Hypothesis Department helps big thinkers and visionary leaders attack 3 primary problems:
How do we find the Next Big Thing?
Are you a leader of a growing or established innovation looking for ways to expand? We can help you understand what additional products or services your team can develop for your current market – or tell you whether there is another market out there for your current products or services.
How do we commercialize our innovation?
Are you a committed, possibly sales-phobic innovator wondering who will buy your innovation and how on earth you are going to sell it to them? We can help you figure out how your best customers are and how (or if) they are different from your best users. We can help you figure out what to say, how to say it, and when to say it so you turn more of those prospects into customers.
How do I get my team aligned around my vision?
Are you a visionary leader wondering why your team can’t seem to build toward your singular vision, no matter how many times you repeat yourself? We help you codify and mobilize your message so your team knows exactly what success looks like – and so you can finally step away from weighing in on every little decision.
We help you get the stories and data that give your team the inputs they need to ship and sell your project
First things first: We’ll start with an Innovation Audit
Audit: Innovation Strategy and Roadmapping
Get unstuck and find the best next step for you
Some teams will be ready to start with one of the projects outlined above. You know you need help with your vision. You know you need help with getting data. You know your biggest problem is commercialization. You know your biggest problem is organizational alignment.
But if it’s not clear for you, we can start with an audit.
Data Audit: We’ll take an inventory of your customer research, messaging documentation, strategic briefs, SOPs – or we’ll start digging in to the challenges you and your team have faced to get there.
Alignment Audit: If your team is more than just a few folks, I’ll give you a link to a very short survey you can share with your team to take your org’s collective temperature (plus a script to let your team members know you really truly do want their honest answers).
Messaging Audit: If you have recordings of sales calls that closed – or sales calls that didn’t – I’ll listen to how you’re talking about your product and what people are saying about it when they talk to you.
At the end, you’ll see where you’re stuck and how to get out of it.
After we know where your biggest opportunities are, we’ll tackle one or several of them in one of these opportunities:
Advisory: Storyboard Your Vision
Build the narrative that helps your team see the future the way you see it
You can see a better future in your mind’s eye, but when it comes time to write it down, to tell the board, to defend it in front of a curious new employee – doubt creeps in. Is this still your vision? Is it still the story you want to tell about your vision? Is it a good idea after all? This project is about breaking down everything you see and building it back up into a story you’re confident telling.
Workshop: Show Your Team How to See Your Vision with User Research
Turn user research into a training workshop so your team knows how to build your vision
You have a clear vision, but your team just doesn’t have the benefit of living in your brain for the last however many years. So even though they want to see what you see, they need more data points than your opinion if they are going to see it with the clarity that will enable them to build exactly what you see.
This workshop gets your vision out of your head and into your team’s. We meet to discuss your vision. You send me email invites to some of your best customers. I interview your users, then develop and deliver a custom workshop where we all hear the recording(s) together, learn how to analyze user research, and discuss how to apply this initial round of findings.
Workshops can be 1 interview in 1 day or several interviews over the course of a week.
Research Study: Innovation Foundation User Research Project
Build a single data set of user research for your team to reference as they build
We meet to discuss your vision and the problem you’re most interested in solving. Based on whether you need help finding the right fit customers, deciding whether to pursue a strategy, or understanding who buys and patronizes innovations like yours, we’ll design a custom project. I’ll run user interviews and share my findings with you. If we determine the findings are actionable, we can convert them into a custom training workshop to mobilize them across your team.
Product and Messaging Strategy: Innovation Charter
Combine your vision and your customer data into a single strategic direction that gets your team aligned and building in the same direction
Aka: Your Product Design and Messaging Strategy Brief
You have your vision, which means you know what you want. You have your research, which means you have data on what your users and customers want.
Now we build your product design and messaging brief, which is where we take the enormity of your grand vision and the ever-growing list of problems your users are experiencing and turn these inputs into a strategic plan that you and your team can get use to decide what to ship, what to ship first, and how to decide what ships when in the future.
Less a fixed roadmap, more a flexible but aligned way to do your team’s best work.
Retainer: Continuous Research and Investigation
Ongoing user interviews and analysis to adapt your vision as your team ships and learns
You’re in the thick of things, shipping fast and taking names with little time to stop, collaborate, and listen to what your best users and prospects are saying. In this retainer engagement, I listen to your sales calls, conduct ad hoc interviews, look at user data, and pair with you to share findings as they emerge.
Retainer: Copywriting & UX Design
Transform the insights we’ve learned about your customers into copy that closes and experiences that delight
You’ve done the research, you’ve aligned your team, and now it’s time to get your customers on board. Get help turning your insights into web copy, sales pitches, onboarding emails, new user experiences, and user experiences.
Email me today to start planning your next move
Use the form below to tell me:
- A brief description of the innovation you’re leading
- A less brief description of what’s going on in your world that has led you to reach out to me
If I think I can help, I’ll write you back and we’ll set up a time for a 20 minute meet and greet to determine the best way to get started on our work together.
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