Project Overview
Problem Statement
With thousands and thousands of retail agents around the globe and a focus on growth with existing agents, the company was seeking help in identifying the primary agents. This shared understanding would give leaders across many areas of the business a common framework for discussing the agent, their needs, goals, and motivations.
Who are the primary retail agents we partner with and how can we best support them?
My Role
I was the lead researcher on the project, taking on all research tasks including designing the research plan, recruiting participants, facilitating research interviews, synthesizing, analyzing, and preparing the report of findings and insights.
Process
I conducted 30 moderated interviews with the entire sales team in the Americas. Each sales rep owns the relationship with 100-200+ retail agents. Leveraging their knowledge about their agents was a great way to cast a wide net to learn about every single retail agent the company supports. The conversations with the reps gave me an opportunity to ask questions about the regions, types of agent locations, and really hone in on their similarities and differences.
After gathering all the data from the interviews, I used Miro for the synthesis process. During this process of tagging and creating groups of themes, two different primary personas began to emerge.
I created two personas based on the characteristics and behaviors that became evident during synthesis and analysis. The personas were very different in how they operated their business, and thus different in the things that were most important to them as a retail partner.
The personas also included a section for frustrations and opportunities. This section was key in revealing the common issues that need to be addressed and provided the business with shared understanding of challenges to solve. With this information in hand, leaders were able to have discussions and begin prioritizing where to start to achieve the growth goals for the year.
