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How to find members' top tasks

What are the most important tasks that members are trying to complete? What needs are so critical that they are willing to invest time, money, and energy in solving them? Gerry McGovern’s “Top Tasks” approach offers a powerful method for identifying these top tasks and ensuring that your organization focuses on what really matters.

Sven Hognestad
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What are top tasks, and why are they important?

Top tasks are the most important tasks or needs that your members are trying to fulfill when they interact with your organization. This could be anything from finding specific information, attending an event, or getting help solving a challenge.

Identifying these top tasks is critical because:

  1. It creates focus: By prioritizing the most important tasks, you can ensure that your resources are used where they provide the most value.
  2. It improves the member experience: When you make it easy for members to complete their own, specific top tasks, you increase their satisfaction and loyalty.
  3. It provides competitive advantage: Organizations that focus on top tasks stand out by offering a more effective and relevant experience.

Step 1: Understand the “top tasks” approach

Gerry McGovern's "top tasks" methodology is about identifying and prioritizing the most important tasks that users (in this case, members) are trying to complete. The idea is that even though users have many needs, there are a few tasks that stand out as the most important.

For member organizations, this may include:

  • Finding relevant information or resources.
  • Sign up for events or courses.
  • Get help solving a specific challenge.
  • Building networks.
  • Access expertise.

Here is the first chapter of McGovern's book: “Top Tasks – A how-to guide”.

Step 2: Identify potential top tasks

Before you can find the real top tasks, you need to have a list of potential tasks that your members are trying to complete. Here's how to get started:

1. Hold workshops with stakeholders

Invite members, staff, and other stakeholders to a workshop to brainstorm potential tasks. Ask:

  • “What are the most important things members are trying to achieve when they engage with us?”
  • “What challenges do members face most often?”

2. Analyze existing data

Use data from your CRM, website statistics from Analytics or Matomo, or member surveys to identify what members do most.

  • Which pages are most frequently visited on your website?
  • What services or resources are used the most?
  • What are the most common questions for customer service?

3. Observe members' behavior

Attend events, follow members on social media, or read through feedback to gain a deeper understanding of what's important to them.

Step 3: Prioritize the top tasks

Once you have a list of potential tasks, the next step is to prioritize them to find the most important ones. This can be done through a simple but effective method called a “prioritization survey.”

How to conduct a prioritization survey:

  1. Make a list of tasks: Include all the potential tasks you have identified.
  2. Ask members: Ask members to rank the tasks based on how important they are. This can be done through a survey, for example set up in Hotjar.
    The survey should include questions that reveal what they came to the website to do, whether or not they completed the task, and who they are.
  3. Analyze the results: Identify which tasks stand out as the most important, and which tasks were difficult to complete.

Step 4: Optimize for your top tasks

Once you've identified the top tasks, it's time to optimize your organization to make it easy and efficient for members to complete these tasks.

Examples of optimization:

  • Improve your website: Make sure your top tasks are easy to find and complete on your website. For example, if “finding relevant information” is a top task, you could create a search feature or a categorized resource database.
  • Simplify processes: Reduce the number of steps it takes to complete a task. If “signing up for events” is a top task, you can make the registration process easier and more intuitive.
  • Offer tailored solutions: Develop services or resources that specifically help members complete their top tasks.

Top tasks are often used as the basis for creating what are called core pages: pages on your website where you solve users' top tasks and your own strategic goals at the same time. Read here for an overview of the core model.

Example:

If “networking” is a top priority, you can introduce a matchmaking feature on your website or organize speed networking events.

Step 5: Measure and improve

Top tasks change over time, and it's important to continually evaluate and improve your offerings.

  1. Measure the impact: Use data to see if members are actually completing top tasks more efficiently.
  2. Seek feedback: Ask members how they experience your solutions and what can be improved.
  3. Adjust your strategy: Use the insights to fine-tune your offers and ensure they remain relevant.

Challenges and pitfalls

While the “Top Tasks” approach is good, there are some challenges to be aware of:

  1. Overgeneralization: Not all members have the same top tasks. Avoid treating all members as one homogeneous group.
  2. Lack of follow-up: Identifying top tasks is just the start. You also need to act on the insights.
  3. Resistance to change: Some in the organization may be reluctant to change offerings or strategies based on new insights.

From chaos to focus

By understanding what really matters to your members, you can ensure your resources are being used where they provide the most value. Start collecting data, analyzing the insights, and building an organization that truly delivers value. Because as Gerry McGovern says: “Focus on the critical few, not the trivial many.”

Return to the home page: Everything you need to know about the membership journey.