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7 Steps for
Pinpointing Your Audience and
Designing Your Offerings (Part 2)
by Adele Sommers
Imagine yourself
surrounded by the mesmerized, captive audience that
you identified in Part
1 of this article series. What exactly will you
offer them?
To recap, in Part
1, we covered the first three steps of a seven-step
sequence for developing successful products, services,
Web sites, or custom solutions:
1. Identify one
or more potential audiences consisting of the constituents
you already serve, or might want to serve. These audiences
might comprise clients, customers, subscribers, project
collaborators, students, affiliates, or a combination
in a particular industry. You can further segment these
groups into sub-audiences who can benefit from specialized
variations of your offerings.
 2.
Interview your audience by polling your existing
constituents for “burning questions” or problems
related to your topic. Or, identify and describe in
detail one or more fictitious characters who represent
target audience members, known as personas.
Each persona embodies distinct needs, desires, challenges,
and problems.
3. Write a mission
statement for your offering that explains why your
product, service, or solution should exist, as well
as the specific purpose it will serve.
In Part 2 (this
article), we’ll explore the remaining steps in
the sequence to continue determining what
to offer your audiences:
4. List the features
and benefits of your offering
5. Write hypothetical “testimonials” for your
offering
6. Use all of the above to develop the actual offering
7. Invent a compelling title for your offering
Step 4: List
the Features and Benefits of Your Offering
Regarding the “burning
questions” or problems your audience has, the offering
you create will translate directly into features and
benefits that address those concerns. 
Features
are the characteristics of what your product,
service, or solution does.
Benefits
focus on the “So what?” angles.
For instance, will your offering save time, reduce costs,
avoid headaches, increase health, build wealth, or boost
teamwork? How should the features make your audience
feel? Examples:
Feature #1: My
techniques are explained in a jargon-free style.
Benefit
#1: [So what?] You and your colleagues don’t
have to be experts in any particular technology or vocabulary
to use my tool set. Everything is easy to learn, understand,
and apply.
Feature #2: The
techniques are designed for anyone to use.
Benefit #2: [So what?] You don’t need to be
a CEO, boss, manager, or anyone in authority to propose
valuable improvements. You can experience the
satisfaction and rewards of positively influencing your
colleagues and the results of the enterprise.
Feature #3: The
techniques can be used a few at a time, or all together.
Benefit
#3: [So what?] You can apply as few or as many tools
as you like. You’re in complete control of the
scope and timing. You don’t have to swallow a big,
unwieldy pill to get the results you want.
Step 5: Write
Hypothetical “Testimonials” for Your Offering
Before doing any
serious work on a product, service, or custom solution,
I often find it helpful to write short stories about
how my imagined audience members are using what I am
about to create. What unique advantages does my offering
provide? Are my imaginary customers experiencing the
benefits I’ve identified? I use the insights that
emerge from hypothetical testimonials to fine-tune the
requirements (although they won’t become substitutes
for real-life accolades!).
For example,
this story suggested benefits as well as an area
for improvement:
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“I’ve not yet seen any program cover
so many critical topics in such a clear format.
As a result of using it across our department,
we’ve greatly improved our meeting participation,
gotten rid of several aggravating work impediments,
and started piloting a new training program (after
a year of ‘analysis paralysis’). The
best part is that we were able to choose the techniques
that applied to our situation. Because of the
improvements we’ve made, we avoided having
to hire another claims adjuster this year, which
will really help keep our costs down. That alone
allowed the whole department to receive a long-overdue
bonus! It would be great if you can also create
an audio version that I can listen to during my
daily commute. Even without that, your program
has really helped us!”
— Barbara Smith, Lead Claims Adjuster,
Acme Indemnity Co.
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Step 6: Use All
of the Above to Develop Your Actual Offering
So, how do you put
all of this together? Depending on what you’re
creating, the guidelines below can offer insight into
the development process:
- Consider the form, look, and feel your offering
will have, such as physical or information products,
services, instruction, software systems, Web sites,
or a combination. The needs of any personas you created
can influence the interface design and usage requirements.
- Choose a voice or perspective, particularly
for information products (subject matter expert, interviewer/researcher,
or repurposer/repackager of other material)
- Choose a framework, particularly for information
products (e.g., chronological, problem/solution, modular,
numerical, or compare/contrast frames of reference)
- Develop an outline, proposal, or specification,
and fine-tune as needed.
- Prepare the first draft of the content, proof,
or prototype. For information products, if you
can imagine having an informal conversation across
a kitchen table with one of your personas, you can
explain even complex ideas in a clear and engaging
way. Then ask a group of trusted colleagues to review
or beta test your material.
- Incorporate comments from the first review
pass and save any testimonials.
- Prepare second and subsequent drafts, distribute
for review, incorporate comments, and save any testimonials.
Step 7: Invent
a Compelling Title for Your Offering
After pouring energy
into your offering, spend quality time brainstorming
an unforgettable name for your creation. This process
may require several iterations. It’s ideal to enlist
your review team — and even your constituents —
to help select the snappiest, most memorable title.
By the end, you’ve
identified, described, and interviewed potential audience
members. You’ve developed a mission statement for
your offering, listed the features and benefits, and
envisioned customer successes. If you’ve used this
information to shape and name your offering, you’ll
have a carefully crafted and inspiring result.
Copyright 2006 Adele Sommers
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What
Is Wealth? 
The
last three out of five times that I've tried giving
suggestions, I've slammed into a dead end. Since I'm
always bubbling over with ideas about how companies
can improve their customer service, I'm chronically
disappointed when I find they're not waiting with open
arms and ears to receive to them — even when the
issue has caused me considerable angst as a customer.
