The Problem
A trade association serving the energy industry needed a clearer understanding of how its members perceived the organization, what they valued most, and where gaps existed in its offerings.
With member engagement siloed by functional area and limited visibility into how the association was being evaluated against alternatives, the team needed candid, unfiltered member perspectives to inform its strategic direction and product development priorities.
The Approach
We designed and fielded an interview study with our client’s current members across three functional areas: Operations, Learning & Development, and HR.
– Developed a structured discussion guide to explore member expectations, product and service perceptions, training gaps, emerging challenges, and professional development evaluation criteria.
– Completed in-depth interviews with participants recruited directly from our client’s member base to ensure relevant industry and role representation.
– Analyzed data using both researcher-driven coding and machine-coding processes to validate findings and surface consistent themes across respondent groups.
The Results
Core Audience Target
Identified the functional roles and seniority levels deriving the strongest membership value, giving the client a clearer picture of where to focus acquisition and retention efforts.
Cross-Sell Opportunities
Surfaced significant gaps in member awareness of the association’s full product and service portfolio, pointing to a clear opportunity to improve cross-sell communications and account management practices.
Product Opportunities
Revealed the training and content areas members most want the association to own, with a distinctly industry-specific orientation.
Go-To-Market Recommendations
Delivered a prioritized set of strategic recommendations spanning product development, event programming, member referral, and a new account management approach to deepen organizational relationships.
Did You Know...
Interview studies can be designed to capture perspectives across distinct customer segments, not just a general audience. By intentionally recruiting respondents across different roles, seniority levels, or functional areas, interview-based research surfaces how needs, perceptions, and priorities shift from one group to the next. The result is a richer, more actionable picture of your audience than a single, undifferentiated sample could ever provide.
