Do your Homework. Know Your Audience.

Well, hello! If you’re reading this, I am going to assume that you are embarking on something new or contemplating a change in your life. Congratulations, it’s an exciting step and one that will surely bring you to new places where you can flex and stretch new muscles. 

Whenever I want to try something new, I always start with a bit of homework.

Some people are naturally curious and for them it’s all about investigating every option. They are students of life that are always on a quest to learn more. 

Ok, while I do like to do the homework (and I can go down many rabbit holes in a quest for more knowledge) it’s usually associated with a particular passion, or even a nerdy need-to-know. And here’s the truth of it for me: I make a lot of assumptions. Rather than ask a lot of questions I love observing what I consider ‘evidence’ and then hypothesize the motivations or reasons why. Which of course leads me to all kinds of assumptions, many of them probably wrong. Should I admit this? A funny real-life example: On long-haul flights I most often watch movies over my husband’s shoulder, following along without the sound to try and figure out what’s happening based on what I’m seeing.

I’ve had the real privilege over the past two years of working with a design thinking guru. What is design thinking? Design thinking is a process for solving problems by prioritizing the consumer's needs above all else. It relies on observing, with empathy, how people interact with their environments, and employs an iterative, hands-on approach to creating innovative solutions.

For her, it’s an audience-first approach, all day, all the time. Back in the early years of big advertising, marketers would make assumptions about what people wanted and then they would build it, test it (the finished product, generally) with consumer research, put it on the market, and then spend a lot of money promoting it - if they were lucky, on the radio or TV. 

Today, good marketing considers the audience first, asking that all-important question: what do they need?

If you can solve for your audience’s needs, you have a much better chance of attracting and engaging with them.

You can apply this to all kinds of things, not just business. Imagine solving the needs of your child’s playgroup, your boss’s workflow challenges, your family’s Christmas planning. 

Interested in this way of ‘working’? Here are some good workbooks that can help you understand it better while starting to kick tires and learn. The Design Thinking Life Playbook and The Design Thinking Toolbox.

Whether you are starting a new job, a new business, or a simple project, taking your audience into consideration should be consideration number one. The old adage “if you build it, they will come,” doesn’t work too well in a world set up for customization and lightning-speed lifecycles. 

Have you ever used an audience-first approach? What did you learn? How did it work? We’d love to hear from you!