Dixon Strategic Labs

Proposal for Clearwater Credit Union

Opportunity

AI has been creeping into Clearwater through vendor relationships and the planned Copilot rollout, without a unifying strategy. As a CDFI credit union, Clearwater faces constraints generic AI approaches ignore: mission-aligned lending mandates, member vulnerability, and political uncertainty around the CDFI Fund. The board adopted an AI policy in March. It set the rules for AI at Clearwater. The strategy is the next piece of work.

This engagement builds an AI strategy that strengthens how Clearwater already banks.

The strategic plan calls for an annual AI plan, refreshed every year through 2030. This engagement produces the first version.

Approach

Brent works as a thinking partner to the executive team. The engagement runs four sprints over seven to nine months, with a gap period between the third and fourth for independent practice. Each sprint builds on the one before. The week ranges and the specific scope within each sprint can both adjust to Clearwater's needs.

Sprint One: Discover and Diagnose

3-4 weeks

Purpose. This sprint produces a risk-scored inventory of the AI already running across Clearwater, and a strategic diagnosis that captures where the executive team agrees and disagrees on AI and drives the choices to come.

Brent conducts executive interviews, a vendor AI audit, and a maturity self-rating that folds in Clearwater's LeapFi readiness assessment. The sprint ends at a shared diagnosis.

Expected outcomes

Measured read of executive team alignment on AI
Full catalog of the AI in Clearwater's vendor stack, each system scored for risk
Executive team maturity self-rating that folds in the LeapFi readiness results
Written strategic diagnosis: the meaning of Clearwater's AI footprint, the executive team's alignment picture, the capabilities the team wants to build, and the choices ahead

Sprint Two: Map and Decide

5-6 weeks

Purpose. This sprint maps where AI fits across Clearwater's tasks and workflows, then turns that into strategic choices the executive team owns and a first pilot ready to build.

Functional leads break their work down into concrete tasks and tag each for automation, AI assistance, or deliberate human-only handling. This produces a ranked set of pilot candidates. The on-site executive workshop in Missoula then resolves the strategic questions: where AI gets investment, where it does not, and how governance distributes across functions. The team selects the first pilot from those candidates.

Expected outcomes

Agreed AI investment priorities across Clearwater
Governance readiness assessment of the AI Policy in practice
Strategic direction for AI across learning, communications, capacity building, and implementation
Board briefed and aligned on the AI direction
Ranked set of pilot candidates, with the first selected and scoped

Sprint Three: Test and Build

10-14 weeks

Purpose. This sprint proves the strategy in practice and grows the team's capability to run AI work.

Two pilots run during Sprint Three. Brent co-designs and co-leads the first with the Clearwater team and advises on the second. A third pilot is scoped for the team to run independently during the gap period.

Expected outcomes

Clearwater team that has run controlled operational pilots with human-in-the-loop and can lead the next one
Governance and vendor-evaluation criteria, tested against real pilot decisions
Written guidance on AI use, member data, and CDFI commitments
Regular communication that builds co-worker confidence in AI's role at Clearwater

Between Sprint Three and Sprint Four, a gap period of 7-10 weeks, Clearwater runs the third pilot independently. Regular check-in calls continue.

Sprint Four: Plan and Activate

5-7 weeks

Purpose. This sprint turns the engagement's evidence into a board-endorsed Annual AI Plan that Clearwater owns and refreshes each year.

The gap period evidence drives scaling decisions. Brent returns for an on-site board presentation and co-creation session.

Expected outcomes

Annual AI Plan, co-created and endorsed by the board and the executive team
Recommendation on where AI leadership belongs: a new role, an expanded existing role, a cross-functional council, or a hybrid
Watch-list of market shifts, regulatory changes, and AI capabilities, each with an owner and trigger conditions
Clearwater team equipped to evaluate, pilot, and scale AI from evidence

Pricing

Sprint One: Discover and Diagnose

Shared diagnosis: the AI running across Clearwater, its risk, and where the executive team agrees and disagrees on it.

$12,500

3-4 weeks

Sprint Two: Map and Decide

Operational task mapping and the executive workshop. Strategic direction set, board briefed, first pilot selected.

$15,000

5-6 weeks

Sprint Three: Test and Build

Strategy tested in practice: two pilots run (one co-led, one advised), a third independently in the gap.

$15,000

10-14 weeks

Sprint Four: Plan and Activate

Board-ready Annual AI Plan built from pilot evidence. Clearwater owns the process.

$12,500

5-7 weeks

Full engagement: $55,000

Travel expenses (roundtrip to Missoula, hotel, meals) billed at cost. Two on-site visits included: strategy workshop during Sprint Two and board presentation during Sprint Four. Additional on-site visits scheduled as needed.

The engagement can stop after any sprint. Earlier sprints are prerequisites for later ones.

Workforce productivity is the clearest financial return. AI takes routine load off co-workers, and that freed time goes to the member relationships Clearwater already wins on.

Personnel

All project work will be led by Brent Dixon.

Brent founded Dixon Strategic Labs after twenty years in credit unions, cooperatives, and mission-driven organizations. He publishes AI for FIs, a weekly newsletter on agentic AI for financial institutions. At Filene Research Institute, he led a two-year innovation program for forty senior credit union executives. He co-founded Trabian Technology, a fintech studio for banks and credit unions. He created the first innovation unit to serve the United Nations Secretariat. Today his practice is strategic facilitation for credit unions in the age of agentic AI.

Previous Clients Include

The next step is a conversation to talk through questions, the scope, and the right starting point.

This MOU is an example, reflecting the proposal above.

Memorandum of Understanding

This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is hereby made and entered into by and between Clearwater Credit Union ("Client") and Dixon Strategic Labs, LLC. For good and valuable consideration the receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged, both parties agree on the terms and conditions hereinafter set forth:

PURPOSE: The purpose of this MOU is to establish the relationship between the Client and Dixon Strategic Labs, LLC to deliver an AI strategy engagement across four sprints (Discover and Diagnose, Map and Decide, Test and Build, Plan and Activate) with the Client's executive team, approximately 23-31 weeks, plus a 7-10 week gap period between Sprint Three and Sprint Four when the team runs a pilot independently. On-site sessions in Missoula, Montana include a strategy workshop during Sprint Two and a board presentation during Sprint Four. All other work is conducted remotely.
FEES AND PAYMENTS: Client will pay Dixon Strategic Labs, LLC a fee of $55,000 plus reimbursement of direct expenses including roundtrip travel, hotel accommodations, and reasonable meals upon delivery of the items set forth in Section 4 of this agreement. Payment schedule: $12,500 upon commencement of Sprint One, $15,000 upon commencement of Sprint Two, $15,000 upon commencement of Sprint Three, $12,500 upon commencement of Sprint Four.
CLIENT RESPONSIBILITIES: Client shall provide all reasonable and necessary background information as requested by Dixon Strategic Labs, LLC for purposes of completing this project.
DIXON STRATEGIC LABS, LLC RESPONSIBILITIES: As outlined in the proposal above, Dixon Strategic Labs, LLC shall:
1. Conduct executive team discovery (survey, CEO interview, vendor AI audit, maturity assessment) and deliver a written strategic diagnosis.
2. Facilitate operational task mapping with functional leads and a strategy workshop with the executive team, and deliver the strategic direction for AI, a governance readiness assessment, and a board briefing.
3. Co-design and co-lead one controlled operational pilot with human-in-the-loop, alongside the Clearwater team, and advise on a second; prepare the team to run a third pilot independently during the gap period; build distributed AI governance across functions.
4. Provide regular check-in calls during the gap period between Sprint Three and Sprint Four.
5. Deliver a board-ready Annual AI Plan built from pilot evidence.
6. Treat all Client materials in the strictest of confidence.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned, hereby certifying that they are authorized to do so, have executed this MOU on behalf of the parties on the dates indicated below.

Jack Lawson, President & CEO

Clearwater Credit Union

Signed on:

Brent Dixon, Founder

Dixon Strategic Labs, LLC

Signed on: