Prioritizing Your Initiatives

Do you have in mind which initiatives you want to do next? How do you prioritize?

Often, parsing out the key, individual decision factors can get everyone on the same page. Creating a Decision Matrix is a great tool for this:

1. List the items under consideration.

2. Enumerate the factors that will make the most difference in product success- whatever factors make sense for your product/market. Weight these factors in importance.

3. Pull together a team session to quickly gain consensus on each factor’s impact for each initiative. (Including an outsider in the group can really help get over group-think.)

Use this simple tool to break down the essential elements of decision making and turn argumentation into data-point discussions.

Thanks for the Wisdom

Good judgement is the result of experience. Experience is often the result of bad judgement…

The goal in our pursuits is NOT, not to fail. The goal is to learn. Even if that means failing fairly often.

Learning requires challenging assumptions, bringing in new knowledge and perspectives, trying something different, and being willing to pivot when plans don’t work as planned.

In all these things, there is the risk that your judgement will have been less than perfect. In all these things, there is risk of failure. In all these things, learning will occur that may lead to the wisdom that brings good judgement.

So be thankful for your failures. They point the way to better things. 

Have You Done Your Homework Yet?

3 core research projects you should start now for a strong start on your next wave

Win/Loss Analysis

Institute a structured program to collect feedback from customers/prospects that tells you what you’re doing right or wrong

• Create a template and a regular process for collecting feedback
• Works for both B2B (won/lost contracts) and for B2C (won/lost consumers)
• Tells you: Specific things you can do to improve results

Trend Discovery

Conduct some quick research activities to see where things are headed so you start the year with fresh perspective

• Conduct trend-finding focus groups during fall/winter conferences, and/or conduct quick online surveys to reach decision makers/influencers
• Examine the broad trends, not just your product
• Tells you: The important political/regulatory/legal, economic, social, technological issues that will impact your customers and your business in the near future

Competitive Intelligence

Gather insights about what your competition is doing so you can plan your response

• Execute product-use surveys to get customer evaluations of competitive offerings & claims, and to gather news of what competitors are announcing to customers
• Use targeted online ad buys to drive competitor customers to your survey
• Tells you: What competitive drivers you should focus on

The goal is to consistently know more than everyone else- with data in your pocket and able to support your decisions about what to do next

When to Use QUALitative VS QUANTitative Research

To better understand your market/product/stance, start broadly with qualitative research, then refine with quantitative research.

Start with Qualitative research to ask “who, what and how” questions: What are the problems? Who has them? In what context? How are they currently resolved? What is the buying process/experience? What might be better? Etc.

• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Win/Loss feedback
• Site visits/ shadowing
• Shopping studies

Follow with Quantitative research to answer “how many” questions: How many prospects have each particular problem? How are they segmented? How often does the problem occur? How much is spent/ how much would a solution be worth? How much market share? Etc.

• Surveys
• Purchase data
• Usage data

Qualitative research teaches you what you don’t know and establishes the issues in play.

Quantitative research refines that learning and provides the data needed to make decisions.

Bill Haines