Questions for Swingby

--- title: Questions for Swingby tags: swingby, strategy --- ## 1. Where is Swingby today? As of today, Swingby is not in a good place. Despite having a team working behind the scenes, it doesn't look the part from a user / external point of view. 1. Narratives, UVP, technology not clearly articulated (and potentially outdated) 2. Low community & social interactions 3. Volume and price is low (50-90% down since ATH for both volume & price) To an external person, this feels like the start of a downward spiral of a project losing its momentum, which can and should be prevented. Hence, this is a crucial time for a re-thinking of Swingby's strategy moving forward. ## 1.1 Objective In light of upcoming launch of SkyPools, the objective is to | # | Objective | Metrics | | --- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | | 1 | **Define & articulate narrative for Swingby's project** | Re-launch narrative | | 2 | **Increase community engagement & mindshare for Testnet launch in October 2021** | # impressions, community engagement | | 3 | Launch Mainnet in January 2022 | TBD | | 4 | Increase liquidity and swaps on Skybridge | TBD | Given the tight timelines of Testnet launch in 6 weeks, we have a lot to do and would focus on objectives 1 and 2 first. Objectives 3 and 4 can be revisited later only when we have a good foundation to work on. ## 1.2 Target Audience Through the conversation with Matt, it seems like the key focus would be to build mindshare among users that are focused on **(1) product & technology (2) use cases** powered by Swingby. These users are more likely to evangelise and contribute than the other user profiles. The outer circles of general industry watchers and speculators would be prioritised less. ![](https://i.imgur.com/Z5IfXmn.png) ## 1.3 Timeline 1. Early October - test net (6 weeks) 2. January - main net --- ## 2. Where do we go from here? In my opinion, Swingby requires a deeper re-thinking of its space, what problems it solves, why it exists. This is because: 1. UVP and **why project should exist** not clearly articulated 2. Swingby's narrative seem to be stuck in trends of yesterday (during post-DeFi Summer / $CAKE boom) 3. Unsure if product roadmap meets the needs of today or tomorrow This is not to say that everything is irrelevant, but as a team / leadership, the above needs to be mapped out clearly, such that a coherent strategy can be crafted. The risks of not doing so will result in **many discrete and disparate tactical campaigns and product releases that do not gel well together**. In this case, there is **unlikely to be any synergy and momentum to create sustainable growth in numbers** (users, community, TVL, price, volume, etc.). Happy to dig deeper, if this makes sense . However, from a more practical view and assuming Testnet launches at early October, **we have only 5-6 weeks time to prepare for Testnet launch**. The following parts will focus on more executional content to achieve this. | Milestone | Objective | Timeline | Metrics | | ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | ------- | | 1. Testnet Launch | 1. Define & articulate narrative for Swingby | Week of 22 Oct | ==TBD== | | 1. Testnet Launch | 2. Increase community engagement & mindshare for Testnet Launch | Week of 22 Oct| ==TBD== | Given the above, the first phase is to redefine and reclaim Swingby's narrative, as well as to build community engagement and mindshare for Testnet launch. This **builds a foundation and creates momentum for other important but not time-sensitive initiatives** (e.g. Mainnet launch and increased adoption). ### 2.1 Approach If we were to take the three pillars in a project's success as a guide (Memes, Technology and Liquidity), the focus here is evidently on Memes (i.e. `what's the narrative and story of Swingby?`). ![](https://i.imgur.com/53tb08Q.png) Within the "Memes" pillar, these are the factors that we can use to increase community engagementa and mindshare. ![](https://i.imgur.com/v9WAf5p.png) ## 2.2 Objective 1: Re-define, reclaim and articulate narrative for Swingby The first step of the process should always be the narrative. By articulating the overall Swingby narrative and vision, this helps the world answer the question - `Why should I care about Swingby?` This should be completed within the first 2 weeks of September, more specifically: | | Step | Factor | Timeline | | --- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------- | -------- | | 1 | Organise ideation workshop with core members on Swingby's vision, UVPs, values, etc. | Narrative | Week of 24 Sep | | 2 | Summarise exploration & core narrative for Swingby | Narrative | Week of 24 Sep | | 3 | Publish Article 1 (narrative & why Swingby) on Swingby's own medium | Content | Week of 1 Oct | >**Some narratives** >* Technology-based: TSS >* Market needs: Importance of non-custodian swaps >* UVP / Competitor analysis: Comparison with others? Warp-speed? Non-custodian? With this narrative, it creates synergy, momentum and a convincing voice to tell people why we exist in `to-be-defined during workshop` space that we are in. ## 2.3 Objective 2: Increase community engagement & mindshare Only when we know `why should people care about Swingby`(i.e. narrative), we get to the executional parts of spreading the message / narrative / meme (i.e. increase engagement and mindshare within and outside of Swingby's community). Beyond the narrative, there are typically 4 things to consider: | | Factor | What is it? | Examples | | --- | ---------- | ----------------------------------------------- | -------- | | 1 | Content | How to build the narrative? | Articles (narratives, tech, explainers, great news, dev updates), socials, infographics, videos, Press Releases, AMAs | | 2 | Channels | How to spread the word outside our own circles? | Swingby's own blogs, free syndicated blogs (e.g. Hackernoon, Coinmonks), sponsored blogs, newsletters, hackathons, ads spaces | | 3 | Community | How to spread the word within our own circles? | Discord engagements, open dev calls, events | | 4 | Conversion | What's the most valuable action to you? | Usage? TVL? Community members? | A sample action plan would be as follows: | | Step | Factor | Timeline | | --- | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------ | -------- | | 1 | Article 1 syndications, socials & community | Channels & Community | Week of 1 Oct | | 2 | Publish Article 2 (tech deep dive) | Content | Week of 8 Oct | | 3 | Article 2 syndications, socials & community | Channels & Community | Week of 8 Oct | | 4 | Publish Article 3 (SkyPools) | Content | Week of 15 Oct | | 5 | Article 3 syndications, socials & community | Channels & Community | Week of 15 Oct | | 6 | Open Dev Call #1 | Community | Week of 15 Oct | | 7 | Article 4 (dev call + testnet) | Content | Week of 22 Oct | | 8 | Article 4 syndications, socials & community | Channels & Community | Week of 22 Oct | | 9 | Article 5 (Testnet Launch) | Content | Week of 22 Oct | | 10 | Article 5 socials & community | Channels & Community | Week 7 | | 11 | Testnet Giveaway | Liquidity,Channels & Community | Week 7 | >**Some Notes** > On community front, the Open Dev calls should be come a regular affair monthly, held on Discord. Other community efforts and giveaways can be explored, when there is extra bandwith > > Syndications, socials & community refer to: > * Syndications (if any) on free publications > * Social media posting of infographics / images from content articles > * Community refer to posting within Discord & Telegram ## 3. Overview Given the tight timelines of 6 weeks, this should help Swingby: 1. **Define & articulate narrative for Swingby's project** 2. **Increase community engagement & mindshare for Testnet launch in October 2021** With the *narrative* in place, there would have been **5 articles** (i.e. *content*) published and shared across **syndicated publications (if any) and re-purposed for social media** (i.e. *channels*). The increased *community* involvement via **Dev calls and Discord & Telegram blasts** will help to spread the word within existing Swingby users as well. Finally, these content going out through the channels & community will **lead them to join the Discord**, helping to *convert* more followers to community members, leading up to the Testnet Launch. ![](https://i.imgur.com/v9WAf5p.png) With this momentum and infrastructure set up, we will then be ready to dive deeper and optimise each of these channels for a more hollistic marketing strategy, such as: 1. Redesign of home page to illustrate narrative & UVP 2. Re-branding (if required) 3. Press Release blast for Mainnet Launch 4. Optimise liquidity incentives for greater usage / TVL 5. Focused efforts on communiy contributions  --- # Appendix ## Understanding Swingby's vision & narrative | | Question | Rationale | Specifics | | --- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------- | | 1 | What's the vision of Swingby? Why should Swingby exist? | Understand long-term vision & how all initiatives / comms help to achieve it | | | 2 | Who are Swingby's current users? What are they using Swingby for? | Understand who benefits from using Swingby now | Geography, frequency, profile, use case, acquisition methods | | 3 | Who are Swingby's intended users? What should they be using Swingby for? | Understand who we think should benefit from Swingby in the long run | Geography, frequency, profile, use case, acquisition methods | ## Understanding execution requirements I understand there is a need to do marketing for Swingby, so here are questions to better understand the requirements | | Question | Rationale | Specifics | | --- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1 | What's the objective? | Understand north-star metric | Users? Community? Tokenholders? Usage volume? Price pump? | | 2 | What is the timeline? | Understand time available | | | 3 | What are the new product developments worth shouting out (e.g. SkyPools)? Why is this meaningful? | Understand how we can use to paint the narrative for Swingby | Technology, UX, costs, privacy benefits? New use cases? | | 3 | What is the marketing human resource onboard? | Understand existing resource | Full-time staff, agencies, etc. | | 4 | What is the current work done? | Understand existing work done | Socials, PR, Content Marketing, Discord, Telegram, Different markets, etc. | | 5 | Any projects / case studies you are looking to replicate? | Understand case studies | Similar industries? Good launches? Specific type of launch? | Notes 1. New developments upcoming, but not a lot of community engagement. Not much to talk about 2. Skypool: Testnet in early October, Mainnet in December/January 3. Looking for marketing team to utilise updates to get more community engagement 4. Existing 5. Community managers just maintaining the community 6. Community only talking about price, not developments 7. 1 team member doing Tweets 8. Preferred not to spend money on Youtube influencers - More organic growth of **people actually interested** Vision: * Bridge allows cross-chain conversion without KYC * Privacy, no KYC * Cog in the machine after bridges are built * Cross-chain projects getting hacked, but not Swingby yet Current users: * Geography will be hard * User overlaps (Tornado -> Swingby) BSC - ERC * Not sure, if users will be the same profile after Skypools * Skypool - Bridge directly into an array of ERC20/BSC20 tokens in the future Execution * No north star metric yet * Looking for people who like the tech * RUNE / Thorchain * People like the organic conversation on Twitter * no geographies * Crypto Dog * RUNE, Tornado (?), BSC (Anyswap.exchange, Swaps -> what are their narratives?)