.'\u201d\xa0\u2013@EricaJMoss

On building a community that\u2019s a conversation space:\xa0\u201cIf I think the community is not welcoming or approachable, I can treat it as a transaction. \u2026 What is my motivation to come back? What are the warm fuzzies? Why should I invest my time with these other humans?\u201d \u2013@EricaJMoss

Advocating for your work will make you a better community professional: \u201cAs community managers sometimes it\u2019s tough for us to be advocates for ourselves and champions for ourselves. I had a conversation with someone recently on the team because it doesn\u2019t always feel natural, and it doesn\u2019t feel easy to toot your own horn and say, \u2018Hey, I did this and this was the impact of it.\u2019 It\u2019s so important, and I think the more cognizant you are of it, and the more you practice that, the better you will be as a community professional overall.\u201d \u2013@EricaJMoss

About Erica Moss

With roots in journalism,\xa0Erica Moss\xa0marries her background as a professional storyteller with her passion for connecting people as the senior manager of community engagement at\xa0Atlassian, helping to nurture and grow the\xa0Community Leaders program. Outside of work, she loves theater, photography, TV, pop culture, hyperbole, and cured meats.