Detailed Course Description

If your team is relying primarily on campaign results to steer your commercial activities – what we call the “launch first, ask questions later” approach – this program is for you.

In this course, we help leaders make the most of their business intelligence and market research dollars to create an “always on” insights program, using a framework we’ve developed to work across both disciplines and amplify your learning from each. You’ll leave with a customized game plan for improving your program as a whole, and better equipped as a leader to guide your team in selecting the right insights tool for each job.

This course is offered in two instructor-led formats:

• Bootcamp-style: Two days of group training (back-to-back classes, 3.5 hours per day) followed by a 1:1 consulting session. (Designed for executives with tight schedules, or any professional who has an urgent need to understand “the big picture” quickly – whether to prepare for a new role, changed responsibilities, or evolving business challenges.)

• Traditional format: 6-week course, covering the same content over a longer period, allowing learners to “process” what they’re learning more gradually. Includes interactive exercises. 

COMING SOON in 2024: Online, self-paced format.

Learning Objectives:

• Introduce a practical insights framework to bring clarity to the vast landscape of available research and business intelligence solutions, promoting a strong focus on what’s most critical for your business:
  • Discuss four key lenses of business insight (the Essential Insights^© framework) and how to use them for descriptive, diagnostic, and predictive business purposes
  • Demonstrate the risks associated with “partial visibility”
  • Ensure the findings of your insights programs will feed directly strategic planning and execution
     
• Deepen participant understanding of Market Research:
  • Review the key market research types and their best uses
  • Demonstrate how the different types should work together as a portfolio across functional areas 
  • Determine which types of research and measurement are most likely to benefit your business, and which aren’t
  • Learn best practices for fielding market research projects, to maximize your project ROI
    
• Explore key Business Intelligence topics:
  • Outline the most typical approaches to Business Intelligence and their strengths/challenges
  • Identify the different skill sets that contribute to a Business Intelligence platform, both within Information Technology and on the “business side”
  • Discuss data literacy and how it affects your company’s ability to make use of measurement platforms
    
• Architect a customized approach for your company using our Insights Canvas:
  • Prioritize which insights are most critical to your business, and which are “nice to have”
  • Estimate the investment required to deliver the most crucial insights, compared to available budgets
  • Assess business justification requirements and review several approaches for demonstrating need, ROI
  • Consider proven methods for driving adoption of your insights program to reinforce new behaviors
    
• Review your Insights Canvas, receive feedback, and refine your design through a 1:1 meeting with our principal consultant
   

Course Outcomes and Outputs:

• Participants are equipped with a practical insights framework to help them think critically about their use of research and business intelligence, and are able to spot gaps in visibility and context which make the business vulnerable to misguided decisions
  
• Participants learn the management skills needed to make a business case for AND effectively oversee the development of a robust insights approach for their business
  
• Participants develop a customized Insights Canvas in this course which outlines a smart, feasible insights program design as the first step in the insights redesign (or initial development) process; the Canvas serves to support conversations with key stakeholders by illustrating the key components and needs addressed