Office Hours are 15-30 minute meetings that members can schedule with others in the Protocol Labs network.
Use this time to discuss some of the most pressing issues your organization is facing. Some common topics include:
- Decisions around technical architecture
- Product demos and feedback on roadmap and strategy
- Advice on finding product-market fit
- User growth strategies, growth hacking ideas, business development tips, and analytics for growth and retention
- Fundraising advice and assistance
- Advice on when to pivot and how to do it successfully
- Application of new research in computing, web3, AI, cryptoeconomics, and more to your project
- Company building advice around recruiting, people management, marketing, finance, legal, and business operations
When used effectively, Office Hours can be an extremely efficient way to get timely advice, expand your network, and uplevel by learning from leaders in the network.
To Schedule Office Hours
- Find someone with the expertise you need. Use Skills filters to narrow down your search.
- We recommend scheduling Office Hours at most once a week. Please don’t schedule Office Hours with too many members at once on the same topic. Use feedback from 1-2 people to start triangulating what you should do.
- Provide some context. Please include a description of what you’d like to discuss and relevant links in the calendar invite when scheduling.
- For example, if you’re interested in growing your business and you set up office hours with someone with experience in your target market, tell the person you’re interested in learning about their user experience and obstacles in regards to your service or product space to improve your strategy moving forward.
- Feel free to use this template to draft your message: “I am {Your Name, link directory profile} with {Your team, link directory profile}. We are looking to grow our business in the {X} space. I would like to use our time to learn about your experience and obstacles you have faced with {your space} so we can improve our strategy.”
To Provide Office Hours
- Block off time for giving back. Add a custom block to your calendar (we recommend Cal.com) that only Protocol Labs network can access.
- You can even specify what kind of topics you’d like people to schedule, and allocate different amounts of time to each topic. Learn more here!
- Report bad behavior. If someone sets up a call with you through the directory and is blatantly shilling, please send an email to spaceport-admin@protocol.ai. We will review this instance with the member to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
Tips for a Successful Office Hour Meeting
- Be effective with your time. Remember Office Hours don’t run on forever. Be prepared, and get right to the core issue at hand.
- DO NOT Shill. Please do not directly attempt to sell or persuade someone to use your product or service unless you have confirmation that they’re interested first. No one wants to feel ambushed on a call with a sales pitch that is irrelevant to them.
- Instead, use this time to improve your understanding of the wants and needs of potential customers in this space.
- Gain feedback and valuable resources. At the end of your call, ask if they recommend you connect with anyone in particular to further your learnings at the end of your call or for feedback on the questions that you presented to improve your research moving forward.
- Follow up. Take notes and follow up with the member after the call regarding any action items or key learnings. This will help maintain an open line of communication and strengthen your connection.
Learn more:
How You Can Make Office Hours Better
Please continue to learn how to make Office Hours super effective, and share your learnings in the comments below.
Learn how to navigate the directory and book office hours here!
