Creating Momentum using Advisory Committees

For most associations, creating successful revenue-generating services is founded in truly knowing the needs of your members.

There are many ways to ask them. The most traditional is a survey. Well designed surveys do collect member input that will inform and direct action (especially if you get the help of people like SurveyGuru). Badly designed surveys still give you something to think about and data to mine.

But the best method of bringing out deep needs is deep conversation. In the commercial world, they may call them focus groups. In the association world, we convene an ad hoc advisory group.

Once a 'good idea' is floated, it can expand to be all things to all people, unless firmly scoped and pointed in the right direction. To do that, a great starting point is to bring together a group of people, no more than about 12, who represent as many different viewpoints as possible. Have the most people from those constituencies whose opinions you wish to understand the most. Bring them together for at least a full day.

Once there, start with the biggest questions first: What are the goals of the new service? Why would we provide this product? What benefits would this program generate? For whom?

Brainstorm a list of anything that smacks of being a goal, rationale or benefit. Write everything up, without editing or censoring.

Then do some clarification by rewriting them as goals. As you go through each one, prioritize them into primary and secondary goals.

Try to stay open to new ideas, new goals which surface late in the process. Keep asking questions: why that goal? What would that do for you? What would happen if we didn't do that?

At the same time, try to keep the meeting moving. Anything which becomes a topic of discussion that is not resolved within the group within a reasonable time, put aside for now in a 'parking lot'. These are questions which may need to be asked of the wider membership and thus will form the basis for your well designed survey later.

Once you have your list of goals, all other decisions should be matched against them: will doing it this way this help us meet our goals? Now you can move onto questions of scope, financing, outsourcing, collaborating and such.

You have described the end-point and that is the start of momentum. Because now you are moving in the right direction.