The Missing Link Between Data And Business

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That said, insights from our March 31 Digital Day are extremely applicable for Q2 & Q3, 2022 as the kickoff panel focused on The Missing Link Between Data And Business. Fuel Cycle’s Polly Speros moderated the panel featuring Mars’ Amelia Strobel; Lauren Deraleau from Farmer’s Fridge; MassMutual’s Bridget Nelson; Doug Freeman from Remesh and Pepsico’s Andrea Bingen.

Speros went big with her first question asking how to ‘inspire and provide transformational action in their organizations,’ and Strobel was first to volley back that action is best inspired through considering the stakeholder receiving the information, translating data to which insights is privy but the rest of the organization has yet to see and weaving that communication neatly through storytelling as opposed to simply reporting findings.

Bingen doubled-down on that entire message by sharing that the job is about giving, “the right message and just enough of the message to the right people at the right time.” Nelson added to be careful in the storytelling exercise to ensure that it’s not about, “presenting a point of view,” that the concepts being presented have been built “around data [and] are insights that are unbiased.” That said, Nelson suggested that data is, “only one piece of the puzzle because the best data in the world will still sit on the shelf, if somebody doesn’t have the will or the desire to activate.”

Deraleau went one step further in sharing that the goal should be to understand, “how [stakeholders] actually find the conviction to make a decision.” And offered two scenarios- one where, “some of my stakeholders like to see other people kind of nodding their heads and for them, I might have a brainstorming session, so they can everybody else kind of go along with them.” Whereas, “other [stakeholders] are data people, and they want to kind of find the answer themselves. So I might show up with a dashboard version of something and have them kind of explore it with me. And once they find that ‘aha’ themselves, they really have that conviction.”

Nelson, Strobel, Deraleau and Freeman then touched on a few ways of bringing the customer voice into the enterprise so that stakeholders get a first-hand flavor of changing consumer behaviors through unique data sources. Bingen agreed and suggested that a key is connecting those insights, “back to the business’ priorities. And back to the strategy.” And ultimately, that the “insights team should actually be the team that is helping the business figure out where that growth is going to come from.”

That was a perfect introduction to the panel discussing various approaches to a new seat at the organizational table and how speed, scale and prioritization help provide justification. Watch the full video to see for yourself by logging in or signing up below.