About — CrownShy

Mission

CrownShy provides the socio-technical expertise to renew organizations and assist groups in their pursuit of self-governance in situations ranging from social movements to peacebuilding, policy making, design & planning for environmental restoration & urban development, journalism, indigenous sovereignty, and the functioning of democratic systems.

Our Name

Be CrownShy.

Our name refers to a disengagement from human crowns 👑 as symbols of the few holding power over the many. We reach instead for the ecological concept of crownshyness which describes the relational interdependence exhibited by tree canopies growing closely together, respecting space so their branches do not damage each other. We chose this name to honor the pursuit of collective thriving in a context of respect for each individual's self-actualization. In the video above, we share how this phenomenon manifests in high winds—wind serving as an archetype for the powerful forces that test community resilience at all scales, much like the challenges of our times.

Meet the Team

Elizabeth Barry

Co-founder

Website LinkedIn

Elizabeth works with facilitators, social movements, civil society organizations, journalists, indigenous nations, democratic governments both young and old, and peacebuilders to implement "listening at scale." Liz's innovation in large-scale interaction began in 2002 when she painted "TALK TO ME" on a sign and listened to over 100,000 people on the sidewalks of NYC and around the United States. Open source organizing brought her to Taiwan's 2014 Sunflower Revolution and into relationship with g0v resulting in her writing the first coverage of vTaiwan in the west, the 2016 piece for Civicist titled "vTaiwan: Public Participation Methods on the Cyberpunk Frontier of Democracy," now republished by Taiwan's government. Before co-founding CrownShy with Stuart Lynn, Elizabeth Barry served as Head of Partnerships at The Computational Democracy Project, the 501(c)3 organization she co-founded with the creators of the Polis technology to steward its open source code and methods. Liz is also the Executive Director of metagov.org, a community dedicated to the advancement of self-governance in a digital age.

Product Manager

UK · RemoteFull-time · 6 months (with potential extension)£50K – £55K

A foundational product role. You'll own the roadmap across our product suite, balancing feature development across multiple products that share a common technical core. You'll work closely with our CTO to plan and prioritise sprints, and play an active role in securing the grant funding that helps us pursue our mission alongside commercial growth.

Own and prioritise the roadmap across a suite of products built on a shared core
Plan and schedule sprints with the CTO, turning priorities into well-scoped briefs
Write product and impact narratives that support grant applications and funder reporting
Keep compliance — data protection, accessibility, terms of service — in place as we enter new markets

View role & apply

Partners