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Our latest posts and shares on interesting topics tied to learning, technology, customer experience, and market research.

Top Pitfalls in Planning and Executing Effective Focus Groups

Focus groups are one of the most effective ways to hear directly from your customers, in their voices, about what they think about the product or service your company offers. Executed well, these are a tremendous way to gather market intelligence. However, there are common pitfalls in the planning and execution of focus groups that … Read more
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Five Questions That Will Make Market Research Work For You

Before conducting market research, you should have an idea of what you want to know from your market. Sounds basic, doesn’t it? But I find this is an area where teams struggle, because either a) they aren’t sure what specifically they want to know or b) they want to know everything. No one survey, focus … Read more
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The Importance of Participant Experience

By: Alicia Brady

You’re a program manager or product developer seeking feedback on a product in development.
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Insights: Can’t Always Get What You Want

By: Gina Boedeker

I recently went into a late Friday afternoon Zoom call with a company I work with and breezily said, “Happy Friday! How are you guys all doing?” To which one of the clients responded “Still recovering from what you sent me earlier.”
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The Top Three (Instructor) Pain Points in Market Development

By: Alicia Brady

In September 2021, TBG deployed a survey to higher education instructors, targeting a range of institution profiles (both two and four-year, public and private) and a broad range of disciplines. Our goal was to learn more about what types of market development activities most resonate with instructors, and why. We also wanted to better understand the impact of these types of activities on actual adoption decisions.
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When “No” Is the Best Response

By: Gina Boedeker

Today, I had a conversation with a potential client where I ended the conversation like this: “Technically, yes, you could hire our team to do this project. However, I think there are better, more efficient, and less expensive ways for you to get that
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The Summer Internship: An Intern’s Perspective

By: Lauren Cubell

Every year, students of all ages must determine how to best fill their summer vacation time. This summer, as a college student, I found myself in a different position than in previous years as I considered how I wanted to spend my time. While I had
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In it for the Long Haul: What My Covid Recovery Revealed About TBG’s Core Values

By: Penina Braffman

With summer in full swing, I still get that “school’s out, sun’s out!” sense of euphoria, even as an adult whose work schedule doesn’t vary that much in the summer months. That, combined with the feeling like the pandemic is in the rearview mirror
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Utilizing Remote Research During and Beyond COVID

As we are rounding the corner closing in on the end of 2020, this is obviously a year we will never forget. With the onset of COVID-19, our lives were thrown into a complete tailspin, and we’ve all faced challenges we never could have imagined. From working remotely, to homeschooling, to distancing from family and … Read more
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How To Segment Your Market To Get More Customers

WHAT IS MARKET SEGMENTATION? Market segmentation is breaking down your market into smaller, more specific groups. These groups will have similar characteristics so companies can more effectively market and sell into various segments. WHY SEGMENT YOUR MARKET? Most companies do not have the resources (internal or financial) to market to everyone and they recognize that … Read more
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How To Write A Survey (that gets the feedback you need)

Surveys are an effective way of gathering information from your target audience to help you drive product development and marketing decisions, and make decisions about necessary changes in your product or service offering. Surveys, though, are only as good as the quality of the design at the outset. The tips below will help guide you … Read more
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We Sweat The Small Stuff (so you don’t have to)

I can’t remember exactly when I got the cute little trim-sized book of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson, but I remember always including it in moving boxes as I moved from St. Louis to Manhattan to Brooklyn back to Manhattan to Jersey City…it has an inspiring, powerful message and it has held … Read more
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Important Yet Overlooked Hiring Requirements

Recently I posted an update on my LinkedIn profile saying “The Boedeker Group is growing and hiring new freelance market development, marketing and sales professionals” and linked to the job descriptions that listed in detail the kind of background and experience I am looking for (message me if you want more info). From the time … Read more
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Back To School Thanks From A Parent

Today I dropped my almost-4 year old at Pre-K4 for the start of her 2017-2018 school year. I know I’m not alone. There are a lot of us going through back-to-school drop-offs and pick-ups all across the country if we haven’t already gone through it in the last couple of weeks. And while I’ve seen … Read more
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You Only Have One Chance To Make A First Impression

That was the exact sentence I shared with one of my clients last week. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression – and I’m afraid you’re going to waste it if you move forward with this product before it’s ready. I know you want to launch in a few weeks. I … Read more
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To Those On The Front Lines Of Education – Thank You

After 15 years working in educational publishing and ed-tech, I did something today I have never done. I was the acting principal at a public elementary and middle school in Jersey City through the “Principal for the Day” community program that pairs business owners in the area with local schools. The principal I was paired … Read more
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What I Learned From Rookie Reps About Product Development

As a Brand Manager and then Managing Director for a large portfolio, I loved rookie reps. As soon as I would receive their in-company introductory email I would send them a welcome email to introduce myself, set up a time to speak with them to give them more detailed information about our products, and share … Read more
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Retrospectives: Learning From Every Project

Every single project gives you the opportunity to learn. From the benefit of hindsight, you can implement ways to improve your processes for the benefit of your *next* projects by openly sharing as a team what worked, what didn’t work, and what you wish you would have known to have done things differently. Retrospectives are … Read more
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Let It Go? Tough Decisions In Product Development

When you are going through the product and market development steps that need to be taken to ensure that a product is on track to hit its expected revenue goal there is a strong possibility that if you’re doing this well and critically listening to the feedback you receive from the market at some point … Read more
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Customer-Centered Product Reviews

I’ve launched The Boedeker Group with a very simple premise; put the customer at the center of all product and marketing decisions you make. There’s one very simple reason that I’m willing to build a company around this: it works. Data, not surprisingly, supports this. McKinsey and Company published that 70% of buying experiences are … Read more
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