LIMITED PARTNER
2025
ENGAGMENT STRATEGY PROPOSAL
― Vincent Van Gogh
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
This may not be a popular response, but you don't need a new story. Thompson Thrift has a great story your partners love. What you need is to clarify that story so team members are aligned on the company voice and posture toward your Limited Partners (LP's). Our goal is to walk key stakeholders through the design thinking process with a series of workshops and meetings as outlined below. This process will clarify your story, determine the content needed for an asset library, and provide the feedback necessary for a re-design of LP's website.
Goal
Executive Summary
The Process
The workshops assist team members in understanding the needs of the limited partners as well as their fellow team members. We will walk your team through the 5 stages of design thinking: empathizing with the end user, defining the problem, ideation, prototyping possible solutions, and testing those solutions. This process is iterative and rarely linear. The end result is that together we will go from fuzzy, unfocused ideas to a clear vision of your story and how to tell it.
Timeline
The timeline is entirely stakeholder depended. The process can be accelerated in a single day workshop, or broken into smaller 2-3 hour workshops. To complete the process, and have actionable steps by January 1st, we would need to begin in October.
Deliverables
The workshop will define and clarify your story ensuring all team members understand the company voice and posture toward investors. The process will highlight areas that need to be improved both in your online presence as well as in your content library. We will distill this information into a report for your team to review, finding the sweet spot of what is desirable, what is feasible, and what is economically viable.
BUDGET
$12,000 - $15,000.
Why us?
Creative agencies can be incredibly ... creative. They can add amazing value and bring new life to ideas. However, this problem is best solved from within. We have worked with Thompson Thrift since 2018. We have listened to your story hundreds of times while filming. In the mean time, I have been attending Harvard for a Masters in Management. I can use the same techniques taught there to guide your team to a clearer understanding of your story and how to tell it.
Gather data and define the problem statement. Build a story, and determine what problem we're going to solve. Unless we know what the problem is, how can we begin to solve it? The problems we're facing are multifaceted and vary from department to department.
Define
We will put ourselves in the LP's (and each other's) shoes. The key to design thinking is approaching a problem from the user's perspective.
Empathize
Design thinking isn't limited to think tanks or Ivy Leagues. It's a process of tackling complex problems, by seeking first to understand the users' needs. We can use these techniques to isolate the most impactful elements of the TT story and develop the posture of team members toward LPs. This process will be conducted through a workshop (or series of workshops) walking through each phase below. With each department having valuable insight to offer, we will not only understand the problems from the LP's position, but from your team members' positions as well. This will gain buy-in from each department that this is the best way to move forward.
Design Thinking...
What is it?
How can it help?
The Process
No judgment–just ideas. Brain Dumps, Flow Charts, Mind Maps: here is where the creativity builds on our empathy and we begin to generate ideas.
Ideate
How do we know that what we decided works? We have to test it. We will find participants to review and test our conclusions.
Test
Write out, build out, and create proofs of concept. We may be creating a story and not a physical product, but here we can draft our story, and bring life to our ideas.
Prototype
This is not a linear process. Sometime we move forward, sometimes we jump back. Sometimes we get to the end and start back over.
Iterate
Timeline
Mid October
Kick off meeting for the design thinking process – introduction to concepts and methodology, and if we gain a full day commitment from stakeholders, we can complete the workshop in a single day.
Late October
We will internally begin compiling data from the workshop into a report.
Early November
Follow up meeting with various stakeholders for clarity, refining of ideas, and preparation of deliverables.
Mid November
Second workshop date if single day is not possible.
Early December
Delivery of findings and action plan.
Early October
Identify key stakeholders to be present at the workshop.
This process is designed to minimize external costs. It relies on the talent you already have in your organization. The biggest thing you need to budget is stakeholder time. This is the most important asset to ensuring this project succeeds.
Budget Summary
Budget & Deliverables
Design Thinking Workshop
$12,000 - $15,000
The workshop is a deliverable itself, in that all key stakeholders will participate in the process and gain a deeper understanding of what is needed to enhance your limited partner experience. After the workshop we will summarize our findings and present you with the following:
Deliverables
A clear written summary of TT's story as presented to investors including the key elements of our posture toward LP's (both active and potential).
An action item list for the design team to create materials for the fundraising team that aligns with the clarified story and voice.
Details will include a triaged list of the collateral needed with dates for deliverables.
A list of content needed for your new digital video library with preproduction notes outlining creative direction.
A detailed sitemap and structured outline for the new online LP Hub. (does not include actually building the site).
Creative agencies are excellent at a lot of things. Some have amazing designers, some have amazing writers, and some have a photo + video team that rivals Hollywood. But you don't need that. You need a simplified approach that removes the clutter and aligns your team. Your team members already have the puzzle pieces, we just need to put them together.
1. You know you best
2. Family Effect
The deeper your work goes with a partner, the better they understand your needs. We are a partner who has already developed an understanding of your business model, values, and core competencies. We are better positioned to understand not just what's being said, but also what's not. This will allow us to effectively guide your team to crafting the right story, and solving the right problems.
Why this proposal is the right one
3. Knowledge source
Most of you know me as the photographer. However, you may not know that I am about to complete a Masters in Management at Harvard's Extension School, working on additional certifications in Innovation & Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management. The concepts and methods I will bring to you are the same methods used at Harvard. Will I have all the answers? No. And I won't pretend to. But I promise to help you find them.