For a lot of businesses, the start of the financial year is focused on data, experiments, wins and mistakes, which are more important than you may realise. By the end of the first quarter, you probably have a relatively good idea of what’s working, what’s not and where your best chances are. But, those insights alone won’t lead to results.
Even the most useful insights get lost in reports that aren’t read and dashboards that aren’t used, so you need to act on them. What you do with the insights you gained in Q1 really matters, especially when it comes to making Q2 bigger and better.
How to Get the Most Out of Q1 Insights
Decide Which Insights to Prioritise
Not all insights are equal, some are small things that you barely notice, whereas others are signs of big opportunities or looming danger. Look at your Q1 data and decide which patterns keep coming up, which insights have the biggest impact on performance, and where the biggest gaps are. You can then make a list of the most important things to focus on, making sure they’re specific, doable and aligned with your wider business goals. If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
Turn Insights Into Something That Can Be Tested
It’s not enough to make a comment about your conversion rate dropping, and leaving it at that. You need to turn that insight into an idea that can be tested. For example, has your conversion rate dropped because users disappear from your pricing page?
If so, you might want to consider making the pricing easier to understand in Q2, hoping it leads to more sales. Not only are you thinking about why something is happening, but you also have a clear plan of action to solve the issue.
Put the Most Important Actions First
As a busy business owner, it’s unlikely that you have a lot of time to spare, let alone time to do everything at once. So, give yourself a set of priorities. Look at how much of an impact an action will have on the business, how hard the action is and how much time it will take up. It’s a good idea to focus on quick wins that have a big effect, but don’t take much effort, alongside high impact and high effort strategies.
Don’t fall into the trap of wasting time on low impact tasks. They might seem useful, but they’re unlikely to have the big impact you need in Q2.
Divide Big Ideas Into Small Actions
When big ideas stay big, they’re more likely to fail. Instead of having a big goal-such as making onboarding better or starting a new marketing campaign-break your idea down into smaller, more manageable parts. Every step should be clear, assignable and time-bound, making them easier to manage and keeping momentum strong. Smaller steps build momentum, and momentum gets things done.
Give People Responsibilities and Set Deadlines
Without accountability from your team, it’s unlikely that your Q1 insights will lead to action in Q2.Every action should have a responsible owner and a due date. This makes people responsible for specific tasks, and makes sure that things don’t get lost in the day-to-day chaos of running a business. If more than one person is involved, make sure everyone knows their role to avoid confusion or doing the same thing twice, which wastes valuable time.
Find a Way to Keep Track of Your Progress
You can’t get better at something if you don’t keep track of how well you’re doing. Otherwise, how will you see if anything has improved? Keep an eye on things by tracking what actions you’re taking right now, what’s already been done and what results you’ve seen.
You could use a project management tool, a dashboard your entire team can see or regular meetings. The goal is to keep your Q1 insights alive in Q2, not let them get noted in a report and immediately forgotten about.
Try, Learn and Try Again
Turning your Q1 insights into Q2 action isn’t a one-off task, something to do sporadically. It’s a cycle of change. As you put insights into action, find out how well your efforts worked, what worked as well as you thought it would and learn from what didn’t. Then improve your method and keep trying new things, until you get the results you want. This constant cycle is what turnsQ1 insights into long-term growth.
Set a Reminder for Q2 Reviews
Don’t wait until the end of Q2 to find out if things worked. Instead, set up regular check points along the way. It’s a good idea to conduct quick reviews every week or every other week, and to check on the performance of your actions every month. Keep an eye out for any big changes that happen throughout Q2. This will help you to find problems early, put more effort into what works, act quick and stay flexible.
Don’t Let Q1 Go to Waste
You can learn a lot from Q1, so don’t let your insights go to waste. If you don’t turn Q1 insights into Q2 actions, you’re not going to see any movement. It’s not enough for you and your team to get the best insights, you also need to act on them quickly, consistently and in a way that makes sense.
For a lot of businesses, the start of the financial year is focused on data, experiments, wins and mistakes, which are more important than you may realise. By the end of the first quarter, you probably have a relatively good idea of what’s working, what’s not and where your best chances are. But, those insights alone won’t lead to results.
Even the most useful insights get lost in reports that aren’t read and dashboards that aren’t used, so you need to act on them. What you do with the insights you gained in Q1 really matters, especially when it comes to making Q2 bigger and better.
