About You | Take an Inventory
But, but ... inventorying is boring!
It’s true. But fortunately, it is the most boring part of almost anything. Sometimes, it is also one of the most productive.
Who, What, Where, Why, When and How are the big inventorying questions. Who are you, what do you do, with whom or to whom do you do it? What do you use to do these things? How does it help your constituents or clients? Where are your products or services relevant? When in the lives of your customers, patients, consumers, or denizens is your product or service relevant? How have you done in your pursuits? What is the impetus for your change now?
Make a list, check it twice. List all your geographic markets. List all your market segments. List each and every product, service, and variant. List your employees/peers/cohorts; list their roles and true skills. List your success stories and what contributed to them. List your failures and the circumstances which created them. List, list, list! Then let the lists sit for a week or two. Then share it with another set of eyes. List the agreements and disagreements.
This is the beginning of your Content Inventory. These lists are the building blocks of what you do and how you do it. It will create a pile of paper and probably cause you to dig a few holes. But it is all necessary to move forward. If you don’t know what universe you are in, what your tools are, and what you are doing, your efforts and the efforts you request of others will be meaningless.
Don’t forget your shovel if you want to go to work.