Building Effective Project Teams
It’s often advantageous for researchers to have little existing knowledge on a topic area, allowing for fresh mindsets free from predisposition. It’s even more beneficial when teams are able to blend that blank slate curiosity with more seasoned perspectives, synthesizing the two into more powerful insights. This typically happens when client stakeholders work closely with research suppliers, but what happens when an organization is expanding beyond their everyday competencies? Sometimes there’s still a level of subject matter expertise needed to lend context to the unbiased insights consultants like Catapult deliver.
We have many examples of this sort of situation, but most recently it happened when we were helping a client expand into a new category. Initial qual work included some subject matter expert interviews, which indicated a strong multicultural nuance to the likely target market. We recognized that the project team was lacking representation from these target groups, making it clear that the right thing to do would be partnering with the appropriate people to ensure complete understanding of the consumer needs we would discover through the research.
That’s when we turned to Sequoyah Glenn, Catapult’s multicultural consultant and all-around wonderful, sharp-minded person. Sequoyah brought a wealth of skills and experience to the project, including marketing, moderation, and relevant beauty industry expertise which helped her authentically connect with consumers in personal care discussions. On the backend, we worked closely with her to analyze both qual and quant data to understand finer distinctions between Black, Hispanic, and non-Hispanic consumers. This included parsing through the underlying cultural drivers impacting perceptions and developing inclusive messaging and engagement strategies.
From Sequoyah: “Working with the team at Catapult has been incredibly collaborative. Jill and Justin know their stuff but also recognize the strength in building upon what we are collectively. This was a challenging and complex project, and their spirit of partnership and dedication to forming a strong, tailored team is what made the difference in the success of the work. As a consultant, working with a human-centric company has made a difference in my own career journey and how I’ve shown up for myself and others since meeting them in 2022.”
Catapult always strives to bring together the optimal team to propel our clients into a position of success, even when that means partnering beyond our own four walls. In the end, the work is not about us, it’s about our clients and the customers they’re trying to serve.
Get to know more about Sequoyah on her website and drop us a line to see how Catapult can help you solve your business problems with our dynamic teams.
JUSTIN SUTTON
Co-Founder