That said, some had been developing resilience within all along. Microsoft’s Senior Director, Consumer Product, Retail and Growth Research, Kajoli Tankha was one of those people. Tankha shares that she did not grow up with privilege, she has a specific identity and she has faced familial challenges. The decision made was to ensure none of the above got in her way. Here are some thoughts she unpacked in our conversation:
Go beyond coping with an issue to find a greater outcome
When simply delivering a dashboard of information without providing the art of context insights professionals are coping. When simply providing exactly what a stakeholder requested as opposed to delivering insights to accomplish that stakeholder’s actual mission, insights professionals are coping. Don’t cope; find a greater outcome.
Activate the art and science of insights in response to specific circumstances to gain resilience
If you only have a hammer- as the saying goes- everything looks like a nail. To mix metaphors, the tool box has to include not only a hammer, but paint brushes and code. In the face of the pandemic, the best from the insights function came through by relying on intuitive historical understanding of relationship between the customer and business and applying real-time data science inspired solutions.
The market research and data science disciplines are partners
A key focus area for the upcoming TMRE and MADS programs as well as an ATI Gathering, the unification of analytics and insights functions is an imperative. These are not and cannot be competing disciplines. Conjuring the perfect collaboration between insights art and data science for each deliverable is the new remit.
The resilience needed to achieve potential is currently missing
Leaders in the space are plowing ahead in their new respective seats further up the chain in the organization. Having proven the ability to predict consumer behavior and thus organizational returns, those leaders are now taking next steps.
For those not described above, find themselves either offering dashboards without context or impact, unable to collaborate with internal stakeholders to deliver on desired outcomes, blind to new consumer behaviors, or all of the above. There was a mandatory evolution from pre-pandemic to pandemic delivery. There must be a next evolution from pandemic to post-pandemic delivery.
Insights gain impact through stakeholder contact as well as tenacity
If it’s the wrong question being answered, insights can’t be delivered. If it’s the right question being answered in the wrong context, the wrong insights will be delivered. If the right insights are delivered in the right context for a given initiative, the next time out will require progression. Insights operating in a bubble was never a good idea. With the pace of change being real-time, forthright stakeholder engagement is a must.
Learn insights’ impact by conducting post-mortems
With forthright stakeholder engagement in place, a next phase of understanding can take place. Not only is it cogent to have early and consistent collaboration, conducting post-mortems of initiatives is crucial. Being on the same page on the way in is only effectively leading the horse to water.
The Insights function needs to know whether the horse actually did drink. To belabor the metaphor- the Insights function understanding how much water the horse drank and its experience in the drinking experience all leads to a greater understanding of what needs to happen next. It’s at that point that the organization has attained a virtuous cycle of insights, actions and reflection.
There is an opportunity to expedite foundational change
With a virtuous cycle of insights, actions and reflection, the organization can actually engage in foundational change. This is the type of change that was experienced during the pandemic. There is no need to lose that momentum.
