Scope and Exclusions
This page is the public counterpart of the scope clause in our contract. It sets out what we do in company story work, which document we hand over, which tasks we never take on and at which point the work leaves our hands. The purpose is to let you reach a decision before any proposal meeting takes place.
The subject of the work is text. We define a company story as a record: testimony, dates, names, decisions, documents and quotations. The reasoning behind that definition is set out on the A Company Story Is a Record page. The ladder below shows the depth at which that record is extracted.
The layer ladder is a ladder of textual depth
What separates one step from the next is not the volume of visual output. The difference lies in research depth, the number of interviews, the length of the text and the rounds of revision. Every step ends with a document. No step ends with an image, a presentation or a shoot. Placing statistics, quotations and cited sources inside a text has a measurable effect that has been reported in academic work: in the GEO study by Aggarwal and colleagues (KDD 2024), the Position-Adjusted Word Count metric showed a baseline value of 19.5, rising to 27.8 when quotations were added, 25.9 when statistics were added and 24.9 when sources were cited. Each step of the ladder is therefore built to leave more verified material behind for the step that follows.
1. Interviews and transcription
Structured interviews are conducted with founders, with long-serving employees and with the people who were present when decisions were taken. The recording is an audio record made solely for transcription purposes. It is not a deliverable and it is not published. The output of this step is a transcript labelled with speaker names and dates.
2. Reading and dating the archive
The archive supplied by the client is read: contracts, early invoices, register entries, old catalogues and brochures, correspondence, press clippings, registration certificates. Every item is dated and its source is recorded. The output of this step is an inventory of events ordered by date, with the source shown for each entry.
3. Narrative framework and event map
The transcript and the inventory are brought together. Which event is told and why, which claim rests on which document, and which statement has been left out because it could not be verified: all of this is fixed in writing. The output of this step is the narrative framework document, delivered together with the event map.
4. Publication-ready text
Depending on the type of assignment, the framework becomes a written document: a written brief, a chronicle text or a book manuscript. The text is prepared for two readers, that is, for the human reader and for answer engines alike. The output of this step is the publication-ready text, delivered together with its source notes.
5. Structured data
The entities, dates and claims carried by the text are converted into machine-readable form. We present this as a carrier layer, not as a cause. In the difference-in-differences measurement in which Ahrefs compared 1,885 pages that had JSON-LD added between August 2025 and March 2026 against 4,000 matched control pages, a decrease of 4.6 percent was reported in AI Overviews visibility, while on the other two surfaces the effect could not be distinguished from noise. What is missing, in other words, is not the technical layer but the material. The output of this step is the structured data package, delivered together with the schema types applied. The framework for this layer is described in detail on the Entity SEO and GEO pages.
What is delivered at each step
| Step | Document delivered | Sessions | Revision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interviews and transcription | Labelled transcript | Fixed as a number in the contract, according to the number of people to be interviewed | Corrections to the transcript, not content revision |
| Archive reading | Dated and sourced event inventory | The access window is fixed in the contract as a date range | Additions to the inventory until the window closes |
| Narrative framework | Framework document and event map | The number of presentation and sign-off sessions is fixed in the contract | The number of revision rounds is fixed in the contract |
| Publication-ready text | Brief, chronicle text or book manuscript | The writing period is fixed in the contract in working days | The number of revision rounds is fixed in the contract |
| Structured data | Schema package and implementation note | The implementation schedule is fixed in the contract | Corrections after validation |
We do not publish figures here for the number of sessions and revisions, because they vary with the size of the assignment and a fixed published figure would be misleading. Both numbers are written out explicitly in the contract and are visible before the contract is signed. The pricing architecture and the way we work are set out on the Working Model page, and an initial range can be obtained through Calculate a Proposal.
The client's responsibility
This work does not run one-sidedly. The following are the client's obligations and are written into the contract by name.
- A single named point of contact. One person is designated to take decisions and grant approvals. When approval is spread across several people, the schedule does not hold.
- An access window. The dates between which the archive and the individuals can be accessed are fixed at the outset. Material arriving after the window closes does not enter the text for that round.
- Provision of the archive. The documents are gathered and handed over by the client. We read the archive; we do not build it.
- Arranging the interviewees. Booking appointments, briefing the individuals and, where required, obtaining internal permissions are the client's responsibility.
- Verification responses. The client must answer the questions in the framework document in writing. A statement that cannot be verified does not enter the text.
If client input is delayed, the schedule moves. This is not a penalty; it is the physical order of the work. Without a transcript there is no inventory, without an inventory there is no framework, and without a framework no text is written.
Work that is excluded
- We do not carry out photography or video shoots. We do not produce corporate films, promotional films, anniversary films, documentaries or animation.
- We do not provide editing, post production, colour grading, retouching, voice-over, drone, studio or crew services.
- We do not film the interviews.
- We do not scan, restore, digitise or re-photograph archive images.
- We do not handle the cover design, typesetting, page layout, printing or binding of the book. We deliver the manuscript and the narrative structure. The book as a physical object belongs to the client's printer.
- We do not select images for a book or chronicle, do not clear image rights and do not run licensing.
- We do not require the client to produce original photography or video. The visual layer comes from the client's own archive.
- We do not buy placement in earned media and we do not promise publication. The publication decision rests with the publisher.
- We do not take on work while our capacity is full. We do not accept an anniversary assignment when fewer than eight weeks remain until the event date.
What we do not promise
- We give no guarantee of citation, ranking or visibility. What we provide is measurement, a stated method and a report.
- We do not claim that structured data produces citations on its own. The Ahrefs measurement above indicates the opposite. Schema is a carrier layer, not a cause.
- We do not claim that a story on its own will bring artificial intelligence citations. We produce the record layer; we do not promise the citation.
- We do not sell visual originality. The decorative images on this site come from stock sources, are credited to their source and carry no claim. Everything that carries a claim is text and is sourced. The full source policy is set out on the Transparency and Evidence page.
- We make no claim to deliver writing and visual production from a single hand.
The handover point
Once the script or brief has been delivered, TYS does not take on the shoot. The document passes to the client or to the production company the client selects. The handover is documented in writing, and the document is prepared in a form the production company can use directly: sequence of events, speakers, dates, verified claims and source notes. Production decisions, budget and schedule beyond this point belong to the client. We do not intervene in the choice of production company and we take no commission from one.
How this scope begins
Who conducts the interviews and what that competence rests on is set out on the Who Conducts the Interviews page. The method itself is described on the Methodology page, and earlier work is documented in the Case Studies section. To ask how a particular point of this scope would apply to your own case, please use the contact page.