Ponderings From The Perch

Data informs… but human judgment decides.  On this episode of Ponderings from the Perch, the Little Bird Marketing podcast, host and CEO, Priscilla McKinney, and guest and CCO of PSB Insights, Christopher Frank, talk strategy in business and market research. Frank, who brings 25 years of frontline experience from American Express and Microsoft, discusses his recent move to PSB Insights, a 40-year-old research-based consultancy with offices in DC, Seattle, and London, transitioning from the client side to a consultancy role in the field of market research. He stresses the importance of framing problems correctly before diving into data analysis, which is crucial for gathering meaningful insights from both audiences and competitors; a key framework for which he calls IWIC (I Wish I Knew), which aims to shift discussions from data-driven to strategic by asking stakeholders what information they truly need to make confident decisions. The two discuss Frank's two books on the subject, Drinking From the Fire Hos

Hey y’all, Priscilla McKinney here! This episode of Ponderings from the Perch, the Little Bird Marketing Podcast, will be a replay of a part of my appearance on Joseph Jaffe’s podcast, Joseph Jaffe is Not Famous. Amongst the hijinks, I talk with Jaffe about my book, Collaboration is the New Competition: Why the Future of Work Rewards A Cross Pollinating Hive Mind and How Not to Get Left Behind. The book's chapters are designed to be time-efficient, ensuring busy professionals can easily integrate these transformative ideas into their workflow. From discussing the state of affairs in business to providing fundamental strategies for growth, this book offers a fresh perspective and a competitive advantage in today's complex business landscape. (LINK to purchase). “Collaboration is not about losing the hierarchy,” I explain. “It's about seeing it for what it is now, not importing unnecessary value.” We also discuss LBM’s SOAR™ system, which provides businesses a framework for effective marketing that moves be

On this episode of Ponderings from the Perch, the Little Bird Marketing podcast, host and CEO, Priscilla McKinney, discusses her experiences at Greenbook’s IIEX Amsterdam with guest and CRO, Stephanie Douglass, exploring key market research trends and insights. A major topic of discussion is synthetic data in market research, with data quality remaining a crucial concern for obtaining reliable consumer insights. In fact it emerged as one of the top 12 trends mentioned by Insight 250 CEO, and Behaviorally Group President, Crispin Beale, the latter likening it to plastic pollution in oceans and emphasizing the need for industry-wide standards. "We have to move very quickly right now as an industry to create standards that we will all adhere to,” Beale warns. “Or we're going to end up with a big blob of synthetic data in the data ocean.” Priscilla had to run down Mark Earls from HERD at the event because of his presentation on the concept of time and how we have enslaved our lives to chronology. THIS WAS FASCIN

This episode ain’t a swim in the kiddy pool. On today’s episode of Ponderings from the Perch, the Little Bird Marketing Podcast, host and Momma Bird Priscilla McKinney, and guest and marketing strategy consultant Ryan Barry, discuss the future of market research and the importance of community when fostering b2b relationships.  As the co-founder and President of Zappi, an agile market research platform built to empower creators globally with smart, quick, and actionable data to inspire, optimize, and validate their ideas, Barry shares lead generation tips and intimate insights on the importance of customer and people-centric methods, emphasizing the significance of making genuine, human connections with all types of people, regardless of their position within a company. He also discusses the role of GenAI for both marketing automation and in today’s market research and its ability to deliver actionable results.   “How can we give people tangible advice [today],” Barry asks “[so we can] make their jobs better

Like the bird she named her company after, Data Larks founder, Mary Hunter, is looking to lead the dawn of a new era. On today’s episode Ponderings from the Perch, the Little Bird Marketing™ podcast, Hunter and host, Priscilla McKinney, delve into the world of market research and its potential to increase both awareness and market potential for underrepresented communities.  Data Larks is a pioneering consultancy dedicated to diverse data storytelling and analysis. Hunter, with over 20 years of experience in cultural studies, shares her insights on both the benefits and overall importance of inclusive persona profiles, the pitfalls of traditional and subsequently outdated market research methods, and the intersection of market research and marketing in today's diverse landscape. “We need to be able to pull all of [these differences] together and learn to collaborate,” Hunter explains. “To be able to deliver incredible insights that our clients can act on.” Hunter and McKinney also discuss the transition of di

Uncover the hidden heroes behind billion-dollar business decisions. On this episode Ponderings from the Perch, the Little Bird Marketing podcast, host and CEO Priscilla McKinney, and guest Corie Suzuki, director at Fieldwork Chicago, chat about the world of market research as they celebrate the upcoming Global Focus Group Day on July 9th! "This day is all about recognizing the heroes of market research,” Suzuki explians. “It's a day to honor the power of face-to-face interactions and the ‘A-ha’ moments they bring." Suzuki shares her eight-year journey with Fieldwork, offering listeners a behind-the-scenes look at the company's dedication to high-quality participant recruitment and hosting facilities for in-person market research.  McKinney and Suzuki also discuss the challenges faced by the industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and how Fieldwork's adaptability and client-centered approach helped navigate these turbulent times. Well past this history, the Fieldwork team continues to support brands, organizatio

Who here loves PowerPoint? Anyone… yeah, us too. On today’s episode of Ponderings from the Perch, a Little Bird Marketing Podcast, host Priscilla McKinney and guest Rob Biesenbach discuss how to captivate an audience beyond tech. With backgrounds in both business and acting, the latter of which he trained for at Second City in Chicago, Biesenbach understands the power of storytelling to captivate audiences and drive meaningful change, and firmly believes that traditional presentation methods like the aforementioned Death by PowerPoint and basic info dumps are no longer effective in engaging modern audiences. Specializing in business-to-business (B2B) strategies via peer-to-peer relationships, Biesenbach encourages individuals in business to craft compelling narratives that blend engaging topics with personal experiences that resonate deeply with their audience, fostering genuine connections and driving positive outcomes. "You're doing more than presenting information,” Riesenbach explains. “You are trying to

He’ll admit, Shawn Nason is a lot. He’s looking for leaders who are mavericks. He’s the founder and CEO of MOFI, a maverick-minded, human-obsessed boutique consulting firm that uses ethnographic research, journey mapping, human-centered design, experienced-based training, and design sprints to transform organizations. Shawn believes the only way to build a sustainable and thriving business is to put people first. As an experienced evangelist and experienced ecosystem designer, he unapologetically challenges leaders to blow up outdated, siloed systems and rebuild them with an aligned, human-first approach. He states, “If you put the human experience first in business you will get the numbers you need.” He helps companies realize the tangible benefits of this commitment: employee retention staying relevant in business significant revenue growth regaining hope for what the business experience could be He and Priscilla talk about the state of leadership and how our culture creates the expectation that it wi

ROI & KPIs, MQLs& SQLs… The acronyms in marketing never stop. But the only KPI that really matters is that feeling you get when you’re exceeding revenue goals! At Little Bird Marketing, we’re overtly helpful, providing amazing resources and expertise like this lead generation funnel blog to provide important benchmarks for your work. What is also immensely helpful is knowing how to bring your sales and marketing departments together for a revenue generation WIN. No more listening to marketing blame sales for not closing leads or listening to sales say marketing doesn’t deliver quality leads. Instead, we’ll share our expertise on how to pass the baton successfully from marketing to sales in a way that creates predictable revenue generation. Our CEO and Momma Bird, Priscilla McKinney, hosts our very own Chief Revenue Officer, Stephanie Douglass, to discuss the important focus needed on that important hand-off that happens at the intersection of sales and marketing. Getting that baton handed off correctly and c

It’s time to quit thinking inside the box you’re creating for yourself. Our CEO and Momma Bird, Priscilla McKinney, loves advocating for women in business. Today, she pulls the curtain back to show the woman (and friend of hers) behind Harvest Insights, Alisa Hamilton. Her out of box business venture is a story every aspiring leader should hear. Alisa started Harvest Insights out of a need she saw to help overwhelmed research teams be able to siphon off some of their overflow work on an as-needed basis. She went out to focus group research companies to simply offer assistance, and her business organically grew from there. With her research training, the phrase “I’ve been in your shoes, let me help” brought the opportunity for brand building and delivering value to others. Great moderators provide a space for empathy and curiosity while engaging an audience. They break the ice by delivering a relaxed environment to discover the most accurate insights from the face-to-face focus group. As an experienced mode

Join Priscilla McKinney, CEO, and Momma Bird here at Little Bird Marketing as she gets down to the nitty-gritty of why our expertise in market research matters for better content, lead generation, and ultimately, revenue growth. So many market research firms hire a marketing agency only to spend the next 18 months explaining the difference between qual and quant, nuances in the competitive landscape, getting familiar with insights associations and organizations, and still not being any closer to gaining traction in terms of hitting revenue goals. To be of immediate significance as a content marketer in the insight industry, it is paramount to understand the variations of the buyers in the space. Any great marketing plan starts with creating meticulously detailed buyer personas that grasp the challenges, fears, aspirations, and frustrations of their ideal customers. Generic market research personas simply won't cut it, and success hinges on gaining granular insights into the target audience. A great marketing

In a world where survey respondents are basically sick and tired of doing all the work to TELL as screener about their behaviors, qualifications, demographics, and more just for the chance at participating in a survey, along comes Qrious Insight with their “always on” approach to passive data collection. In this episode, Priscilla McKinney, CEO and Momma Bird of Little Bird Marketing is joined by Andrew Moffatt, CEO and Co-Founder of Qrious Insight to discuss the future of dynamic brand tracking instead of static brand trackers. In their work with marketing and ad effectiveness, brands benefit from the aggregation of data they passively collect from panel members who opt in for continual tracking. This provides rich information about who they are, what they do, and how long they do it on their digital device in a wholly less intrusive manner than traditional survey models allow. Now, instead of searching for the potential respondent and asking them if they have, for example, seen a Domino’s ad in the last 30

We’ve had DEI 101, can we advance? It’s time for 201. Our CEO and Momma Bird, Priscilla McKinney loves advocating for women in business, and brought Kim “Kimfer” Flanery-Rye Founder & DEI and Culture Practitioner for Inclusion Equals to open the conversation for change. Inclusion Equals is a social enterprise focused on the IDEA: Inclusion = Diversity + Equity + Accessibility to build culture from the inside out. Entrepreneurial in spirit, creatively minded, and service at heart, Kimfer is a seasoned professional with 20+ years of experience with a diverse background in design, digital marketing, and organizational and leadership development, just to name a few. She is also an Adjunct Professor teaching Creativity and Innovation for MBA students and has her MBA in Executive Leadership. She speaks locally, nationally, and globally and has most recently spoken at the 2022 and 2023 World Economic Forum regarding the importance of women on boards and what it means for women to have power, authority, and agency.

So, you want to write a book? Is the idea becoming a burden because you can just see a way forward to getting it done? In the true spirit of “always be helping” (ABH), our Momma Bird and CEO of Little Bird Marketing, Priscilla McKinney pulls the curtain back and talks about her experience hiring a scribe to complete her book. The most important first step is to get clarity about WHY you MUST write your book. Are you looking for new clients? Want opportunities for public speaking? Want some street cred to increase your speaking fees? No matter what the goal is, it’s important to understand how a book can support broader professional and personal goals. She gives great advice about how to take book ideas and make them a reality by looking clearly at book title ideas, evaluating the topics, goals for writing a book, the need for considering the audience and getting the right structure in place to turn that book idea into a published book. You may have a lot of great book ideas floating around in your head, but g

It’s here! Get ready for tidings and good cheer…it’s the 8th Annual Holiday Spectacular! Spectacular! The Peeps won’t be baking any treats this year, but we do have quite a few treats (and tricks) up our sleeve for you. Which holiday are we celebrating again?  Little Bird Marketing is – as you may know – a marketing company. This year we’re covering something near and dear to our hearts…holiday marketing! While we don’t really do holiday marketing we can all appreciate a good holiday commercial. Walk down nostalgia boulevard as the Peeps spill on the best gift they’ve ever received and whether or not marketing influenced it. Play along with us on not one, but TWO holiday marketing trivia quizzes!  We close out the episode with a fireside chat you won’t want to miss. Who doesn’t love a little Mad Men-esque holiday marketing ploy?  This time of year is plenty busy, so take a brain break with the Peeps. Reminisce on your favorite childhood toys and let nostalgia take hold as we discuss the best holiday marke

Q: How did Microsoft Office get so famous? A: Word of mouth. Now, how did Microsoft Office improve its products using user experience research to satisfy customers and improve retention? No more dad jokes here. That’s a serious question for Joanna Jones with InterQ Research. CEO of Little Bird Marketing, Priscilla McKinney, welcomes Joanna to this podcast episode on Ponderings from the Perch. Joanna founded InterQ Research, a full-service qualitative and quantitative research firm headquartered in San Francisco. InterQ specializes in the tech industry. She has used user experience research, in-depth interviews, ethnographies, biometrics, Jobs To Be Done, social listening, and quantitative surveys to help clients like Delta Air Lines, Audi, Microsoft, Disney, Google, and Salesforce. When tech companies need to understand what’s next in B2B lead generation, product and innovation and so much more, they have tapped into this female-founded and run company. Joana shares that finding quality respondents is the

Roll out the red carpet and act as paparazzi for those you admire in the business world; It’s time to start collaborating! CEO of Little Bird Marketing, Priscilla McKinney, is joined by content strategy expert, and good friend, Andy Crestodina to discuss the power behind collaboration. If you know Andy, you know he is helpfulness incarnate! In this episode, he’s doling out secrets to driving growth in content creation by finding ways to help others. Andy has been in the web design and interactive marketing space for more than two decades.  He has helped thousands of people get results online. He’s a true evangelist for content marketing and ethical digital marketing. Together with the team at Orbit Media, Andy has put out some of the best digital marketing advice available in hundreds of practical articles, including posts on virtually all of the top marketing websites.  Andy finds success when focusing on the success of others. While business leaders must find new growth strategies, there is plenty of roo

A few questions from the CEO of Little Bird Marketing, Priscilla McKinney about your current marketing plan template: - When you think about your marketing efforts, is it strategic? - Have you defined and written down your goals and objectives? - How are you holding your marketing efforts accountable? - Are your marketing efforts repeatable? When we sit down to do something, it's easy to have the mindset of just getting it done. We get hung up on the daily hustle and bustle of marketing efforts. But marketing goals are not achieved with random busy work. Getting the RIGHT work done is the key to success. Leaders should ask themselves if they have been clear about the goals and objectives of their work. Tasks need to have alignment with the overall campaign and inbound marketing strategy. If a junior staff member can’t explain the goals of the work in alignment with the strategy, there needs to be a shift in connecting tasks with desired outcomes. Also, you can’t get where you’re going if you aren’t c

Don’t get caught sending an email to Gen Z expecting them to take your survey. They won’t see it in their inbox of 5,735 unread messages. CEO of Little Bird Marketing, Priscilla McKinney, welcomes Jennifer Reid, Co-CEO and Chief Methodologist at Rival Group, to discuss how to best engage with Generation Z for market research. Jennifer is an expert in Gen Z engagement, specifically the ability to connect with younger generations for the purpose of consumer understanding and insights that move brands forward. As with any generation, trust and transparency are important frameworks from which to operate to get dynamic insights, but with this generation, they are paramount. Jennifer works with teams to help them successfully engage with this important pool of respondents. Her advice? When trying to reach GenZ to participate in market research, we should ask ourselves if we’re using the wrong channel, have the wrong tone of voice, are using the wrong format or are asking the wrong question. According to Jennifer,

Feel like you’re becoming irrelevant and lost in the industry? In this episode of Ponderings from the Perch, CEO and Momma Bird at Little Bird Marketing, Priscilla McKinney, is joined by Nancie McDonnell Ruder, an experienced marketing strategist, branding consultant and consumer researcher. As Founder and CEO of Noetic, a Marketing and Leadership Consulting Firm, Nancie shares the issues marketers face and the steps to move past old thinking and onto new strategies. Marketers today are confronted with challenges that demand constant vigilance. The fear of losing resonance with target audiences due to evolving trends and dynamic consumer behavior is a perpetual concern.  It’s easy to go at these new problems with old solutions. People get comfortable with what they are confident in and don’t want things to change. We all have feelings about what we are and aren’t good at. Even when we should find new digital marketing tools, reconsider our content strategy or rethink our media planning, we stay with the kn