Learnings into decisions

When it’s time to turn research into decisions, strategies and more

Being a practical scientist

Learning is research. Entrepreneurs and their teams are scientists. Small, growing businesses are great at figuring things out quickly and going for it. It means trial and error happens a lot. The business grows because enough ideas stick. It also means missteps which cost time and money when we move too quickly.

Stopping to ‘research’/learn multiple items can feel like slowing down but it doesn’t have to. When we hear great entrepreneurial stories, we hear how the leader and their team were able to learn then act quickly. Exceptional leaders have tricks, tools, systems, etc. for quicker learning for themself and their team.

It means finding our rhythms for research/ learning AND for taking action. Balance due diligence and decisiveness to be more of the smart, agile entrepreneur that we are.

Balance due diligence & decisiveness

Exceptional leaders improve their capabilities and their team’s capabilities. Developing tools that balance the due diligence of research/ learning and being decisive to take action is key.

‘Market Audit’ template set

Take 5-10 mins to capture initial thoughts or existing work.

Getting the initial information onto paper can be powerful for getting clarity on the decision you are trying to make. This is also essential for capturing and sharing information with a direct report. This can set the stage for what you want, when you want it by and give them initial ideas and work to guide them in the right direction.
Use this template to thoroughly and easily convey what you want.

Doing the work. The FUN stuff of researching and learning for the idea, topic, strategy, decision, etc at-hand.

During research, create a 1-page Profile for every item being considered. Often we think of a Market Audit for looking at our competitors but it can be done for anything (see below for more on examples). Each profile could be a competitor, product ideas, marketing post type, software program or any type of item being considered within your research. 4-8 profiles is a great target to be thorough and to keep moving. This could be done over 2-4 weeks while still carrying out daily responsibilities.

Use this template to collect information with consistency and thoroughness.

Close-out research in one of two ways by comparing an area of interest across profiles or by summarizing key takeaways.

After 2-4 weeks of learning from 4-8 research items, you can easily do a comparison and capture takeaways to take action. This brings all the research back together to see if whether the question at-hand has been answered. It might be to inform a new strategy, to select the right next product to launch, to select which marketing platforms to use, to select the types of marketing messages to do, to select the right software program or take action on any decision that affects multiple people or has longer term impacts.

Use this template to ask ‘so what’ of the research and to ask ‘what is our decision’.

Test it & make it your own

Start with the guided template set. Remove the questions from each section as you research and learn for your topic. Get used to the framework before you change it. Once you get used to a focused and analytical approach to research, you will see trends in the questions that are right for you. After 3 times of using this, revise it to your own set of questions. Make it your own to reinforce the skill, increase adoption and get better at this skill of focused learning.

Call it what you want: here I have referred to it as a market audit but it could be a market audit, case study, modelling, profiling or whatever captures the idea of research and learning with a purpose. You may have heard of similar things or you may have a term that comes to mind that feels right for you and your team. Use it to make it your own!

Download template Set

(with guided questions)

Download template set

(blank set)

Download both sets

(set with guided questions & blank set)

Use this template set for

any research & learning:

Often we think of ‘Market Audits’ as research a number of competitors. A profile would be for each competitor. A Market Audit can be done for any area.

• Competitors: research and compare new or existing competitors to your business. It could be to compare their business as a whole or to focus on a specific service in the market.

• Course: a manager can research options for developing a skill. This can help them take the lead on their own development while building their ability to research methodically.

• Software programs: an operations manager could look into project management or other software programs and bring you all the information you need to assess options before you invest time and money in a new program.

• New services/ products: collect new ideas from the market (and adjacent markets) that enable you to see trends and gaps in the market. Bring the team into the process of how you decide on next opportunities.

• Events planning: if you do speaking engagements, community event sponsorships or attend events, this can be a great way to delegate the research to someone on your team so you can select your calendar for the year. And you can have more time for the activities that really need you like developing material or reaching out to connections before the events.

• Marketing platforms: research marketing platforms or specific accounts for ideas to engage with your audience in the right way.

This template set enables both the due diligence to be informed and the agility to make decisions quickly.

Something to think about…

Analogs and Antilogs

In entrepreneurship, analogs are businesses that have aspects of their business model that we want to replicate in our own business. Anti-logs are businesses that have aspects that we do not want to do differently. In both cases, the business may be in our same industry or a different industry.

My experience with this...I’ve done this in the past for researching businesses in any field that I want to emulate things they do and researching companies in my field for things I want to do differently.

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE SET HERE

“Motivation gets you going and

Habit gets you there”

- Zig Ziglar