It’s episode 47, the last of season 6, and our Easter roundtable. And James is joined by Lisa Dutton, the IMA’s Head of Team Development, and Emma Jones, Head of Insight and Content. In this episode we talk about the positive vibe around AI in Insight at the moment, accepting that it’s still very early days. IMA members are exploring ways to save time using AI to draft questionnaires, summarise large documents, and suggest headlines for slides. Some are even cheating on Lisa’s storytelling workshops – which we love, please use it to cheat with pride!

Episode 46 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James talks to Hazel Nicolson, Associate Director of Insights at Coca-Cola EP. Hazel brings us back to her decision to take up her role at Coca Cola EP and why she wanted a “pure Insight role”, rather than to continue working on the application of Insights. Reflecting on the challenges facing the Insight team when she first joined, Hazel reveals how the team was liberated to perform more in-depth analysis tasks, by empowering colleagues in other areas of the business with the tools to self-service their data needs. Hazel shares the Insight team’s three-pronged approach to driving a more Insight-led business, and the challenges and successes she has encountered. Describing her split approach to management and leadership, Hazel highlights the importance of workload management and clear priority setting. Hazel also shares her advice for others in Insight leadership roles.

I hope you all enjoyed episode 44 and my interview with Renate Brockes from Transport for London? I took a lot from it, including some of Renate’s insights about imposter syndrome which we’ve found a great input to the research that my colleague Emma’s doing ready for our March Insight forums (in Manchester, online and in London on the 6th, 13h and 20th March respectively – please go to this link for more details - https://www.insight-management.org/5-min-insight/next-insight-forums) But today we’re going back to where we left off in episode 43, when I suggested that Insight leaders should think about their departments like companies in a market, and recognise the important role that brand can play in framing perceptions. I suggested that should go beyond visual cues like logos or straplines, and include reflection on team purpose, the promise we are making to other departments, and the positive and negative impacts that our personal brands can have on other people’s perceptions. But how many researchers and analysts have watched from the touchline while marketing teams debated the finer nuances of what their brands stood for, and watched them get terribly excited about details which meant far more to them than to consumers?

Episode 44 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this extended episode, James talks to Renate Brockes, Customer Insight Lead at Transport for London. Renate brings us on her journey from her initial role in market research at the Met Police to leading TFL's Insight team. Renate reflects on her experience of guiding a team through multiple organizational restructures and the complexities of public service. Sharing her aspirations for the team, the importance of collaboration and stable and clear direction is discussed. Taking a look at the challenges the pandemic brought to public transport Insights, Renate shares her pride in her team for their ability to flex when Insight became the most valuable commodity to the business at that time. Renate also shares her experience and advice for being a leader in an Insight team. Please listen to find out more!

There is no point in producing any research or analysis unless it drives change. So, forward-looking Insight teams think carefully about how they are going to disseminate their insights and ideas. As we’ve heard in earlier seasons of our podcast, the IMA’s most effective corporate members have developed: • Influencing skills and plans to help them to persuade specific decision-makers to follow their recommendations, and • Communication skills and plans to enable them to share customer and market knowledge throughout the organisation To borrow a marketing analogy, this is rather like a company focusing on selling to key clients, and also developing advertising to communicate the benefits of its products across a broad market. Both are established tactics, but they are both much easier if the company has first developed a well-respected brand.

Today’s podcast is the first in Season 6, and our first on the critical topic of Insight team positioning. It’s a concept the IMA introduced 9 years ago, and ever since we’ve been slightly obsessed by Insight teams’ need to optimise their position in the hearts, minds and decision-making processes of their organisations. There’s an analogy we often use when we talk about positioning, describing Insight as a lighthouse…

It’s Christmas! And time to look back at the big conversations the IMA has had with senior Insight leaders over the last few weeks. James is joined by Emma Jones, the IMA’s Head of Insight & Content, and Lisa Dutton, Head of Team Development.

Episode 40 of the IMA's Transforming Insight podcast is now available. In this episode, James talks to Hayley Ward about her experience Transforming Insight at Deliveroo. As Hayley approaches her two-year anniversary at Deliveroo, she looks back at what attracted her to join the company and what her initial approach to transforming the Insight culture was. Hayley wanted to bring a more rounded, qualitative understanding of customers and market Insights to the organisation. Hayley discusses how she focused on building her Insight team with the right people to drive change and deliver value. Hayley also touches on the importance on having clear objectives and goals in place. Hayley shares the benefits of using large-scale events designed for primary research, bringing in people from all parts of the company. We also hear about the success of her first “customer lab”. Hayley also explores the opportunities that AI offers Insight teams, from streamlining processes to opening up more time for strategic thinking. Please listen to find out more!

In the previous two episodes of our podcast we’ve looked at some of the key skills and attributes displayed by successful Insight managers, analysts and researchers, and what I called the Insight perspective - that big picture awareness, focus on fundamental truths and critical assessment of new ideas and arguments always seen in the very best Insight people. But if we want to build a successful Insight team, how do we go about finding, developing and retaining talented people with those characteristics?

If you work in a corporate Insight role, you might think you know quite a lot about the way the world works. You might be an Insight analyst with long experience looking at patterns in customers’ spending; or maybe you’re a market researcher, considered by your colleagues to be an expert on understanding the drivers of consumer behaviour. But how much do we really know about the world around us? About the core stats relating to human life on earth and the trends and changes seen in recent years? Do we have a fact-based worldview, or a set of assumptions backed up by partial insights and incomplete data?