[Hiring] Product Manager

DAO
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After my conversation with Mads, I thought hard about the questions he posed and I hope whoever takes up the Product Manager position would have a strong opinion about:

1. How would the PM improve what is already there?

I think the UBI protocol, together with the PoH registry already lays a strong foundation for future development. With Ethereum gas fees low at the moment (my vouch was around $8 bucks) the registration and vouching process is relatively easy. So what I would focus on then is to facilitate every person to do something productive with $UBI they get to claim. I assume the majority of humans will swap it instantly to pay rent, food or meet an immediate responsibility. There will be though, a big faction that wants to put that $UBI to work, and could be locked up in a vault connected to their PoH profile (wallet). I also think many more will want to donate their $UBI as they have really no need for it, they just signed up because everyone else did as well. An integration for donations (Git Coin?) would be a required work here for the PM.

2. How would the PM bring in revenue for the DAO to fund future initiatives?

This one is a little tougher to know the answer on my own as the founders already have many ideas but based on the use cases, the PoH registry can be leveraged in many way such as charging a fee for certifications, reputation systems and self-sovereign identities could carry further growth. The possibilities are endless.

Thanks Mads for taking the time and doing due diligence!
All the best!

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Proof of Humanity (PoH) is looking to hire a Product Manager. However, we believe PoH requires a team of dedicated individuals to carry on the mission of providing equal opportunities for all humans.

To provide some context, a Product Manager works around 50 hours a week and earns around 100K-120K a year.

As PoH is a young purpose-driven community, it needs to focus on growing and achieving its first foundational milestones. This is only possible when its core team is passionate and committed to its cause. Therefore, we believe it will be more valuable for the PoH community to hire a team composed of 4 Product Managers plus 1 Project Manager for the price of one product manager. In this way, the team would be able to deliver an average of 150 hours a week of high commitment (30 hours/week per person * 5 people).

We are asking for 120K USD/year, to be distributed within a team of 5 people, all paid in UBI.

We commit to turn 30% of our salaries into DAI to stake them in the Yearn Vault for at least 6 months to contribute to the price stability of UBI.

The proposed working scheme is the following:

  • The cycle begins by working on one single product approved by the PoH DAO.
  • Its Proof of Concept (functional prototype) is developed.
  • Product co-produced by all UBI members. Coordinated by the core team, with weekly reporting to the community.
  • Once the product is consolidated, a new cycle may begin.

PLUS

  • Assistance to the community proposals that require knowledge on product design, prototyping, and development monitoring*.

*Up to the team’s bandwidth availability and in order of community prioritization.

Regarding the team:

Business Manager: Humberto Besso Oberto

Technical Manager: Ryan Cwynar

Design Manager: Cami Arias

Growth Manager: Anna Kaic

What relevant experience has this team for PoH and UBI? And why is this job position meaningful for us?

Humberto: In Mexico, my experience developing social enterprises focusing on community participation gave my team and me the 2030 Citizen Ambassador recognition by the United Nations.

Product Management-wise, my biggest client, was the Federal Electrical Commission (CFE) in Mexico. My appointment was: “Make the working division profitable”. My team and I developed an energy service project that drove 50.4 million USD. Additionally, I was assigned two other projects. One to save 11 energy plants from being privatized, and the other to re-activate another working division losing 2M USD a month. Working within these projects gave me two important lessons. One, that everything is achievable by finding legal holes. And two, working with passionate people is fun, makes everyone feel unstoppable, and gives a sense of fulfillment when achieving goals for the general interest.

Why is it meaningful for me to be part of the PoH Product team?

I publicly committed to facilitating shared prosperity worldwide around 200 days ago in my personal YouTube channel. Every day I dedicate my life to learn, apply, and connect with causes and people that take me closer to that goal. I believe PoH is the right path to make this happen. I will dedicate my entire focus to achieving world coverage and price stability.

Anna: In Russia, I contributed to the communication strategy for facilitating the implementation of a novel financial mechanism regarding the SDG 2: Zero Hunger.

In Croatia, I was in charge of developing market research and strategy for Hrana i Zajednica to bypass the barriers that retail food chains encountered when donating food to public kitchens. This marketing strategy is still being used across the country/region of Primorsko Goranska.

Why is it meaningful for me to be part of the PoH Product team?

I truly believe that for making the UBI successful, there is a need to gain trust from people, which can be done through the right communication and marketing.

I believe that PoH and UBI will open the path for humanity to reach the next level of sovereignty. Investing in putting equal starting opportunities for all will bring brilliant talents that otherwise wouldn’t have the means to contribute to societal global progress. Let’s onboard everyone on the train of equal possibilities!

Ryan: I’m a programmer, and over the past year, I’ve become increasingly more inspired by the concepts of using software to improve governance and help communities solve common goods problems, which used to be the sole domain of governments and large organizations.

More recently, I’ve gotten involved with members of the Proof of Humanity DAO to develop concepts to bolster the value of the UBI token and to develop solutions to the adoption hurdles that will be faced when everyone, especially the people most in need, starts trying to understand how to interact with web3 tools.

Why is it meaningful for me to be part of the PoH Product team?

I believe PoH had the right idea to pick UBI as the first initiative for the global common goods problem with universal appeal. There are many more like helping communities pool funds for schools, infrastructure, or whatever else they decide they need.

UBI is the gateway initiative that will motivate people from all walks of life to understand web3 technology and become comfortable with these new collective decision-making tools, which will have a greater positive impact on our world beyond almost any other change I can imagine.

Cami: I’m a bit of a jack of all trades, with a background on electronics, multimedia design, marketing strategy and community management, especially in decentralised teams, but my main skills are around UI/UX and Graphic Design. I enjoy doing a variety of things so this background allows me to help teammates in small teams.

I’ve volunteered in several organisations throughout my life, either in my country, Argentina, or remotely. Lately, through volunteering on CareDAO I’ve discovered the blockchain space and I’m already involved in several initiatives and I’m fully convinced the knowledge and tools that are being developed should be extended to people everywhere to improve their quality of life and empower them to live and sustain themselves in a healthier way.

Why is it meaningful for me to be part of the PoH Product team?

Being from Argentina I’m very familiar with society’s struggles due to poor government leadership. People can create better solutions for others to live and thrive without depending on whoever got picked to be part of sometimes corrupt governments that don’t care about the people. PoH seems to be a powerful initiative to bring those solutions to people everywhere, and like other innovative, it can be difficult for people to get it right away, so I’d love to develop products that power up the value that PoH provides and makes it friendlier for people to access these better tools and methodologies. Specifically with this proposed product, since I see people around me everyday struggling and spending so much time trying to get by finding ways to sustain themselves on top of all the limitations the government puts on us.

Finally, there are three things to be said:
One. There is room for a Project Manager to join the team. If the PoH DAO chooses us, we will hire the second most voted PM to the team (if it complies with the working proposition of hour commitment and paycheck acceptance).
Two. We cover English, Spanish, Italian, and Croatian speaking cultures.
Three. The team members are very active in the community. We have read and engaged in community proposals, and from the active listening, we propose to work on the following goals:

  • Reach the 10,000 registered people aimed by PoH with a focus on those below the poverty line.
  • Drive stabilization of the UBI token price.
  • Simplify the user experience when registering in PoH.
  • Simplify the use of the UBI for covering daily human needs.
  • Simplify volunteering to the PoH community proposals.
  • Simplify tax-related issues.
  • Facilitate community-based proposals for the good of all.

The team already works on two ideas that have been recognized as valuable by the community. Check Twiter (crypto-debit card and yearn vault burning mechanism).

Please contact us at Calendly for either a team call or individual-based calls :slight_smile:

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Hello PoH community,
I have made a short interview with Humbeto’s team-HBesso31 and this is my review:

The team has with complementary strengths and a strong passion for changing the world. Although they are not highly experienced, they have some impressive projects under their collective belt already. They have a coherent vision for securing the value of the $UBI token and ensuring operation of the DAO.

A particular strength of this proposal is that the team has the experience and a strategy for outreach to new members out the crypto-space.

A downside to this proposal is that it will lock a substantial amount of the securely available funds which would likely preclude the payment of a developer unless more funds are raised. A way around this would, however, to pay 30 % of the full year salary up-front in $UBI (at current valuation) to a vault (which would come out of the $UBI holdings, rather than the USD holdings.)

A very strong application.

I will submit a recommendation once I have interviewed all candidates that post within one month of the original posting (April 19th).

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I see a lot of applications proposing to work part time for the DAO. Those are the first two job offers from the DAO and in some way similar to founders. We need people really dedicated to the DAO, so if I’m not opposed to people starting part time to get them the time to finish their current obligations, I would advise strong reject or weak reject (cf HIP-2) to people not proposing to work full-time.

@iafhurtado @HBesso31 @pmerugu

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Thank you very much, @Mads, for taking the time. The community needs passionate people to achieve the UBI mission of providing a UBI to all humans on Earth.

Also, agree with @clesaege. This requires a full mind and heart. This is why we are proposing 150 hrs a week of work done by a team, paid with what would be equal to the price of one single PM in the US, which could work a maximum of 50 hrs a week.

Regarding the salary, just to clarify, we are not asking a front payment, but a streamed payment, all in UBI, which in the best interest of all, we will work for making the price increase and stabilize.

We were excited to have our first interview, hope the community engages more, as you did @Mads, to ensure the right people are chosen.

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We are applying as a duo! Here’s a bit about us:

Paula Berman: I’m a co-Founder of Democracy Earth Foundation and one of the leading researchers in the space of Sybil-resistant identity protocols, having co-authored the seminal paper in the field (and a companion introductory op-ed for Coindesk). I have actively contributed to Proof of Humanity since its inception in 2017 and I am a part of the team currently behind its operations. Over the past 6 years I have led several online governance experiments with mechanisms such as liquid democracy and quadratic voting (qv), including the first qv implementation in the United States government for the state of Colorado (read more here). I also led community efforts at Democracy Earth such as our Ambassadors and Student Ambassador programs, with highly talented and well-connected innovators from around the globe.

Sofía Cossar: I am an international development consultant and human rights law expert. I have worked with legislators from all over the world, governmental agencies, human rights NGOs as well as international organizations like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, to promote more inclusive and egalitarian societies. As a part of that journey, I became a researcher at Democracy Earth Foundation in late 2017. I authored the article on liquid democracy and the Tyranny of the majority and co-authored the paper on UBI in the Blockchain Age, which I presented at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Basic Income at the University of Freiburg, Germany, in October 2018. Last year, Paula and I produced the report on DEF’s Decision-Making Pilots, where we shared lessons learned hoping to inspire other e-democracy and e-governance initiatives. More recently, I participated as a panelist in the first Digital Direct Democracy World Conference (3DCON), where I spoke about all the philosophical, political, legal, ethical and technical aspects of implementing decentralized and digital decision-making.

Our ongoing engagement over the years reflect our shared belief that together, Proof of Humanity, $UBI and the Proof of Humanity DAO can become one of the most meaningful political and economic experiments of our times.

Here you can read an extended overview of our plans and long-term vision for Proof of Humanity.

TLDR:

What do we want to do?

Integrate Proof of Humanity’s credentials with airdrop platforms, quadratic funding systems, DeFi tools, SSI providers, privacy solutions, governance tools and other dapps in the Ethereum ecosystem. List the $UBI token widely and bring in investors, philanthropists and institutional partners to support it. Work closely with the community, developing the governance of the Proof of Humanity DAO with state-of-the-art mechanisms. Create an Ambassadors Program. Improve software development processes and communications.

How do we want to do it?

Opening channels for dynamic and productive feedback loops between our team and the community at large. Collaborating with our powerful networks of innovators, social leaders, technologists, artists and researchers to fully explore and leverage the possibilities afforded by the Proof of Humanity protocol. Implementing procedures to ensure transparency and accountability for our performance.

Time commitment: 100% for one year.

Compensation: Given the volatility of ETH it is difficult to estimate the availability of funds to hire workers for the DAO. Instead of pinning down a specific number, we propose setting one third of the ETH budget to our team, leaving two thirds available to hire a developer. We request that once our proposal is approved by the DAO, the yearly amount in ETH is set aside in a dollar pegged token. Finally, given that we are flexible with our salaries and want to make it work within the budget constraints of Proof of Humanity, but cannot estimate what that budget will be once we are finally able to put ourselves forward as candidates to be voted on by the DAO, we request waiting until we move to step 6 of the recruitment procedures to also specify an allocation in UBI to complement our earnings.

The reasoning behind proposing two hires, as opposed to one, is Proof of Humanity has needs that extend beyond the attributions of a single Product Manager. We need will need to work on product development, integrations, public relations, marketing, community management. Doing all of that with quality requires more than one person. We expect to collaborate on all fronts, but have separated attributions here for clarity:

Paula Berman: I will be primarily responsible for the strategy of the following components: Growth / Integrations + Technical development (security - privacy - incentives - UX - processes) + Community + Governance. This includes driving key developments in these four areas (described in more detail on our medium post), helping the team set its priorities and interfacing with partners, philanthropists, investors and researchers.

Sofía Cossar: Sofía will be primarily responsible for operations within the following components: Growth / Integrations + Technical development (security - privacy - incentives - UX - processes) + Community Management + Governance. This includes managing communications for Proof of Humanity and overseeing the implementation of strategies in these four areas.

Additionally, we will leverage @Justin and @RoboTeddy who have each committed a minimum of 5 hours a month (without compensation) to consult on product and software development.

CV Paula Berman
CV Sofía Cossar

Please contact us via Calendly.

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Hello PoH community,
I have done a short interview with Paula/Sofia-paulaberman, and this is my review:

The Duo is the “Democracy.Earth Team,” and they have been DEEP in the weeds about this project - thinking and writing about the why and how for years. They are already embedded within the DAO creator community - and the extended community around it. Experienced in the philanthropic space, I think they should be able to find additional funding from donors.

A particular strength of this proposal is the emphasis on the integrity of DAO. Better voting systems must come online quickly and decisions put under democratic control. The new legal territory must be put on solid ground. The integrity of the list is paramount. This DAO is here for the long run and should set a precedent for governance for others - so we better get this right, or we drop the ball.

As I see it, one downside is that hiring them would solidify the “Democracy.Earth perspective” and would miss the chance of bringing people in with a complementary perspective. Another is that the duo has limited experience in software development. If the duo can bring in enough funds and build on existing collaborations fast, the duo will mitigate these downsides.

This was a powerful application by Paula/Sofia:)

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Hello PoH community,
I have done a small interview with Paul - pmerugu and here is my review.

Paul has been a part of identity management since “before it was called identity management” in many different roles and has strong connections to the tech business environment. Paul wants to bring the focus to the list and the list security - PoH’s core is the Sybil-resistant list, this is where the value lies…and also where the dao could fail - there is still a long way before the list fully lives up to this.

Paul’s advantage is that his focus probably has the clearest part to revenue (rather than simply funds/donations) by offering safe login services. Revenue that can be used for creating value to other DAO (such as the $UBI). In addition, Paul, as a software engineer, has the technical chops to manage development and has good knowledge of DAO best practices.

One downside with Paul, IMO, is that his approach seems very low on outreach, democracy/voting development, and philanthropic experience. Paul is a great specialist but as a PM of such an expansive project, I would prefer a more generalized profile.

It is a strong application, but, sorry Paul, I think the competition is stronger.

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Whoa, great progress on the hiring front @Mads. I agree with @clesaege and would throw my full support behind @paulaberman and @SofiaCossar to bring home the bacon on all their promises since they are already in the weeds regarding PoH and everything revolving around it. I don’t see a big downside to them not having that much software experience as Mads pointed out since it doesn’t fall on them to code but to translate the needs and requirements from usability, sustainability, and feasibility perspective to build a great protocol for UBI.

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I think we should be open to new submissions until the 19th (the time I promised to be open).

@iafhurtado, if you have time you could conduct you own interviews?

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Thank you for your due diligence and dedication to this process @Mads . We have edited our application post to reflect some of the feedback that we got for it. Signaling this to you here, in case our edits may impact your review in any way.

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Thank you for your support @iafhurtado ! I am writing to let you know we have edited our application post to reflect some of the feedback that we got for it. Signaling this to you here, in case our edits may impact your support in any way. Warmly, Paula

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While I do appreciate Paula and would probably give a positive recommendation if it was alone, I do not appreciate the proposed “package”.
The DAO is hiring two workers (if we get more within budget great) and blockchain developer profiles are in high demand. Finding a good developer (which must both be able to code and potentially help scale up the project) for 50k$ is going to be very hard or even impossible. A good evidence of that is that no one answered to the dev position while we got a lot of answers for the product manager one. The market price for devs is definitely higher than product manager and I believe that accepting this as a “package” would prevent recruiting a dev.
I would appreciate if applications could be unbundled or come with the devs. I would prefer only one dev and one product manager rather than 2 product managers and little hope in having a dev.

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I appreciate your concern Clément. This is why we have committed to actively scout for this position and we have already started. Based on what I’ve seen in the past 48 hours I am not as hopeless as you are about the prospects of finding strong candidates. You should be seeing replies to that post coming up soon :slight_smile:

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Indeed @paulaberman, if you can drive good applications for the developer position that would be a strong argument for choosing you for the PM role.
And perhaps @HBesso31 could get in that game as well…

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@clesaege : I don’t know where have agreed that we have reached an absolute decision to use only 150K USD in the first year. Currently, our funds are 150K USD and 3.5M $UBI. Although I don’t advocate blowing the whole thing in one year I do think we should use of the $UBI as both @paulaberman and @HBesso31 suggest. Both teams are telling us what they need to do a proper job (including that they can’t do it alone).

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Since more people are in the discussion now I feel I can add my preliminary recommendation as well:

For me, the @HBesso31 team is the best application so far - @HBesso31

  • Covers quite a few bases of lead, technical, outreach, and design.
  • Have a strong crypto (tech and community) understanding.
  • Have a strong coherent vision for how to bring value to the token.
  • Are a globally diverse team with many fresh perspectives to bring into the DAO.

Like @paulaberman

  • They have a strong drive, energy, and a desire to do good in the world.
  • Their financing proposal makes sense within the constraints of the DAO.
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My interactions with @paulaberman (public and private) have demonstrated she is a cultural fit for a project like PoH. Reading interview feedback, as well as @SofiaCossar and her blog only reassures it.

I do see the concern for limited experience in software development. I would be happy to mitigate that concern by committing to biweekly calls for help/consulting/guidance. My LinkedIn

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Thank you for your support and for this very kind offer @Justin. We gladly accept it and are excited at the prospect of working together! :slight_smile:

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Split the profit and hire both of the teams, this is growing fast and 1 team won’t we able to cover all, we can pay in UBI.

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