Op Ed – Marketing Touchpoints

Op Ed — Opinions and Editorials

Marketing Touchpoints — How Active Listening Can be a Tool for Proactive Change

Column Editor: Jill Stover Heinze (Sr. Product Researcher; Founder, Saddle-Stitch Marketing LLC, Charlottesville, VA 22902) <jill@SaddleStitchMarketing.com>

Change. Sometimes change can slip right by us, hidden in the hustle-and-bustle of the everyday. Change today is not like that. The kinds of changes we’re engaging in and wrestling with in this moment are of a scale and magnitude impossible to miss. Masks are going on, statues are coming down, and important, culture-changing work is compelling us all to take a new look at unexamined and even destructive ways. In such a time, I find it difficult to write about marketing tips for libraries. This isn’t to say that marketing libraries, which I think of as a means of making connections, is irrelevant. Far from it. It may be more important than ever. After all, people need libraries to be the places they aspire to be — places of inclusion, community, and access, and marketing is one tool for achieving and communicating those values. But it seems that the topic is too small when the times call for big ideas and compassion on a tremendous scale.

Though it is certainly too presumptuous to suggest an article by a librarian-UX-researcher can or should meet the moment, I chose to use this writing opportunity to reflect. I reflected on what, from what I recognize as my position of privilege, I could possibly share to be useful or relevant today in the context of a marketing piece. I chose to write about a topic that continuously challenges me in my career in libraries, user research, and simply as a person: listening. The irony of writing (talking) about listening isn’t lost on me, but I hope some of these reflections will serve as jumping off points for putting listening into practice to better our institutions and ourselves.

Successful marketing is predicated on the ability to seek and address people’s needs in relevant ways. The act of seeking is an act of purposeful listening. Marketers use all kinds of ways to create those listening moments, from focus groups and surveys to social media monitoring and online panels. While those opportunities might help to carve out some space for listening, they don’t guarantee people are being heard. You may have experienced this gap yourself as a researcher or as a participant. Perhaps a fellow participant dominated the conversation, or maybe your feedback was misinterpreted. Maybe you weren’t even invited into the conversation. As we seek input, we must do all we can to help people be heard, appreciated, and understood. Listening is hard work, and it’s a skill that can be improved but rarely fully achieved. The following are some of the techniques, principles, and mindsets I’ve used to help me get better through numerous user research activities where I have the serious responsibility of framing conversations.

Know It’s Not About You

One of the most formidable barriers to listening is minimizing one’s ego in an encounter. I’m using the term “ego” here in the psychological sense as that notion of self through which we perceive the world. When we converse, it can be dangerously easy to guide conversations in subtle ways that reinforce your world view or bolster your preformed opinions. In research, this subtle steering can result in confirmation bias. To illustrate, consider that you’ve worked for months on a new library service and you want to find out what people think about it. You’ve already invested a lot of time in the project, and any big changes would require a lot of rework or even threaten its launch. How willing are you to hear criticism? If the answer is “not very,” try mentally reframing the conversation. Understand going into it that the purpose of the service is to help people and benefit the community. No service or idea is beyond reproach, and learning about its flaws is a gift to help make it the best it can be. Ask questions like, “What is helpful or unhelpful about this?” to prompt for a well-rounded critique. If you don’t feel you can do this, ask a neutral party to lead the conversation.

Compensate People

When you invite users to give you feedback for formal research purposes, you’re asking a lot of them. Think about this for a moment. If you’re asking someone to come onsite to speak, before they even meet with you they’ve already had to carve out time in their day, travel to your location, figure out parking or transit routes, wayfind to your building or space, complete consent forms, and meet new people. If the conversation is online, they may face the added complexity of figuring out unfamiliar technology. They do all of this before they answer a single question.

Participants are doing work in order to be heard, and they deserve to be compensated accordingly. I’m very sympathetic to those facing tight budgets and that the amount and type of compensation may necessarily vary, but offer what’s reasonable for the effort you’re asking in return, and make sure participants know what they’ll receive and when they’ll receive it upfront.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

One of the most important things you can do is construct questions so that they make space for honest, robust answers. Asking open-ended questions is critical in achieving that. In contrast to close-ended questions continued on page 37

that commonly prompt for limited or binary responses like “yes” or “no,” open-ended questions don’t presume a particular response. You can find myriad online resources for examples of open-ended questions doing a quick Google search, and it’s good to have a few standbys ready to go if conversation stalls. Questions like, “Can you tell me more about...?” and “Tell me about a time when…?” can help make space for insight and dialogue.

Get the Right People in the Room

All of your solid preparation is for nothing if you don’t have the most important people in the conversation. The most important people are those who you are serving. If, for instance, you’re evaluating services for teens, don’t rely on their parents to convey all of their needs. Also, are you talking to people who reflect the diversity of your community? When your aim is to understand and discover, go to the source and don’t assume that proxies for your users will suffice to convey a breadth and depth of opinion. In the research world, I’ve found that getting a misaligned sample is a surefire way to arrive at the wrong conclusions.

Ask What People Need in Order to Be Heard

The act of opening up and sharing is a generous act of vulnerability. By doing so, people are expressing themselves and their perspectives, which could put them at odds with others or reveal personal information. Your job as a good listener is to create safety and comfort. When you invite people to talk, ask what accommodations you can make to help them feel at ease. In some cases this will mean using a particular physical space or room configuration, or it could mean providing a sign language interpreter. In group settings, agree upon a set of ground rules 1 so that everyone has an opportunity to express how they prefer to engage. For one-on-one sessions, adhere to good research protocol and reassure people they can leave at any time for any reason. I also like to reinforce that I value honest opinions.

Show You Heard

Listening attentively to someone is only part of the challenge. You should also demonstrate to others that you heard

Interview — Lars Bjørnshauge

from page 35 require open. We have been fighting and advocating for a couple of decades now. I am confident that we shall not wait two more decades before we can conclude that open access, open data, open software, open peer-review is the norm, is the mainstream.

ATG: Lars, you have presented at both the Fiesole Retreats and the Charleston Conference. Can you tell us about those experiences?

LB: While it was quite some time ago, I recall that I was quite pleased with the diverse group of participants and the openness of the discussions. It is quite impressive that the conference and retreats have continued for so many years. Many times, I have them and understood them accurately. You can do this in a number of ways. In focus group settings, there’s mixed opinion on whether you should give affirmative signals like nodding your head in agreement, but it’s always good to make eye contact to show speakers they have your undivided attention. (Leave the note-taking to someone else.) Also, rephrase what you heard to make sure you interpreted it correctly by saying things like, “Am I understanding you correctly that you believe…?” or “What I think I heard you say is...Is that correct?” Also, when people use particular terms or phrases to describe things, adopt their language rather than relying on your own naming conventions or jargon. Furthermore, where possible and welcomed, let people know how their feedback was used by showing them a final result, or an impact the conversation had. Not every conversation translates into visible change, but every conversation does contribute to greater understanding that can be applied in some way, which is the greatest impact of listening. Share it when possible.

Concluding Thoughts

Many of the suggestions I provided relate to doing market and UX research with those we serve, and are derived from research best practices. 2 However, they can be applied in less formal conversations too. Achieving a mindset of inquisitiveness and training ourselves to ask open questions goes a long way to making better listeners, and in turn, better community partners. My question to you is, how can you use everyday opportunities to make space for questioning and listening so that people are truly heard?

Endnotes

1. There are many good resources for setting Ground Rules. The following two resources are just some examples: https://info. nicic.gov/ebdm/node/58 and https://blog.lucidmeetings.com/blog/ using-ground-rules-improve-engagement-excellent-team-meetings. 2. I learned a great deal about listening by reading this book by about doing interviews: Portugal, Steve (2013). Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights (1st ed.). Brooklyn,

NY: Rosenfeld Media. had plans to participate, but other commitments have come in the way.

ATG: When not dealing with DOAJ and open access related issues, what do you do in your down time? Are there particular activities or hobbies that you enjoy?

LB: Having a family. My wife, four children and five grandchildren give me a lot of joy! My passion is growing succulents and cacti from seed in my vegetable garden at my summerhouse. I like to listen to music from the 60s and onwards (having been active in bands in my teenage years).

ATG: Thank you so much for taking time from what we know is a very busy schedule to talk to us. We very much enjoyed it and learned a lot.

LB: It has been a pleasure!