When you’re developing or refining your business strategy, it should start with user personas — know who you’re serving and know them really well.
After you know who they are, you are more adequately equipped to think through where they go, what they do, where their circles of influence are, what brands they interact with, and how they use them. Think about your personal ecosystem — who do you interact with on a daily, weekly, monthly basis? If you’re reading this right now, Medium is a part of your ecosystem.
This seems obvious on the surface, but the practice of listing all of these categories and sample brands surrounding your user personas leads to lightbulb moments.
So no matter how much you think you know it — I challenge you to take a 20 minute pomodoro sprint (https://tomato-timer.com) and list these out.
The Most Important Questions Surrounding Ecosystem Maps:
List out a typical “day in the life” for each persona (hour by hour)
Write out their activities and the emotions associated with each activity (this is where you have the chance to delight them and remove frustration, even if it seems unrelated to your product or service)
Step back and look at the categories of things that your client uses/does/buys on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis
What are the things that surround your client, how do they use or interact with those things?
Is there a way to creatively look across industries and leverage other models to impact your offering?
Overaching question: How can you make their life easier?
When we’re able to unpack these things, the brands, products, services, tools that emerge speak directly to the heart of who you’re trying to reach.
This sets the foundation for potential partnerships, sponsorships, and co-marketing, because it’s better together.
When we lead with what we’re providing at the deepest level, and put this out there to partners, we have the opportunity to capitalize on a combined network. So this practice of walking a day in the life translates directly into the channels you’ll use to grow your business in phases.