What We Built Together

Portland Digital Corps was designed as an experiment from day one. Beyond delivering projects, the team spent considerable time talking to people about how to do this work effectively and what could be learned for future efforts.

Find partner projects before recruiting volunteers. One of the biggest challenges was not having enough scoped work for all the people who wanted to help. The enthusiasm and response exceeded expectations, but without a robust pipeline of well-defined projects, it was difficult to channel all that energy effectively.

Decide on an organizing structure early. You need people empowered to make decisions. The first two weeks were spent finalizing templates and methods because without that foundation, it felt hard to get going. Don't skimp on organizational budget—not money, but time spent on structure and processes.

Someone has to PM this thing. Having clear project management processes and dedicated people to shepherd the work is essential. The coordination and communication overhead is significant, and it needs explicit ownership.

Experienced people help teams know what to ship. The initial assumption was that this would end up as a small cadre of inexperienced folks. Instead, the cohorts attracted a lot of senior and mid-career people offering their expertise. This experience level helped teams scope realistic deliverables and navigate the inevitable challenges of volunteer-driven work.

Community building matters as much as the projects. The social aspects—regular meetups, informal connections, and relationship building—proved to be just as valuable as the technical deliverables. People made connections that extended beyond the immediate project work.

The experimental mindset proved crucial. By framing it as "we'll have a story to tell regardless of the outcome," the pressure to be perfect was reduced, allowing the team to focus on learning and adapting rather than executing a predetermined plan.