Objective
This proposal is for the Threshold Network DAO to fund the Threshold project manager (PM).
I am submitting this proposal after having been invited to attend several DAO meetings, and a meeting sync between the teams. My observations of the current needs from the DAO come from the audits of these meetings plus the insights I obtained by reading the public discord channels and the Threshold Notion.
Environment
This PM role will be developed in the Threshold DAO environment, where there is a strong need for fluent and smooth collaborations and communications between the following entities:
- The DAO community.
- The Threshold Guilds: Integrations Guild, Marketing Guild, Treasury Guild.
- The Keep team.
- The NuCypher team.
- The thUSD team.
Scope
The role of the PM in this environment would be shaped as a facilitator, where the main pillars in which it would be founded are: visibility and communication.
Through visibility, understanding and acknowledgement are achieved. It is necessary to provide an up-to-date single source of truth for the teams and the Guilds, to communicate their lines of work, their resources, their successes and lessons learned. This central knowledge source should be available to consult from any member of the community.
Communication processes are needed to keep the community informed about the different initiatives, their progress and successes. Also, mechanisms should be put in place to receive inputs and requests from the community, where new ideas can be included in the line of work, enriching the community (and avoiding losing these insights in the background of the discord channels).
It is through communication that effective management is achieved. Keeping track of the different teams’ work in progress will help unblock the problems and interdependencies arising, and mitigate their impact on the different initiatives within Threshold. A document scoping the competencies for the Threshold PM is provided here.
It’s important to note that the Threshold PM position does not hold a higher hierarchy over any team, being independent from them and reporting this way only to the DAO. As a facilitator role, its focus is to introduce visibility and communication processes. Teams and guilds will continue to be independent and self-sovereign.
My background
I currently work as a Technical Program Manager at a SW development company in the web2 environment, where I’m doing a founding PM job bringing processes and standards to the company’s DevOps department (currently composed of 3 sub-departments, having 3 squads of engineers each) in order to align their ways of work with the company-wide processes. Here I find the usual clashes of agile although very procedural groups (working in sprints and following structured processes), with non-procedural working efforts guided by a kanban-style methodology. A situation similar to the one occurring within the Threshold community.
Regarding my studies, I have a Bs and a Ms in Computer Science with major focuses on SW Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Project Management. I developed my master thesis in Project Management, focused on the study of agile methodologies, analyzing the most popular ones applied to the IT world, procedures and useful guides and tools to manage them. Later on, I got a Google certification as Project Manager.
I also have a PhD in cyber security, focused on the protection of the information in Critical Infrastructures. Here, my thesis was oriented from the perspective of Business Analysis, where I studied the main characteristics and needs of complex interconnected legacy systems, in need of preemptive security mechanisms such as Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems and the possible security AI-driven actuators. As part of my work in research, I have participated in many national and international projects that involved coordinating efforts from both academic institutions and different industries.
Additionally, I have a deep domain knowledge about the different initiatives being developed in Threshold, and I am especially acquainted with the PRE project and the NuCypher team, since I have a personal relationship with @davidnunez. This allowed me to follow the project since its inception and gain deep knowledge on this particular space. This will reduce the job’s entry barrier and the regular onboarding time period.
Cost
This proposal is for a Project Manager position in the Threshold community. The overall conditions are very similar to the thUSD proposals to the DAO.
- Rate $500 USD per day paid in T, USDC and/or ETH.
- The T token and ETH price taken as the global average price as recorded on coingecko for the day that the work was completed.
- This rate is consistent with the Project Manager allocation in the current budget proposal.
- Hours reviewed and approved fortnightly.
- Tokens transferred monthly.
FAQ
Q: Would you consider reducing the budget?
A: A budget reduction would be difficult, however, I would consider starting with a reduced number of hours allocated to the job, and setting a process for progressively increasing the weekly number of hours.
Q: When can you start?
A: When a vote passes and a review team is selected and approved, I can start contributing part-time. After July 15th, I can start to work full-time.
Q: How many days a week can you commit?
A: 5
Q: Will your personal relationship to @davidnunez from the NuCypher team impact your ability to work together?
A: I don’t think this will be an issue, since the PM work will serve as facilitator among the different teams and groups present in the Threshold community. NuCypher team is just one of the actors present and this position holds no higher hierarchy over any team or guild, being independent from them and reporting only to the DAO. The main tasks needing interfacing with the teams would be roadmap check-ins, status check-ins and communications provided to the teams for visibility (executive summaries, updates and synchronizations).