What is a winnable issue?

Definition

In community organising, there is a concept is known as an “issue-cutting” or “issue-based campaign” strategy. It involves selecting a clear, concrete, and winnable issue—often called a “winnable issue” — that allows organisers to mobilise the community effectively, build solidarity among participants, and gain momentum to achieve broader social change goals.

The idea is to:

• Identify an issue that resonates broadly with community members.

• Choose a specific and achievable target for action to ensure early victories.

• Use these victories to build collective confidence, foster greater solidarity, and sustain long-term participation and growth within the movement.

This method is particularly emphasised in the highly successful organising methods developed by Saul Alinsky, often summarised as:

“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” (Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals)

Such campaigns are foundational in community organising, leveraging clear and attainable goals to foster greater unity, build organisational strength, and enhance strategic positioning for future, more ambitious initiatives.

This concept is highly related to fostering Interaction Ritual Chains.

Showcase-driven Development.

A similar concept in open source development is called Showcase-driven Development.

The key characteristics of Showcase-driven Development are:

• Collaborative creation of showcase content: Movies, games, animations, or other media.

• Community-driven feature requests: Direct input from content creators influences the development roadmap, ensuring new features align with real-world creative needs.

• Feedback Loop: This cycle creates a powerful feedback loop where the showcase content sets clear goals, informs software feature development, and visibly demonstrates the software’s capabilities, attracting more contributors and users.

The Blender Foundation drives the development of Blender 3D through their strategy of “Open Movies” or “Open Projects.” These projects (such as Elephants Dream, Big Buck Bunny, Sintel, etc.) are deliberately designed not only to produce artistic content but also to serve as practical demonstrations (“showcases”) that shape software development, allowing many different co-creators to participate in the development of the movie (and use of Blender 3D).

This process creates tangible, achievable goals (the production of open content) to build solidarity, attract contributors, and strategically steer software development, just as community organisers would use clear, achievable campaigns to advance a broader movement.

Similarly the Godot Engine leverages its community to steer open development through Game Jams (similar to Hackathons).

The key idea behind Showcase-driven Development is that the organising entity DOES NOT do the task, but rather rallies people together to collectively participate in the creation of the showcase, and facilitates that participation.

The outcome of Showcase-driven Development is a shareable artefact, like a Movie, that then can be shared (and will be especially shared by participants since they are emotionally and time invested) that then can be used for marketing to attract more interest.

Checklist for winnable issues

Clarity & Focus

• [ ] Is the issue clearly defined and specific (not vague or overly broad)?

• [ ] Can the problem be explained in one or two sentences?

Emotional Resonance

• [ ] Does it provoke strong emotions (anger, hope, solidarity, urgency)?

• [ ] Does it affect people in your community directly or personally?

• [ ] Would people feel motivated to act or show up because of it?

Actionable & Measurable

• [ ] Are there concrete steps the Circle could take toward a solution?

• [ ] Does the group have the resources, time and efforts required to achieve this?

• [ ] Are there clear indicators of success or progress?

• [ ] Is there a clear start and finish?

Aligned with Logos Values

• [ ] Does it align with decentralisation, transparency, privacy, or mutual aid?

• [ ] Could Logos tools (decentralised tech, funding, comms, etc.) support this?

If you can check at least 80% of this list, you're likely working with a real winnable issue. If not, refine the problem or go deeper into community listening. Winnable issues emerge through conversation, care, and iteration.