Analysis - Connecting the dots and revealing a bigger picture
After all the interviews, there was naturally a lot of stuff to go through. I wanted to see if I could form a type of map of their process so I reviewed all the notion notes and jotted down events, questions, thoughts, and anything else that was interesting into notes in Figjam.
Eventually, I was able to get to a point where I was able to put together a rough idea of their process broken down by categories or events. By doing this process, I was able to build a type of "proto-map" that helped illustrate what the process looked. This was extremely useful because it allowed me to identify areas where I was still unsure of what was going on or had additional questions that I need to answer.
Workshops - Following through and clarifying questions
To answer the questions I had (and to verify if the map I was building out was indeed correct), I gathered the internal associates together for a workshop. I had to run a few workshops because not everyone could make a single date, which worked well.
The internal associates were able to clarify things that I didn't quite understand and add a lot of additional info. It was extremely helpful.
With this info, I had a pretty solid grasp of their process and an understanding of where and why they felt happy at some points and frustrated at others. Things were coming together! With this part of the research at a good place, I was then able to switch over to the notes I took with our content creators and brand agencies.
Personas - Identifying patterns and behaviors in content creators
The key difference that separated content creators was their level of organization. The highly successful creators had this process down so well that they could delegate most of these tasks to a hired team.
When I started reviewing my notes with content creators, I noticed that there existed a certain process that all content creators went through. How well they executed this process directly related to how successful their audience reach was. One of the key differentiators between a creator that was aspiring versus a creator that was established was how optimized their process was; creators that were newer exhibited a process that was more chaotic and less structured while the more experienced creators had this process extremely refined.
With these insights, I started sketching quick mental models of content creators, categorized by follower size and their experience of the Brand Deals process. Additionally, I noted their motivations and pain points. These sketches eventually developed into personas that became foundational to BENLabs’ transformation and new product vision. They clarified who we could help, what they needed, and where in the process we could have the most impact.