Research and Writing

C. Fully Scoping a Communications Initiative

I have been piloting the following framework to scope writing projects with clients, and I want to share it to help other organizations. I would welcome feedback on how to improve it. – Alex

Journaling

Question 1. In this first exercise, take 10–20 minutes to write about this potential communications initiative. What is this story? What happened? Why does this excite you? What value would telling it create? This is meant to be a generative exercise just to get something down on paper. Note that you may pull some of this content into later questions.

Determining Audience/Purpose, Message/Messenger, and Channels/Formats

Audience and purpose. Referring to the list provided earlier on this page:

Question 2. What is/are the audience(s) you want to reach and purpose(s) you want to achieve by investing in this communications initiative?

Message and messenger. Referring to the list provided earlier:

Question 3. What is the message of this communications effort? Please be as detailed as possible.

Question 4. What is the tone of the message based on a combination of the audiences, the author’s style, and what you want an audience to do?

Question 5. Who is the messenger? Whose voices must be included to make the message heard and persuasive?

Channels/Formats. There are many ways for organizations to reach different audiences – please refer to the list provided earlier:

Question 6. What channels/formats will be most effective in reaching your intended audience(s)? In answering this, please think about:

• What have you tried in the past, and what did or did not work?
• What have your audiences told you, or what can they tell you, about how best to reach them and catch their attention?
• Which of these does your organization already execute? What would require new skills and resources?

Determining Requirements to Execute This Communications Initiative

The three elements above – (1) audience and purpose, (2) message and messenger, and (3) channels/formats – help frame what deliverables are required to meet the goals of this initiative. Next, an organization needs to lay out what it must do to create these deliverables.

Stakeholder engagement. Who are the stakeholders you need to engage to tell this story, why are they important, and what is the best way to engage with them: 1:1 interviews (virtual or in person)? Focus groups? Surveys? Something else? Keep in mind: what engagement has there been with these stakeholders recently? Is there an upcoming moment of engagement that can be leveraged?

Question 7. Which stakeholders need to be engaged, why, and how?

Internal Stakeholders

External Stakeholders

The level of ambition here is a balancing act. Each project comes at a cost of time, money, and perhaps even political capital. At the same time, a story is usually stronger (though more complicated) when a broader set of voices is included. It is also important to consider: which stakeholders may react negatively if they are NOT engaged in this initiative?

Data required to tell this story. Internal data points? External data points? Which do you already have, and which would you need to invest in getting (assuming you can)?

Over the course of a project, you may find that the data you wish to have (and thought you had) is not available. You may also discover the value of adding new data points as the story takes shape.

Question 8. What data is required for this communications initiative?

Landscape or market scan. What do you need to be able to describe about one or more landscapes or markets, what do you currently know, and what do you need to learn?

Question 9. What landscapes or markets does this story need to describe?

Note – landscape/market scans can be conducted through desk research (e.g., what’s available on the internet), interviews, focus groups, surveys, or any combination of these.

Case Studies. Do you need to produce any informal or formal case studies / case examples as part of this communications initiative? If so, how many, and about whom? Are these sidebars, multi-page case studies, or even stand-alone publications?

Question 10. Case Studies

Mechanics of a Communications Initiative

The following questions help you better understand the mechanics of a communications initiative, which will drive time, cost, and distribution of roles/responsibilities.

Authorship, editorial control, and decision-making. These three topics are closely related. Generally, the primary authors should be the people with final power of the pen, and this is true even if an initiative is using a ghostwriter. When an initiative uses a named external writer, that writer is more likely to want final editorial control over content published under their name. This is not meant to come across as combative; usually it is a very collegial experience, but it is better to lay these things out upfront.

Question 11. Who has what role in authorship, editorial control, and decision-making?

Design. Do you have a standing publication design that can be used? Do you have a communications team to drive design, or will you need to provide this through external resources?

Question 12. What design resources can you provide in-house? What needs to be provided through external resources?

Costs. What are the costs required to execute this initiative?

• Staff time.
• Editorial and production costs.
• Travel, costs of surveys, focus groups, translations, etc.
• Consultants/researchers.
• Distribution and promotion costs.
• Allocated overhead/administrative costs.

Note, when engaging with external stakeholders – particularly students, parents, or community leaders – please consider the following to maximize their ability to participate:

• Having events in places accessible to stakeholders – knowing this may require multiple events to be inclusive of stakeholders in different places.
• Having events at times accessible to stakeholders – knowing this also may require multiple events to be inclusive of when stakeholders are available.
• Holding events near public transportation and providing free parking.
• Providing child care.
• Providing food (sourced from local community vendors).
• Hiring translators or organizing multiple meetings to be multilingual.
• Where there is a significant ask of stakeholders, compensating them for their time and wisdom.

Adapted from Cortez, “Systems Change and Parent Power,” New Profit, December 2020.

Question 13. What are the expected costs to include in a budget?

Developing a budget requires determining whether the organization has the resources to execute this initiative. If it does not, and it cannot raise additional funding, then it has to make hard trade-offs to stay within budget. If an organization can fundraise for this initiative, the answers to these questions can be a good foundation for a proposal.

Timeframe. Is there a deadline by which this communications initiative needs to be completed and published (such as something in the education calendar, a funder window, or a policymaking window)? Against that deadline, what resources does an organization have to call on, net of its many other core commitments? Can this be executed with internal staff, or does it require external resources? When will key data be available, and how does that affect the timeframe? How many people need to be involved in cycles of review, and how does that affect the timeframe?

Question 14. What is the timeframe in which this initiative needs to be completed? What constraints need to be navigated?

Measurement

Please refer to the content earlier on this page related to measurement. Note that expected costs are laid out above; tracking budget against actuals happens here. Organizations may choose to measure aspects of this communications initiative (inputs, outputs, and/or outcomes) not only for their own management but also to share with external stakeholders – particularly funders.

Question 15. What measures do you want to track?