Building a Community

What It Covers

Basecamp's customer support team shares how they built a 2,100-member customer community using their own product, including setup strategies and lessons learned over three years.

Key Questions Answered

• •Pre-seed content strategy: Before inviting members, populate the community space with tips, guidelines, example introductions from fake users, and organized folders so new members enter a functional environment.
• •Light-touch moderation approach: Act as event hosts rather than constant moderators—let members answer each other's questions, only intervene when someone goes unnoticed, and prioritize peer-to-peer knowledge sharing over company responses.
• •Executive participation drives engagement: When CEO Jason Fried posted about Kanban boards in the community, member response was significantly larger than typical posts, demonstrating high-value engagement from leadership creates outsized community enthusiasm.