What I Learned from Surveying Over 100 People About Product Communities of Practice

I dedicated a large portion of 2022 to learning all about product Communities of Practice (CoP). My research involved two main activities: conducting in-depth interviews with CoP leaders/organizers and running a survey of CoP participants. By the way, if you’d like to explore the interviews with CoP leaders/organizers, you can find them all here.

The survey results were such a treasure trove of information that I couldn’t fit it all into a single blog post. In this first post in the series, I’ll provide an overview of the survey, some background information about how I set it up, and some of my biggest learnings and aha moments.

Curious to dig into the results? I share the detailed results from company internal CoP participants in this post and from cross-organizational CoP participants in this post.

Intro

Everyone working in product knows: We love our qualitative and quantitative research. And since my research question for 2022 was “Why aren't more companies leveraging the power of community to help their PMs learn and improve?” it was only a matter of time until I ran a survey.

I set up a survey with around 20 open-ended questions to see what product people all around the globe have to say about the Community of Practice (CoP) they participate in, either internally at their company or through an external product community they belong to.

Some background information: How I set up the survey

I published the survey on February 15th and mainly promoted it via my social channels. The first answers rolled in that day and I closed the survey on August 19th.

The survey was created in Typeform and has two major forks in the series of questions. These forks determined which questions were displayed to the participant. (If you want to know more about the specifics, all questions can be found at the end of this post.) Here are the two questions that defined the survey structure:

Do you work in product and participate in some type of Community of Practice?

Yes (80%) vs. No (20%) - 103 answers. If people answered no, the rest of the survey was rather short.

The ones that said yes got the following question: What type of Community of Practice is it? with the option “Company internal CoP” (48%), “external CoP” (22%), or “both” (30%) for a total of 82 answers.

How the Survey-Logic looks like in typeform


📌Biggest Learnings and Aha Moments

I will share some detailed findings in Posts 2 and 3 in this series . But if you are leading a product organization or are taking care of a CoP and don’t have the time to read it all, here are some main takeaways for you:

  • In most companies, CoPs only seem to work if there are committed individuals investing in keeping them up and running.
    Tip: Find these folks and make their lives easier by granting them the time to prepare community events or by giving them some budget to work with.

  • Most companies reward community participation in some form. I consider it important that, if you are in a leadership role, you reflect on how your company is rewarding learning, sharing and building a trusted community.

  • The smaller and more personal a community is, the less effort it takes to keep it alive.

  • An active Community of Practice is seen as a real learning opportunity and part of the reason why people are loyal to their employer. 

  • A lot of PMs don’t know that external communities (things like ProductTanks or other PM meetups) exist. I think it’s a great idea to ask your product organization if they are attending out-of-the-company community events, and if not, help them realize that these outside communities exist!

If you’re curious to dig into the detailed answers, find the results from company internal CoP participants here and cross-organizational CoP participants here.

Structure of the Survey

Do you work in product and participate in some type of Community of Practice?

IF YES

  • What type of Community of Practice is it?

  • COMPANY INTERNAL

    • How many people are part of your company's community of practice? (roughly)

    • What do you like most about your company's CoP?

    • What are rituals/formats/channels that work well for your company's community?

    • Is making a contribution to your company's community / sharing rewarded in some way?

    • What are things that could be improved for your company's community?

  • CROSS-ORGANIZATIONAL

    • You said you belong to a cross-organizational Community of Practice. What type of CoP is it?

    • Would you mind sharing the name of the Community?

    • How many people are part of this community? (roughly)

    • How did you find the external Community of Practice you are part of?

    • What made you join this CoP?

    • What do you like most about this CoP?

    • What formats/rituals/channels work best for you when engaging with this CoP?

    • What are things that could be improved?

  • Do you prefer big communities or specialized networks? Why?

  • Are you more of an active contributor or observer/consumer of information?

  • What are the positive effects you’ve seen since you joined a CoP? Why not?

IF NO 

  • What would make you consider joining one?

Communities of PracticePetra WilleCommunities of Product Practice, Survey