Sales Marketing

KATHRYN CORY MANN

Phone: 617-***-**** ■ ****@********.*** ■ linkedin.com/in/corymann

EXPERIENCED INSIGHTS CONSULTING PROFESSIONAL

Senior business consultant with extensive experience designing and executing studies, delivering rich insight. Cory delivers synthesized findings and recommendations that influence product, service, and marketing priorities. Using solid data and vivid storytelling, her reports have high impact and a clear call to action. She is a recognized leader and mentor in the Boston market, customer, and user research community. KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Founded a successful product intelligence consultancy, managing up to six staff members.

Drove decisions on solution features, interface, and messaging strategy at dozens of client companies.

Tripled the New England Insights Assoc. community and increased conference attendance by 100%. SKILLS

Team Leadership

Project & Vendor Management

Tech Sector Expert

Survey Creation

Feature/Function Analysis

Positioning & Messaging

User & Buyer Persona Development

UX Research Design & Fielding

Pivot Tables & VLOOKUP in Excel

Multiple Online Survey Platforms

Focus Group & IDI Facilitation

Remote and In-Person Methods

CERTIFICATIONS

Certified Professional Researcher, Insights Association Scrum Fundamentals Certified, SCRUMstudy

INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP

President Emeritus, New England Insights Association, 2018, serving on the board since 2014 Instructor and Course Author, Writing Qualitative Research Reports, Research Rockstar, 2017-present Member, International User Experience Professionals Association, 2018-present EDUCATION

MBA, Strategy and IT Management, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL BA, Government and History, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

CORY MANN MARKET INSIGHT, LLC 2007 – Current

Founded consulting practice advising technology firms in healthcare, data security, workforce management and marketing. Principal Consultant

Develops leads, writes proposals, sells, and runs engagement teams of recruiters, interviewers and analysts. Conducts full life cycle of research activities: participant selection, test method development, coding, execution, analysis and presentation of findings. Resulting recommendations drive solution look & feel as well as functionality. Solid knowledge and experience with key methods including persona development, A/B testing, card sorts, depth interviewing, online surveys, and remote qualitative research.

Tested concepts for new analytic products with hospital CFOs and VPs of Revenue Cycle Management. Resulted in scrapping one product and changing key features of the other to focus on pre-denial stage.

Conducted depth interviews with customers of a leading online marketing platform to determine best options for an all-in-one solution. Results produced distinct offer to non-profit vs. for-profit customers.

Engaged hard-to-reach business executives to help define must-have features for a managed service offering. Uncovered key metrics the solution must affect and defined tiered service bundles.

Prioritized customer segments based on primary research with buyers. Determined regulatory drivers, need for risk mitigation, current penetration of competitors, and openness to a cloud-based model. Recommended a short list of segments with high likelihood of near-term demand. LAVASTORM ANALYTICS, Boston, MA 2009 – 2010

Software company enabling large utilities to build analytics and data visualization across multiple, disparate data sources. Marketing Operations Manager (Dedicated Contract Role) Recruited by a former Gartner senior executive and engaged to assist in establishing marketing goals and priorities. Developed case studies and white papers, crafted sales and analyst presentations.

Collaborated with sales management and marketing departments to build a campaign with improved solution messaging. Grew the list of qualified buyer contacts.

Developed and executed PR strategy resulting in publication of seven distinct byline articles, picked up in over a dozen industry publications in the US, UK, Germany, Spain and France.

Managed relationships with analyst firms and coached leadership to convey the technology’s business impact. Handled preparations and follow-up for trade shows which buttressed Salesforce pipeline. KRONOS, Chelmsford, MA 2005 – 2007

Leading time and attendance software company, with strong market share in healthcare, retail and manufacturing. Senior Marketing Intelligence Manager

Hired to increase the decision-making rigor for product marketing, in a newly created market research function.

Enabled creation of effective messaging and sales tactics to drive purchase of new product release. Surveyed customers to identify key pain points, desired functionality and preferred purchase process.

Engaged and managed external research providers to extend internal capabilities.

Delivered recommendations for a descriptive, easily understood name for a new product based on buyer feedback.

Developed an analytic tool to enable salespeople to calculate Total Cost of Ownership of various licensing models, resulting in a shorter sales cycle.

Conducted research to identify product improvements needed in hardware terminals to ensure they continued to be purchased along with the core software solution.

Contributed to the business case for a potential new product and delivered a defensible estimate of the market size within six weeks of being hired.

GARTNER, Boston, MA 2000 – 2005

Premiere global IT analyst firm and consultancy.

Associate Director, 2005 - Senior Consultant, 2002 – 2004 - Consultant, 2000 – 2001 Managed and delivered consulting engagements for leading global clients, supervising teams of up to 12. Surpassed sales quota by 50%. Notable clients included American Express, Citrix, Pegasystems, Microsoft, IBM, NEC, Unisys and Hewlett-Packard.

Developed an ROI model for a best-in-class software company that calculated savings from their product. Trained sales team and advised prospects on sales calls as subject matter expert.

Determined strengths and weaknesses of proposed managed services offerings for an IT staffing company. Conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups with buyer organizations and OEMs. Analyzed feedback and identified competitive risks. Recommended best target markets and service features. Client later indicated that the analysis was accurate, and the chosen offering was successful.

Facilitated client team at a global financial services company in $10 mm software selection. Conducted vendor due diligence and collaborated in scoring relevant features and functions. Utilized an analytical hierarchical process to weigh evaluation findings and visual rating to enable interactive decision-making. Details of prior experience as Senior Consultant, Cambridge Technology Partners and Asst Vice President, Professional Development Training at First USA, Bank One (now JPMorgan Chase and Co.) are available upon request.

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