Any marcomms people around to help with an interview question?

[Snufflebabe05]

I’ve got an interview next week for a new role.

I’ve been asked to prepare to answer the following question, verbally. No presentation. And it’s to be no longer than 5 mins.

You are running a session with the leadership team to explore how the marketing & communications team can support a focus on customer insights to help shape future products and building a peer network. The session will inform your marcomms plan. We’d like you to share how you will run the session, which will be on Teams and last no longer than 1 hour, and what your next steps will be.

I’m stumped. 5 mins is no time! Are they looking for a meeting agenda? Or a quick view of how I will tackle the focus on insights the network? Or to see if I can come up with a good way to host the meeting, as in the format?

I’d love to get some opinions as I’m going round in circles.

I think I would say that I would start with a ‘size of prize’ number to get their attention, I might send them each a small product and ask them a few questions to show how important it is that consumer insight is used, give a real life example (talk through that example), then describe the plan to them.

maybe they dont really know themselves and will compare everyone's responses.

I would use the opportunity to show off your skills and knowledge. So I will separate into different sections - eg planning (which would include defining your target market/audience/decision makers, how many are going to be in survey, any specific issues eg will all have access to IY/Teams. The i would consider impilmentation of the call, and then what followup you might do (eg further more detailed interviews with a portion of the audience). Is there going to be any desk research to support this session? Agree an agenda is a good idea. How will you manage timekeeping? Will everyone have a slot? how to manage someone taking over? I might look at tips on managing Team meetings. sorry just a few ideas.....

are they current customers or new ones and does this make any difference? Do they understand anything about product or do you need to brief them somehow at start/pre call? do they get anything for joining the call?

sorry dont know if i'm helping here......there are probably some legal things you might throw in at the start of the call or even before around the fact that its being recorded and that information will be used to do xyz

The leadership team know all about the products. But want the customer insights to shape what’s next. And then want me to present ideas on how I’ll build a peer network.

I think what I’m struggling with is am I going in with some solutions, which are guesses at this stage, or just how I might find the solutions?

5 mins isn’t really long enough to talk about anything!

Hmm I would focus on how you're going to use this meeting to gain the input of the leadership team into the plan.

I think an agenda would be a good idea, with an explanation of how each point would help you achieve your objective for the meeting.

I would also cover any factors you would consider in setting up the meeting. For instance are there people in the leadership you may need to influence ahead of the meeting? What information might you need to prepare ahead of time, e.g. current budget spend on market research?

Yep, these feels right. And more doable in 5 mins!

sorry missunderstood the question....so its about you saying how customer insights can formulate future plans and customer networks? so isnt this talking about different sorts of market research into the customer base and the products they might require? And how you current products do/dont fit future demand?

are you talking to anyone before the interview as its really not clear to me what they want you to focus on. The more i read this the more confusing it is. If you are going for a marcomms job then you would expect your input with the plan to be around comms, but it sounds more research related.

The outcomes of the session and what you’ll do with the information gathered are irrelevant.

This is the crucial part you need to answer:
We’d like you to share how you will run the session, which will be on Teams and last no longer than 1 hour, and what your next steps will be

Have you used Miro before? It can be used in a Teams environment and is good for ideas generation. If not familiar with it, have a good look through and play with it.
I would answer the interview question colis I got how and why miro and then what you’ll do with the outcome of the session I.e. you’ll use the insights to develop a marketing plan etc

miro.com/

Funnily enough, I have noted down Moro as a way to facilitate the session. I agree - something a bit more interactive.

@dreamingofsun I’m glad I’m not the only one who is confused.

Miro…not Moro!

'share how you will run the session' 'what your next steps will be'. these seem to be the most relevant bits.......i think the most confusing thing is that it sounds as if marcomms is totally irrelevant, which is not what one would expect. Its more about running a meeting and follow-up.