JOURNEY MAPPING IN TIMES OF COVID: DIPPING TOES BACK IN WATER

Long and windy

Before lockdown, I had been doing a lot of teaching of journey maps to businesses intent on developing more holistic, human pictures of their consumer/User. An added bonus in taking organizations through the process is that it helps to coalesce cross-disciplinary stakeholders (needed), leverage diverse and divergent opinions (deepens thinking) and build towards common, actionable goals (the point, no?).

Come May-June of 2020, I fielded some [frantic] questions about map freshness. Should we re-jig our journey map now? Me, in strongly suggestive tone: Hold off. We’re in crisis mode. I bought olive oil at Walgreen’s. Nothing makes sense. 

Now, 8 months in, we’re a bit more grounded. While certainly not fixed, we’re on firm enough terrain to review existing or new targets and explore how they’re making their way into, and through, your category to your product/brand/service.

It’s entirely possible that some new COVID-related behaviors will stick because they make sense: I got my flu shot at the pharmacy vs the doctor. No appointment necessary, 20 minutes door to swab, easy parking, insurance taken.  I will take my two kids there on Thursday.

Time to RE-CALIBRATE. 

It’s not as cold as you fear.

RE-CALIBRATE: STAKEHOLDER SESSIONS. Downloading with the broad team is vital but, tbh, in normal times, it can be clipped and imperfect: A data session with your insights’ client, your team going through their decks, etc. This year, benchmarking together feels mandatory. Why?

-       What we sew in the front end (group connection), we reap in the back end (collaboration, activation, momentum). So, consider the internal cultural imperative: WFH fatigue has people burrowing into their siloes while clamoring for opportunities to be/build together. Create them. Digital white boards like MIRO, MURAL and even basic google slides can help connect a group. While this is about sharing intel, it’s equally about team cohesion, building trust and fostering creativity.

-       We’re going through social tumult – economic, biological, racial - in our cities, neighborhoods, homes and bodies; this is where our brands live. Consider the external contextual imperative: Use the diverse pool of thinkers to probe beyond the relationship/path to the brand. It behooves us to discuss these shifts, their impact on our consumers/Users and the decisions they make. 

RE-CALIBRATE QUALITATIVE FIELDWORK: I don’t mean get rid of it (hell, no), just shift perspectives. A typical journey map discussion can be plodding; for each track of the process, what do they do, who are influencers. Now, …

-       Make space for emotions. These days, in all my fieldwork, I allow for random acts of emoting. Think about how we start regular meetings with colleagues: “How are you? Yes, but, really, how are you?” Ask respondents to ‘moderate’ themselves, and reflect on any changes in behavior or points of view: How does this differ from last year? What are you getting from it? People need to parse their feelings. No need to solve, just sit.  

-       Quantify findings. Back up insights with numbers. Use data to help motivate a team that might be stymied or confused by the pandemic, the economic stoppage and priorities (see WFH consequences above).

RE-CALIBRATE THE DEBRIEF. A good presentation resonates in the moment, but its impact can fade. Bake an action plan into the final presentation. You have the distributed team - focused. Take advantage of it. Plan and moderate a short Q&A to pull out possible next steps – not just take-away’s. Employ those simple questions that push to bigger thinking (“How might we?”). Be bold! Go one step further, design a mini-sprint to develop ideas and weave the findings into the business. Strive for quantity. You want to flex creative muscles here, and imagine what could be, not what will be (that’s another session   ).

Again, these are all pieces of the same tried and true process (see previous post), just re-considered for these times. If you have any questions about re-calibration OR just want to add to the conversation, ping moi (aliza@alizapollack.com)

Journey Mapping: The Swiss Army Knife of insight tools

Hey, there. Yeah, you. I’ve got a secret. A little insights secret. Come a bit closer. There. Can you hear me?

Over the last decade or so, we’ve all seen the marketing funnel splinter. The customer – her, them, us – has so many choices, so many ways to access and vet options. The power dynamic hasn’t just shifted, it has quaked. Who hasn’t heard this: “I always do my research before I buy ____ .” “I’m the research queen.” If you are a brand marketer/product designer/innovation strategist (insert other consumer-facing position here), the road forward is fragmented, and each step has its corresponding emotions, actions and distractions. Wouldn’t it be great to have some sort of insight tool that can shed light on the real customer path? The behaviors, attitudes, delight and pain points that she encounters on the way to your product/category/experience. Behold: The customer journey map. A straightforward process and framework that aims to capture the full customer experience. And, when done well, it can coalesce often siloed consumer-facing teams and inspire a more nuanced marketing and product development roadmap. Here are my 4 broad steps that can help you make this work within your organization:

Benchmark: Ground yourself

As with all fact-finding missions, before starting consumer fieldwork, gather your major stakeholders in any way possible (e.g., individual interviews – face to face, phone, short workshop, google doc, survey) and build alignment.  

-        Download what is known across teams (marketing, product, CX, data science, etc.): in-going hypotheses, perceptions of the journey, CRM survey open-ends, personas/segments we want to pursue, competitive analysis, etc.

-        Identify what is unknown: What confuses, what are barriers to entry, underlying motivations, who is the real customer (parent or child, HH decision maker), duration of this journey – have we deemed it too long, too short, perceived competition, etc.

-        Agree on what success looks like: How should the final deliverable look, what does it need to achieve, what will this work impact within the organization - communications development, product development/refinement, innovation workshop, all?

Discovery: Define your target and design your methodology

-        Who will you talk to: Think through the key identifying variables of your broad user base: demographics, frequency of usage, awareness of category, awareness of brand, etc.

-        Go into discomfort zones: Journeys capture the full lifecycle which extends beyond purchase. Talk with power/passion users, latent users and rejecters.

-        Focus on the individual: I strive for pristine data so choose one-on-one interviews (video, F2F) vs focus groups. Use your analysis to uncover patterns.

-        Kickstart participant memory: We’re asking people to recall experiences which is inherently flawed (humans forget). Shore up memories with real-life artifacts: calendar entries, receipts, credit card slips, social media posts…. these items spark authentic stories and emotions.

Analysis & Visualization: Show your story

If you’ve done your job well, you are sitting on a trove of data (yikes!) with a need to synthesize in both a meaningful (make sense) and compelling (resonate and inspire) way.

-        Plan ahead: Talk with your client in advance to decide on best form of deliverable(s). They might not have a final vision so guide them towards what’s possible. They also might want to validate quantitatively so talk through how you can be of service to bring it all together without losing the humanity.

-        Sparring partner: It’s likely that you will be lost in the data weeds. Pluck someone from the team, the office (the street?) to share your findings. Telling a stranger the research story reveals its strengths and weaknesses. If you can’t answer their questions, you have more work to do.  

-        Bring on the [design] professionals: Unless you have some serious design skills, work with a professional. They’ll elevate your work.  

Action planning: So, what do we do now?

Admittedly, this isn’t integral to the journey map process, but it’s an important part of your client’s path. I try to bake it in to the workflow. You’ve started the project with full team inclusion, help them all put this valuable information to use.

-        Can you share it to the full team, and have a Q&A session after?

-        Can you conduct a workshop/sprint to inspire some new ideas which they will prioritize?

-        Can you overlay it with jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework so the team can see how their respective plans match/meet where users are, and how they feel in that moment.

In my line of work (insights & strategy), I’m often asked to do what sounds impossible: Find the unknown, the latent, that which people can’t articulate. The pressure. Within this context, journey maps relax me. They reveal what’s just beneath the surface. They’re power tool that drill down to the  customer experience and empower all customer-facing teams. (reprinted from FocusVision blog, June 24, 2019)

How to ask the hard questions

Let me introduce myself. I am that person behind you in line at Target who asks your opinion of the shampoo you’re buying (apologies, but I am interested). And the gal shifting a bit closer to your private museum group to ask your guide a question or two (c’mon, doesn’t it deepen your experience?). And the shopper grilling sales associates about business models and the seamlessness of offline and online business (cue nervous smiles, shifty eyes). I am, and have always been, naturally nosy.

Yet despite this healthy dose of chutzpah, early in my career as a group facilitator, a client took me aside, mid-focus group, and told me that I seemed, “afraid to ask the hard questions.” Yikes. Absolutely not. I denied the charge and proceeded to run the rest of the group like a matador in the bullfight of her life. But, later, mulling over his words, I admitted to myself that I was afraid – to probe deeper, to hurt feelings, to disturb comfort zones, to offend.

After many, varied, interview experiences over the years – during which I’ve spoken to people about issues that range from the happily benign (skincare and beverage choice) to the hyper-intimate (vulnerability at work and mortality) – I’ve honed some technique and working principles to help me dive headfirst into prickly situations. Now, we don’t all interview people for a living, but most of us must ask questions, sometimes awkward ones, to improve our proposal, our project, our position. The better we are at asking the hard questions, the more nuanced the answers. So….

Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Both you and your interviewee might be incredibly open in connecting, and sharing.  You may be thoroughly prepared with your discussion outline and objectives and contingency plans. But, for you to do this right, you will need to tread in awkward territory. To go in with the mindset that you can control discomfort only sets the stage to curb the unpredictable, and thus any serendipity that might ensue. Not worth it.  Don’t spend your time trying to make the conversation feel normal, or right. Rather, spend that energy making it feel real. Way better ROI. A good interview can chisel away at your biases – but you must be ready to be cracked open.

 Show your feelings. Yes, this flies in the face of the social science rule book. But listen, if you are a sentient being, it is a fact that talking about illness, or a patient dying, or someone feeling vulnerable at work, will make you feel. This only reveals that you are human, not a bad interviewer. How you express your feelings while staying on track reveals your skill. I have cried with interviewees, and then apologized afterwards. I have shared their awe at tales of dismissive doctors, and then asked how they would have done it differently. Sure, I have exposed some of my self here, but in these cases, I feel it’s important to reveal my humanity. I feel confident enough in my capabilities that I can maneuver around any of my over-sharing.

Know when to shut up. In my many years of interviewing – across subjects, cultures, and countries – it’s clear that people want to share.  A dynamic conversation doesn’t mean that you, the interviewer, should do the talking. You should listen, and probe at the right moment. And you need to let those moments appear, in their own time. Use silence the way you work a muscle – sometimes you flex, sometimes you let it go. In moments of silence, take a breath and let your interviewee fill it with their stories. A good ramble is a tapestry of thoughts, ruminations, and unvarnished truths. This is what you want.

Then again, don’t be afraid to put words in their mouths. Beware. I am now going to trot out a concept that has been somewhat worn thin: employ empathy. But stay with me, because there is a there there. Don’t just attune to what that person is going through (which is somewhat transporting). I’m asking you to go method with your empathy. Imagine when you have been in a situation like theirs, and sit there for a while, in it, feeling it. Perhaps we’ve not been cancer patients, or hemophiliacs, but we’ve all had moments of joy, vulnerability, despair, and delight. So when you ask how they felt in a particular moment, let them talk first, then suggest another emotional option (e.g., did it feel like XXX, or maybe more like YYY?) Emotions are complicated and fast-moving. People can’t always locate, articulate, or deconstruct them. Many need a verbal springboard against which to react. I know I’ve done my job well when someone I’m talking to says, “no, actually, it’s not like any of your options, it’s more like ZZZ.” Ahh, yes, of course it is.

And when words fail, use imagery. Again, people don’t always know how to shape what they feel. For those times, share a collection of evocative imagery (I use images pulled from magazines) and ask them to choose a picture(s) that represents the experience. Inevitably, a visual will spark a thought out of which you and your respondent can make meaning.

On a micro level, an interview creates an opportunity to understand one’s category or business challenge. On a macro level, an interview opens opportunity to stretch the confines of yourself – your perspectives, comfort zones, and biases. In our increasingly atomized and echo-chambered lives – this is a rare gift. Make the most out of it. 

How I learned to love my bathing cap & other symbols of conformity that set me free

Earlier this year, I left my corporate job to consult. I have a fair amount of rebel in me and hankered to be free but perhaps, most importantly, I left to find time. Each year, I felt increasingly that I was running behind …clients, details, tasks, my kids’ lives, my own life. Constant running to catch up left me with little space to wonder, muse, and think deeply -  all vital to what I do, and frankly, to who I am. 

So, I left and all of a sudden, I had time. At first, I reveled in it. Seconds and minutes felt weightier. Then, I FACED it. Lots of it. And, I had to figure out how to best manage it. In a large organization, the org dictates the rhythm and you either rise (or not) to the occasion: 10 people want meetings on Tuesday - stagger them; you’re involved in 5 projects with impending deadlines, stack them; re-scheduled meeting cluster - lunch at your desk, etc. In an organization, demands wallpapered my Outlook. On my own, the empty rows loom large. As a consultant, there are so many to-do’s, it’s hard to identify the priorities. 

In another part of my life, I pledged to go back to some exercise roots and swim moreregularly. I anticipated stronger arms, drier skin, and straw-like hair; what I didn’t expect was how committing to a weekly swim regime would help me organize my time, and get my head straight for my consulting work. 

What I learned, and keep working on:

Embrace structure. At my pool, bathing caps are the rule. They pinch your head, leave weird marks and are just plain ugly. But damn - they work: They keep hair out of eyes, and make for a more streamlined swim. When working corporate, I dreamed about infinite freedom because I wanted to make room for inspiration to hit. But inspiration only comes when there is time. Now, I designate certain days and times of day for particular tasks. I know when I am most alert, and do my deep thinking/creation work then. I know when my energy dissipates, and use social energy/meetings to compensate. Without trusting structure, I can’t function to the best of my abilities.

Dive in. The water is cold. There is no avoiding it. You can wait on the side lines and sprinkle your arms gently with water, but the only way to achieve warmth is by jumping in and moving. Consulting also requires moving through many moments of discomfort. To be successful, you must build a network and do the work. Some of us are better at one than the other. Nevertheless, we have to do both. Swimming taught me to jump in immediately - coaching myself through the discomfort - and hustle to gain warmth. Make those calls, pitch your value. Don’t take it personally. Find the pleasure in it.  And when you’ve logged your laps (or your phone calls), be proud of what you’ve accomplished, and recall it the next time you have to face the cold. Because you will. 

Keep your whole self in order. If I don’t sleep well, eat well, live well, I don’t swim well. Some nights, I want to binge watch Transparent (right?), but I tear myself away because I know waking up in the morning will be arduous, and my next day’s swim will be lumbering and unsatisfying. For me, the fun of my work is in the big ticket items - writing reports, running creative workshops, thinking about what drives people, how culture impacts action. I don’t love book-keeping or filing, but these are the other parts of my work self - the support systems - and they enable the fun stuff. I will admit, it’s deeply boring, but I’ve used downtime to establish some systems that have proven their value time and again.

Share your lane. As a swimmer, I admit to suffering from delusions: I think I’m the fastest and therefore, deserve my own lane. In reality, I’m just OK, and there is room for others. It’s amazing how it’s possible to share, without it impeding my progress. When you’re on your own, as a consultant, there’s pressure to do it all because it’s all revenue. But think about the greater benefit you might get from sharing, delegating, and partnering. Give something away. It’s better for the universe and ultimately, that’s better for you. This summer, I was able to employ a new graduate for a project: I gave him a bit of money, but also insight into what I do and a bit more direction for him as he moves towards his first professional experiences. For me, the rewards of teaching and helping were way bigger than the project’s results. 

Don’t compare yourself to others - unless you’re looking for inspiration. At my pool, there are some people who can freestyle for 45 minute straight. Wha?! I’m at my worst when I wonder why they can do it, and I can’t. But, I am at my best when I wonder how they do it, and what I can learn from. So many factors make them (bionic freestylers) who they are and so many factors make the other consultants in my real and virtual midst who they are. Comparison is a futile act. Instead, concentrate on your skills, your uniqueness, your goals. The wins can be small (yes, I am up to 6 consecutive freestyle laps without collapsing), but the achievement is huge.

I am a work-in-progress and some weeks, I regress, and don’t follow my principles but I own them, and have them to refer back to. Next week - what I learned from doing water aerobics with women aged 68 years+ …it’s not for the weak of heart.

Signs of intelligent, communal life

This world is complex: We are so hyper connected, yet many of us don't know how to talk to each other; we are empowered to speak, but our lone voice drowns in the din of louder (and not often smarter) voices; we are seen in some of our angles, but we still feel - and are, often, - ignored.  It's hard to understand life's purpose - truly what we are doing here - when so much bile and hatred - once latent - is exploding through the surface.

The last two weeks in this country have been confounding. Have we moved forwards? Does moving forwards require moving backwards? Does it have to be so painful and ugly? Maybe it does. Across my various social networks, I've noticed so many people talking about 'finding their voices'. They want to share their outrage and confusion, shame and empathy. We live in such a peculiar time where we can all publicize our opinions, but it leaves us open to such vile, ignorant, hateful criticism. They're scared. They want to show humanity and vulnerability, but they're afraid of repercussions beyond their control. Missiles of hatred leveled at them. They're reaching for the courage to speak their truth. 

When I was 28 and got cancer, it threw me for a loop. It was very much NOT the plan. But I just pushed through - I did chemo, radiation, all of it, because I wanted to live. It was as simple as that. I didn't want to start again, and be better. Live life differently. Make it great. I just wanted to live. To breathe and grow. The way I was during my treatment garnered a lot of admiration - 'oh, you are so courageous', 'you're so brave'. Was I? I didn't feel especially brave. I felt stuck in a corner, actually. I was in a deeply uncomfortable situation with options of yuk or yuckier. And so I chose yuk (surprisingly, the better option), and dug into myself - to find my strength and weaknesses, and trust in my doctor and family and things that felt informed and right and good. Courage didn't fuel me; it came after the fact. Discomfort fueled me. Being on the ledge fueled me. I had to do something to resolve my situation. This is what I think: For the most part, one doesn't feel comfortable when one is doing something brave. One feels wobbly. So, if you feel compelled to say something, but you're feeling vulnerable and exposed and open to judgment, then you've found the seeds of your voice and you. should. speak. Only then, will you feel steadier.  

Someone (or someone's) leave magazines around this public bench where I walk in the morning. It is such a beautiful, innocent, small gesture of community that - for me - resonates loudly. I think that in this big, loud, chaotic, dysfunctional global world of a lot of bad and a lot of good, change comes from the ground up, and manifests as a multitude of small acts/behaviors/messages that build to something bigger and, hopefully, better.