Creating Inspirational Use Cases - a lesson learned
Having beautiful use cases, best practice examples and stories on how great a value your product or service generates with/for your customers does not do any good UNLESS others know about it. Hence getting your stories out is essential for continuous success, awareness and raising interest.
Ever tried to create authentic, genuine, resonating, applicable, interesting and fascinating value stories? Next to “value” might have a different meaning depending on the audience, getting the content, the information and the data to get even started is a challenge. And lets not forget about the internal processes, stakeholder management & approval processes.
Read on if you are interested in learning more on how to tackle this topic based on past experience, get more insights on the steps necessary for being successful but also about the traps and pitfalls to avoid.
The initial idea – why you want to do it
You might sit on tons of raw diamonds in the form of explanatory use cases, lessons learned, feature requests and customer feedback collected by your CSMs – all stowed away in spreadsheets, inboxes and the brilliant minds of your team(s).
Now imagine a future where you have such information at your fingertips:
??Customer asking for best practice examples? Sure, here you go!
??An awareness/information campaign or outreach automated via a CS tool? Add an Inspirational Use Case!
??Sales asking (again) for that piece of information, that example or “use case story”? Provide them with an inspirational value case!
Its all about simplification, speed, collaboration & mutual value generation.
So, a simple (at least my thoughts at a specific point in time) idea might be to take this information create tons of INSPIRATIONAL USE CASES for:
?????????????? ??????????????????: create best practice examples and value stories resonating with your customer base.
???????????????????? ?????? ?????????? ??????????: provide your Sales Teams with powerful messaging for positioning a potential value add.
Supporting ???????????????? ????????????????????: Cleanup, streamline &automate
And who would be better suited to support you with this activity than the Customer Success Team(s)?
The Process – tapping into the doing phase
The logical next step is to implement a programmatic method to effectively and efficiently use this existing content and to externalize it for multiple audiences to increase and broaden awareness in the market. Think big and broad, not case by case.
As with every idea to be turned into a project, you need to seek for Management Buy-in and sponsorship, commitment from stakeholders & for needed resources. Then pour it into a robust plan turning your idea into life.
The example shown here is based on a 4-month pilot project plan ideally to be presented to your CS Leadership-/Management Team during regular meetings or tactic calls
The Pilot Project
The intention of this Pilot Phase is to get an understanding of the effort needed to create those Inspirational Use Cases.
Why a Pilot Phase?
??Initial small-scale implementation used to prove the viability of the (overall) project idea.
??Managing potential risks of that new idea to identify any deficiencies prior resources/budget is committed.
??Define, test, review & implement an effective method on improving the internal and external usability of existing information.
??Increasing designated use of available information by creating collateral serving various purposes and stakeholders/audiences
??Aiming for a quick decision process (Go / no go) with a simple test case approach without spending too much time, efforts & resources.
With a solid and thorough pilot phase, you will already have set 80% of the foundation once the project gets the “Go”. A smart implementation and set-up enables you to seamlessly continue with the creation process once the project moved from pilot (“I have an idea”) into production (“Let’s roll it out”) and will positively impact your company on all levels.
The Timeline
The To Dos
Inspirational Use Case - Identification
Start with the low hanging fruits by identifying stories which most probably have the biggest value or impact: what’s trending in the (various) industries? What’s common amongst your customer bases? What’s the known pain or challenge? What is the sweet spot of your service or product? Create your Top 5 (or 10 or 15).
Review existing information (spreadsheets, feedback reports, use cases etc.) and collect, align, cluster & combine according to common themes, challenges, solution approach etc. according to your storyline identified above.
Either use existing or create a new “inventory” (via available online collaboration tools or folder structures, sheets or whatever works for you and your organization) to be used as a tracking tool/mechanism serving as structured collection overview and to monitor creation progress.
Use simple tags according to your industry, taxonomy or value of your product/service.
Inspirational Use Case – Creating the template
Having identified the most relevant Inspirational Use Cases you want to start with helps you create the format and storyline of future asset:
??What are the basic information needed helping your audience make a connection?
??What are Key Facts, Trends and standards in your audiences’ environments making them feel “at home”?
??What are generic, common challenges or obstacles your audience faces?
??How have you tackled those? Here you might find using a common framework of “Current State – The Change – Future State” or “Situation – Complication – Resolution” helpful.
Quick tip: tons of brilliant material on Storytelling are out there; use it and apply according to your Inspirational Use Cases.
Create a draft mock-up with information above including the blank spaces where you will need to pick on the brains of your experts (CSMs) filling potential gaps with their expertise, lessons learned, best practices and real-world experience.
The more comprehensive, clear and simple your template, the easier it will work for your subject matter experts - the CSMs.
Inspirational Use Cases – The Template: Review – Change – Simplify – Review again
Once you managed the above, you have sort of a “knowledge base” (your inventory) and a “Gap Template” (the mock-up) which now needs to get married and filled with life.
And now: ?PAUSE ? - before doing anything, test your mock-up template and:
Then: reword, simplify and on to a 2nd round. Once you are content with the outcome, celebrate and get yourself a small treat!
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Inspirational Use Cases – Marrying content & template
You know what you would like to create (the tracking sheet) and you have a template (the mock up) now you will need to marry the two things and fill the gaps with the support of the CSMs:
??Create simple submission template to retrieve the missing data/information via identified CSM (and, if applicable, other stakeholder)
??Use the Top cases identified earlier.
??Get everybody (again) on the same book, chapter and picture by explaining the Why of the initiative and how everybody can/should contribute.
??Be very clear on the to-dos, expected outcomes and deadlines, the step-by-step approach and your key ask.
??Offer an office hour to clarify open questions again, talk about progress and ask for feedback on the same.
??Also offer 1:1s for people who prefer talking to you in a more private setting.
??Remember: you cannot overcommunicate!
Inspirational Use Cases – Your first draft
When the first submissions come in, don’t process and review on a case-by-case basis; wait and batch-schedule some time to process and review. Making progress is way easier once you are “in” this task compared to getting in and out of the same multiple times a week:
Inspirational Use Cases – From draft to reality
Next steps are now dependent on you and your organizations set-up and processes. Work with various stakeholders (Management, Marketing, agency) on getting the final version of the Inspirational Use Case approved and into a compelling, visually appealing high resolution document.
Then get it out to the world (but also ensure that everybody involved internally knows about it)!
Inspirational Use Cases – Talking Content
The focus on Inspirational Use Cases should be on the challenge and how the same was approached and tackled. It needs to resonate with your audience like a story and should not be considered a (functional/technical) White Paper or full-blown customer use case.
Key ingredient? Simplification and getting to the core of the underlying challenge, not the details or specifics but looking at the symptoms (the “What”), the approach towards solution (the “How”) and then either the potential resolution or the value the product/service could deliver (the “Why” – it was valuable).
Think creating a YouTube Video on tiling, baking or gardening:
The material, ingredients and plants might be different depending if you are flooring your own basement or a public hospital, decorating cake pops for your kids birthday party or having a 100+ catering business or local dependencies like temperature, height and sunlight.
But the main basic steps, the foundation on the what’s & how’s are 90% similar giving you a solid understanding of the task, potential challenges, tips, tricks and recommendations…and in an ideal case the “Aha!”-effect as in:
??“That’s what I did wrong/right”
??“ Here is where I can get better at”
??“Great idea; lets see if I can apply it, too”.
Claiming to be able to provide the magic wand as key to solving problems should not the intention – most of the times there is no “one size fits all”. Ideally it’s all about inspiring on how to make use, get the most out of the product.
Results & Conclusion
??+30 Inspirational Use Cases created in one quarter (might not sound much but it was a success).
??Clear analyses of investment (money and time) calculating cost/per Inspirational Use Case helping forging a direct link on CS catering towards Sales activities.
??No fluff, no high-level Marketing but real life examples and experiences packaged into valuable content.
??Created and implemented robust process & structure still in place and use today.
??Process and Inspirational Use Case templates constantly evolving (iterative phases).
??Beautiful means to map both, individual KPIs/objectives as well as personal development goals to a tangible and valuable outcome (each CSM to create x-Inspirational Use Cases).
??Such a project can work as personal growth opportunity.
But lets be realistic: its not all flowers and fairy dust. Such projects require a lot of personal motivation, time, enthusiasm and a tiny bit of craziness – not everything will work as expected or planned – hence here are the “Outtakes”.
Lessons learned, unforeseen challenges and other insights
The ??GREAT?? idea
Ok, that’s a hard one: just because you (in that case me) think you have a great idea everybody will love and immediately jump on – sorry but no, not going to happen. Lesson learned: never ever take it personal! Its not about you or your idea – get strategic on who you want (and need) IN your initiative and HOW you get them there. Remember the “getting feedback to your first draft”-paragraph? Same applies here. You need to sell it, you need find “partners in crime”, you need to find your fan-girls and -boys who are equally motivated with such an idea!
You are not alone, so do not play ??“Lone Wolf”??
Although you still might be the project owner, make sure to distribute responsibilities and delegate tasks where possible: Regional Heads of CS, local Marketing chapters and other stakeholders. Think in advance who can and should not only support you and the idea but who can and will help you with the legwork and the heavy lifting.
Don’t underestimate the time such a project requires.
??Communication??
The most critical point still is and will remain communication. Ensure transparency and visibility of the Why, the What and the How of this improvement project continuously on all levels – you plainly cannot overcommunicate. At the same time, ensure to already implement feedback mechanisms on potential usage, perceived/experienced value and “hard facts” (like downloads, clicks etc.) as well as office hours for explanation purpose and reverse feedback sessions to learn how and what to improve.
Remember the saying “only what gets measured gets done?” – live to it.
??Intention??
Be clear and precise of the intention of your project and its results. Leave no room for eventualities, afterwards discussion or anything leading to “I would have thought that…” or “My understanding was that…”. You don’t want to go down that rabbit hole.
Set the expectations right on all levels (internal) on what people are getting out of this initiative. Be transparent on what you would like to achieve and why you think it will have an impact. Provide crystal clear visibility on what the asset you are creating (=> Inspiration Use Case) is to be used for and what not.
?Time?
… proved to be my biggest pitfall: I was to optimistic – lesson learned so:
??Technology (and use of the same)??
That one also struck me as I did not factor in the “human factor” – and this is not meant in any kind of disrespectful way:
Bottom-line: make your process as simple, robust and straightforward as possible!
Hopefully this insight proves as inspirational (pun intended) for you but please note: its one option, not the option. I am more than sure that there are more streamlined ways towards project management, content creation, collaboration tools & automation processes - but hey, it worked!
Header image credit John Tyson