Time Well Spent: The New Family Dynamic
Family dynamics have been changing for a long time. It’s true. Companies spend most of their time understanding and delivering value to individuals. If they see families at all, they see them as a group of individuals, each with their own set of needs and preferences. Toy makers see parents as decision-makers and children as users. Content creators tell stories aimed at individuals within families. Consumer goods companies focus on decision-makers in families and assume that if the decision-maker has a family then … she will be busy. And therefore the best thing the goods can be is convenient!
The logic is almost always: if it's family, then be convenient, especially for the decision-maker.
Experience strategists need to be far more sophisticated in their understanding of families today than in years past. Gone are the days when we can say that by treating each member of the family with care and respect is strategic. Families are dynamic units. They morph, adjust, accommodate, and relate. If all we see is the static number of individuals in a family then we miss what ‘the family’ is actually about.
Five Findings on The New Family Dynamic
Family members recognize and work within their own systems. The study of these systems shows far more opportunities for companies to create value and engage their customers than they currently deliver.
All members of the family multitask, all the time. It’s not just the parents; the kids are naturals at doing different things simultaneously. Which means engagement with families is about the total volume of the family’s attention.
Families like dashboards. Families share data. Family connection is present in every group text, playlist, virtual chat, Google doc, calendaring tool, and on and on. Companies design data rich tools for individuals. They should design them for families.
There is no work/life balance. There is just balance. Families are concerned about stressors of each member. Kids see their parents working and adjust to allow them to balance work requirements with immediate needs.
Many families have become quite skilled at creating family dynamics. We’ve identified the following dynamics: families who nurture, families who collaborate, families who struggle, families who are safe spaces, and families who are figuring life out.
Today, time well spent for families doesn’t necessarily mean time together focused on the same thing. Time well spent feels more and more like a set of experiences that are in motion, with individuals coming in and out of the conversations and activities. It’s about group decision-making, democratic enjoyment, and agreement. Time well spent is about meeting everyone’s needs through everyone and with each other. And then balancing all that movement with peaceful time and personal rejuvenation.
If your customer is a member of a family, you can do far more for that customer by focusing on family dynamics than you can by focusing on individual preferences.