Research Assistance with stakeholder interviews

[C-Emily-Furlong]

Proposed Foundation Mission Request: Research Assistants for Optimism Stakeholder Personas Research

Intent: Progress towards decentralization

Grant amount: 1500 OP per research assistant

Should this Foundation Mission be fulfilled by one or multiple people: Two people will be selected

OP Labs or Optimism Unlimited Sponsor: @C-Emily-Furlong

Submit by: Friday September 13th

Selection by: Tuesday September 17th

Start date: September 30th

Completion date: October 30th

---

How will this Foundation Mission Request help accomplish the above Intent?

• This is not a typical Mission Request, participants will not be independently completing the work. The Foundation is seeking two research assistants to support with a research project.
• We are trying out this new way for high context individuals to contribute to the Collective and may introduce this as a new responsibility to the Collective Feedback Commission in the next iteration.
• This project involves the interviewing of Optimism Collective stakeholders with the view to build stakeholder personas that can be used in governance design work.
• This project falls under the Intent “progress towards decentralization” because designing governance systems and processes to match stakeholder needs and motivations is an essential part of successfully decentralizing the Collective.

A note on eligibility

• Since this is not a typical Mission Request and demands significant context on governance of the Optimism Collective, applicants must satisfy the following requirements before they can apply:
  • Applicants must be either a govNERD, Citizen or Top 100 Delegate
• Applicants will be evaluated based on their level of engagement with Optimism governance and their relevant experience to the task.

What is required to execute this Foundation Mission Request?

• Applicants need to be able to commit approximately 5 hours a week to this project over the course of 4 weeks.
• Research assistants will be primarily tasked with running scripted, recorded stakeholder interviews and tagging transcripts with themes to support with analysis. Applicants must therefore be willing to participate in live calls in a variety of timezones during weekdays. Only part of the work included in this project can be carried out asynchronously.

Please list a [critical milestone](https://gov.optimism.io/t/token-house-grant-policies/5833). The critical milestone should be a measure of whether an applicant has made best efforts to execute what is outlined in this proposal or not. If an applicant fails to achieve the critical milestone, their grant may be clawed back.

• The research assistants need to be available for 12 interviews over the course of 4 weeks in order to have met the requirements demanded of the role
• The interviews must be recorded and logged as per the guidelines explained in the onboarding call.

---

Application Instructions

To apply for this Foundation Mission, please complete the form in the expandable section below and leave your response as a comment on this issue thread. Submissions will be open until the deadline mentioned above.

Submission Form

Copy the entire application below and leave a comment on this issue with your answers completed. A representative from the Optimism Foundation may reach out using the contact info provided to request more information as necessary.

Foundation Mission Application

Please verify that you meet the eligibility requirements before applying

You must be a govNERD, Citizen or Top 100 Delegate

• Farcaster username:
  • […]
  • Please make sure you have created your Optimist Profile at [retrofunding.optimism.io](http://retrofunding.optimism.io/) and have linked your email address so we can reach you 🙏
• L2 recipient address:

---

Are you a Citizen, Top 100 Delegate, or govNERD?

• [please list all that apply]

Have you been a member of the Collective Feedback Commission?

• [Y/N]

What relevant experience do you have that will enable you to perform well on this Mission? We’re specifically interested in your experience that is relevant to the task of being a research assistant.

• [...]

---

Please check the following to make sure you understand the terms of the Optimism Foundation Mission program:

• [ ] I understand my grant for completing this Foundation Mission will be locked for one year from the date of proposal acceptance.
• [ ] I understand that I will be required to provide additional KYC information to the Optimism Foundation to receive this grant
• [ ] I understand my locked grant may be clawed back for failure to execute on critical milestones, as outlined in the [Operating Manual](https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/OPerating-manual/blob/main/manual.md#valid-proposal-types)
• [ ] I confirm that I have read and understand the [grant policies](https://gov.optimism.io/t/token-house-grant-policies/5833)
• [ ] I understand that I will be expected to following the public grant reporting requirements outlined [here](https://gov.optimism.io/t/suggested-public-reporting-requirements-for-grantees/4176)

[0xyNaMu]

Foundation Mission Application Please verify that you meet the eligibility requirements before applying

You must be a govNERD, Citizen or Top 100 Delegate

Farcaster username: LauNaMu

Please make sure you have created your Optimist Profile at [retrofunding.optimism.io](http://retrofunding.optimism.io/) and have linked your email address so we can reach you 🙏 L2 recipient address: launamu.eth Are you a Citizen, Top 100 Delegate, or govNERD?

1. I am a Citizen
2. I am a Top 100 Delegate

Have you been a member of the Collective Feedback Commission?

• Yes

What relevant experience do you have that will enable you to perform well on this Mission? We’re specifically interested in your experience that is relevant to the task of being a research assistant.

I really really like User Research and interviewing people.

• I have previously conducted scripted interviews for User Research with different personas within the Optimism Collective as part of the research needed to created the Impact Evaluation Framework: https://www.notion.so/Interview-Database-57a74110418a45a7844b36d2b59bd1ec

• I have held several workshops and conversations with Citizens to understand what shapes their perspectives in participation, concerns and the evolution of RetroPGF

• I have previously conducted User Research, in the form of scripted interviews, for three different audiences for the Privacy and Scaling Explorations team from the Ethereum Foundation to determine personas and inform the product and design roadmap for the Semaphore Protocol. For this project, I worked closely with our Product Manager and Developer team during the process of designing the interview scripts and selecting the audiences to be interviewed to ensure that the questions included in the audience sectioned surveys and the final interviews:

  1. addressed information gaps from our team
  2. confirmed or rejected audience hypotheses from the team
  3. considered improvement opportunities technically available to be applied (rust, vs other languages for future builds)

• I have conducted scripted interviews as part of my work as a researcher contributing to the State of Web3 Grants Report by Metagov.

• I've held several User Research interviews with members from the OP Collective to inform Governance Tooling product development.

Outside of web3 and the startup world, in an Academic space, I conducted over 15 interviews with EU diplomatic representatives to inform my Thesis on the EU's Foreign Policy, which received the award for best mixed methods research Thesis by the Representation of the European Union and during my Undergrad worked as a Research Assistant for Universities in the US and Mexico.

Please check the following to make sure you understand the terms of the Optimism Foundation Mission program:

• [x] I understand my grant for completing this Foundation Mission will be locked for one year from the date of proposal acceptance.

• [x] I understand that I will be required to provide additional KYC information to the Optimism Foundation to receive this grant

• [x] I understand my locked grant may be clawed back for failure to execute on critical milestones, as outlined in the [Operating Manual](https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/OPerating-manual/blob/main/manual.md#valid-proposal-types)

• [x] I confirm that I have read and understand the [grant policies](https://gov.optimism.io/t/token-house-grant-policies/5833)

• [ ] I understand that I will be expected to following the public grant reporting requirements outlined [here](https://gov.optimism.io/t/suggested-public-reporting-requirements-for-grantees/4176)

I am a bit unclear how the public grant reporting requirements are applied for this type of mission since the forum only outlines the procedure for Growth and Builder Grants. Which category would this type of engagement fall under?

[ismailemin]

Foundation Mission Application

Please verify that you meet the eligibility requirements before applying

You must be a govNERD, Citizen or Top 100 Delegate

- Farcaster username: 0xismailemin

Please make sure you have created your Optimist Profile at [retrofunding.optimism.io](http://retrofunding.optimism.io/) and have linked your email address so we can reach you 🙏

L2 recipient address: ismailemin.eth

Are you a Citizen, Top 100 Delegate, or govNERD? I'm one of the founders of ITU Blockchain Delegation Committee which is one of the Top 100 delegates. I'm also trying to be a govNERD, I'm wannabe-govNERD right now.

Have you been a member of the Collective Feedback Commission? No

What relevant experience do you have that will enable you to perform well on this Mission? We’re specifically interested in your experience that is relevant to the task of being a research assistant.

• I have been actively participating in the Optimism governance forum for a long time. Even though I am not an individual delegate, I played a significant role in ITU Blockchain’s two-year management and in training the people who are now running the delegation committee. I am still assisting this delegation committee as a consultant.

• I am familiar with the stakeholders of the Optimism Collective and would genuinely like to be involved in a research project analyzing their behavior. I can easily dedicate the 5 hours per week required by the Mission Request, and since I am in the UTC+3 time zone, I can comfortably join calls across different time zones.

• I am proficient in using AI tools and skilled in taking quick notes during meetings. In a previous job (Clave, also a RetroPGF recipient), I joined meetings with over 100 potential investors during a fundraising process and created a database by documenting the details of each meeting. I have experience in this area.

• Completing at least 12 interviews within 4 weeks is a task I can accomplish without any difficulty. In this way, I hope to establish my first connection with the Optimism Collective as an individual grant recipient.

Please check the following to make sure you understand the terms of the Optimism Foundation Mission program:

• [X] I understand my grant for completing this Foundation Mission will be locked for one year from the date of proposal acceptance.

• [X] I understand that I will be required to provide additional KYC information to the Optimism Foundation to receive this grant

• [X] I understand my locked grant may be clawed back for failure to execute on critical milestones, as outlined in the [Operating Manual](https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/OPerating-manual/blob/main/manual.md#valid-proposal-types)

• [X] I confirm that I have read and understand the [grant policies](https://gov.optimism.io/t/token-house-grant-policies/5833)

• [X] I understand that I will be expected to following the public grant reporting requirements outlined [here](https://gov.optimism.io/t/suggested-public-reporting-requirements-for-grantees/4176)

[0xPumbi]

Foundation Mission Application

Please verify that you meet the eligibility requirements before applying

You must be a govNERD, Citizen or Top 100 Delegate

Farcaster username: Pumbi

Please make sure you have created your Optimist Profile at [retrofunding.optimism.io](http://retrofunding.optimism.io/) and have linked your email address so we can reach you 🙏

L2 recipient address: 0x0374F0273e01841F594a4C0becdf7Bfbd9B13a42

Are you a Citizen, Top 100 Delegate, or govNERD? a) I'm a member of SEED Latam Delegation, one of the Top 100 delegates. b) I'm currently enrolled in the GovNERDs program as a wannabe-govNERD.

Have you been a member of the Collective Feedback Commission? No

What relevant experience do you have that will enable you to perform well on this Mission? We’re specifically interested in your experience that is relevant to the task of being a research assistant.

• I am a high context individual super involved with Optimism Governance as a member of the SEED Latam Delegation. I am currently a member of the CoCC for Season 6, as well as Ambassador, Support NERD in training & wannabe GovNERD.
• I have a total reading time of 3d in Optimism's governance forum, verifiable in my public profile.
• I have a lot of experience speaking in front of large audiences and conducting public interviews (mostly Twitter Spaces and YouTube lives).
• As a member of Solow Cripto (another project I am part of, which was a grantee of RPGF3) I led a personalized mentoring initiative where as part of my duties I conducted interviews with each of the selected mentees to learn about their expectations about the program and the goals they were seeking for their careers.

Please check the following to make sure you understand the terms of the Optimism Foundation Mission program:

• [x] I understand my grant for completing this Foundation Mission will be locked for one year from the date of proposal acceptance.

• [x] I understand that I will be required to provide additional KYC information to the Optimism Foundation to receive this grant

• [x] I understand my locked grant may be clawed back for failure to execute on critical milestones, as outlined in the [Operating Manual](https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/OPerating-manual/blob/main/manual.md#valid-proposal-types)

• [x] I confirm that I have read and understand the [grant policies](https://gov.optimism.io/t/token-house-grant-policies/5833)

• [x] I understand that I will be expected to following the public grant reporting requirements outlined [here](https://gov.optimism.io/t/suggested-public-reporting-requirements-for-grantees/4176)