Personal Brand Management
Over the years, we have seen different people doing or saying similar things, and yet being perceived very differently. This has come up repeatedly in discussions with my team members as well as for myself.
Recently, I underwent a training program on personal brand management and how it is very important to have a strong personal brand in order to influence people.
This got me thinking on how we can apply well known techniques that have been used in product development. We will look at 2 common models used in product development and see how they can be applied for personal branding.
NPS (Net Promoter Score)
The Net Promoter Score is calculated based on responses to the question on how likely the responder will recommend the product/service.
Promoters are the set of people who respond with a score of 9 to 10. Detractors are those who respond with a score of 0 to 6. Responses of 7 and 8 are labeled Passives, and our behavior falls in the middle of Promoters and Detractors.
The Net Promoter Score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of reviewers who are Detractors from the percentage of reviewers who are Promoters.
A similar analysis when done on one’s personal brand will help know why people are Promoters or Detractors or Passive about them. This can serve as a foundation for us to improve our work and interactions and thereby improve 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 & group interactions. Both explicit and implicit signals can be used in the data gathering.
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, customers will be dissatisfied. Beyond a point if only basic needs are addressed then the customer satisfaction does not increase proportionately and instead tapers out.
Delighters on the other hand are unforeseen features by the customer that create an awe effect and delights the customer. The satisfaction caused by such delighters are exponentially more satisfying.
Drawing an analogy from product management, on the personal brand front, we can create an awe effect that was unforeseen by the reviewers (people we work with). This will create delightful memories in the reviewers. Similarly if we meet the basic needs of the reviewers, then there won’t be many dissatisfied reviewers.
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. It can also be unforeseen attributes of work such as quality, timeliness etc.
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. A strong personal brand improves 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. 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 can become Detractors.
Hence, in the long run, the basic needs of one’s role has to be met. In addition, work on delighting the reviewers to increase your promoters.
Conclusion
Managing one’s personal brand is very important for our success. In this article we have seen how we can apply long standing models that are used in product development and branding to a personal brand.
All the best!
