How we work
The Accelerant Positioning Workshop Program
Our Accelerant Positioning Workshop program brings the right people together with the right information, and the right environment for great work to happen.
Collaborative Co-Creation
We follow a collaborative co-creation approach, working with client project teams representing key functions across the company: typically executive, technology, product, sales, business development, and customer success. Their combined perspective keeps things customer-focused and authentic, and ensures that nothing important will be missed.
We don’t just facilitate, we actively add our own perspectives and ideas as we go, and our processes, templates and materials help keep teams focused on the goal.
Pre-Workshop Orientation
Before work begins, we work with our clients to help identify a senior project sponsor and form their cross functional project team. We communicate the importance of the project, the steps in the process, and the project calendar to the participants and senior executives. And we work with our contacts to gather all of the interviewees, competitive intelligence and customer-related information we need to get started on research. Our templates and checklists make getting started easy.
Research and Strategy
Many companies rely on ad hoc methods, personal experience and opinions for their positioning and messaging efforts.
Over the course of working with hundreds of companies on positioning and messaging, we have evolved an effective, structured approach to gathering and analyzing external and internal information to make sure all important issues have been thoughtfully considered and gain the strategic insights we need to support the collaborative positioning and messaging work we do.
It takes us a few weeks to pull everything together, think carefully, zero in on key insights and build a sharp initial strategy.
Once we’re confident in our perspective, we present and discuss findings and strategic ideas with the client executives and project team, and get aligned on direction for the positioning and messaging workshops.
> More detail about our research approach
The Workshops
We lead a series of focused workshops with the cross-functional client team to create clear, authentic and well-differentiated positioning and messaging.
In Workshop 1, we begin positioning exercises.
In Workshop 2, we tighten positioning and begin drafting core messaging.
In Workshop 3, we finalize positioning and complete messaging drafts.
Before and between meetings, we circulate our notes and edits to the client team, make assignments and check in with senior project sponsors, so we’re always iterating, creating alignment and gaining interim approvals along the way.
We continue to engage the project team and senior sponsors and provide edits after Workshop 3, until the work is fully approved and “final” - although positioning and messaging is always evolving with the market.
And we’re happy to stay engaged for tune-ups down the road.