Frequently Asked Questions
What do you do? What are your service offerings?
Jonquil Ridge Innovation advises business leaders in healthcare and technology businesses of all sizes to identify clear customer problems and create innovative ways to solve them.
We offer four core services:
- Craft: Craft your quarterly or annual plan and prioritize insights work. Learn More
- Clarify: Clarify the insights to fuel your innovation. Learn More
- Conceptualize: Conceptualize potential solutions to the challenge. Learn More
- Catalyze: Catalyze the insights-based action plan of next steps, unique for your specific situation. Learn More
You may buy one service or a multiple depending on your specific needs. Schedule your free 30-minute consult to chat with JoAnna about creating your annual blueprint or request an accelerator project quote!
How do I know when it’s time to call Jonquil Ridge?
If you’re uttering any phrases like this, it’s time for a conversation about creating your annual blueprint or requesting an accelerator project quote!
- “I need a market insights strategy and I don’t know where to start. What’s the bigger picture here? Which insights projects are the ones that will really pay off for me? I need help thinking strategically and planning ahead to get the data we need and maximize the budget available.” Learn More
- “I need actionable voice-of-customer input – without a million-dollar price tag. We feel like we’re flying blind. We’re running fast, but I don’t know whether we’re solving the right problems or if our messages are landing the way think they are. I need to dig deeper – quickly and without spending a small fortune.” Learn More
- “I need to develop and test a new concept in a process that gets the whole team bought in early. We have plenty of ideas bouncing around. But we don’t know which ones will resonate and which ones would flop. I need to build out and test these concepts. Plus, I need to be sure my cross-functional buddy doesn’t torpedo this right off the bat!” Learn More
- “I need to execute, not chase fantasy strategies. We don’t have time to waste coming up with more airy-fairy fun ideas. After we conceptualize them, we need realistic, executable ways to keep up the momentum. I need help keeping them moving forward, too. I don’t have the bandwidth to carry it all through myself.” Learn More
Are you more focused on upstream projects or downstream projects?
Actually, both. We’re focusing on using our most unique skills applied to a client’s challenge. Those unique talents are around asking great questions and using structured frameworks to help leaders and teams make progress faster.
We have happy clients who have used those skills to ask very early stage questions and shape product strategies (also known as Upstream) as well as applying these to segmentation, positioning, messaging and launch tactic development (Downstream). We’re open to either project type and especially love having a variety of challenges, so feel free to ask about either type.
Are you accepting new clients?
Yes, Jonquil Ridge Innovation currently has availability to start projects with new clients! We have capacity to support a limited number of projects each quarter, so reach out today to reserve your spot.
What’s the best way to contact you?
To make initial contact, please submit a request for a free initial consult call, request a project quote or email us at info@jonquilridge.com.
What process do you use? What are the key influences on the Jonquil Ridge Innovation Framework?
Who do you serve?
Jonquil Ridge serves business leaders at companies of all sizes interested in accelerating growth strategies and new ideas within their organization. Project champions are often directors, vice presidents or entrepreneurs from Marketing, Sales, Professional Education or Product Development functions.
We believe we can be most helpful by creating long-term collaborations with our clients. Our goal is to have three to five main clients with whom we do on-going insights advising and multiple projects per year. The better we get to know your culture and business, the more helpful we can be.
What results have you gotten with this methodology?
Leaders report more creative ideas tested, better and more innovative solutions developed, and much, much faster cycle time for innovation idea development. Leaders also report better team dynamics and an increased willingness to take risks that could pay off in a better solution.
Said one workshop participant: “I seriously feel like we accomplished more in 3.5 days on this than we did in a year and a half of one-hour weekly meetings for another similar project. This was so great getting inputs, defining the problem, and solving with fast iterations and instant feedback!”
For more perspective on how clients have felt about their work with JoAnna, please see the Recommendations section on JoAnna’s personal LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannatrappsimpson/.
Who’s the owner? How long have you been in this field? Why are you qualified to do this work?
JoAnna Trapp Simpson is the owner of Jonquil Ridge Innovation. After more than 25 years leading marketing and innovation projects on the corporate side, she founded Jonquil Ridge Innovation in 2020. She has had great success speeding up strategies inside corporations and now want to expand her services to businesses of all sizes through this new company. Read more about JoAnna’s background in About Us.
Do we always get to work with the principal? Who else might be on the team? How big is a typical consulting team?
Jonquil Ridge keeps consulting teams very lean.
JoAnna leads every project personally for the Craft, Clarity and Conceptualizing parts of the innovation process where her passion and unique talents lie. She partners with trusted collaborators as needed to meet specific client needs during the Catalyze portion of projects. She is supported by an administrative assistant who manages project coordination and scheduling.
Why is the Catalyze phase so important?
The best ideas in the world will fail if they aren’t well executed. Our action plans help you define the next steps to move your idea forward into execution with customer-insight informed strategies.
We can give specific advice for continuing to test and refine your concepts. Or, if you don’t have trusted vendors in the new areas or capacity on your team to create a creative brief, a market specification or an investment case, we can lead those portions of the project as well utilizing strategic partners, many of whom we have collaborated with for years.
How much do you charge?
Jonquil Ridge offers a variety of pricing options to meet your needs.
Initial engagements are bid by project for the phases of the framework your situation requires. Set up your FREE 30-minute initial consult to discuss your current need.
Full Executive Sponsor Clarity Sessions start at $500 and qualitative market research starts at $5,000.
Do you work with clients in a particular geography?
Jonquil Ridge is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. We are open to considering interesting engagements anywhere in the U.S. and have strategic partners who can support global market research.
Do you work with clients in a particular industry?
Principal JoAnna Trapp Simpson has deep experience working on healthcare and technology projects and therefore we are starting our business focusing on those areas. We are, however, open to entertaining requests from other categories as well. Please set up a FREE 30-minute initial consult to discuss in greater detail.
Due to existing client relationships, we are not currently able to accept projects in the peripheral vascular, coronary intervention, or mechanical circulatory support product categories.
Where do you hold conceptualizing workshops?
Jonquil Ridge Innovation has had great success holding Idea Acceleration Workshops virtually throughout the pandemic. We have found it holds distinct benefits for everyone to be on the call virtually from the comfort of their own spaces. It also saves considerable travels costs and reduces the time commitment therefore enabling sales team members to contribute early and often in the process.
That said, prior to the pandemic, our usual procedure was to hold in-person concepting workshops. We have found them to be especially helpful for new product concept accelerators where team members have a need to sketch new potential solutions. So, we can make that work as well.
The one firm rule we have is that either everyone is virtual, or everyone is in person.
Will I really have a full solution or a program ready to implement in just a few weeks?
Consider an engagement with Jonquil Ridge a way to jumpstart the first 80% of the work toward a new solution. You will not have the full solution ready to go, but you will have a very strong map of where you’re going and what it looks like when you get there. Yes, it will take time to finalize and launch the last 20% of that solution, but with the proven Jonquil Ridge Innovation process, you can accelerate the time to launch considerably.