Market Analysis
Government and nonprofit organizations frequently operate in highly fragmented, rapidly changing, and complex markets. Assumptions made a year ago about market participants, demand for services or products, and / or the cost of service delivery (to name a few) are most likely outdated today.
This is especially true in markets that are highly regulated, such as finance and healthcare, but equally true when government agencies and nonprofits pursue significant internal operational transformations. In order to succeed, our clients must consider many of the same variables as commercial companies. It is imperative they understand the market in which they operate today and possess a data-driven roadmap of where they would like to be tomorrow.
We evaluate market trends, assess customer preferences, identify disruptive technologies, provide insights into drivers of market behaviors, and uncover “hidden” opportunities and barriers based on market drivers external to our clients. We use proven tools and methodologies to distill insights that allow our clients to design and maintain better programs and services to achieve their desired future states. Equipped with this knowledge, our clients can drive deeper mission impact and better “future proof” their programs and services.
Voice of the Market
Nonprofits and government agencies alike seek to drive first-class customer experiences. Achieving this designation begins by uncovering what customers think. There is no surer way to elicit a nuanced understanding of the customer than by talking directly to them. The term “market customers” incorporates a broad range of people, including both those who directly benefit from the program or service and those who are either directly or indirectly impacted (i.e., beneficiaries, stakeholders, citizens, competitors, and regulated entities).
We use both quantitative and qualitative tools to engage existing customers, identify their preferences, define specific segments, and develop personas to gain a true and unbiased view of who they are and what makes them tick. While we do deploy surveys, we have discovered they do not always provide sufficiently nuanced insights into the customers’ behaviors and needs.
Our qualitative research techniques provide a deeper, contextualized understanding of our client’s needs and challenges, allowing us to guide our clients through the creation and implementation of better programs and services to satisfy internal and external customer needs.
Benchmarking & Best Practices
Organizations, big and small, want to know how they can improve their operations and are often curious about how they are performing relative to “peer” organizations. This desire to do better is at the heart of our benchmarking and best practices capability.
We perform customized government-to-government and government-to-industry benchmarking analyses to identify solutions that solve tangible problems and stretch our clients thinking. We uncover what is possible and provide detailed insights into how others have solved similar challenges. We conduct primary and secondary research to gain deeper insight into how organizations facing similar challenges were able to turn their weaknesses into strengths to successfully pursue new opportunities.
Our methodology starts by understanding our clients’ particular needs and aspirations. From there, we identify benchmark organizations and conduct research that generates actionable insights to inform our clients’ strategies and improve their operations. Our goal is to help our clients become best-in-class benchmark organizations in their own right.