Winthrop --
I wanted to give you a preliminary report on my research at XYZ. I haven't been able to conduct rigorous analysis yet, so you can take this report as tentative and based on initial impressions of the data rather than an authoritative end report. I suspect that most of the findings below are not going to be news to you -- some of them reflect changes that management put into place -- but I wanted to nail them down because I think some interesting results could flow from them.
Work organization is changing rapidly at XYZ. During my first visits, analysts worked relatively autonomously, reporting results to account managers but not taking direction from them. Training and direction happened primarily through mentoring. I suspect this was true in large part because search analysis is a fairly young field with few established procedures. Analysts therefore tend to be rather self-directed and to develop solutions to novel problems, and that has been enough in the past.
As XYZ takes on more clients, this system doesn't scale up well. Clients are separating into identifiable types and XYZ is developing new services, and of course the company is taking on more employees as well. So during subsequent visits, I saw a (relatively) more hierarchical organization emerging, with analysts being assigned to teams and certain senior analysts being designated team leaders. The emerging hierarchy is still very loose and appears to be developing rapidly, and I'm not sure how organization will look in the next month or two. My impression is that it will remain very loose for a while as analysts become more comfortable with their roles.
Tools and documents are also changing rapidly. Like your industry, and like XYZ's internal organization, tools were a moving target. Partly that was because XYZ was rapidly developing new internal tools (though analysts were not always sure what these tools do or how to integrate them into their loose workflows). Analysts understand that it's critical to integrate these new tools properly into their workflow, but have had trouble doing so, partially because the workflow is so rapid. Although I would have to analyze the data more, I think the work of analysis is also developing in a number of directions, making it difficult for them to concentrate on development in any particular direction.
Analysts often created their own documents as well. Although they were provided with several templates for different types of reports and analyses, they often faced novel situations in which they had to perform more complex analyses. These situations typically involved upcoming meetings with large clients who deserved special attention. In one observation, for instance, an analyst struggled to create an Excel graph that showed several relationships; after spending a good deal of time on it, this analyst abandoned the task, explaining that the relationships may not be relatable in an Excel graph. In another case, an analyst developed a novel chart to demonstrate that keywords nominated by a new client were not as suitable as ones the analyst had identified. Such documents were invented on the spot, reacted to upcoming presentations (usually scheduled for later that day), and appeared to be one-off inventions (i.e., analysts did not plan to use them again or share them with others). These suggest, again, that the work (and workflow) of search analysis is still developing rapidly. As the field matures and as XYZ further defines the parameters of its services, these documents will begin to regularize.
Internal communication channels appear robust. Most analysts and the account manager were on IM constantly and appeared to use it appropriately to communicate throughout the day: They asked questions, gave answers, redirected inquiries, and followed up with face-to-face meetings when appropriate. IM also served as a roster of available team members, which was important given the loose schedules of some team members. It also served as a way to conduct private conversations about potentially sensitive topics, such as how to stage-manage the introduction of new tools in a meeting.
The physical separation between account managers and search analysts was pretty obvious, but both parties communicated over IM and by crossing to the other's section, so I don't think it posed a communication problem. That separation also allowed each team to mentor its own members. Interestingly, I saw more crosstalk with the account managers than with the analysts.
Email functioned, as it often does, as an archival resource as well as communication. For instance, an account analyst filled out her timesheet by looking at what emails she sent the previous day. Account managers in particular were conscious of how they wrote emails to clients, and consulted others in the company on email drafts before sending them out.
I plan to conduct a more thorough analysis of the existing data over the next two weeks. Specifically, I plan to generate several analytical models to detect any patterns I've missed. At the end of those two weeks, I should be able to provide a more solid analysis.
Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions. I'm restricted in terms of specific details due to confidentiality, but I should be able to discuss broad trends further.