NEW YORK–Questions around how to better conduct research, overcome employee pushback around big changes, and risks involved in empowering front-line employees were all part of a Q&A with a panel during a THINK 17 Conference panel discussion here.
Participating in the discussion were Stephen Wunker, an Innovation Consultant and co-author of the book “Jobs to Be Done”; Meg Crofton, former president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts; Lori Reeves, SVP-operations and e-services with Financial Partners Credit Union, and John Barnfather, CIO at Caltech Employees FCU. The discussion was moderated by Bobbi Rebell.
Here’s a look at the questions posed and the answers provided”
Q: When you talk about a “Jobs to Be Done” framework, how does that fit into overall research?
Wunker: First, you have to decide who you are focusing on--a target situation or target customer group, and then really delve into that. What are you trying to do? Why are you here? If you weren’t here, what would you be doing? Once you understand that and understand the current approaches in their right context and the success metrics people have, then you can go a little deeper.
Q: Is there a way of communicating the purpose of credit unions?
Crofton: The trust, I think, that credit unions have (from consumers) is quite striking. You should be building on that relationship to take care of these deeper needs consumers really want met. I think there is a direct corollary. (Disney’s) Magic Plus wasn’t about skipping lines, it was about how do you get them to the magic faster. I’m excited for credit unions.
Q: How do you think credit unions should be structuring their research?
Wunker: Define a customer set and then allow yourself some expansion around that.
Crofton: I love all the quantitative and qualitative research, but I would add that one of the things that is so powerful to go along with those is to engage as leaders in really sitting down yourself and listening to (members) and front line employees. You will hear the stories that bring them to life. It’s one thing to have the data point, but it is the real stories that ‘dimensionalize’ that for you.
Q: How do you suggest a traditionally corporate driven structures like credit unions empower employees in front lines to focus on the member experience?
Crofton: It starts with the same trust your members have in you and taking a leap of faith and having that same trust in your front-line employees. It also requires listening a lot more to your front-line employees. There was a time we were much more structured than we are today, and thankfully we listened. They knew better than we did what would delight the guests. We learned about those from talking to them. It feels like a big scary leap, and actually it’s not. We never had a situation where a cast member got us into trouble. I also believe that if you have a situation where somebody goes outside of a boundary that you wish they hadn’t, I’ll take that any day versus a day where you let a guest leave unhappy. It’s just about unleashing what they already know how to do.
Q: How during a change curve do you keep staff morale high during the process?
Crofton: I’m not going to say (instituting the Magic Band) was easy. It was a multi-year project and it was massive. I think that was the biggest challenge, keeping teams rallied around the mission. One thing we did that I didn’t know at the time would be so powerful was, early on, we developed a set of what we have today and what we envisioned in the future and we put it on a chart for ourselves. Every meeting we had with every group on the team that we had for years, and there were hundreds, we started every meeting with that. It re-grounded people on why are we doing this. This feels awful. At the beginning, everyone had bought in on what the from/to looked like and why. That was really important. The other thing we did was we kept listening to guests and front-line cast members every step of the way, and sometimes it was tough to hear. It made people feel like we care and we want to know. It was also about encouraging people to give you bad news, and that’s tough, too. Senior leaders get titles and people just want to tell you they can do it. But people realized they had permission to tell the truth. It was also about setting milestones along the way and celebrating them.