Primitives Framework

A systematic approach to designing decentralized organizations as purpose-aligned networks of small autonomous teams.

What Is This Framework?

The Primitives Framework helps organizations design coordination systems that balance efficiency with innovation, autonomy with alignment, and flexibility with coherence. It provides organizational patterns (structural building blocks) and dimensional lenses (assessment tools) that can be combined to create governance and operational systems tailored to specific contexts.

The framework addresses a crucial challenge: how can decentralized networks scale while maintaining the responsiveness and adaptability needed for complex, evolving environments?

Who Is This For?

Organization Designers working on DAO governance and decentralized coordination structures

Facilitators helping groups establish or evolve their governance and operational systems

Communities transitioning from informal coordination to formal organizational structures

Developers implementing governance systems and coordination infrastructure

Start Here

Choose your path based on where you are:

Learning the Framework

New to these concepts? Start with Framework Concepts to understand the core ideas, dimensional lenses, and organizational patterns.

Want the complete picture? Read through the conceptual foundations, then explore the dimensional lenses (Phase, Scale, State) and organizational patterns (DAOs, Cells, Roles, Tasks).

Designing an Organization

Ready to design governance? Follow the Group Facilitation Guide through Discovery → Design → Implementation.

Need specific patterns? Browse the tags directory for organizational patterns and concepts.

Looking for examples? See the RPP Governance Case Study for a real-world implementation.

Implementing Systems

Choosing governance approach? Review the implementation guides for operational, community, and multi-stakeholder governance.

Need technical tools? Implementation guides cover selecting and deploying governance protocols, smart contracts, and coordination infrastructure.

Framework Structure

Core Concepts

The framework is built on two complementary elements:

Dimensional Lenses - Three perspectives for assessing organizational context:

  • Phase: Developmental stage (Conversation → Formation → Organization → Iteration → Completion)
  • Scale: Size and complexity (Collaboration < 10 → Coordination 10-150 → Constituency 100s+ → Network)
  • State: Documentation of Purpose, Practice, and Progress

Organizational Patterns - Four fundamental building blocks:

  • DAOs: Purpose-aligned networks of small autonomous teams
  • Cells: Small autonomous teams (< 10 people) with networked autonomy
  • Roles: Sets of responsibilities, permissions, and accountabilities
  • Tasks: Defined work with clear deliverables

Understanding “Primitives”: The framework uses “patterns” to describe organizational structures (DAOs, Cells, Roles, Tasks) and reserves “primitives” for technical implementation tools (smart contracts, tokens, governance protocols). The framework helps you understand your organizational structure before selecting technical primitives to implement it.

Discovery → Design → Implementation

The framework guides you through a three-phase process:

1. Discovery Phase

  • Assess your group’s current phase and scale
  • Map stakeholder landscape and organizational context
  • Document shared understanding and divergent perspectives
  • Produce discovery report with insights and direction

2. Design Phase

  • Select appropriate organizational patterns based on discovery insights
  • Choose governance approach aligned with group values and needs
  • Compose patterns into functional governance and operational structures
  • Get stakeholder feedback and approval on design

3. Implementation Phase

  • Deploy technical infrastructure (governance protocols, coordination tools)
  • Establish operational systems and information flows
  • Launch with appropriate formality for current phase
  • Iterate and evolve based on feedback and changing context

Directory Guide

Getting Started

Dimensional Lenses

  • Group Phase - Five developmental stages and their characteristics
    • Conversation, Formation, Organization, Iteration, Completion
  • Group Scale - Four scales and appropriate coordination mechanisms
    • Collaboration (< 10), Coordination (10-150), Constituency (100s+), Network

Organizational Patterns

All patterns are documented in the tags directory:

Implementation Resources

  • Implementation Guides - Detailed guides for specific governance approaches
    • Operational Governance - internal execution and operations
    • Community Governance - broad stakeholder participation
    • Multi-Stakeholder Governance - diverse constituency coordination
  • Articles - Articles on scaling, network dynamics, and permissionless-ness
  • Case Studies - Real-world implementation examples

Key Principles

Flexible yet Coherent: Patterns can be combined in various ways while maintaining interoperability and coherent structures.

Context-Appropriate: Different phases and scales require different tools, practices, and governance mechanisms.

Transparent Coordination: Clear documentation of group state (Purpose, Practice, Progress) enables decentralized coordination without hierarchical oversight.

Permissionless Innovation: Design for the freedom to work autonomously, attract collaborators, and propose to the broader network.

Multi-Scale Governance: Organizations operate at multiple scales simultaneously - design coordination mechanisms appropriate to each scale.

Framework Applications

New Organization Design - Start from scratch with appropriate patterns for your phase and scale

Existing Organization Evolution - Incrementally transition toward more decentralized models

Inter-Organizational Coordination - Design collaborative structures between multiple organizations or DAOs

Network Governance - Establish coordination systems for purpose-aligned networks

Notes Directory - notes/dao-primitives/ contains working documentation, additional patterns, and extended guides

Templates - notes/dao-primitives/resources/templates/ for group state and other documentation

Pattern Library - notes/dao-primitives/implementation/patterns/ for additional coordination patterns

The Primitives Framework is developed and maintained by SuperBenefit as part of the DAO Primitives Project.

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