Welcome to The People Behind the Programs, a blog series celebrating the voices, stories, and impact of the community professionals powering connection and belonging across the globe.

Today, we meet Edwin González, the Community Relations Manager at TaxDome in New York, NY, USA, where he orchestrates a digital community of tax, accounting, and bookkeeping professionals.

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My journey into community work was as organic as it was transformative. I didn’t set out with a clear path, but my career has always revolved around one common goal: fostering connections and creating impactful experiences. Let’s dive into my story in my own words.

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How It Started

I entered the community industry in a very organic way, long before I officially carried the title. My entire career has revolved around people, relationships, and turning complex operations into meaningful, human-centered experiences. Whether I was leading HR processes, managing Google Workspace clients globally, or scaling operations in Spain, the common thread was always the same: creating environments where people feel supported, connected, and empowered.

My journey into community began when I joined TaxDome. I initially led the company’s expansion in Spain, focusing on market strategy, client relationships, and operational excellence. As I worked closely with firms, I realized something powerful, growth doesn’t only happen through product features, it happens when users connect with each other, share knowledge, and build a sense of belonging.

That insight shaped everything I did next. When I moved into the Community Relations Manager role, I approached it with a blend of strategy, data, and empathy. I rebuilt the Community from the ground up, migrated it to a dedicated platform, designed the structure, created engagement systems, built cross-functional workflows, and ensured it became a space where professionals could genuinely learn, grow, and succeed together.

Today, I manage a 6,000-plus-member SaaS community that surpasses industry benchmarks, influences product development, reduces churn, and directly supports TaxDome’s commercial goals. My path wasn’t linear, but every step, from HR to operations to customer engagement, prepared me to build communities that drive both connection and business outcomes.

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Community, for me, isn’t just a job. It’s the perfect intersection of strategy, relationships, and impact.

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A Day in the Life

In my current role as Community Relations Manager at TaxDome, I oversee a large, fast-growing SaaS community of over 6,000 tax, accounting, and bookkeeping professionals. My work sits at the intersection of client success, product strategy, and customer engagement. The community isn’t just a support forum, it’s a strategic engine that drives activation, retention, and product adoption across thousands of firms.

A typical day is a blend of strategy, analytics, and direct interaction with members. I start by reviewing community metrics, visitor activity, contribution rates, firm-level coverage, trending topics, and signals related to activation or churn. This helps me understand user behavior and identify opportunities to improve engagement or address emerging pain points.

From there, I collaborate with cross-functional teams, especially Product, Education, Customer Success, and Marketing, to bring community insights into business decisions. I coordinate announcements, write product posts, manage beta groups, monitor feedback, and ensure the right teams see the right information at the right time.

I also spend a significant part of my day designing and executing high-impact initiatives: workshops, sub-communities, polls, weekly news updates, leaderboards, or content that sparks discussions and strengthens member-to-member support. Much of my work focuses on building structures that scale community growth while keeping interactions meaningful and human.

Of course, there’s also the relational side: answering member questions, guiding conversations, supporting users, and ensuring the space feels welcoming, valuable, and aligned with TaxDome’s quality standards.

No two days look the same, but the mission is constant: connect people, amplify their success, and turn the community into a core part of the customer experience and TaxDome’s commercial impact.

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The Tools that Power My Work

My go-to tool for community building is Circle, which powers the entire TaxDome Community. What makes it so effective is that it’s not just a platform for posts and comments, it’s an ecosystem designed to support structured learning, engagement, and collaboration at scale.

Circle allows me to create highly organized spaces, sub-communities, workflows, and content formats that adapt to different user needs—whether it’s onboarding, product education, peer-to-peer discussions, or region-specific groups. Its flexibility means I can shape the Community around the company’s goals instead of forcing users into a rigid structure.

I also rely heavily on its analytics, which give me visibility into visitor activity, contribution rates, active members, firm coverage, and retention patterns. This data is essential for measuring the community’s commercial impact and guiding my strategy.

Outside of Circle itself, one tool I use constantly is Google Sheets, especially for deeper analytics, dashboards, tracking KPIs, and creating revenue-weighted models. It helps me analyze trends that the platform alone can’t surface.

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Advice for Newcomers

My biggest advice for anyone starting in the community industry is this: focus on people first, and systems second. Tools evolve, platforms change, and engagement tactics come and go, but the ability to understand people, what motivates them, what frustrates them, what makes them feel seen, is what ultimately determines your success.

Another lesson I learned is the power of cross-functional collaboration. Community leaders often see insights before anyone else: emerging product needs, friction points, patterns in behavior, and shifts in sentiment. Sharing that information with Product, Customer Success, Marketing, or Leadership turns community into a strategic asset, not just a support channel.

Be patient with growth. Strong communities aren’t built overnight. They grow through consistency, trust, and small wins that compound over time. Celebrate those moments when a member helps someone for the first time or when a discussion sparks a product improvement—those are signs you’re on the right path.

Finally, don’t forget to grow your own skills. Community today blends psychology, data, operations, storytelling, and leadership. The more you expand your toolkit, the more resilient and effective you become.

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Resources I Suggest

From courses, I recommend doing the Introduction to Online Community Management from Udemy which covers the basics.

From there, you can build knowledge with the Community ROI podcast.

And read or listen to the book Customer Communities: Engage and Retain Customers to Build the Future of Your Business.

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💬 Let’s connect on LinkedIn — I’d love to hear from fellow community builders.

💡 The People Behind the Programs is a blog series that shines a light on the community professionals powering impactful programs around the world. Want to share your story or nominate someone doing incredible community work? Submit your spotlight here.

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