Audrey Struve

Product Relevance–An Experiment in Engaging Silicon Valley Corporate Millennials

Posted by Audrey Struve, Jan 21, 2016 0 comments


Audrey Struve

In June 2015, Silicon Valley Creates, a regranting organization in San Jose, California, with a thirty-plus year record in providing funding opportunities for the local arts and culture community, made a bold move–for us. We took a first-time experimental step in investing in capacity building, specifically to elevate the conversation about product relevance.

A shift in capacity building strategy

Some nine months earlier, SV Creates launched a new approach for capacity building programming–to focus on strengthening our creative ecosystem–a main goal in our strategic plan. My colleague, Josh Russell, blogged here about this shift in alignment, where we developed a framework (link to pdf) of key elements (“the quadrants”) for a healthy creative ecosystem in Silicon Valley.

 “The quadrants” are the basis for our capacity building programming. We surveyed the creative community to ask what areas of focus in the framework will help them drive sustainability. Across the sector, high priorities were:

·         marketing

·         board development

·         exploring new funding models

·         engaging next generation audiences

From the survey results, we built a first-year program of conferences, workshops, and brown bag events, with associated funding opportunities, including the product relevance opportunity.

Focus on product relevance

We believe that you can have exceptional marketing and outreach strategies and a high quality product. But if that creative product doesn’t actually resonate with the audience you are trying to engage with… then you are fighting a losing battle. So, we embarked on an effort to gauge how “relevant” the live, creative experiences in Silicon Valley are with a millennial, corporate employee audience.

While engaging next generation audiences is not an uncommon priority for the creative sector, we have a unique opportunity being centered in Silicon Valley. We live in an epicenter of innovative technology leapfrog and a growing demographic of young professional tech employees. And, we know clearly and consistently from the survey and from ongoing discussions in the creative community (including next generation arts professionals) about the need to build engagement with the local corporate sector.

About the concept

As Josh says, “we believe in taking risks, and we have an incredible funder in the Applied Materials Foundation, who trusted us to do something that’s never been done in the organization’s long history. And we felt the best way to understand what resonated with the millennial employees was to ask them directly.” So, instead of following a more traditional path of grantmaking, we focused on creating a funding platform, and even more, a professional development opportunity. Think merger of the MIT Enterprise Forum and a reality show, like Shark Tank. Well, sort of.

We reached out to the creative community for new, innovative creative or artistic experiences to connect with millennial corporate employees, with the proviso that the experience must be LIVE in Santa Clara County. What was different for us?

·         Broad eligibility: expanded to artists, creative entrepreneurs, and arts and culture organizations

·         Simple entry:  applicants submitted a tweet (yes, 140 characters!)

·         Enhance the art of the pitch: a two-stage process with first-round expert coaching, and final-round pitches to the judges, all in one day

·         Ask the target audience directly: recruited a group of millennial corporate employees to review project pitches

·         Go fast: just under three weeks from announcement to awards

Overview of the process

We announced the opportunity (yes, in social media). We had an overwhelming response: 90 tweets. (We would have been thrilled with 30 entries.) In a few days, staff vetted the tweets, and invited 33 applicants to advance, to create 5 – 7 minute presentations to share with a coach at the event, Product(dot)Relevance.

We had great assistance for the event. We recruited 11 coaches, experts in cultural and corporate communications, to guide applicants on strengthening presentations. And we invited 10 millennial, corporate employees as judges, representing Adobe, Apple iTunes, Cisco Systems, Hitachi, MicroSoft, NetApp, PayPal, and Philz Coffee.

The day-long Product(dot)Relevance event was exhausting and exhilarating. The morning consisted of three 45-minute individual coaching sessions. Each applicant was scheduled for one coaching session. At morning’s end, each coach selected one of the three applicants they met with to advance to the final round to present to the judges–11 finalists. And, all applicants were invited to attend the final presentations.

After a quick lunch break (lots of presentation tweaking and activity), the presentations were held on stage in a professional theater.  Following the presentations, the judges selected the top 5 projects. The top 5 applicants received a $10,000 award, funded through our grant from the Applied Materials Foundation.

What we learned

There were many great ideas–making some difficult choices for the coaches. We hope that all the applicants who received coaching got some helpful guidance to shape their pitches to other funders and donors. Also, we were pleased to see members of the public and a number of applicants who didn’t advance stay to hear the afternoon of pitches, to learn what was important to judges.

An applicant who advanced to the coaching session but didn’t advance to the final round, told us that without the nudge from this opportunity, his classical music nonprofit would not have even thought of brainstorming ideas in this way.

Of the overall Product(dot)Relevance process, Lisa Mallette, City Lights Theater Company, described it as: anxiety inducing, exciting, and cool; while Scott Fulton, San Jose Jazz, wrote that it was stimulating, inspiring, and different.

Lisa and Scott also shared some thoughts about their coaching sessions and presentations:

·         For Lisa, learning what project features could or should be more fully fleshed out was a critical piece.  She also valued the advice to present in her own words with her own passion (leave the script), to more fully engage the judges.

·         Scott Fulton credits the informal setting of the coaching session, enabling him to integrate tweaks into his presentation “real time”. A tip from Scott: he added a “touch of theatre” to the slides, including some subtle transitions and drawings to aid the judges’ visualization. Bravo!

What resonates for this group of corporate millennials? Here’s what we observed from the judges’ comments:

·         They prefer participatory and/or immersive events and activities.

·         They were almost as interested in the business model as they were the idea itself.

·         Free isn’t necessarily a draw. They’ll pay to attend, but there must be a perceived value.

·         Adding a beer or cocktail hour does not mean the experience resonates with this audience.

·         Friday nights are difficult times to schedule.

We recognize this Product(dot)Relevance process may not be a fit for all. But we believe the benefits of smart experimentation in the moment, both in the award process and in the broader learning experience for all, elevates the entire ecosystem. Next steps… we tweak, we adjust, we move forward, better for the experience. 

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