Mini Proposal Workshops

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

We believe that direct communication with the proposer will yield optimal returns on their idea. We meet up in online workshops. In these sessions, together we will brainstorm, make decisions and optimize our strategy to build a feasible idea. The result will be a proposal that will be easily digestible for the Cardano Catalyst voters. There will be around five workshops to refine one proposal. Participants will leave with new knowledge and tools to extend their ability to create great proposals. This workshop is suitable for everyone, who wants to improve their proposed ideas.

As our main priority, we aim to improve the quality of the proposals in the Cardano Catalyst community. Our goal is to support proposers to get over 4.2 Ranking by Proposal Assessors.

This proposal work can be scaled by reusing the guiding content and increasing the number of facilitators.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

We guide student entrepreneurs to issue purposeful and easily digestible proposals. This will also make the job easier for proposal voters.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

The biggest risk is the study material, represented in the workshops, that can expire in time. This can be prevented through awareness of the voting criteria. As they may change every Fund, we must be informed of the alterations and make our own corrections. These changes are the key discussion topics in our team meetings and workshops.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

We start the sessions a few weeks before the Fund 11 Proposal Submission Stage. From then on, we will be conducting several sessions to prepare a proposal for the Proposal Submission Stage. In addition, we will capture key measurements and share workshop content and impact results with the community. That includes Youtube video statistics. The Closing Report will be delivered one week after Fund 11 Voting Results.

Step-by-step timeline

The first step is to prepare mini proposal workshop sessions to match Catalyst Proposal requirements.

This includes mini introduction videos about each chapter of the Mini Proposal Course content.

Then we organize a time with proposers interested in doing full transparent mini-proposal workshops.

These workshops will be announced in several channels to increase the participation rate and give an opportunity for proposers to join along the proposal ideation process and ask related questions.

In the workshops, we will gather data about the idea they represent. Give suggestions to make their concept feasible in a proposal format. Answer any questions proposers may have about proposing in Catalyst. This process continues until we have answers for all the criteria(currently, there are 11 chapters in the mini proposal workshop in total, but this may change based on Catalyst Proposal Submission requirements).

The workshops will be recorded. After the sessions, the video editor will timestamp and edit the videos. The project manager will check the video content quality and upload it to Catalyst Swarm Youtube Channel.

Next, the Community Manager will reach the videos out to a wider audience. At this point, we start tracking Youtube video stats as well. 

At the end of the fund, we will keep track of the auditing of the proposal (voting results and assessment rating)

This proposal starts before Fund 11 and is not affecting our workload by possible new funded proposals or the proposals we are already delivering

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

The 5000$ will be distributed between team members based on the time spent on their activities.

Considering the previous experience, we estimate that:

2500$ will be allocated for Facilitating, Project Management, and documentation.

1500$ will be allocated for Video editing and content improvement

1000$ will be allocated for marketing, outreach, and communications.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Tevo - Co-founder of The Catalyst Swarm and Catalyst School. 

Organizes feedback. Improves the process and makes it a more inclusive and helpful experience.

Makes sure all the required tasks are completed. (workshops are scheduled, recorded, videos uploaded, timestamped, feedback gathered, etc.)

Guides the method in the direction where the most value is gained out of the workshop

Adds value to proposer and proposal by sharing insights about requirements and thinking methods

Caue - Creator, Founder, and manager of "Catalyst School LATAM."

Marketing, Outreach, video tagging, and communications

Tõnis - Almost one year of experience in the Mini Proposal workshops as a video editor. 

Chaptering the video, updating the description, adding tags, and experimenting with video editing to provide a better watching experience. Helping to write the closing report

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Yes, we will, because as long as there are proposers, there is demand for Proposal Workshops.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

We will be using public Dework space in the Swarm Dework project board to track the main tasks which were described in the feasibility section. https://app.dework.xyz/catalyst-swarm/mini-proposal-worksh

All the videos are uploaded to the Swarm Youtube channel

All other related documentation, like work guides, material, fund distributions, and proposals are aggregated to the Project Management Miro Board here: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOPvZaak=/

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

How many proposers found value in the workshop and created a proposal?

How many of these proposals got over a 3.8 score?

In Fund 7, I started tracking proposal journeys in the public Google Sheet.

KPI and Tracking - Mini-Proposal workshop

How many people show up for live workshop sessions?

The goal is to always have at least 2 additional people who want to improve proposals.

How many views do we capture with Youtube mini-proposal workshops?

The goal is to increase views per video in 2 weeks from 30 to 40

How many views do we capture with Youtube mini-proposal introduction videos to chapters?

The goal is to increase get around 40 views per video

How participants rate the proposal workshop effectiveness after the session with a 1-5 score rating.

The goal is to achieve a score rating over 4.

How do participants rate how ready might be their proposal for funding 1-5 score rating after all the workshops.

The goal is to achieve a score rating over 4.

How do participants rate how well was their feedback considered after the session with a 1-5 score rating.

The goal is to achieve a score rating over 4.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

Our workshops help more proposers realize what creating a high-quality proposal involves. This in turn helps voters to make better decisions. Also, it's nice to see the proposers' projects get funded or approved by the community.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.4 - By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs, and entrepreneurship