Role
Lead Researcher, Facilitator
Methods & Tools
In-depth Interviews, Card Sorting, Affinity Mapping, Business Canvas Workshop, Maze, FigJam
Timeline
January - March, 2024
Overview
In late 2023, Workforce.com, a workforce management platform, made the decision to move to an all-in-one solution. This prompted a review of our product vision and my taking the lead in aligning our teams around a vision for our all-in-one. Leading cross-team collaborations and conducting in-depth research efforts, I focused efforts on identifying our best-fit target segments given our expanded product offerings.
Goals
Guide our product vision by identifying one or more best-fit target segments to be tested over the next year and encourage alignment across teams.
Outcome
Identified a primary best-fit target segment through facilitating cross-team research, collaboration, and interactive workshops.
Business Canvas Workshop
Early meetings with our marketing team identified two segments which would be most promising to target.
I then held workshops with our sales, marketing, customer success, and product team (9 total participants), where I facilitated discussions around the impact of each segment using a customized business canvas.
Over the course of 3 workshops, representatives from our sales, marketing, customer success, and product teams evaluated the impact of targeting our two potential market segents by assessing how our internal processes might need to change and what support they'd need.
Workshop Outcomes
Segment A
"Hard Win, Big Gain, Higher Risk/Cost"
It was agreed that this segment had large revenue gains, but convincing them to buy our product could be more challenging, adding to our risks and costs.
Segment B
"Easy Win, Mid Gains, Low Risk/Cost"
Targeting this segment would take less effort and cost, but they were concerned this segment had a small, undefined community that the revenue gains would be minimal.
A post-workshop survey showed a split preference between the two segments and indicated no one felt ready to commit to either segment, leading to our next effort to thoroughly research both segments.
Discovery Research
To identify the best market fit, I collaborated with our marketing researcher to conduct in-depth interviews and desk research, exploring pain points and segment needs.
In-Depth Interviews
We conducted 10 interviews across both segments, splitting facilitation of the interviews between us for both Segment A and B.
Desk Research
I additionally conducted desk research using industry journals, LinkedIn, Reddit, and forums to further validate insights from the interviews, providing a clearer picture of each segment's priorities
Key Insights
Segment A: Minimal interest in key differentiators; preferred modular tools over all-in-one solutions.
Segment B: Contrary to assumptions, this segment was highly interested in an all-in-one product.
Shared Pain Points: Both segments faced general HR management challenges but lacked segment-specific needs
Segment B (left) seemed to be the most fit for our kind of product as they expressed pains around trying to have everything they needed to do in their work in on one product. Segment A (right) failed to indicate a strong desire for all in ones.
Surveying All-in-One Preference
We believed Segment B a good fit, but our CSO favored Segment A. To proceed, we needed to confirm whether 50% of Segment A would prefer an all-in-one product, as even this share of the market could sustain our business.
To expand our reach within Segment A, we conducted a survey, using card sorts to compare their current company’s setup for key features of payroll, HR, and scheduling software to their ideal setup. If they sort all key features together, then Segment A would probably prefer all-in-ones.
Key Insights
01
Less than 20% prefered an all-in-one, meaning our product would potentially suit their needs but not be attractive simply by being an all-in-one solution.
02
The ideal features that belonged together were in line with our product bundling which was promising for making sales deals.
Insights
Due to Segment B's robust community and support for an all-in-one, along with the promising strong alignment of Segment A with our product bundle offerings, we saw potential in both segments. In addition, recent successful deals included prospects who represented an intersection with Segment A and B.
Project Outcome
Ultimately, the US chose to target Segment B (role-based) AND its intersection with Segment A (an industry), along with any intersections with two other industries previously identified as a target market.
Impact
By identifying pain points and buyer preferences from potential users of our software, I ensured our product vision was not only market-aligned but user-centered, providing key insights that can guide all cross-functional teams in their efforts to engage and understand our users.
The research conducted also provides a foundation for feature prioritization in the upcoming product roadmap and lays the groundwork for future research initiatives.
Takeaways
01 Stakeholders Early & Often
Effective stakeholder management is vital for large-scale projects like this. This project helped me learn how to involve stakeholders early and often to gather essential insights for decision-making.
02 Clients Drive Product
This project came to me partly due to my curiosity and desire for clarity on who our product was built for. Though we will test our fit with the chosen segments, our product now has a focused persona to build for and test around.