Engagement

The diagnostic

A paid engagement that answers one question: which constraint is actually holding this market back. Two to four weeks, twenty fixed checks, and a written prediction we can be judged against.

Why it is paid, and separate

The diagnosis is the valuable part

Most briefs arrive with the problem already named, and usually the name is awareness. It is the easiest thing to buy, and it is the easiest thing for us to sell.

Sometimes that is right. More often the money is being spent against a barrier that was never binding, and the campaign performs exactly as designed while nothing changes.

We sell the diagnosis on its own, before any proposal to build anything, because an assessment produced by the party hoping to win the build is not an assessment. It also means we can tell you the answer is no campaign — which happens, and which is difficult to say when the fee depends on the alternative.

2–4 wks
From kickoff to findings. Longer only where primary research is required and agreed in advance.
20
Fixed checks across five constraints. Each requires named evidence and a source, not an opinion.

The protocol

The twenty checks

Published in full. Publishing them costs us nothing; the work is in answering them with evidence rather than assumption. Checks run in this order deliberately: Access first because it is the only constraint that resolves to a fact, and Understanding third because it is what you already believe and have already spent against.

First — Access

Can they participate at all?

  1. Do the physical rails exist for the target population?
  2. Is participation legally permitted for this population?
  3. Is the minimum ticket affordable to the target?
  4. How many steps stand between intent and first participation?
Second — Trust

Do they believe it is safe?

  1. Do they believe they can lose money or be harmed?
  2. Has this category harmed people here before?
  3. Is there recourse if it goes wrong — and do they know it exists?
  4. Is a credible third party visibly standing behind this?
Third — Understanding

Do they know what this is?

  1. Can they explain what it is and how it works?
  2. Do they believe it is for people like them?
  3. What do they wrongly believe?
  4. What has already been spent against this, and what changed?
Fourth — Momentum

Do they act, and do they return?

  1. Is there an occasion that converts intent into action today?
  2. Do participants return without a new prompt each time?
  3. What survives after spend stops?
  4. Do reward mechanics reward the behaviour that matters, or volume?
Fifth — Coordination

Is anyone else there?

  1. Does participation become more valuable as others participate?
  2. Are there interoperability or standards gaps blocking the market?
  3. Who would need to be in a room together, and would they come?
  4. If this is convened, who becomes the single point of failure?

How it runs

Four weeks, at most

Week 0

Scoping

We agree the market, the population and the participation metric that matters. If we think a diagnostic is not what you need, we say so here — before anyone is invoiced.

Week 1

Access and Trust

The two constraints that resolve fastest and are most often binding. Rail inventory, onboarding walkthrough, eligibility and pricing review, incident history, recourse audit.

Week 2

Understanding, Momentum, Coordination

Comprehension measured by assessment rather than recall. Return-rate curves where data exists. Ecosystem and stakeholder mapping.

Week 3

Findings and prediction

The binding constraint, the evidence behind it, the intervention we would recommend — and the registered prediction, including what result would prove us wrong.

After

Your decision

Build it with us, build it with someone else, or do nothing. There is no obligation attached, and the findings are yours.

What you receive

Four things, all of them usable

The finding

Which constraint is binding, with the evidence and its source for every one of the twenty checks — including the ones we could not answer.

The intervention

What would relieve it, what it would take, and which other constraints it would relieve at the same time.

The registered prediction

A quantified expected change against a named metric, a date, and the result that would count as us being wrong.

The exposure note

What fails if the intervention fails. An intervention that relieves three constraints is also one whose failure binds three.

Fee

A fixed fee, agreed at scoping. It varies with the size of the population, whether primary research is required, and how much usable data already exists — not with the size of any work that might follow.

What we need from you

Access to whatever participation data exists, however poor. Whoever owns the P&L in the room at scoping and at findings. And an honest account of what has already been tried.

Before you enquire

When this is not the right engagement

The decision is already made

If the campaign is approved and the diagnostic is needed to justify it, we will find the wrong answer or the right one at the wrong time. Neither helps.

There is no market to form

Where the product does not yet exist, or nobody can buy it, the constraint is supply. That is a business problem before it is a participation one.

You need it next week

Evidence takes the time it takes. Anything we could produce in five days would really just be our opinion.

Enquire

Tell us what is not happening

The more precisely you can describe the behaviour that is not occurring, the more useful the scoping conversation will be. We reply within three working days.

We will read it before we reply, and the reply will come from whoever would run the work. If a diagnostic is not what you need, that is what we will tell you.

Or write to enquiries@spongegroup.com.ng. If you would rather talk, WhatsApp 0809 300 0301 — an assistant will take the brief and pass it to a person. It will say so, because it is not us.