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Draft project assignment

Approach & Framing

I started by grounding myself in the assignment, revisiting the EarthKind vision, the Together Institute’s proposal, and the initial member information. I also spent time with the assignment document itself, using it as a starting point to unpack the tasks and let first ideas emerge. This framing helped me map the core questions, capture early reflections, and explore possible tools such as Kumu for visualization.

Guiding questions I worked with:

Why are they gathering?

What are they seeking?

How can they collaborate with one another?

The main design question for me was: How to design a relationship centered visual tool for members to connect?

I grounded my approach in the Community Weaving Framework, focusing on:

Integrating with current tech behaviors already familiar to members

Strengthening purpose and relationships by clarifying intentions and opportunities

Designing for a web of mutual care around shared possibilities

Throughout, I kept in mind the Key Objectives of the Together Institute proposal: coherence and care, light-touch governance, conditions for clarity/trust/joy, and sustainable rhythms.

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Part I – Connection Mapping & Visibility

To make relationships, interests, projects, and skills visible, I would design a connection wall / facefolio using Notion or Coda (depending on member preference). For this the purpose of this assignment I picked Coda as the tool of choice, simply bacause I already have access to it. We could either fill the profile and ask for additional info, but ideally members would fill profiles through a simple form, feeding into a structured database.

Profile fields I drafted included:

Expertise & interests – what members bring

Offers & asks – how they can support and how they would like to be supported

Affiliations & working groups – groups they are part of inside the network (mentioned on Earth Kind doc)

Contact and socials – phone, email, links (lightweight but practical)

Story & motivation – why they joined, keeping purpose visible

Photos / human touch – space for “happy moments” or visual cues that make profiles feel alive

Suggest me a conncetion – “I know someone you should reach out to” (just name + short note), so members can suggest new connections and expand each other’s networks

Features designed to spark collaboration:

Connection nudges – a “let’s connect” button to make overlaps visible

Suggested matches – either through simple automations (filters, tags) or curated by the weaving team

Collaboration opportunities – members can post offers like “1-hour conversation on AI & Ethics,” and others can show interest and coordinate directly

Light automations – members notified when a new offer is posted or when someone joins one of their collaborations

Groupings and intelligence mapping: By correlating profile fields, the system could:

Map skills across the community (showing the “intelligence in the room”)

Cluster people with similar needs or complementary expertise

Suggest matches based on those overlaps

This is a very customable and versatile options, it’s possible to group people by city, area of work, offers/needs, and more, giving us a tool that can adapt as the community needs grow/shfits.

For the community weaving team: I added backend fields, creating a “love system” in the background, connected to the front-facing UI but not visible to members. This backend worked like an internal CRM, with potential expansions such as:

Follow-up tracker for 1:1s (Kanban view)

Matchmaking tracker – a table logging potential matches, suggested matches, and follow-ups

Member lifecycle – when someone joined, milestones, and when they left

Potential sponsors or partners – logged privately, with flexibility to decide if/when visible to the member

Notes per member – reflections or weaving suggestions, to support ongoing alignment

Visualization: In addition to the database, I uploaded the same information into Kumu and embedded it in Coda. This allowed for relationship mapping:

Showing degrees of connection between members

Making clusters and bridges visible

Offering insights into collaboration potential not obvious in a table view

This dual system (profiles + visualization) supported both member-facing clarity and internal weaving insights.

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Part II – Surfacing Subset Connections

Because the network is new and no process yet exists for sharing information about upcoming stakeholder meetings, I approached this challenge as both structural and cultural.

Structural layer

I designed a secondary database of external stakeholders where members could log interest or upcoming engagements.

If multiple members connected to the same stakeholder, overlaps would become visible and the weaving team could coordinate connections.

This system would also make it easier to spot patterns (e.g., several members engaging with the same organization), strengthening the network’s collective credibility.

Cultural layer

I emphasize the importance of building a culture of trust-based sharing about goals and challenges, so overlaps are easier to surface.

By embedding expertise, goals, and needs already mapped in Part I, I created safer ground for members to feel supported when sharing sensitive information.

The combination of structural visibility + cultural encouragement make it possible for the network to avoid duplication and act with more coherence.

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Process Reflection

I spent a total of ~3h30:

~1h: Mapping the questions, exploring Kumu/Notion/Coda options, and reviewing community background, Together Institute proposal and Earthkind goals.

~2h: Designing the profile system with features for collaboration and backend CRM + the stakeholder database (20min)

~30m: Writing this reflection

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Closing Note

For me that infrastructure, when designed with care, can serve as a practice of weaving. By making profiles alive, layering nudges and collaboration rituals, and balancing backend systems with member-facing simplicity, EarthKind can move from connection → coordination → collaboration in a way that builds both trust and clarity.

Photo of my notebook:

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