[GR3] Baseline thought leadership framework and content plan

[tom-lyons]

Grant name

Baseline thought leadership framework and content plan

Applicant background

Tom Lyons

Here is my professional bio: Tom Lyons, a dual US and Swiss citizen, was born and raised in New York City, where he studied comparative literature at Columbia University before beginning his career in training and marketing on Wall Street. He moved to Zurich in 1994 and over the next 15 years held various positions in communications and marketing at Clariden Bank, Credit Suisse and UBS. In 2009 he struck out on his own as a communications specialist, and in 2014 founded Lyons Communications GmbH where he focused on messaging, sophisticated thought leadership and content marketing campaigns for Swiss blue chips and SMEs. He has been involved in blockchain since 2016, and in 2017 was part of the team that founded the Crypto Valley Association, serving as the organisation’s first Head of Communications and later Chair of the Enterprise Blockchain Working Group. In 2018 Tom joined ConsenSys, the global blockchain venture studio. He was co-head of the ConsenSys Research Circle, served as local country liaison in Switzerland, and represented the company as a keynote speaker. Tom also worked on the ConsenSys team that ran the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum from 2018-2020, where he was responsible for the Observatory’s global thought leadership and communications campaigns. In June, 2020 Tom returned to his role as an independent advisor, and currently assists startups in the crypto, privacy and identity space with messaging and thought leadership strategies. He also recently completed a mandate for the European Commission to devise a new communications strategy around the EC’s blockchain and ICT standards policies.

Motivation and overview

Overview

On the assumption that the Baseline project will need/want to develop a fair amount of thought leadership and other non-technical content to support broad adoption, I propose to help get the ball rolling by spending a week to develop a basic thought leadership framework and draft 12-month content plan based on input from the project. I will do this through a) interviews with key stakeholders to see what the needs are and what the most promising types of content seem to be, b) review of the existing Baseline materials to get a sense of what is available today in terms of content and resources and identify any gaps, and c) my rather extensive experience doing this kind of thing for other projects, which hopefully will help me develop something of tangible, immediate use to the project.

There will be two outputs: a) a draft Thought Leadership Framework, which is like a playbook that explains the kind of content we are looking for, and lays out the essential communications/thought leadership background material (key messages, audiences, channels, tone of voice, etc.), and b) a draft 12-month Content Plan (details tbd based on my research, but you can expect proposals on things like what blog posts could we use, do we have any case studies or user journeys we can develop now, do we need a white paper, what kind of sales/background material is useful, do we need an information portal, if so what could it look like, etc.). I say draft in both cases because in my experience content frameworks and plans always evolve, but that having a good base to start with is a key to ensuring that evolution is smooth.

The intention here is to leave you with something that you can use as a playbook and guidelines for any and all writers or content developers that the project wants to work with in future, and so help kickstart the content process.

Motivation

I have two main motivations. First, as an ex-ConsenSys employee (2018-2020) and someone who has been involved in blockchain since 2016, I am always keen to do what I can to further blockchain adoption as well as the Ethereum ecosystem. I believe Baseline is one of the most exciting current developments in the enterprise blockchain space and I am happy to help spread the word. Second, my specialty is just this kind of thought leadership and content planning, so I think I can contribute in a meaningful way. Perhaps also: I have seen a lot of these kind of content projects fail due to lack of planning at the outset, so I am particularly keen to help lay a proper foundation by working with the team on this framework/initial content planning. I believe strongly that this kind of work at the outset can really help get you better results content-wise down the road.

Execution risks

A week is a short time in which to do this, especially if there is a lot of research and interviews to do, so I suppose there is a risk that I am not able to read enough or talk to enough people in the allotted time.

Depending on the availability of interviewees and key stakeholders, I may need more than the 4 weeks overall that I am allotting to gather all the information.

Downsides

Here the main risk is that I give you something that is too theoretical and you have trouble making use of it. I will endeavour to mitigate this by providing a clear, concrete and implementable framework and set of content proposals that reflects what the project indicates it wants and needs.

Tasks and schedule (milestones if applicable)

• Desk Research - review of the existing Baseline materials and discussions with key project members, and in particular the current Outreach and Enablement teams, to get a sense of what is available today in terms of content and resources and identify the gaps (1.5 days)

• Interviews with key stakeholders to see what the needs are and what the most promising types of content seem to be. I will document all the interviews so you can have the material to refer to later, as it might be useful down the road (1.5 days)

• Develop a) Draft Thought Leadership Framework document, and b) Draft 12 month Content Plan. Work includes 2 rounds of review with the Baseline team and delivery of final v1.0 of both documents (2 days)

I can start immediately upon approval of the grant and deliver everything above within 4 weeks (contingent to an extent on the availability of interviewees).

Budget and justification

USD 5,000 for 40 hours of work. This represents a ca 30% discount on my usual rate, but I recognise that I work in a high-fee market (Switzerland), and believe this price is generally in line with norms in other markets.