We have endured a great deal as a class in a relatively short amount of time: We built our company, made countless cold calls to prospective clients, elected a client, lost a client, restructured our leadership, got a new client, and now, we have finally made progress on the actual communication audit we had hoped to start a month earlier. Given that time is not a luxury we can afford at this point in the semester, it is easy to get overwhelmed while creating a tentative research schedule for the benchmarking, interviewing, focus group, and survey processes. The following tips are for future classes on a time budget.

 

1. Make sure your company has access to your client’s resources.

When working with our first client, we quickly realized they were not going to be able to provide us with the most basic tools we needed to complete a communication audit. Had we recognized this earlier, we would not have had to scramble to find a new client.

 

2. Allot an appropriate amount of time to each research process.

This one is tricky. Each research process requires careful planning that can occur weeks before the actual process begins– from hiring people to get the job done to assigning who makes contact with what publics and when.

With enough preparation and foresight, each process should take about a week to complete. Your class will inevitably run into issues that set you back, so budgeting for extra time is also something that should be taken into consideration. Work quickly, but avoid rushing to sloppy research results.

 

3. It is possible (and acceptable) for research processes to overlap.

Not everyone will finish their work at the same time. Some people’s schedules may not allow them to dedicate as much time to the class, or they may just have bad luck getting in contact with publics. Either way, set clear deadlines and stay on schedule.

 

     Accommodate to people’s needs as much as possible so they do not fall behind, but also make sure you are on track to successfully completing an audit. This may mean starting interviews when you have a few benchmarking reports missing.

 

-Grace Wilk, Chief Operations Officer