Quick Studies Archives - Page 6 of 6

Grainger’s “Yes Desk” Improves Customer Satisfaction

Small wins can be as rewarding to the team as to the customer. If you’re struggling with how to improve customer service, try giving one team the resources and authority to meet unusual requests, and publicly acknowledge those who make a special effort to improve customer satisfaction.

Quick Studies

How Three Tech Companies Are Teaching Employees to Manage Stress

Employees who manage their stress well perform significantly better and stay at their jobs longer, so consider adding stress management solutions as an employee benefit.

Quick Studies

How AltSchool Conducts an Employee Performance Review

Establishing a clear, regular performance review process means that everyone receives actionable feedback, changes are rapidly implemented, and compensation and bonuses are set more objectively. While your team may not require a process as rigorous as AltSchool’s, starting with a simple implementation can show impressive results.

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Lessons from a CEO’s Failed Attempt at Cultural Change

Remember that leading is more than simply knowing what to do, but more so knowing how to marshal other human beings toward those ends.

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Buffer’s Team Grades the Company Every Month

The idea of your employees “grading” your company may initially be unsettling, but Buffer demonstrates that this is an important starting point to make work more engaging and satisfying for your team. Just as crucial is making changes based on survey results—if employees are constantly polled but don’t see any improvement, they’ll quickly become disillusioned.

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How Buffer’s Remote Team Defines Self Management

If you’re trying to implement self-management on your team, remember one size does not fit all. Adopt an attitude of experimentation to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

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Facebook Uses Crowd Sourcing to Improve Its Product

Exposing your product’s vulnerabilities can give you valuable insight into what works and what doesn’t. Consider exchanging secrecy and perfection for feedback from real users.

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Taco Bell Uses a Demo Day to Teach Innovation Internally

Innovation teams must be responsible for openly sharing what they’re working on and how they work. The success of an innovation team should be measured not just by what they deliver, but also how they influence the rest of the organization’s processes.

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Pixar’s Braintrust Provides Constructive Criticism to Creatives

Establishing a panel of trusted advisors and promoting a safe environment to provide feedback can be a great resource when your team is struggling with a problem and needs a fresh perspective.

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How Airbnb Used Storyboards to Understand the Customer Experience

Literally seeing how your customer interacts with your organization can provide new insights into better user experiences, business opportunities, and team priorities.

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How IDEO Measures Customer Interaction

Measuring “time since last contact,” both on an individual and team basis, reinforces how important direct contact is to understanding, and responding to, your customers’ needs.

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Spanx Speeds Up the Decision Making Process by Voting

If you find that your team is struggling to reach a decision, or worse, scheduling more meetings to continue conversation from earlier meetings, ask for a vote with the condition that it can be modified later if needed.

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How Timberland Used Marketing Analytics to Renew Its Brand

Consumer research and marketing analytics are crucial to identifying your target market and defining your brand strategy. While your team may not have the resources to start a two-year study, your organization may have existing data that just hasn’t been widely shared.

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How Amazon Includes the Customer’s Voice in Every Meeting

In your next meeting, the one person who’s not there (your customer) is the most important person to focus on.

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How to Codify Your Culture Like Netflix and Zappos

Taking the time to define your organization’s core values can seem like a distraction, but it may be one of the most important decisions you make as a team.

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How Zirtual Was “Scaled to Death”

On August 10th, 2015, Maren Kate Donovan, the CEO and Founder of Zirtual, sent an email to her employees stating…

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How Domino’s Pizza Forced Itself To Change Using Island Warfare

One way to galvanize your team around a necessary change is to give them no option but to move forward.

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The 6 Traps of Exponential Growth

For this year’s SXSW V2V conference in Las Vegas, we wanted to share why startups fail even after they’ve found product market fit. Drawing from our own clients and researching more than 40 firms that had either scaled woefully or gracefully, we’ve distilled the most frequent pitfalls into 6 categories: