Happy Blocktober, builders.

Going back to May 2020, the Stacks Foundation shares its goals on a quarterly basis in the form of OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results. You can read a bit more about the planning and prioritization process for these OKRs here and more about how we approach our work in the ecosystem here. At the end of each quarter, we also share our results against those Objectives, share our board meeting slides, and collate other reporting and information from throughout the ecosystem.

Going forward, we’re making a slight tweak to our planning cadence, moving to tertiles instead of quarters (meaning we will release OKRs every 4 months, instead of every 3). We have found we don’t need to do the bigger OKR planning sessions quite as often because the road ahead for R&D with Nakamoto and sBTC is fairly clear, while the ecosystem is maturing in a way that allows our role to be more predictable. This change will save our team important time and create even more space to focus deeply on critical projects. As always, we’ll remain nimble and responsive to ecosystem needs as we go, leaving plenty of room to make adjustments and be opportunistic.

For reference, here’s a look at the tertiles ahead:

• T3 2023: October, November, December, January
• T1 2024: February, March, April, May
• T2 2024: June, July, August, September
• T3 2024: October, November December, January

In short, the 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. We will also be providing direct support to all Working Groups to ensure smooth rollouts for all users of the Stacks network.

Example work:

• Coordination and support of sBTC development
• Support of a successful sBTC testnet and Nakamoto testnet
• Prepare audit schedule
• Support critical integration and business development efforts

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 creating "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.

These efforts won’t stop as we head toward an initial test release of sBTC as look to ensure 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.

Example work:

• Drive developer growth via events, education, and community partnerships
• Ensure up-to-the-minute documentation for developer releases
• Deliver a complete communications plan for sBTC and Nakamoto
• Support applications in their GTM/launch efforts throughout network upgrades

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.

Example work:

• Shepherd key SIP education and vote process
• Partner or fund a public data platform providing key information about Stacks network and token data, including new data needed post-Nakamoto and sBTC upgrades
• Drive key grant decentralization experiments