A design case is presented that describes the creation of an online research community of practice (CoP) for doctoral candidates in a limited-residency doctoral program. Guided by a naturalistic paradigm and a variety of methods including prolonged engagement, persistent observation, negative case analysis, peer debriefing, member checks, and a reflexive journal, the case describes the authors’ rationale for making the design of the CoP the subject of a design case, a detailed description of the case including the critical decisions made during the design process and the preliminary results of the intervention. It is hoped that this study will inform future designs for online doctoral research communities and the development of rigorous design cases.