Personal Brand Management

Problem

Managing your personal brand is very important to your success. One can see different people doing or saying similar things, and yet being perceived very differently. After recently attending a training program on personal brand management, I understood how important it was to have a strong personal brand in order to influence people. This got me thinking about how we can apply well-known techniques that have been used in product development to personal branding. Here are two common models used in product development and how they can be applied for personal branding.

Actions taken

"A similar analysis, when done on one's personal brand, will help know why people are Promoters, Detractors, or Passive about them. This can serve as a foundation for us to improve our work and interactions, thereby, improving the NPS."

"While this analysis is done using formal surveys for products, it can be a combination of formal and informal channels when assessing a person. 360 reviews can be an example of a formal method. Informally, these can also be perceived by an individual based on individual and group interaction. Both explicit and implicit signals can be used in the data gathering."

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

The Net Promoter Score is calculated based on responses to the question of how likely the responder will recommend the product/service on a scale of 1-10. Those who respond with a score of 9 to 10 are labelled Promoters. The set of people who respond with 0 to 6 are Detractors. Responses of 7 and 8 are called Passives. The Net Promoter Score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of reviewers who are Detractors from the percentage of reviewers who are Promoters.

Kano Model

Kano Model is often used in product development. The crux of the Kano Model is that if basic needs are not addressed in a product then customers will be dissatisfied. Yet, if only basic needs are addressed then the customer satisfaction does not increase proportionately and instead tapers out. Further still, there are Delighters which are unforeseen features by the customer that create an awe effect and delight the customer. The satisfaction caused by such delighter are exponentially more satisfying.

"If we take this product development model and apply it to the personal brand front, we see that one can create an awe effect that was unforeseen by reviewers (people we work with) and, thus, produce delightful memories in reviewers. Additionally, if we meet the basic needs of the reviewers, then there won't be man dissatisfied reviewers."

Lessons learned

Applying Kano Model to improve one's NPS

We can convert Passive reviewers to Promoters by delighting them with unforeseen work, such as delivering on a stretch goal, as well other attributes of work like quality, timeliness, and more. We can reduce the Detractors by taking care of the Reviewers' basic needs. By doing this we can improve the NPS of our personal brand. Once the NPS is improved, we will have a strong personal brand, consequently, improving our ability to influence.

Focus on all 3: Promoters, Detractors, and the Passives

A person may only focus to create Promoters by surprising the Reviewers, especially with whom one has infrequent interactions with. This can work in the short term, however, if the basic needs of others are not met then they will cease to be Passives and may then become Detractors. Hence, in the long run, the basic needs of one's role has to be met, as well as aiming to delight the Reviewers to increase your Promoters.

Source: LinkedIn