It's that time again, we’re introducing the Stacks Foundation objectives for Q3 2023. In case you missed them, there is a Q2 OKR recap focused on Stacks Foundation work, a State of Stacks report by Messari, and finally, the Stacks Ecosystem-wide recap newsletter.

If this is your first time reading one of these posts or just need a refresher:

• You can learn more about OKR planning and prioritization processes here.
• You can always find our current quarter's OKRs on our website.
• Generally, new OKRs for each quarter are shared one month into the quarter.

Our focus on sBTC and Nakamoto releases will continue in Q3. This is a priority you will see reflected in every program and activation we run.

Highlights include:

• Coordination and support of sBTC development
• Support of a successful sBTC Mini release
• Developer growth via education and experience improvements
• Refreshed Stacks visual and narrative tools ahead of key releases

Read about each high-level OKR below, or read to the full table of detailed OKRs and projects.

In short, an extreme focus on sBTC and Nakamoto work will continue. This focus is reflected throughout our programs and through additional staffing of important project management functions that serve core developers and other contributors. In addition, we will steward any necessary SIP processes including community education, collection of 3rd party research, security considerations, direct code contributions, and more to prepare the community for sBTC and Nakamoto. We will also be providing direct support and expertise to the Testing and Hardening Working Group in their work ahead of new major releases to ensure smooth rollouts for all users of the Stacks network.

In this category of work, we will continue supporting developer growth through our educational programs and courses, as well as through both managed and 3rd-party managed (sponsored) developer events. These efforts will focus on "sBTC-ready" developers and building early feedback loops and product traction. We will also be collaborating with other developer advocates in the ecosystem to improve the overall developer experience, with our primary contribution being the continued upkeep of critical documentation.

These efforts never stop as we head toward an initial test release of sBTC. We'll be making sure prospective builders have the opportunity to try the system out, provide feedback, and get a jump start on building exciting and useful apps enabled by sBTC. Look out for hackathons, pitch competitions, and other developer-focused events and resources.

We also expect a test version of sBTC to be available in the coming months and will be working with various Working Group leads to ensure there are clear goals for the release and plans or people in place to ensure these key outcomes, which are likely to center on developer feedback and testing.

This quarter, we have refined this OKR to focus on converting the many Community Leaders we've built up over the last year to focus on critical ecosystem priorities. We believe that even 15% of this group being aligned to critical activities will be a huge boost to overall bandwidth within the ecosystem. With improved resources and onboarding, we can steadily increase the percentage of leaders focused on critical paths until we reach some future point where the maturity of the ecosystem enables allows for less concentrated focus.

Also in this category of work, a focus on high-impact events will support other OKRs around developer traction for sBTC and build momentum for upcoming Stacks releases.

Last, two key experiments this quarter will enable increased decentralization later as we look to improve new community member onboarding and pilot decentralized grants.

This quarter, we expect the brand explorations related to sBTC and Stacks to start coming to fruition, resulting in refreshed visual and narrative tools. We'll be sponsoring the design work itself and supporting the working group leading these efforts. Our role will be to ensure community feedback is well covered and that any updated recommendations related to the Stacks brand or narrative are populated in high-visibility places and provided to community leaders.