Service
Community Baseline
A reflective analysis of how your community or network is actually built. We look at who is in it, how it is governed, where it is positioned and how it is designed — not to score, but to understand what helps and what limits your goals.
For any community or network
Members, partners, entrepreneurs, professionals, employees, alumni, volunteers or institutions. Every community or network has a different population, so we never assume a single shape.
What you get
A written, reflective report plus a walkthrough session. We translate the analysis into concrete priorities and next steps for your community or network.
Grounded in theory
Built on established research into how collaboration between organisations is organised, combined with the Business Community Canvas.
What we cover
Six lenses, all read against what your community or network wants to achieve.
Ambition and goals
What is this community or network trying to achieve?
- The stated ambition: why the community or network exists and what it wants to make possible.
- The goals behind it, and how widely they are shared across the community or network.
- What success would look like, in the community's or network's own words.
This is the starting point of the baseline study. Every other lens is interpreted against this ambition — there is no ideal community or network, only one that fits its goals or does not.
Population analysis
Who is actually in this community or network?
- Total members or actors and the number of local chapters, sub-groups or segments.
- Composition: members, entrepreneurs, professionals, employees, partners, alumni, volunteers, institutions — whatever fits your community or network.
- Whether the figures are measured or estimated. Estimates are treated as an indication, not a fact.
Governance
How the community or network is held together.
- Character: social vs bureaucratic, symmetric vs asymmetric.
- Coordination mechanisms in use: social norms, social control, planning, performance management, incentives, shared staff, standardisation, shared IT, joint marketing.
- Locus of control: self-governed network, lead organisation network or network administrative organisation.
- The four determining factors: trust, number of participants, goal consensus and need for network competences. The report checks the chosen form against these four.
Direction, position and type
Where the community or network sits and how it is steered.
- Type of direction: directive, market-oriented, process-oriented or content-oriented.
- Position in the group: strategic core, complementary ring or free space.
- Type of community: the Communities Matrix shows where the community or network sits between sharing and exchanging, improving and renewing.
Read more about the Communities Matrix in the blog: The Communities Matrix.
Design
How the community or network is intentionally designed.
- Purpose, people, trust, structure and growth — the five building blocks of the Business Community Canvas.
- We look at how the design choices help or hinder the community's or network's core task.
Six structural aspects
The anatomy of the community or network, never judged as good or bad in itself.
- Network centrality
- Size of the network
- Quality of relations: cohesive vs bridging ties
- Relative strength of connections: strong vs weak ties
- Network efficiency
- Quality of the network composition
Each aspect is read in relation to what the community or network is trying to achieve. A strong structure in one context may be a limitation in another.
How it works
Research and interactive workshops, then a shared reflection.
Intake conversation
We talk about your community or network, what you already know, and what you want the baseline study to answer.
Research and workshops
We look at available data and documents, and run short interactive sessions with people from different parts of the community or network.
Analysis and report
We bring population, governance, direction, design and structural aspects together into a short, reflective report.
Reflection session
We walk through the report with you, translate the findings into priorities and decide on next steps.
What you receive
A clear reading of your community or network, plus next steps.
Reflective report
Management summary, method note, governance profile, structural aspects, reflection questions and priorities.
Walkthrough session
A session to discuss the findings, check assumptions and make the report actionable.
Concrete priorities
A handful of focused next steps, phrased in the language of your community or network.
Optional follow-up
Workshops, design sprints or Canvas sessions to act on what the baseline study reveals.
Request
Request a baseline study.
Tell us about your community or network and what you want to understand. We will come back to you within two working days to plan a short intake.
No automated score — only interpretation.
Suitable for any type of community or network.
Tailored to the question you bring.