Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

I’m just diving into a major rebranding project for a new client.  We’re in the first phase – a “situation analysis,” which is typical for our process on large-scale projects. Some call it an audit.  Some call it discovery. Some call it immersion.  Whatever you call it, this phase always makes me nervous.  
 
Why?
I’m always afraid we’ll just end up telling our clients what they already know.  I mean, they hired us because they have a “situation” on their hands.  They know full well what the problem is, and they’re not looking for us to restate it in a glossy presentation. I believe a situation analysis is an ingredient of thoughtful strategy, but we always run the risk of stating the obvious.  Along these lines, I’ve been thinking about how to extract extra value for our clients (and ourselves) from a situation analysis.  Here are a few thoughts. I’m interested in yours.
 
Have a perspective
When we start a project, we have an appetite to dig in and discover. It’s a good instinct: we don’t want to be presumptuous. We want to be guided by research and listening. But still, a client isn’t interested in sponsoring our understanding.  At some point in a situation analysis, we have to start shifting gears and get a perspective.  For example, don’t just summarize industry trends in a report.  Put a stake in the ground.  Have an opinion. Is this trend a threat or an opportunity for your client?  How does this trend influence the direction they should take?   
 
Dig for the insights
Don’t stop until you’ve reached the insights. Sometimes those insights live in the nuances of research – follow those little sparks of thought until they turn into full-fledged insight.  Sometimes insights live in connecting the dots between all the different avenues of your immersion and rolling your research up into a few major themes. The insights might offer a new look into the mindset of your client’s target audience. Or it might be an insight about where your client needs to be five years from now.  
 
Do it differently
Look for new ways to conduct an audit. This often opens the door to insights.  For example, don’t just look at the standard direct competitors.  Look at indirect competitors your client might not have considered before. In a situation analysis for a major health insurer, our team not only looked at other insurers, but we also looked at companies that compete to provide health information, like WebMD, RevolutionHealth and HealthVault.  
 
Start solving
Most of the time, we’re afraid to get ahead of ourselves. Our UXDs might shoot me for saying this (sorry guys!): Yes, research and discovery is invaluable, but we don’t have to save all our ideas and thinking for later phases. On one of my projects, we just realized that part of our client’s communication challenge stems from major internal silos. As part of our situation analysis, we can do more than make them aware that this is an issue.  We can provide initial thinking about internal communications strategies that will help the project succeed in Phases Two and Three.