Leading Key Measurement Sub-Team

ISPI Marketplace View 2002 Task Force

Task Force Purpose
The purpose of the proposed Task Force effort is threefold:

Gather data and “distill a picture of the ISPI marketplace”.

This picture (already started) will serve the society by identifying ISPI customer market segments, their general needs (for all things HPT), their specific needs, and their choices for the various distribution channels that can be used to deliver ISPI products/services to them. It will also identify the key suppliers in the marketplace (besides and including ISPI and it’s members) that are in the business of meeting the marketplace’s needs for all things HPT,

…and then…

Build a related tool for use by the board, staff, and committee/task force members.

This tool is to be used whenever a group proposes a new product, service, or committee/task force deliverable, to better articulate (per the marketplace view):

• Who is it for?
• What general and specific needs will it meet?
• What channel will be used to distribute it?
• Whom (supplier) and what (product/service offering) does it compete with?
• What potential features/advantages/benefits is it to have to compete adequately with existing competitive products/services already available?
…in parallel with…
Conduct a focus group meetings with members, past members and prospective members using a structured but open ended questionnaire, to determine the products/services and value proposition of an “Ideal ISPI.”

The intent is to provide a tool and process to help the Board and Staff to make initial decisions and direct results regarding the expenditure of the constrained society’s time and dollars toward HPT products/services that:

Meet targeted customer needs, and that also
Don’t inadvertently compete directly with ISPI members’ offerings.

Task Force Proposal Background & Rationale
The proposal is based on the following are assumptions:

ISPI cannot be all things to all people.
ISPI cannot serve all members’ potential needs for all things HPT (or prospective members’ needs). It simply does not have the resources to tackle the development, administration, deployment, and maintenance for everything HPT. ISPI needs to focus its efforts. It needs to focus it efforts at achieving its Value Proposition to its members.
ISPI needs to continue to bring to its marketplace, valued products and services that meet the marketplace needs better than other competitive sources/resources’ products and services (ASTD, Lakewood, etc.). If our planned products/services won’t be better or at least at parity with others’ offerings, we shouldn’t even bother with the effort and expense.
ISPI products/services should not “inadvertently” compete with ISPI members’ product/service offerings (and if it necessary that they do, it should be a very conscious decision on the part of the society’ leadership).
ISPI products/services also need to pay their own way…and provide a return on the investment for the use of society equity, and society staff’s and member’s time and energy. If a product/service can’t carry itself and return more than it costs, it should not be attempted. If it competes with other offerings in the marketplace, then the cost should reflect its worth vis-à-vis the marketplace’s alternatives.
ISPI has many opportunities to bring products/services to its marketplace. Examples include:

Global Trends Reports
Research Results Reports
Workshops on HPT Topics and Techniques
Workshops on ISD Topics and Techniques
Books on HPT/ISD
CDs and Videos on HPT/ISD
(Mini) Conferences on focused HPT Topics and Techniques
Etc.

In order to make the best product/service decisions, ISPI and its board of directors, needs to better understand its marketplace, in terms of:

Our market definition (what is the segment of the market we wish to target with any particular offering?)
The value of that offering in the marketplace.

This understanding can be achieved through better definitions of the following:

The target populations (segments) in the marketplace and their needs for HPT products/services.
The potential revenue and costs ROI for those products/services.
The competitive landscape: The status (or plans) for any competitor/competitive products/services in the marketplace also serving those needs

Competitive entities like: ASTD, Lakewood, etc., as well as ISPI members themselves.

How current ISPI products and services compare/contrast with any other competing products/services in terms of quality, cost, availability, etc.
The best distribution channel to deploy those products/services to our target markets that is both effective and efficient.

The best “go-to-market strategy” for continuing to meet the needs of our targets in the marketplace that is based on how our customer targets want to be dealt with as “customers.”
The probable impact to the ISPI Balanced Scorecard for Product/Service decisions.

This Task Force proposes to help this board and future boards create, keep current, and use a “Marketplace View” and a tool and process to accomplish these understandings.

The proposed task force would be composed of the following “core team” members:

Guy Wallace (2001-2002 Chair)
John Swinney (2001-2002 Deputy Chair, 2002-2003 Chair)

Other ISPI members will be recruited to assist the core team as needed, especially for the conduct data collection during focus groups.

Task Force Goals and Objectives
The TF goal is to:

Ensure that all future ISPI products/services are aligned with the needs of the targeted society members, and are as good as or better than any competing product/service available to our targeted members, and have the potential to provide a sufficient return on the investment of society dollars, time and energy. In short, ensure that
- ISPI has a viable Product/Service strategy.
- ISPI has increased profitability for products/service offerings.

The objectives to accomplish the goal are to:

Create a market segmentation scheme.
Conduct focus group meetings with members from each segment to determine the
- general and specific needs for each market segment
- best distribution channel for each product/service
- competitive offerings and suppliers/sources currently available for each need
Create a Marketplace View format for visually documenting
- The segments in our marketplace
- The HPT “needs” for “HPT products/services” per segment
- The existence of any competitors’ products/service and their linkage to those “needs”
Create a process and instrumentation for use by the board, staff, and committee/task force members for rationalizing any and all new product/services and/or committee/task force deliverables
Conduct a quick pilot-test of the process and instruments, and revise as needed.

Multi-Phased Approach
This task force proposes a multi-phased process. The overall process phases are seen as follows:

Phase 1—Create a market segmentation scheme. Determine the customer segmentation scheme for the ISPI Marketplace View (explained below).

This “Marketplace View” is based on Guy Wallace’s News & Notes article from February 2000. The first cut coming from this phase will be based on the available documents from past committee/task force efforts, as well as the consulting experience of the task force members. Guy and John will construct this view for the board’s review and critique.

Phase 2— Conduct focus group meetings with members from each segment in conjunction with the ISPI Annual Conference. Record and transcribe the results of these meetings for Phase 3.

This effort will gather the data needed to update and complete the Marketplace View from Phase 1 in terms of segmented customers’ general and specific needs, their preferred distribution channels, and current competitors for each “needed” product/service. They will also be asked to articulate a description of the “ideal ISPI” and the products/services ISPI would offer as well as the features/benefits of same.

Phase 3—Update the Marketplace View.

This effort will be accomplished by John Swinney and Guy Wallace based on the results of the focus groups. Their updates will be reviewed with the board and HQ staff, and subsequent updates made as needed.

Phase 4— Create a process and instrumentation for use by the board, staff, and committee/task force members for rationalizing any and all new product/services and/or committee/task force deliverables.

This effort will be done in cooperation with designated members of the ISPI HQ staff.

Phase 5—Conduct a quick pilot-test of the process and instruments, and revise as needed.

This effort will also be done in cooperation with designated members of the ISPI HQ staff.

Deliverables/Utilities
The deliverables from this effort will be:

Phase 1 Report, a short document including the next draft of the “Marketplace View,” specifically the segmentation of ISPI targeted customers as well as a focus group guide for use in Phase 2.

The utility of this document would be to provide a checkpoint for the board, and their reactions will guide the planning of the Phase 2 focus group meetings.

Phase 2 Report, including the transcripts from all focus group meetings as well as an overall summary.

The utility of this document would be to provide a checkpoint for the board and provide insights to the board and staff into the customer segments’ idealized view of ISPI, that may impact future society plans and efforts in terms of products, services, distribution channels, and other needs of members, and other insights possibly gained via the focus group effort.

Phase 3 Report, including an update of the “Marketplace View.”

The utility of this document would be to provide a checkpoint for the board, as well as provide input to the creation of the process and instrumentation in the next phase.

Phase 4 Report, including the Pilot-Test versions of the process(es) and instruments for use by the board, staff, and committee/task force members.

The utility of this document would be to provide a checkpoint for the board prior to pilot-testing.

Phase 5 Report, including updates of the process(es) and instruments for use by the board, staff, and committee/task force members.

The utility of this document would be to provide a checkpoint for the board, as well as provide the updated processes and instruments to staff for continued use and continuous improvement.