Story Engine Customers
Who are the Story Engine’s most important customers in Q2 / Q3?
How can this work serve them?
Mozilla Foundation Strategic Partnerships Team
State of the Web editorial team
Mozilla Leadership network members / end users
Monitoring and Evaluation team
Mozilla Foundation Strategic Partnerships Team
Jobs
What does this person need to accomplish? Consider problems trying to solve, tasks, jobs.
Gains
What outcomes does this group expect or desire as a result of meeting their needs? Consider benefits like productivity, social, emotional, and time gains.
Pains
- Fluff. Case studies can often end up being shallow. A lot of anecdotal stories lack the rigour that funders want.
- Getting the balance right. Making it super lightweight and easy for users to file quality stories. (e.g., with a great template, etc.) BUT at the same time: the stories need to be methodologically rigorous enough that funders will care. Tricky balance.
- Curation and maintenance -- finding accurate/compelling numbers and stories
Engagement
3 claims this group wants to make about MLN:
- MLN has a clear theory of change and is having a measurable impact.
- We are using methodologically rigorous monitoring and evaluation techniques.
- Quantitative + qualitative. We use both qualitative / narrative evidence and quantitative data in an innovating and compelling way.
- Skills / capacity building. The Mozilla Leadership Network helped users gain...
- personal connections
- professional connections
- get a job
- get into school / educational opportunity
- open practises / how to work open
- code / design / 21st century skills
- convening / event design / un-conference
- localization / translation
- [please add / feed from web lit map here]
Questions
3 questions this person has about the MLN:
- What’s our theory of change?
- Where’s the data for measuring it?
- ?
Use cases
3 ways this person will use Story Engine findings:
- In grant proposals
- To uncover new potential grant proposals
- To inform our program / initiative design / what we pitch to potential funders
Other notes from this team:
- Consider a "two-tier approach." Make it easy to file story tips / “quick hits.”
- Have a great taxonomy / coding. (e.g., skill, funder, audience type)
- Provide real training and guidance for interviewers. Think through the interviewing process. who and how they interview
- Stories they like: e.g., youth from Parsons who invented open source anti-surveillance tech. UN Women, Suchita's story.
- Great examples. Kalpana has a great example of how to do this well from her previous job.
- Rough narrative guide: a bit of context. Then: "what made it magical?"
- Especially: How did this work build capacity? (esp: capacity that lasts beyond the project period.)
- "I wasn't considering going to college but now I'm going to do a computer science degree!"
Key takeaways
- Send evidence narrative. “Does this meet your standard.”
- Follow up on Kalpana’s story. About how M&E / stories can be something everyone does. And an inspiring part of people’s job.
- Longitudinal approach. Follow up with people over time?
Sam Burton, Insights Team
State of the Web editorial team
- Journalistic tendencies. Sensemaking, storytelling, etc.
- Holds big picture.
- Cares about quality of final package.
Jobs
What does this group need to accomplish? Consider problems trying to solve, tasks, jobs.
- Publish an annual report about the health of the open web. Focused on key issues like: privacy, web literacy, walled gardens, and inclusion / internet for all.
- Make Mozilla a more visible and respected public voice.
- Provide a public touchstone that Mozilla and its allies can use.
Gains
What outcomes does this person expect or desire as a result of meeting their needs? Consider benefits like productivity, social, emotional, and time gains.
- Access to data and stories. In service of producing State of the Web
- Simplify and humanize complex issues. Our issues are complex and often technical; human stories help.
- Story leads. Ways to follow up with specific people and stories that interest them.
- A useful way to aggregate, illuminate and follow the work of Mozilla’s extended network. Members + partners organizations.
- Connect Mozilla’s mission to the present moment. Make Mozilla’s long term mission more concrete, topical, and connected to what the public is thinking and talking about now.
Pains
- “Making it real.” Tying these abstract issues to real human impact / real world stories is hard.
- Firehose. Too much stuff flowing past, much of it mixed or low quality.
- Fear of Missing Out. “Something great is probably happening out there but I’m missing it or can’t find it.”
- Not getting the story right. Ensuring accuracy, details, etc.
- Colleagues who don’t understand the task. Or don’t provide the level of storytelling and journalistic polish required.
Engagement
3 claims this group wants to make about MLN:
- There’s a dynamic network of real people working / fighting on the issues we care about. Shaping and delivering open web agenda
- We know that issue x is thriving / timely / resonating because the network is telling us
- Without these data and stories I’d struggle publishing SoW. Or: SoW wouldn’t be as good.
- This gives Mozilla a new way to talk about its “community” (network). As opposed to just: people contributing to Mozilla products / software.
Questions
3 questions this person has about the MLN:
- Who are these people? How are they connected to Mozilla?
- What are they doing?
- Why does it matter? For us, for them, for the web.
Use cases
3 ways this person will use Story Engine findings:
- To test claims made by org
- As lead generator for stories, evidence and inspiration
- As resources to stay current with our network’s interest // a pulse
Key takeaways / questions
- How does this compare to
- Transparency International Index / World Bank “Doing Business Guide” / IREX Media Index — right now people grab stats from the ITU
- “Pew + People Magazine”
Mozilla Leadership network members / end users
Jobs
- Every year, Levan organizes a gathering on the state of the internet in Georgia. He has just founded his own nonprofit organization (CMI) -- and needs to assemble his team, refine the mission and service offerings, and make connections with potential partners and donors.
- He just recently heard of Mozilla and wants to learn more. He is super interested but unsure of what Mozilla does and how he can benefit.
- Levan recently became a father so he is concerned about balancing work and family.
Gains
- Funding so that he can follow a longer-term vision that fits his context (rather than implement activities designed by outsiders) and so that he does not have to lay off his staff between projects.
- Clear service offerings defined and the beginnings of work processes and practices established.
- Opportunities to connect with folks and orgs inside + outside Georgia; he’d like to build credibility, act as a convener, learn about what others are doing, and set up a lab to test what will work locally.
- A small but dedicated team, so that he does not work 15-hour days and can see his family!
Pains
- Levan’s family would prefer that he sticks to a “regular” job. He feels pressured to show that CMI will be viable. He has some money set aside but it won’t last long — he may have to take on some side jobs as he builds the org. He feels anxious and stressed — like he is leaping into the void.
- There isn’t a robust culture of philanthropy in Georgia; most NGOs are supported by foreign organizations and governments. He does not know how to start shifting this.
- Once he brings on staff, how will he provide stable employment for them?
- How can he market his services and advance CMI’s agenda?
Claims
- “Participating in this Leadership network has been a smart investment.”
- “My institute gained credibility and connections.”
- “I was able to get my organization off the ground quickly.”
Questions
- What is it? How will it benefit me?
- Who is behind this? What’s their agenda?
- What’s required of me?
3 ways will use
- Wants to build credibility. (e.g., if his story is featured)
- Wants to identify and connect potential partners
- Wants to adopt work practises and approaches. And maybe: replicate projects. Build up his service offerings.
Takeaways
- Interesting mix of customer of MLN storytelling vs. network itself.
- Dating service / match-making.
Feedback on the above… from the Eric Barrett — the person in the picture:
Hi. :). Gosh, you nailed a lot of my and our anxieties there.
Needs
- We want to start an annual thing on data communication. We've done it for 2 years now and want ot keep it going. It is THE event on data visualization and data communication in Georgia. We do all day workshops that are free and open to the public and in the evening we have an open exhibition that is catered. We'd like to do it for several days, but we only have funds for 1 day and we pay a lot with our own funds. Rachel, our Peace Corps Response Volunteer has helped us strategize organizationally to improve:
- communications - even today, people have a difficult time understanding what we do. We have updated our vision, mission, and strategy to communicate what we do better. We are creating our own outreach material to communicate to the public and donors what we do and why it is worth supporting us.
- fundraising - in the past, we have focused on grants and service work to fund our team - a team that is currently irreplacable in Georgia and we need to support to continue doing this work. It is my daily nightmare that I'll lose our team. We are developing a four-pronged fundraising approach:
- grants (that we want to do, not just what a donor wants)
- service work (data communications, visualization, and advocacy - full stack: visualization, animation, web, etc.)
- corporate sponsorship - I am learning ...
- individual giving - it is really hard to link an online donation mechanism to a Georgian bank right now and we are running into a lot of obstacles
- internal management - Jason has become our operations guy and that is a load off my back
- financial planning - argh ...
- I am a father and yes, I don't want to sacrifice my family time and need to find ways to work more efficiently without losing quality.
Gains
- We'd love some core funding and time to breath so we can look inwardly as well as outwardly. We want to make sure we are adding value, not just responding to other people's needs.
Pains
- Yes, Sophie and Lily would love that I be home more often and that when I am home, I am not working too. I'd also like to make more than 12K a year :) to support them.
- Georgian philanthropy sucks. Period. Unless you are the Orthodox Church. That is a touch cookie to solve - improving the culture of giving in Georgia. We'll try though :).
- Stability with at technical team is crucial. We don't have time to train a quickly rotating staff. Just not possible here. We need long-term creative and dedicated staff.
- How can we communicate to Georgian NGOs that they need professional advocacy and communications support take their work to the next level - that writing the 300-hundred-page report is not acceptable (yes, this is still happening :( and it is till being funded )
That is probably a lot more detail than you wanted, but since it was on my mind ;) ...
BTW, we came up with a new concept called microcampaigning that you might be interested in. We created an editorial calendar of all important local and international holidays and events related to what issues we are working on and then prepare small, but well organized communications campaign around the issue using social media. We re-use our existing content and come up with a few new pieces. We network with related organizations (collective impact), and then spearhead coordination among them for greater bang. We've done two of them so far - #rightsnotflowers for women's day and are currently doing #sharetheroad for road safety (if you thought it was bad before ...). We are getting thousands of shares and reactions and it takes a bit of coordination, but doesn't cost a lot of money (well, really, almost nothing to be honest). I just thought the concept might be interesting to you.
Monitoring and Evaluation team
Jobs / Needs
Overall aspiration: ensure that…
- the issues that are important within the network show up within Mozilla strategy, and
- that what’s important to Mozilla shows up in the network
Two way // compelling to members but also show that we are willing to adapt.
- Measuring network strength
- Getting better at listening to the network
- Different lenses for getting data and filtering it for different audiences
- Network survey
- Network Insights -- (in insights team program review. Periodic reporting that also functions as internal comms. Data + stories.
- Issues Radar. Picking out things in the network that map to our priority issues. Public dashboard + what are we / the network doing about them
Pains
- We don’t have a list of members for any of these groups so hard to send the survey out
- The IDs of the hubs are strong but talking about the broader network is not an easy thing to do right now. Can get HIVE stories that work in that context — but harder to use them more broadly.
- Challenges with jargon / semantics — provide option that don’t know what this means
- CP: Anxieties? Jaron. Hard to engage until we can clearly articulate our issues. Lots of people are emotionally engaged in the work we do. But often personal lense. Mozilla good outlet to work on the thing they care about. As we more strongly articulate our opinion that also might make it less aligned to a person who was coming to us before. But that may also attract new people.
- Having a good CRM to better understand who folks are and how they interact with different parts of our web.
- We are working on new ideas around a new tech. Implications still being sorted out. Some level of understanding of tech and issues before you can really talk about it. Different from WWF — many years of comms to get audience up to speed.
Gains
- Long term: Mutual understanding
- Crunching the data and getting to understand what our network looks like in a way we have not been able to before — will give us a ton to work with.
- Stories that help people see what is happening around the rest of the network. Ongoing stream of stories would be powerful.
- Better staff engagement and communications across teams.
- Ability to mine stories for trends. May correlate with data. Understand what to track between surveys. Activity increases or declines. Two complementary datasets.
Claims
- The network is a thing you can understand from the outside and want to join because see the value it provides.
- That value has meaning to members as individuals — comes from personal connections, relevance to issues they care about, this is the place where spending your time/energy will yield the most.
- There is career/professional development opportunities that come from being a part of this.
Big questions
- How willing are we to set the bar of a certain height before you can be in vs openness aspiration? How can we manage the inclusive/exclusive balance?
- How future topics and themes find their own space within the network. What does it look like to create a new hub that maps to M issues but does not currently have a home in those hubs. How easy is that for someone outside M to instigate?
- What do we call this? How does the MLN fit into the overall story of M participation?
How will you use these findings?
- To develop the MLN value proposition and membership tiers (Riswan) — to inform design
- Comparing different hubs to each other — how we think about bringing these things closer together
- Organizational strategic level — develop KPI and what modeling looks like for that
- Generate new opportunities and ideas
Key takeaways
- Mine existing work. There’s lots that Adam that has already done that should feed into our deliverables around intake, taxonomy, etc.