While writing a proposal may seem like something trivial, it’s in fact a real art. It can be difficult enough to convince a single person — convincing hundreds or thousands of token-holders is much, much harder.
In this guide, we will cover the best ways to write a high-quality and convincing governance proposal, so you can steer the Hifi DAO in the right direction.
The Structure of a Governance Proposal
A good governance proposal is made out of several parts:
- Summary (TL;DR): Probably the most important part, the summary is your short to the point pitch geared towards those who don’t have the time to read the whole proposal.
- Background: Context is essential, and this is why this section should outline where the proposal is coming from, what led to the idea, who participated in the thinking process, and who you are within the community. Relevant credentials may also be added here.
- Problem: Before explaining the solution, it’s critical for community members to first understand the problem and why it’s important. This should be explained in a clear and straightforward way.
- Solution: It’s now time to present your (hopefully) convincing arguments. This should be done with reference to the benefit of the Hifi DAO. As for the problem outline, your solution should be explained in a clear and concise manner with factual and realistic arguments.
- Requirements: This is where you get to ask for funding or anything else required for the proposal to be successful if it passes the vote. Requests for funding should always mention specific amounts denominated in the relevant currency, as well as the exact periods within which the funding will take place.
- KPIs: It’s impossible to measure the success of an idea if there is no alignment regarding how to measure it. This is precisely why your governance proposal should mention one or multiple key performance indicators (KPIs) which will be used by the community to accurately assess whether the proposal is successful.
- Conclusion: In this final section of the proposal, you should explain the expected timeline with regard to the proposal. Will there be a community call where you will be answering questions about the proposal? If yes, make sure to mention when. When will you launch the proposal on Snapshot? When will the actions indicated in the proposal take place?
- Appendix: Last but not least, any important documents related to the proposal should be attached to the proposal, so community members can take a look at them. Every external piece of information mentioned in the proposal should either be linked in the proposal or attached as a separate document within the appendix.
After reading the proposal, a community member shouldn’t have questions anymore. If community members do have questions, answer them on the forum and edit your proposal with the answer so that the same question won’t be asked again. This ensures that the quality of your proposal builds up as more community members review it.
Tips to Create a More Convincing Proposal
There are several ways to make your proposal more convincing. Interestingly, these methods don’t rely on the arguments themselves, but rather on the form of the proposal itself.
Make It Concise
Proposals should be as concise as possible, while still providing all the necessary information. Don’t write more than you need to, but make sure you write enough. Important details shouldn’t be left out. Make sure the summary provided at the beginning of the proposal follows this principle even more.
Make It Beneficial for the Hifi DAO
Always think from the standpoint of a token-holder. MFT token-holders will have the final say in the end, so the ideas presented in the proposal should logically always benefit the Hifi DAO in the long run.
Make It Accessible
Avoid using difficult words and niche jargon. A good heuristic is that your grandma should be able to read the proposal and understand the entirety of its content. The more complicated to understand your proposal is, the less likely it is that it will gather enough votes when the voting period starts on Snapshot. The more accessible the proposal, the larger the audience.
Make It Error-Free
Obviously, make sure to review your proposal for spelling and grammatical errors before submitting it, as this may significantly hurt your credibility.
Conclusion
Unlike the conclusion for a proposal, we won’t outline the timeline here for the release of governance. You can expect it in the very near term, though, and it will mark a major milestone in Hifi’s history.
If you are as excited about this as we are, it may be worth it to begin preparing proposals and launch your future protocol politician career! If you do, we hope the above guide will serve you well.