Is your organization hungry for strategic intent?

We are living and working in an environment that is full of volatility and change.  Many organizations are hungry for strategic intent, a term used to describe the intended direction, purpose, and plans that leaders put in place to achieve their organization’s vision.

Setting and Communicating StrongStrategic Intent Pays Off in Many Ways:

• Drives alignment across the organization
• Illuminates new opportunities for growth
• Creates excitement and engagement 
• Builds onto existing brand equity

SIVO Insights helps organizations set their strategic intent, by leading and facilitating the strategic planning process. This strategic planning  process can be summarized into three steps. Leaders must: 

1. Assess, 

2. Align 

3. Articulate

STEP 1:  ASSESS

Leaders must gather and assess relevant trends, consumer insights, market intelligence and institutional knowledge to answer critical questions across the 5C’s Assessment Framework.

Trending

Do customers want to ‘hire’ your product?

STEP 2:  ALIGN

With this knowledge in hand, leaders participate in a facilitated strategic planning session to review their assessment of the 5C’s, to ideate, prioritize and most importantly, to align on the mission, vision, and values that will carry the organization into the future.

STEP 3:  ARTICULATE

Lastly, leaders need to articulate their strategic intent—the vision, mission and values as well as the plan—to employees, collaborators, stakeholders, and in some cases to consumers and customers. This communication needs to happen repeatedly, in multiple forums, in-person or virtually, in internal documentation, as well as, in external communication. Strategic Intent can’t be communicated enough to ensure it is internalized by all parties.

Strategic Intent Consulting: Get Transformational Insights

In this time of continuous change, with a refreshed grounding in foundational insights and market intelligence, combined with solid strategic planning (i.e., Assess, Align and Articulate), you can give your organization and your stakeholders what they are hungering for . . . strong strategic intent. Let SIVO help with strategic intent consulting!

 Schedule a Discovery with SIVO Today

Schedule a discovery with SIVO to learn how you and your leadership team can create or re-establish your organization’s strategic intent.

By Cindy Blackstock

We’ve all hired someone to complete a task or a job for us.  For example, if your lawn needs to be mowed – you can hire someone to mow it. Seems simple, doesn’t it? But have you ever asked that question about the products or services you work with?  Do you know what “job” your customers need done, that is causing them to “hire” your product or service?

Customer needs are often less clear than ‘your lawn needs to be mowed.’ Identifying customer needs or “jobs to be done” is an intentional exercise where we must listen, observe and expertly question customers to uncover.

Jobs Theory

Jobs Theory reframes our relationship with customers, making them the center of our focus. While conventional marketing tends to focus on brand and product benefits, Jobs Theory doesn't look internally at products and services but instead, looks externally, to expose the functional, social, and emotional jobs that explain why customers make the choices they do.

People don’t simply buy products or services; they bring them into their lives to fulfill a need. We call this need the ‘job’ they are trying to get done. When we discover why customers want to ‘hire’ products or services, we develop a customer-centric view, allowing brand teams to become empathetic to their customers' needs and wants. 

Trending for SIVO: What Does a Remote Workforce Really Want? You Need to Dig Deeper to Find Out

Identifying Customer Needs with a “Jobs to be Done Map”

A good Jobs to be Done Map becomes a framework that helps marketers figure out how to improve their products or innovate by developing new products and services in their industry or category, i.e., ‘where to play.’ It can be leveraged beyond a single initiative. It maps all the jobs that customers have for a particular occasion.  For example, a Snacking JTBD Map includes all the jobs that customers have for the snacking occasion.  A Financial Investment JTBD Map, includes all the jobs that customers have for investing their money.  It lives on in your organization as a place to continually go back to for inspiration and focus. It provides:

Inspiration and guardrails for brand positioning, marketing messages, product innovation and renovation 

A framework for capturing, defining, categorizing, and prioritizing customer needs

A common language and focus for the cross-functional team

Factors That Influence Customer Behavior

There are several factors that influence customer behavior, including:

1. Customer Needs and Goals - Customers use products that help them achieve their goals and meet their needs. If your product does not effectively address these needs and goals, customers are unlikely to hire it.

2. Product Features and Benefits - The features and benefits of your product can also influence customer buying behavior. Customers are more likely to buy products that offer the features and benefits that they are looking for.

3. Brand Reputation - The reputation of your brand can also influence customer behavior. Customers are more likely to buy products from brands that they trust and that have a positive reputation.

4. Customer Experience - Customer experience can also impact purchasing behavior. Customers are more likely to purchase products that offer a positive and seamless experience, from purchase to use.

5. Competitor Offerings - Competitor offerings can also influence customer buying behavior. If your competitors offer products that better meet customer needs and preferences, customers may choose to “hire” those products instead of yours.

Partner with SIVO to Identify Customer Needs for Your Business

At SIVO, we help our clients uncover their customers’ jobs for a wide range of application opportunities. We design customized research that leads to a fully developed Jobs to be Done Map. Our approach focuses on uncovering the subconscious drivers of customer decision-making by understanding the underlying needs and true motivations.

In Part 2 of our Jobs series, we will share the keys to success for Jobs to be Done mapping along with some examples of how it comes to life. Until then, please reach out to discuss how we can help you to get your brand, product, or service hired. 

Reach out to the SIVO team at Contact@SIVOInsights.com to discuss how we can develop a Jobs to be Done Map for your organization.

To Make Your Workload Manageable

By Marilyn Weiss

In these inflationary times, companies are cutting operational costs, including their workforce budgets. In 2022, there were at least 154,000 layoffs from more than 1,000 tech companies and so far in 2023, the trend continues with 55,000 layoffs to date. (USAToday.com & Layoffs.fyi, Jan. 2023)

Not only is this devastating for employees that have been laid off, but it is also difficult for those who remain. Post layoffs, organizations become leaner and the scope of work for each employee gets stretched wider. Employees are asked to stabilize the organization and drive future growth with fewer resources.

On the bright side, this increase in individual scope of work can create opportunities to gain new experiences and demonstrate leadership. However, the broader scope can also leave employees feeling overworked, stressed, and unable to manage the expanded workload.  When it feels like there is just too much work and not enough hours in the day to get it done, the best way to manage through it, is to adopt a “Fractional Mindset.”

What is a Fractional Mindset?

A fractional mindset is a new way of thinking. It’s breaking down a system into smaller fractional pieces.  When you are faced with a problem, adopting a fractional mindset makes the problem smaller.  A fractional mindset, when applied to your assigned workload, allows you to approach your role and responsibilities by dividing them up into smaller, fractional tasks. This gives you freedom to take a step back to strategize and prioritize the best way to complete them.  

Prioritize the Workload

The first step requires some analysis. You will need to prioritize your list of tasks and/or objectives based on what will add the most value or make the most positive impact on the business. A best practice is to sort the completed list by those items that make the most positive impact on the business or drive business growth.

Delegate the Workload

The next step requires some self-reflection. You will need to consider which tasks/objectives YOU should personally complete and which ones are best to delegate to ANOTHER to complete for you. Ask yourself some questions to determine if YOU or a delegated resource under your direction is best:

• Which tasks require me to apply my specific business knowledge or leverage my internal relationships?   
• Do my passion, skills and abilities make these best for me to complete? 

If the answer to these questions is, “No”, consider the possibility of others doing these tasks on your behalf, under your supervision. This allows you to manageably “stretch your bandwidth” across your workload, without becoming overwhelmed and stressed by trying to do it all yourself.

Delegation Resources to Consider:

• Internal peers or direct reports: Can you divide your workload up among your team members?  
• External Agencies: Can you assign agency partners to manage and execute stand-alone, finite projects or parts of projects, on your behalf?
• Fractional Staff: Can you hire temporary staff in the form of experienced specialists that have the skillset you need to step in and complete tasks that you don’t have the time, energy, or skillset for?

The pros and cons of each resource are captured below:  

When to Utilize your Resources

Internal peers or direct reports are a great option when the team has capacity to take on your assigned workload. If your teammates do not have capacity, delegating to your external agency partners to manage finite projects is a great option.

Sometimes, however, you just need to essentially “clone yourself” or bring in an expert with a skillset that differs from your own. In these instances, you can bring in fractional professionals that, with a little onboarding, can hit the ground running. Delegating to your fractional resources can help you work through your increased workload and objectives in a manageable way.

How SIVO can Help

For insights teams, SIVO offers full-service custom research design, management, and execution to help you with custom market research projects. SIVO On Demand Talent solution also has 100+ fractional Consumer Insights Professionals with a range of skillsets to help you meet your business objectives on your timeline, reducing your stress while allowing you to make a positive impact on your business.

Adopting a fractional mindset will help you approach your role and your workload with confidence, efficiency, and effectiveness. And when the time comes, let SIVO be the agency that you delegate to!  Contact@SIVOInsights.com

SIVO is thrilled to present The SIVO Insights Forum, an on-demand panel discussion with esteemed Insights executives. You’re invited to tune in here! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX3aO1k61QE

The lively conversation focuses on “Bridging The Gap: Translating Insights Into Meaningful Business Results" with industry leaders:

• Eliana Wahnon | General Mills, VP of Consumer & Market Insights
• Khary Campbell | Comcast, VP of Consumer Research & Insights
• Elizabeth Oates | Book Author, Ulta Beauty Former VP of Consumer Insights 
• Natasha Weith as Forum Host | SIVO Insights, VP of Research & Operations 

Learn from world-class Insights leaders as they discuss: 

• The critical role Insights plays in shaping strategic business decisions
• Strategies and tactics to ensure Insights are acted upon 
• How to navigate leadership that is reluctant to follow Insights’ guidance 
• How to build trust and credibility with senior leaders
• The evolution of Insights roles in the future 
• How to make a bigger impact within your organization 

Feel free to share with your team and reach out with any questions that spark as you watch! 

About SIVO: 
SIVO is a global insights and strategy firm specializing in understanding people and their needs and beliefs that drive behavior. We partner with world-class brands to answer key questions that fuel business growth and innovation.