People Powered: How Communities Can Supercharge Your Business, Brand, and Teams

by Jono Bacon, Peter H. Diamandis (Foreword)

What if you discovered a blueprint that could grow your brand’s reputation and loyalty, dramatically reduce customer service issues, produce content and technology, and cement a powerful, lasting relationship between you and your customers? Communities have been a popular topic since the rise of the Internet and social media, but few companies have consistently harnessed their power, driven tangible value, and effectively measured their return on investment (ROI) like Salesforce.com, Star Citizen via Kickstarter, and Red Hat. Companies such as PayPal, Facebook, Bosch, Microsoft, CapitalOne, and Google, have also built communities inside their organizations, which have fostered innovation, broken down silos, and helped their organizations to operate more efficiently and collaboratively. People Powered helps C-suite leaders, founders, marketers, customer advocates, and community leaders gain a competitive advantage by answering the following People Powered pulls together over 20 years of pragmatic experience into a clear, simple methodology and blueprint to not just answer these questions, but deliver results. Don’t get left behind—become an industry trailblazer and ensure your company’s longevity by tapping into the most dynamic force both outside and inside your the people.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Management, Psychology, Startup, British Literature

320 pages, Hardcover

Published November 12, 2019

About the author

Jono Bacon (full name Jonathan Edward James Bacon) is a writer and software developer based in the United Kingdom. Bacon started his work with the Linux community when he created the UK Linux website, Linux UK. When he left this project he moved on to join the KDE team, where he created the KDE::Enterprise website and KDE Usability Study. He has also been involved with helping charities using free software, as well as shaving off his beard for Amnesty International at LugRadio Live 2006. He was a participant in LugRadio and founded Wolverhampton Linux Users' Group. Additionally, he has created a heavy rock version of the Free Software Song.

Reviews

[Michaelrwolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jono's stories (and lists) -- A guide to connecting people doing meaningful work

 The skill of writing is to create a context
 in which other people can think.
 -- Edwin Schlossberg

 We think in generalities, 
 but we live in detail.
 -- Alfred North Whitehead

In People Powered, author Jono Bacon creates a context for thinking about (your) community development by telling (his) real-life stories wrapped around a framework of detailed lists.

My first reading of "People Powered", felt like a docent-lead museum tour, or a ranger-lead interpretive hike. Jono painted a big picture through highlighting small details, then letting me put the pieces together according to my own framework. I left "the tour" knowing a lot more about the practice of community building. More importantly, my thinking about it has changed. Such is the skill of a great tour leader, docent, or ranger as they share their love for the subject.

Taking Jono's advice (5 Ways to Keep Learning -- "Read this book again. Seriously."), I was surprised to find that there are two books in one:
(1) a guide book full of inspirational stories, and
(2) a step-by-step guide full of (more than 40) practical lists.

My first reading gave me inspiration and an overview; my second reading gave me concrete steps to get into action.

I'll use 4 of Jono's lists to share my biggest take-aways:

Q) Why do communities matter?
A) People want a feeling of belonging, and incremental steps to get there.

 (6-step) Community Belonging Path (Fig 1.1, pg 16)
 (1) Access
 ...
 (6) Belonging

Q) How do I define, build, engage, and measure my community?
A) Use Jono as your guide. He's been there before.

 (10-step) Bacon Method (pg 32)
 (1) Produce Mission and Value Statements
 (2..10) ...

Q) How do I bring people into my community?
A) Incrementally, always with their (not my) needs in mind.

 (6 step) Community On-Ramp Model (pg 131)
 (1) Why Participate?
 (2-6) ...

Q) What is driving the growth of communities?
A) Technical and personal forces.

 Five Foundational Community Trends (pg 8)
 (1-4) ...
 (5) - A Growing Desire for Meaningful, Connected Work

Now, my own list:
* BUY THIS BOOK
* Read this book
* "Read this book again. Seriously."
* Book mark pages that you will refer to frequently
* Celebrate the change you are making in the world

This book will change you, and therefore change the world.

[Adam Lorimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

These days, the job title of Community Manager is commonplace in organizations, but the discipline remains ill-defined. It’s a little bit of public relations, some marketing, perhaps a bit customer support, a good measure of social media, but mostly just the person who responds to forum threads.

In “People Powered”, Jono Bacon establishes a definition for the profession of community management. Rather than reactive and ad hoc support of an existing community, Bacon lays out a framework for intentional, strategic approach to identify, establish, grow and maintain an engaged, productive, focused and happy community around a product, service, movement or just about whatever you want.

This book isn't so much a “How-to” guide – there are no one size fits all solution when it comes to working with groups of people – but it is a “Why-to” together with a rigorous methodology for defining exactly what you want from a community and structuring it to maximize the chances of achieving your objectives.

While the book is well-researched and there are references to further reading in psychology and behavioral economics, this is far from an academic treatise. Every idea is illustrated with real examples and case studies and I get the impression the majority of the insights come from Bacon’s real experience as a practitioner with the science back-filled in to help explain why things work.

I don’t personally work as a community manager, or in open-source, or in a field where people think about communities per se, but reading People Powered, made me think about my customers and partners in a different light and I took away several immediately actionable ideas to help grow and strengthen my business.

Highly recommended for not only community managers and aspiring community managers, but also any leaders who want to better understand their customers, employees and all the other groups of people they depend on and who wish to realize the results a thriving community can achieve for their organization.

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best community books I’ve ever read!

[John Stepper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for community managers, and the right book at the right time for me. Though I’ve run communities and read several books about them (including Jono Bacon’s first one years ago), this particular book “clicked” and helped me put all the pieces together into a new plan for our Working Out Loud community that I’m excited about.

[Iryna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very concentrated book with practical guidance on building communities. Will definitely re-read in the future once I have a need in building communities.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm. Highlighted some good nuggets but overall it didn’t really address what I was looking for/often got too in the weeds. Not a knock on the book, just wasn’t as relevant for me.
It did read a bit as my way or the highway advice which I didn’t love.

[Ed Horley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Jono Bacon has produced another fantastic book, this one focused on understanding, building and growing communities. People Powered is relevant to anyone trying to build communities for any industry or sector. If you are part of a non-profit, consumer, or government you can learn from what Jono details in the book around all the different models of communities (Consumers, Champions, and Collaborators). He has put together a clear road map of what you need to do to get started, why you are doing each of those activities, how to measure your performance and stay focused. There is also good advice about what to expect and how to set expectations for management too. After all, executives want to see results. They invested money in building a community and you need to be able to articulate and communicate what value and benefits they are getting and how the community impacts the bottom line. Take the time and read what Jono has spent years refining and learn from his hard won lessons as a practitioner in the field at some of the most successful community orientated companies in the technology industry.

[Amanda Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In 2006, at the tender age of twenty-six, I started a job at a British Company called Canonical. Founded by newly minted South African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth, the company was focused on building a competitor to Microsoft’s Windows operating system monopoly. The twist was that this new operating system, Ubuntu, was created by a globally connected network of volunteers who freely shared the open-source code. My role was to turn a small set of contributors into an international movement.” — From the opening paragraph of Jono Bacon’s book, People Powered.

I joined Canonical almost two years later as employee 165. Jono Bacon was not based in the same office as me, but he was one of my new colleagues and was in the office and the pub on one of my first days at Canonical. He may well not remember, but he was one of the first people I spent time within Canonical. I was a newbie to open source. I quickly realized that despite what I had thought when I joined, I didn’t understand it. It took me six months to “get it,” to begin to really understand openness and collaboration.

Today, over a decade later, I am on a constant learning curve, learning about both the technology and the people.

The people and the communities they form are core to anything open or collaborative, whether those are the distributed communities of software developers, the lawyers advising them or the internal communities of companies. As Jono explains, those communities create much of the value of a business or project and failing to build and nurture them, or to take them with you, will inevitably end in disaster.

Jono is one of the open source leaders who taught me a lot and to whom I am eternally grateful. Like Jono, I was in the privileged position of working for Canonical and its founder Mark Shuttleworth. I had the opportunity to learn from great folk in a global community, with unique knowledge across the world of open source. Canonical hired people based on skills, not location. At that moment in time, we were the cool kids of open source. From the outside, knowing where to go to tap into those knowledgeable people and their thoughts could be difficult.

With digital transformation and the success of open source in the enterprise, open source is constantly held out by all sectors of business as the poster child of collaboration and communities — from the regulators and those seeking to manage how these newfound collaborations can work within the law, to the traditional, not tech, companies trying to build their own digital and internal communities.

That’s absolutely right and deserved. But open source and its tremendous communities didn’t just happen overnight. It’s taken decades of hard work by great people like Jono to achieve seamless collaboration and engaged communities. And as Jono says, sharing is a vulnerability, there have been lots of failures along the way. “There is no silver bullet or guarantee that your community is going to succeed.” Something I also know only too well.

I noted with interest the quote from Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation: “A mistake some companies make is an unwillingness to release some control of the project to the community.” The true test of a community is when people “want to jump through hoops to help them, you and the rest of the community be successful.”

The Bacon Method
“People Powered” is unique, as is its author’s experience in bringing two decades of working with hundreds of companies to build communities, “groups of people united by a common interest” whether these are for marketing, collaboration or building a product.

The book’s approach is logical and takes the reader on a journey helpfully set out in bite-sized chunks. The short punchy sections allow you to pick it up and put it down. And of course, there’s plenty to think about it in each, but at the same time this no way interrupts the flow. I found myself reading a longer section and going back to re-read one of the clearly titled and easily findable, sections again.

I particularly related to Jono’s community belonging path. It’s not something I had really considered before reading his explanation. Being a welcomed newcomer into a community where I was encouraged to contribute did bring self-respect (if a little imposter’s syndrome) and inevitably validation from my peers, as he suggests, and it wasn’t long before I felt that I was having an impact and belonged. I haven’t worked anywhere else where I have felt this in the same way and that hugely impacted how I feel about that experience. Jono’s detailed explanation of how to create this feeling in a community by tackling the “heart of the human condition” is a unique and essential understanding.

“People Powered” and the tongue-in-cheek “Bacon Method” takes the reader through not only how to tackle the human condition, but step by step, chapter by chapter it explains how to build a community collaboration and, if you choose to, allows the reader to work in a coached way in building their plan as they read and follow the method:

“Produce a mission statement; choose your community engagement model; define what value you want to deliver; produce your big rocks; know your audience, and build audience personas; design your on-ramp and engagement model; build your quarterly plan; craft your maturity model and success criteria; execute on a cadence; and produce your incentive map.”

All of these steps aim to support the reader in creating the “five categories of value” identified by Jono as being offered by communities: “customer and user engagement; awareness, marketing and customer/user success; education and support; product and technology development; and business capabilities.”

He generously shares tools and resources, both in pictorials and links to resources with lists of other influencers’ works, but also links to a resource section of his website where downloadable tools can be accessed at zero cost.

I appreciate his acknowledgment of how much work it took to pull this book and his thoughts together in a cohesive way. It works and the reader has access to an amazing consulting tool that most would not be generous enough to share for the cost of a book. But also, those of you who read and follow, listen to his closing advice and keep refreshing and updating your learning. Things change and so must you.

In the global world of open source, if you mention community and who can build one, Jono’s name will always be one of the first-mentioned. People Powered brings his insight to you with a general focus applicable to any sector and is definitely not specific to either open source or tech.

He writes with a surprisingly easy and accessible style with many practical and wide-ranging examples that help to tell the story and bring reality and practicality to his advice.

His step by step guide to building a strategy and implementation plan probably means it’s a book (as Jono himself says) to be read twice or more frequently, once for general information and a second or further time, to build your community strategy and plan(s).

This book is a must-have for anyone who wants to understand building communities but is equally essential for anyone who is going through any form of digitization or transformation and who hopes to create collaboration. Avoid the “distraction and chasing shiny things” and follow the “Bacon Method” in building a community/ collaboration.

I wish I had read it earlier. Why didn’t you write this sooner, Jono?

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

People Powered is sincerely a fascinating book. I got a draft from the author to help provide feedback early in the revising process (I think he asked me because online communities are far from my wheelhouse, whereas research and literature are, so I had a bit of an outsider perspective) and I can honestly say I’ve learned immensely from what Bacon wrote. I believe in the power of community. It’s why I’m in public education. It’s why I fight so hard to be able to afford to live and teach in the same community- it matters. Yet I wholeheartedly believe we can do more to strengthen ALL communities, whatever shape they may take. People Power addresses this need to improve community and harness the incredible power a thriving community can provide. Morale and engagement matter (hence the Gallup 30 year longitudinal study on the matter) and Bacon brings this all to the forefront. Whatever industry you work in, whether you’re a neophyte or an expert, this book can teach you, guide you, and inform you. Pick up a copy, give copies to friends and coworkers, and create your own small book club community by reading People Powered together. It will be worth it— of this I am sure.

[Stuart Langridge]

It's been interesting, watching Jono's shaping of the field of community management over the years; always looking for new insights, better methods, more effective approaches. People Powered steps this up another notch, into areas that the nascent field of community management hasn't really started to address yet; beyond how to empower individual members of your community and how to foster a sense of belonging and into some actual insight into what needs to be done to take community management to the next level. It's more than devrel, more than marketing, more than keeping in touch; it's a science, something measurable and assessable and understandable. If you want to understand it as well as Jono does, read the book.

Also my name is in it, which is always nice.

[Jason Hibbets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jono Bacon’s latest book, People Powered, is one of the best resources in my community-building toolbox. As a Community Architect who has built several communities of passionate people over the last decade ranging from open source to DevOp, I found many of the techniques and tactics I use in my day job outlined in detail in the book.

I have already used the framework to design the latest community I’m working with to create a "watering hole" for system administrators. I found the framework was a great way to organize many of the components of designing community into a thoughtful document that I could share with my team and organization.

If you are involved or the least bit curious about how to organize and empower communities of people, this book is a must-read and re-read, particularly if you’re just getting started.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't finish this because I decided it wasn't relevant enough to my particular type of community (as was particularly made clear in the book club I joined, run by the author). There are some good concepts in the chapters I read (1–5), but there are a lot of other things I'd rather read right now.

[Rhys Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I prefer far more dragons or prose or philosophical intrigue in my books, but as non-ficions go this was good. Took me a while to get through as with most pseudo instructional books but was worth it, only a few skipped chunks. I think it's one to keep near by and see if I can't put it to use

[Kiryll Kadyrka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of a guide. Concise. Elegant. With nice intro stories from author's experience. But for reasons unknown looked a bit shallow, without the personal touch Jono is talking about when he's addressing good communities. I mean, all the steps and practical advice are good, but the narrative is just too dry. I believe in Jono's technique, but was not imbued with the idea of powered people (while I still get it, of course).

[Amber Graner · Rating 5 out of 5]

People Powered is everything about the how and why of building communities that I am personally passionate about! It sums it up perfectly. Anyone who doesn't understand what I do, why I do or how I do it, I want to give them a copy!!!

Whether you just learned about community management or you've been building communities since before it became a main stream focus, Jono Bacon's People Powered has something for you, but most importantly for your community!

People Powered distills the fundamentals of building community to a concise and easy to follow format. Remember, no two communities are the same, don't try to copy another community, but don't reinvent the wheel either. Use People Powered as your roadmap to build a new community or give your current plan and your community process a tuneup.

Maybe you're thinking, "I've read Art of Community, do I really need to read this?" The answer is a resounding, "Yes!" People Powered is the book you WILL reach for, dog ear, highlight, bookmark, and reference over and over once you've read it and put it into action.

In People Powered, Jono Bacon, will remind you the endeavor to build and grow an active, contributing, efficient, yet fun community isn't easy, or inexpensive, but if done right, worth all it all and more.

[Ben Cotton · Rating 5 out of 5]

People Powered is an excellent book for anyone who is currently leading or planning to lead a community as part of a corporate effort. it is full of practical advice, but it also contains more philosophical views. Bacon is not a psychologist, but he has made a study of psychology and sociology over the years. This informs the theoretical explanations behind his practical steps. It also guides the conceptual models for communities that he lays out over the course of the book. And to prove that it's a Jono Bacon book, it includes a few references to behavioral economics and several to Iron Maiden.

[Amr]

An excellent guide for community builders!
----------------------------------
Quotes:

Star Citizen game used Kickstarter to raise $500,000 to build their game and have subsequently raised $150,000,000 in crowd-funded donations and have built a community of 1.8 million players.

The inverse of these community opportunities are of course, community threats, and many companies who have not taken a strategic approach to community have struggled with ecosystem growth and engagement. This has included the troubled relationship Uber has faced with their driver community, challenges that United has faced with customer satisfaction and engagement, and the exodus of community members from MySpace and Digg, partially due to changing
fashions, but also due to a lack of incentivization and engagement.17 Sadly, it also includes difficulties faced by popular video games with abusive behavior from participants in online games.
activist groups such as Amnesty International, the Sierra Club, and Black Lives Matter generate so much devotion: their members feel their work has much broader meaning.


community belonging path

Somewhat magically, when we do feel our work has meaning, it gives us a turbo boost of confidence to step up and have impact. This is where the big, brave ideas come from, emboldened
by the respect we now have in the community. This is often where we challenge our assumptions
and norms and sail into new territory.

Social capital manifests as the respect the group has for the individual based on their aggregate contributions and the tenor in which they engage

Just like in an economy where money can buy goods and services, social capital is a key currency in communities. It is forged from respect, which in turn generates influence. This is how people become leaders in communities: they repeatedly do great work, develop enormous amounts of
respect, and as such are trusted by the community to make decisions.

Importantly, social capital isn’t just generated by contributing something worthwhile to the community, but in how you produce it. If you are kind, respectful, collaborative, and produce great work, you will ooze social capital. If you are an asshole and produce great work, your social capital
will be far more limited. The social in social capital is the magic word.

be careful here. Do not let your sales team treat your community members as a pipeline. This is a
surefire way to annoy them. Instead, build your community and let your members naturally bring people to your business.

If you have a product or topic that no one cares about, you are going to struggle to build a community. They are not a marketing gimmick for a quick rush of interest.

Now, you may wonder if community members would be happy for a business to make money partially based around the contributions of all these hardworking volunteer community members.
Interestingly, community members are typically happy for the financial success of businesses if
they operate their community in an open, honest, and collaborative way.


champions product success model


community value statement


community participation framework


community on ramp model

As you build your community, you will need to get out to events to raise awareness, meet community members, develop partnerships and more.
Participating in these events can represent an enormous cost to an organization. It isn’t just the cost of the tickets and travel, it is also the time spent getting there, attending, getting home, and often recovering from the weird flu you picked up while there. Events also cause email and work to
get backed up, so the week after the event there is the obligatory “digging out of my email” period. Good times (not).

When you evaluate which events to attend, judge them on (a) whether your target audience personas are there, (b) if they are of strategic benefit, and (c) the cost/benefit analysis of what you aim to accomplish. There should be a clear value outcome for joining. It should not be, “Well, we kind of need to be there.”

[Pavel Annenkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Создание сообщества вокруг бренда или какой-то темы - это сильнейший тренд последних лет. Книг на эту тему почти нет. Удалось найти эту и только пока на английском.

О ЧЕМ КНИГА:
Автор делится своим опытом создания сообществ внутри больших некоммерческих организаций и компаний. Книга немного сумбурная и много повторяющихся мыслей. В любом случае, на тему развития сообществ я ничего пока лучше не нашел. В книге есть отличные примеры и подходы того, как крупные международные бренды создают комьюнити вокруг своих продуктов.

ГЛАВНАЯ МЫСЛЬ КНИГИ:
Люди - социальные животные и будут всегда хотеть находиться в компании себе подобных. Объединение людей в сообщества - очень хороший способ развития своей компании и бренда. На создании сообществ можно даже построить отдельный бизнес.

ЗАЧЕМ ЧИТАТЬ ЭТУ КНИГУ?
Книга будет полезна тем, кто хочет создать комьюнити вокруг своего бизнеса и продукта. Я нашёл в книге несколько отличных идей для развития своего Книжного бизнес-клуба "12".

МЫСЛИ И ВЫВОДЫ ИЗ КНИГИ:
- В комьюнити главная валюта - это ваш социальный капитал. Поэтому для развития устойчивого сообщества его участникам надо предложить три вещи:
1. Простые и легкие инструменты, чтобы давать ценность другим участникам.
2. Возможность растить свой социальный капитал.
3. Ощущение сопричастности к развитию сообщества.

- Важнейшая составляющая сообщества - это его культура, которая вовлекает участников. Культура сообщества, также как и любой компании основана на его ценностях.

- Центр сообщества - это сильная и крепкая сеть связей внутри группы. Это дает вам возможность отойти в сторону и дать участникам уверенность для создания ценности друг для друга. Хотите растить сообщество, дайте людям автономность.

- Участников комьюнити надо время от времени удивлять. Никто не любит скуку и обыденность.

- «Put yourself in the shoes of prospective members. You are potentially interested in joining the community, but you have little time and a million other distractions to take your attention away.
What are the things you care about most? What are the most immediate problems you want to solve?
What would be the ideal experience that delivers personal value to you?»

- Надо стремиться организовать внутри сообщества маленькие группы по интересам. Они будут еще больше сплочать участников.

- Правильный онбординг новых участников сообщества очень важен. Надо пошагово прописать этот процесс.

- Обязательно измерьте и опишите, что значит для вас успех в создании сообщества, которое вы развиваете.

- Делать ежемесячный список участников сообщества, которым мне надо написать напрямую.

ЧТО Я БУДУ ПРИМЕНЯТЬ:
К 4-летию своего Книжного Клуба четко пропишу миссию, видение и ценности клуба.

ЕЩЕ НА ЭТУ ТЕМУ:
Richard Millington “Build Your Community”

[Randall Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jono, the "tour de force" that built the wildly successful Ubuntu community is back with what can only
be described as a remarkable next act. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from cover-to-cover, but found the following particularly insightful and practical: real world examples of successful communities, community fundamentals and definitions (a sore point of mine has always been that "Community Management" lacked a common lexicon -- Jono has fixed that), "The Bacon Method" - a clear and pragmatic step-by-step approach to building a successful community, and finally an "Engagement Model" - the foundational component that ensures you build a community that's right for you. If you're a Community Manager you've likely seen (or possibly have even created) an under-intentional community. Jono's guidance will keep you off the moors going forward. And, if you're an aspiring Community Manager, you'll be armed with the best information available to avoid the traps that giants in the field, like Jono, have learned the hard way. Jono's book is part art, part science, and *serious* community magic. In short, I consider it the play book for the modern Community Manager.

[Tim Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jono Bacon’s book “people powered” is for anybody that is thinking of running or is running a community.

This could be a Facebook, LinkedIn group on social media or any community using an app or face-to-face method. As long as you are bringing people together, you want them to interact, engage and grow from each other, this is a great read.

Note I didn’t say, create a community so you can sell to them, if you are doing that, you should read this book as well as you will find out you are on a highway to nowhere.

Jono takes you through, why you should build a community, the types of people you can get in a community, how you can incentive people to contribute. As well as typical measures and KPIs, both for the people managing the community from your team(s) as well as measure for the community measures. He is also very honest, based on his experience I guess, that humans can be weird and you cannot expect them to do something, because you think it’s a good idea.

Juno provides a lot of advice, case studies and provides a methodology that you can follow to allow you to execute for success.

[Hiro Fukuchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way of thinking for building a community:

When you become aware of the value and power of an open source community, you may want to involve yourself in a community. Furthermore, if you are a business leader, you may want to build a community.

To know the value of a community is relatively easy, but to build a community is a very hard work. Actually we do not know at all. There is no systematic approach building a community, because each community has something special that makes itself different, and human being is weird. You need to consider by yourself in your case.

Jono Bacon’s book ‘People Powered’ tells us the way of thinking for building a community. His long experience gives us perspective on an open source community. He advices a wide ranges of topics, the importance of mission, strategy and planning, as well as the priority of doings. To know the behavior and psychology of human being is also important. He also suggests us to be practical depending on our situation.

For business leaders, this book is worth reading.

[Nazra Noushad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to self-help books, I think people that read books on management, business, and strategy are trying to find the answer to their problems. What they soon will realize is that there isn’t one. The problems can’t be niche-ly defined enough for there to be a solution in the form of a cookie-cutter book.

Instead, what great books, philosophers, and thoughtleaders offer are frameworks: methods to help you problem-solve, models and systems to help you define the problem, or create a strategy.

And that’s what Jono Bacon does in People Powered: the book provides frameworks, not answers. In its essence it promotes practicality, being intentional, and thoughtful about building a strategy for community. I loved it.

Read more on my takeaways and review here: http://nazranoushad.com/people-powered/

[Masafumi Ohta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great books it is mass-updated book from 'Art of community' - his great book. He had really hard work approach to do many more interviews from community successors at famous companies. he gathers and analyze for how to manage community in detail. he introduce good success stories and explain with simple figures.you can easily understand with his witness read fun to read it.
+some aspect in this book: KPI, Hiring community concern and more.
Only I would ask improvements to Jono is 'a bit difficult to read partly to refer how-to' though he recommend us to read again to check, I just trying this, he put many stories and practices so I need to be good diver to read again.
Anyway thanks good book, Jono!

[Wojtek Gawroński · Rating 5 out of 5]

"People Powered" is an example of a book that, on the surface, touches just a specific topic and looks very niche. But in the end, it appears to be an insightful position that allows you to draw parallels into other domains.

It's a very comprehensive, detailed, and actionable book on communities - definitely written by
a practitioner. It may look repetitive, but the truth is that all chapters bring more and more information about particular elements.

Additionally, we underestimate the value of the community. Knowing how they are formed and operated and engaging people to join and gain value from participation would be essential. Why? Because it will be more and more present in our jobs and lives.

[Giacomo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly the distillation of a decade of experience building communities, this book is also, at times, an excellent read. The writing has good tempo and keeps one's attention up through most of the first half.
Unfortunately, when it moves from well-grounded practical advice into Big Management Theory Mode, with various spreadsheets to track Made-Up Terms and reinventing the wheel of basic project management, that's when it descends into a trite attempt at starting a consultancy fad.

If you are into building communities, you should probably read the first half of the book; and if you can afford his Silicon Valley rates, you should probably hire the author. Just don't bother with the ceremony peddled in the second half.

[Jonathan Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the chance to meet Jono at All Things Open 2023 and received a free copy of his book at a book signing. Very cool! This was a great extension of the conference and provided a deep dive into some interesting aspects of open source communities. Though not completely relevant in my day to day, it gave a nice overview and provided inspiring stories with useful action items that could easily be mapped onto what I do. A great read, not just for community managers, but also for those that want to operate in more of a community - which we all desire.

[Beatriz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jono is this incredible professional I super admire, he is naturally a people-person, inspiring and humble. I got excited about his new book the first time I've heard of it, given his passion and ability with people, businesses, and communities. More than worth to read, it has been teaching and inspiring me to understand and deal better with the 'who' behind any business decision — this soft skill, which is the most valuable nowadays.

[陈 元伟 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bacon espoused on the importance of the community who will push your business to the next level. He goes in-depth into the 'how-to' and is extremely comprehensive in this book, without going too much into the theories. He provided real-world concrete examples on exactly how to create raving fans and even a system on how these people in the community want to contribute back to the rest, thereby adding so much value.

[Carrie Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always appreciate how detailed Jono is in his advice and writing. This book combines helpful frameworks as well as real-life examples and tables to personalize for your strategy. I would highly recommend it to existing community managers who want to tear down and restructure existing but flagging programs and community managers who are doing this for the first time.

[Leandro Melendez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy bueno y con recomendaciones practicas para quienes quieren crear comunidad.
No sé por que pero el estilo de escritura no fluyó. Me encontraba constantemente repitiendo lectura y divagando. Tal vez el tema me daba ideas y me llevaba a lugares, pero no me encanta eso en un libro.
Aun así, las recomendaciones son muy buenas!