Community Chat Forum: Product Strategy & Launch Framework

Engineering Leaders Community (ELC) members, especially highly-engaged members and chapter leaders initially

Phase	Duration
Phase 1: Infrastructure Setup	2 weeks
Phase 2: Local Leader Enablement	2 weeks (parallel)
Phase 3: Seeding & Soft Launch	3 weeks
Phase 4: Evaluation & Iteration	2 weeks
Phase 5: Full Community Launch	3 weeks + ongoing

Total Duration (pre-launch): ~6-8 weeks

Dedicated space for in-depth discussions, insight sharing, and asynchronous communication
Connect local and global members easily
For Local Leaders:
- A dedicated space to foster async engagement between events, reducing reliance on live meetings.
- Consolidated platform to manage events, discussions, and member communications in one place.
- Provides tools for building chapter identity through tailored discussions and content.
For Members:
- Centralized place to ask questions, share insights, and connect asynchronously with peers in their local chapter and beyond.
- Opportunity to collaborate with the global ELC community for broader perspectives while still maintaining local relevance.
- Access to shared knowledge across chapters, amplifying learning and networking.
For the ELC Ecosystem:
- Scales relationship-building and knowledge-sharing across local and global communities.
- Reinforces ELC’s position as a one-stop ecosystem for engineering leadership growth.
- Supports persistent community memory (unlike ephemeral Slack chats or one-off events).

Embedded local forum/board for All ELC & on each Local Chapter main page (✅ Validated in Gradual platform) → verifying set up, needed to be turned on
Gated membership (verified engineering leaders only) → confirmed
Ability to post and respond to targeted questions → confirmed
Async communication across local chapters and broader ELC ecosystem (cross-pollination between local and global spaces)

1/ Pilot Phase:

Launch forum with Seattle or South Bay chapters (high engagement, >300 members).