“We have no idea why our popularity just spiked,” said our client’s marketing manager. “Obviously it’s great… we just don’t know if it’s from something we did or how we can keep the momentum going.”
A year into their launch, our hospitality client suddenly saw an increased flow of guests. While they’ve released a couple of campaigns and secured a few advertising spots, they’ve been rolling for a while. So we conducted a Project Post-Mortem. We sleuthed out information and found some interesting discoveries when comparing their uptick in customers to actions that would influence their brand recognition.
Lo and behold, while marketing hadn’t changed, a local newspaper recently released an article including them in a list of independent businesses. Now realizing the positive response that media attention can bring, our client who was initially against press-releases was now eager to spread their story.
As a regular practice, a Project Post-Mortem opens opportunities to continually grow and evolve your brand organically in response to the actual market.
Dissecting past actions — good or bad — can cause serious FOFO (Fear Of Finding Out). But as a growing business, it’s important to your brand to stay on the pulse of why outcomes happened, not just mapping success and failure.
Knowing the Why lets you and your marketing team get to the root cause for results — whether it’s lucky timing or a shift in mindset, this puts you on stronger footing to take meaningful action to repeat or avoid the results you want.
What a Project Post-Mortem Is
A Project Post-Mortem is a review of the causes for the outcome of a marketing campaign, creative project, or any substantial action that might influence your:
Brand Reputation
Brand Values
Brand Recognition
Customer Experience
Team Satisfaction
Looking beyond sales, clicks, and follows, a Project Post-Mortem evaluates the bigger picture of what’s happening in the minds driving those engagements and transactions.
When to Conduct One
You probably already guessed — this evaluation happens after something has occurred. For your brand, some of the best insights can be found:
After a Marketing Campaign
After an Event or Partner Collaboration
After a Large Creative Project (website, photoshoot, etc.)
After a Push for Press and Media
After a New Release
The Benefits
You can leverage our process to find specific answers you need, or to take a general pulse to stay in sync as you continue to grow. The insights can lead you to the actions needed to:
Find new revenue streams
Avoid repeating old mistakes in new ways
Improve customer experiences that matter
Build upon successful ideas or processes
See a clear picture of team capabilities, strengths, etc.
Adapt to changing expectations
Adjust communication approaches
Identify tools and assets that need TLC
Trim wasted time from revisions
Strengthen partner collaboration
Anatomy of a Brand Post Mortem
01
The Approach
Most importantly, this isn’t an exercise to name, blame, or shame. The goal is to put together the multiple factors that caused a successful or disappointing outcome in your creative, communications, and marketing. Particularly the ambiguous factors like values, perception, reputation, that can be really hard to measure.
02
The Data
To prepare for your Project Post-Mortem, start by collecting info that’s rich in clues. Getting a holistic overview from inside and out, including data around teams, project management, and project execution is just as important as customer data. This can be anything that’s relevant, but can include:
External Data
Sales, Popular Purchases, Cart Size
Follows, Likes, or other Engagement
Website Traffic or Clicks
Attendance Sizes, Onsite Traffic
Ratings, Reviews, Comments
Surveys for Discovering More Info
Internal Data
Project Timeline, Delays, Bottlenecks
Team Collaboration Pains, Strengths
Team Satisfaction During Creative Process
Surveys for Discovering More Info, like:
What three things would you do differently if you did this again?
What resources would you need for a better process next time?
03
The Observations
As you review the data, notice patterns and trends more than specific causes of a success or failure. Ask any questions that bring you closer to the answers you need, starting with:
Which ideas and processes were successful for customers? For our team? Why?
Which ideas and processes didn’t go well for customers? For our team? Why?
Which data reinforces our established customer understanding?
Which data challenges our established customer understanding?
Do any findings challenge our brand values, mission, experience?
04
The Discrepancies
Also review data for overall patterns or trends that may lead to new actions, such as:
Imbalanced satisfaction between teams, process, and customers
Peaks or dips in data that were unexpected or a surprise
Recurring themes or phrases in survey results or customer reviews
Common complaints, FAQs, or requests
Surprise findings that don’t align with expectations or understandings
05
The Insights
Once you get a hang of it, this is where you can really dig into getting the answers you’re looking for. Here’s some questions that can help you get rolling:
Was our internal effort/satisfaction worth the results?
What did we learn about our own capabilities and strengths?
What can we confirm we’re getting right?
What information took us by surprise?
What changes or new expectations are becoming frequent?
What do these findings mean for our brand?
Should these findings change our approach moving forward?
What should be done differently in our process/execution next time?
How can we be prepared moving forward?
06
The Actions
So, now what? To avoid long scary list of things to do, it’s important to keep things real about your capacity. Concentrate on the most pressing issues and the most promising ideas. And then use the SIP approach to take actions that are Simple, Inexpensive and Practical.
Start Your SIP Plan with:
3 things to stop (The top three problems that keep recurring that need a fix.)
3 things to start (The top ‘spicy’ insights that offer the most opportunity)
3 things to strengthen (The top three successes that should be repeated.)
3 things to explore (Any non-obvious ‘aha moments’ that trigger new ideas)
Making It a Practice
With so much pressure for in-house teams to dive right into the next campaign and meet the next deadline, taking the time for a Project Post-Mortem can feel like a luxury. But even taking a few steps can lead to surprising insights that might just fuel your next big success.
If it’s not possible after every project, try conducting a Project Post-Mortem quarterly or annually. And feel free to make it your own — assess the unique areas most important to your brand, team, and customers.