# On community planning with Claude AI Written by: Grace Lau and Claude AI Published: 2025-12-19 > [!NOTE] Cite this: > Lau, Grace. “On community planning with Claude AI.” _Grace G. Lau_ (blog), December 19, 2025. https://graceglau.com/content/writing/On+community+planning+with+Claude+AI. Earlier this month, we wrapped up the Future of [[World IA Association]] workshops and now we're working on writing up the insights and findings from the workshops and survey that was sent to the participants. I went to Claude to help me think through some things. ## I start the conversation with a vague question. ==**Grace:**== what's the purpose of a community roadmap? ## Claude lists the key purposes of a community roadmap, which I already know. Then it asks for the context of this question. ==**Claude:**== A community roadmap serves several key purposes: **Alignment and transparency** It creates a shared understanding of where the community is headed, helping members see how their individual contributions connect to larger goals. This transparency builds trust and makes decision-making processes more visible. **Prioritization and focus** It helps community leaders and members decide what to work on now versus later, preventing the team from getting overwhelmed by too many initiatives at once. It's especially useful for volunteer-driven communities where time and resources are limited. **Coordination and collaboration** It shows how different workstreams or initiatives relate to each other, making it easier for people to find ways to contribute or collaborate. Members can see where their skills might be most valuable. **Accountability and progress tracking** By making plans visible, a roadmap creates gentle accountability—people can see what's been committed to and track progress over time. It also helps celebrate wins when milestones are reached. **Recruitment and engagement** A clear roadmap can help attract new contributors by showing what the community is building toward and where there are opportunities to get involved. It answers the "what can I work on?" question. Are you thinking about creating a community roadmap for a specific organization, or are you exploring different approaches to community planning? ## I give a perfunctory answer. ==**Grace:**== i'm exploring different approaches to community planning ## Claude continues to probe. It has access to our past chats so it knows about World IA Association and World IA Day. ==**Claude:**== That's a great area to explore—there are quite a few different frameworks and approaches depending on the community type and maturity level. **What kind of community are you planning for?** The approach can vary significantly based on factors like: - Is this a professional/industry community, open source project, practice community, or something else? - What's the current stage—just starting, established but growing, or mature and evolving? - Is participation volunteer-driven, staff-supported, or a mix? - What's the primary value exchange (learning, networking, building something together)? **Some common planning approaches include:** **Quarterly or annual goal-setting cycles** - Popular with volunteer organizations like WIAA, where you align on themes or focus areas for defined periods **Event-driven planning** - Organizing around anchor events (like World IA Day) and building programs and engagement activities around those tentpoles **Community maturity models** - Using frameworks like CMX's Community Engagement Ladder or Orbit Model to understand where members are and plan for different engagement levels **Open/participatory roadmapping** - Involving community members in the planning process itself, through surveys, working groups, or open discussions **Theory of change or logic models** - More common in mission-driven communities, mapping how activities lead to outcomes and impact Do any of these resonate with what you're trying to accomplish? Or are there specific challenges you're trying to solve with better planning? ## Claude has successfully captured my interest and I start opening up. ==**Grace:**== What I'm doing with WIAA sounds like a mix of the planning approaches. We involve community members in the Future of WIAD/WIAA workshops every 5 years (2020, 2025) to determine what to focus and prioritize. Along the way we have 'event-driven planning' as you describe around World IA Day ## Claude starts posturing and making connections. It probes more about context. ==**Claude:**== That's a really solid hybrid approach that makes a lot of sense for WIAA's structure. The 5-year participatory cycles provide strategic direction while the annual World IA Day rhythm creates consistent engagement touchpoints and momentum. **What works well about this combination:** The longer planning cycles through the Future of WIAA/WIAD workshops give you that strategic vision and community buy-in, while the annual event cycle creates natural deadlines and rallying points. It also mirrors how many volunteer organizations operate—you need both the "where are we headed?" conversations and the "what are we doing this year?" operational planning. **Potential considerations:** With 5 years between major strategic planning sessions, you might find things shift significantly in between (which you're probably experiencing now between 2020 and 2025). Some communities add lighter check-ins at the midpoint—like a "state of the community" survey or smaller working sessions—to course-correct without the full workshop overhead. The event-driven planning around World IA Day is great for engagement, but it can sometimes mean other initiatives (like the website migration, newsletter strategy, or other programs) get less structured attention if they don't tie to the event calendar. **Questions that might be useful to explore:** - How do you track progress on the priorities identified in the Future of WIAA workshops between those 5-year cycles? - Are there other milestones or check-ins beyond World IA Day that help maintain momentum year-round? - How do you balance responding to emerging opportunities with staying focused on those workshop-identified priorities? What prompted you to think about community planning approaches right now? ## I get distracted because I forgot to include that we have run "state of the community" surveys. ==**Grace:**== We also have the State of Information Architecture, but it hasn't been very consistent. We run ad-hoc community interviews every so often to get a pulse of the community. I'm thinking about community planning approaches right now because we'll have to write about our plans for the next 5 years soon and I want to document our community planning approach. At the same time, I want to explore ways to keep a closer reign on how we're moving the community forward ## Claude takes what I told it and tries to process it. It asks more clarifying questions to pinpoint what I'm not saying. ==**Claude:**== Ah, that context is really helpful. You're at an interesting inflection point—needing to articulate what you've been doing while also potentially refining the approach for better ongoing accountability and momentum. **What you currently have:** - 5-year participatory workshops (strategic direction) - Annual World IA Day planning (event-driven engagement) - State of IA survey (inconsistent environmental scanning) - Ad-hoc community interviews (pulse checks) **The gap seems to be in the middle layer**—between big strategic planning and tactical event execution. That's where a lot of volunteer organizations struggle because it requires sustained coordination without the forcing function of a deadline. **Some questions to help you think through documentation and refinement:** **On documenting what you do:** - Do you want to describe your actual practice (including the inconsistencies) or describe an idealized version you're committing to? - Who's the audience for this documentation—community members, board, potential organizers, funders? **On maintaining momentum between cycles:** - What would "closer reign" look like practically? Quarterly check-ins? A visible roadmap? Regular progress updates in the newsletter? - Who would be responsible for keeping that momentum going? (This matters a lot in volunteer contexts) - What's worked well in the past when you _have_ maintained focus on priorities? **On making the State of IA more consistent:** - Is the inconsistency about timing, resources, or unclear purpose? - Could it be repositioned as part of the 5-year cycle rhythm (maybe 2-3 years in as a midpoint check)? What feels most important to solve for—the documentation piece, or establishing better practices going forward? ## Claude's questions open a firehose. At some point, I switch to corpspeak... ==**Grace:**== I feel that if we don't document what we do, we lose the objective and perspective from the past. If we don't know our history, we are prone to repeat ourselves -- isn't that the famous quote? We should know our history to know how we move forward. When we document our actual practice, we can take note of the inconsistencies and pain points. Perhaps we can find areas of opportunity there and add that to the roadmap. This would be helpful for the community -- those who are engaged and empower them to drive the community forward. It'll be an archival piece for the global board, a working documentation of our work. It might be helpful to WIAD organizers. Perhaps it'll be a "north star" of sorts for event organizers and speakers in the community to see how and what they've contributed towards. It might be useful for potential organizers to see the potential in the work that the community is involved in. Might be interesting for potential sponsors and partners to see the work we've put into developing the community. By "closer reign", I was thinking that this is about being more routine and in-touch with the community and how the industry has changed and challenged our community. I want to make sure that we have a "temperature check" on how things are changing and see how WIAA might adapt to help and provide resources or create spaces for conversation outside of our annual events and surveys. I think it's also about showing more transparency and accountability from the global board leadership to the community. On making the State of IA more consistent, I think it can definitely be repositioned as midpoint checks because it does take a year to develop and publish the results. ## My conversation with Claude continues and it's branching into possible Next Action items. ==**Claude:**== You've just articulated something really compelling here—this isn't just about operational documentation, it's about creating institutional memory and accountability infrastructure for a volunteer-led organization. That quote you're thinking of is often attributed to George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." **What strikes me about your vision:** You're describing documentation that serves multiple purposes simultaneously: - **Reflective practice** for current leadership (what's working, what's not) - **Institutional memory** that survives leadership transitions - **Transparency** that builds trust with the community - **Inspiration** for potential contributors to see their place in the story - **Evidence** of impact for external stakeholders This is really thoughtful, especially for a volunteer organization where knowledge often lives in people's heads and disappears when they move on. **On the "closer reign" piece:** What you're describing sounds less like tighter control and more like **continuous engagement and responsiveness**—staying attuned to what's happening and being able to adapt between those 5-year cycles. Some ways this might manifest: - Regular "what we're hearing" updates from board to community - Structured but lightweight quarterly or bi-annual check-ins - More frequent touchpoints through the newsletter about progress on priorities - Creating feedback loops after major initiatives **A potential framework emerging:** Based on what you've described, you might be moving toward something like: **5-year cycle:** - Year 1: Future of WIAA/WIAD workshops → strategic priorities set - Years 2-3: State of IA survey → midpoint environmental scan and course correction - Year 4-5: Begin planning next cycle - Throughout: Annual WIAD as engagement anchor, ad-hoc interviews as needed, regular community updates **Questions to help you develop this:** 1. **On documentation:** What format are you envisioning? A living document that gets updated? An annual "state of the organization" report? Something else? 2. **On temperature checks:** Beyond the State of IA survey, what would give you good signal about community needs? (Quick polls? Open office hours? Community calls?) 3. **On accountability:** What would transparency look like practically? Public roadmaps? Progress reports in the newsletter? Board meeting summaries? 4. **On resources:** Who has capacity to maintain this kind of continuous engagement? Is this a new role/responsibility that needs to be defined? Does this direction feel aligned with what you're thinking? ## The conversation ends. And now I've added more things to do on my to-do list. Mission accomplished.