Transforming Insight Podcast

Episode 87: Transforming Insight at eBay

James Wycherley, Thomas Walker — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Thomas walks us through the vision that has guided his team's development — anchored in three powerful questions: Where do we play? How do we win? And how do we keep winning? It's a deceptively simple framework that has proven robust enough to carry the team through seismic shifts, from the pandemic to the age of AI.

What stands out about Thomas is the clarity and ambition of his thinking. Rather than waiting for the business to come to him with questions, he champions a proactive approach — one where Insight shapes strategy, not just supports it. It's a mindset that will feel both challenging and galvanising for Insight professionals at any stage of their career.

We also dig into eBay's relationship with AI, including a fascinating 30-day AI challenge that brought the whole team on the journey together. For Thomas, AI isn't simply a tool for doing things faster — it's a creative partner that can unlock new ways of thinking and working.

This is a rich, forward-looking conversation full of practical wisdom for anyone who wants to build Insight functions that genuinely drive competitive advantage.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Growth of the Insight Team over the Years (2.26)
The Three Fundamental Questions for Businesses(4.42)
The Shift from Function to Capability in Insights (10.17)
Embracing AI: The 30 Day Challenge (13.10)
The Role of Insight Leaders in Shaping Questions (21.42)
Creating the Future You Want to Be Part of (24.55)

This is episode 87 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, and the 9Ps of The Insight Leader’s Playbook, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

An entertaining keynote speaker, he has presented over 50 times at Quirk’s events, a global record, and has provided thought leadership in the UK, USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, India and the Middle East.

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming corporate Insight teams, and its vision is to inspire and support every Insight leader to transform the impact of Insight in their organisation.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 86: Transforming Insight at Sage

James Wycherley, Eddie O'Brien — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Eddie takes us through how his team at Sage has shifted from traditional research cycles to a more agile, consultative model, one that keeps pace with rapid technological, political, and economic change. It's a mindset shift that will resonate with any Insight leader feeling the pressure to do more, faster, and with greater impact.

We explore how AI and digital tools are transforming the Insight function in practice, with Eddie sharing real use cases from Sage, including knowledge management, conversational Insight agents, and synthetic data. He makes a compelling case for why synthetic data, when used alongside traditional methods, deserves a seat at the table and why a willingness to experiment is now a core professional competency.

The conversation also looks ahead to the skills Insight teams will need to thrive: engineering, facilitation, and the ability to guide stakeholders through complexity rather than simply delivering findings. Yet for all the change on the horizon, Eddie reminds us that the fundamentals — curiosity, communication, and making sense of the complex — remain as valuable as ever.

Whether you're an Insight leader navigating transformation or a researcher looking to grow your impact, this is an episode full of practical inspiration.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

The Untraditional Nature of Insight at Sage (2.46)
The Importance of Personal Impact in Insight(6.23)
The Fourth Era of Insight: Agentic Insight (10.40)
Curating Insight for Stakeholders (20.19)
Exploring Synthetic Data in Insight (25.22)
The Future of Insight Operating Models (31.04)

This is episode 86 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 85: Increasing our personal impact

James Wycherley — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 18:00:00 +0000

Personal impact isn’t just a quality for Insight leaders to focus on; it’s something we should all consider if we want to thrive and survive in a fast-moving, rapidly changing corporate environment.

And it’s a critical thing for us to consider when the world of Insight as we have got used to thinking about it is unlikely to last long in its present form. Wherever you are on the AI-adoption curve, many of the skills and attributes that have given us opportunities and promotions in the past will mean less in the future.

It will be all about the extent to which we can help our organisations make sense of data, apply learnings to business problems, build scenarios about future markets, and influence decision-makers to adopt the evidence-based opinions we have formed that will determine our success. And we can’t do any of these unless we have developed a personal brand that helps us get invited into the room, and once in it, demonstrate sufficient personal presence that we are invited back

So how can we increase our personal impact?

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

The solutions suggested so far for those who want to shape the future of Insight (3.04)
The need to increase our personal impact (6.26)
Being invited to the table and then earning our right to stay (8.50)
But we’re not natural self-publicists! (11.26)
Revealing our personal brand values (13.13)
James’s knowledge set at Barclays (15.50)
Hacks we can develop (19.48)

This is episode 85 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the secrets of successful corporate Insight teams and their leaders, as outlined in James Wycherley’s books, Transforming Insight and The Insight Leader’s Playbook, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 84: What’s Insight’s role in modern marketing?

James Wycherley, Rhea Fox — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Ria's transition from traditional Insight roles into marketing and digital positions demonstrates how embracing broader responsibilities can amplify an Insight professional's influence and impact.

She highlights how marketing budgets face intense scrutiny, requiring Insight professionals to demonstrate tangible commercial value using language that resonates with senior leadership rather than traditional research terminology. This shift demands that Insight teams reframe their work to clearly articulate business impact and ROI.

James and Rhea also talk about AI's transformative effect on the Insight profession, with Rhea urging professionals to adapt and embrace these technologies rather than ever resist them. In her view, while AI enhances productivity and efficiency, it cannot replace the critical thinking, relationship-building, and strategic interpretation that human insight professionals provide. It’s a message that serves as a call-to-action for Insight professionals to redefine their roles, demonstrate clear commercial value, and remain relevant in an evolving landscape where traditional research functions are need to evolve.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Philosophy of Insight and team impact (2.02)
The changing nature of Insight roles(5.13)
Current role at Moonpig Gift Experiences (8.23)
Challenges of budgeting for Insight (12.37)
Language and framing in Insight communication (15.42)
The future of Insight in organisations(19.30)

This is episode 84 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 83: Leading insight in 2026

James Wycherley — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

How are you feeling about the environment within which your Insight team will work this year? Do you work in a market sector that is thriving? Is your company growing its share of that market? And is the Insight team recognised as a key contributor to your organisation’s growth?

Or do you see challenges all around you – challenges for your market, your company and your Insight team? Are you expecting restructures, budget restrictions or headcount reductions?

Whether you feel optimistic, pessimistic, or somewhere in the middle, we can only manage the things we can manage, and having a written plan drastically improves our chances of making intentional, well-considered decisions.

In my 2025 book, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, I suggested a 9P framework for anyone who wanted to become a more transformational Insight leader and help their team, their colleagues and their organisation to succeed.

But we can’t all focus on all 9Ps at the same time, so which will you prioritise in the first few months of 2026? And which do I think that none of us should ignore?

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

As the sun rises on 2026, do you see opportunities or challenges? (2.05)
How transformational are you feeling? (6.00)
A recap on the 9Ps of the Insight Leader’s Playbook (7.49)
Which aspects of Insight leadership are essential now for you? (12.12)
How can we all lead Insight with a clear purpose? (13.43)
You are not alone! We have so much to learn from each other (19.40)

This is episode 83 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 82: Christmas roundtable

Lisa Dutton, James Wycherley, Emma Jones — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Lisa and Emma share their experiences from the IMA’s recent Insight forums, highlighting the positive atmosphere and the encouraging conversations around the role of Insight in driving organisational change. They address the initial concerns surrounding the term "activist" and how, upon deeper understanding, it resonated positively with attendees.

We also explore the current state of the Insight industry, acknowledging the opportunities and challenges posed by technological advancements, particularly AI. That’s the backdrop against which we Insight activists will need to reframe our mindset and play our new roles.

As we look ahead to the new year, James encourages listeners to reflect on their Insight teams and their capability and consider how they can enhance their value to their organisations. We discuss upcoming Insight forums in January and February, focusing on Insight leaders’ priorities for managing and transforming their teams, and Insight professionals’ priorities for self-development.

And we say thank you! Thank you to all our listeners for tuning in throughout Season 11 and hope you will join us again in early 2026 for the upcoming Season 12. We wish everyone a happy holiday season and encourage you all to embrace the opportunities for Insight growth and transformation in the year ahead.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

The Insight professionals pyramid (01.56)
The importance of activism in Insight (5.05)
Knowledge stewardship in the age of AI (12.03)
Valuing Insights and commercial impact (17.23)
January and February forum themes (25.39)

This is episode 82 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. We will explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams; and the need for Insight leaders to write their own playbooks; we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 81: Black Box Thinking revisited

James Wycherley — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 09:00:00 +0000

Ten years ago, Steve Wills and I became rather obsessed by this book, and it helped contextualise some of our thinking on Insight farming – the critical habit of discussing new research and analysis findings, checking facts and figures that seem at odds with existing learning, investigating contradictions, and building picture summaries drawn from multiple sources. It’s not just the summaries themselves that are critical, it’s the discussions between Insight people along the way.

But as we think about Insight roles of the future, I think one of the behavioural roles that will give us great opportunities to expand our remit is that of the knowledge steward, where we are not only farming the collective insight produced by the Insight team, but checking, challenging, combining and curating the knowledge produced by many others around the organisation.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

A framework for Insight management (2.02)
Black Box Thinking: the differences between industries (4.39)
The relevance for Insight teams (8.43)
The importance of discussing insight (10.53)
Learning from John Cleese (11.42)
The emerging need for knowledge stewards (15.42)
Thank you for 20,000 downloads! (22.57)

This is episode 81 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 80: Making transformation personal

James Wycherley — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 09:00:00 +0000

I hope you agree that these are all critical aspects to consider if we want to lead or play a part in the transformation of our Insight teams. By documenting and developing our ideas for each, we can clarify our ambitions, sketch out our designs, consider helpful habits, who we will need to talk to, and how we are going to review progress.

But is that enough?

I think the truth is that every Insight leader or aspiring leader who wants to achieve sustainable transformation for their Insight team and its impact on their organisation will also need to work on themselves and how they can personally become more transformational leaders.

The 9th P of the Insight leader’s playbook is for Personal plan.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Why do we need a personal plan? (0.43)
Reading about personal effectiveness (3.29)
Developing our ambition (6.56)
Designing our week (8.47)
Using the Insight leadership framework (13.31)
Adopting helpful habits (18.43)

This is episode 80 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 79: Bigger than biscuits

Suzanne Lugthart, Danny Russell, James Wycherley — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Some of the IMA’s most successful Insight leaders have gone one step further, and estimated the value that the Insight team itself has added each year, ultimately expressing this as a return on Insight investment.

In today’s episode, James talks to two senior UK Insight leaders, Danny Russell (ex Sky and O2) and Suzanne Lugthart (formerly with ebay, ITV and Rightmove). They have just launched a new initiative called Bigger Than Biscuits that aims to catalogue some great examples of how Insight, research and analysis have added value to business decisions.

Has your research led to a successful advertising campaign?
Has your analysis led to cost savings or increased revenue by relocating stores or the way products are displayed in them?
Has your joined-up insight helped reshape company strategy and unlocked hidden growth opportunities?

If it has, your work could be an invaluable addition to this initiative and help other Insight professionals make the case for greater investment in Insight.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Introducing Bigger Than Biscuits (2.56)
Are CMOs spending less on market research? (6.59)
Insight as a cost or investment? (10.20)
Think commercially and keep a value log (14.02)
It’s all about estimation (17.42)
The ECB’s Hundred £1bn valuation (22.33)
It starts with prioritisation (25.43)
How to get involved (27.21)
A challenge for all listeners (30.30)

Highlights

“It's the stuff that feeds the innovation pipeline. It's the stuff that feeds the creative platform development. It's all the work we do. I mean it's even stuff like customer experience research. It's anything that can help us diagnose a problem in a business so they can go and do something that will put it all right.” (04:46)
“So those stories are there, but people just need the courage to let us work with them to get them out there. The point is that we have to assume that these very important stakeholders around the business let's call it nicely don't really understand and let's be realistic and say they don't really care about the incredible work that we're doing or the stresses that we're under, or the budgetary constraints, etc.” (17.19)
“We'd go along and say, okay, you want our time and our budget, so tell me about this thing you're working on, how much money is it going to make and how much are we going to make a difference? And some of them hadn't really thought through and it was good for them to go back, and then they felt they were in this competition for our time and attention and suddenly you feel really quite elevated.” (24.46)
“It's about being loud and proud, and if people are still too nervous about that, then just get onto LinkedIn and give us a follow on Bigger Than Biscuits, because that will at least mean they start to see the sort of work that we're doing. .” (29.41)

This is episode 79 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 78: Assessing Insight’s performance

James Wycherley — Thu, 2 Oct 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Management guru Peter Drucker said many years ago that “what gets measured gets managed” which many have adapted to ‘what gets measured gets done’.

Similarly, the second habit of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was that we should all ‘begin with the end in mind.’

That’s why I decided to make the 8th P of the Insight Leader’s Playbook, P for Performance.

Please could I ask you to reflect on a simple question:

Q _ Has your Insight team had a good year so far?

I hope you think it has! But what I’m really interested in is the thought process you just went through.

How did you evaluate whether your Insight team had enjoyed a good year?

What were the measures you considered? The types of evidence? Did you think about the outputs you can measure in this year, or the foundations you have laid for the next?

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

The types of evidence we collect (2.19)
Insight team assessment ladder (6.40)
Investing in Insight assets (8.07)
An Insight team’s critical assets (12.18)
Knowledge as a critical asset (13.37)

This is episode 78 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 77: Perfecting Insight’s processes

James Wycherley — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 08:00:00 +0000

So the 7th P of the Insight Leader’s Playbook is for Process.

Process might not always sound the most exciting topic but the way we approach can often make the difference between a productive, effective, efficient and successful Insight team, and a group that is doing its best to survive another spin around the corporate hamster wheel.

To quote James Clear from his bestseller, Atomic Habits:

“We do not rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems.”

That’s true for organisations and for individuals, and it’s also true for Insight teams.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

The critical importance of process (01:19)
Project-orientated processes (03:10)
Enabling processes (04:52)
Buying back our time (06:22)
An Insight team’s operating manual (8:22)
Navigating the adoption gap at HMRC (12:21)
Key points to consider (18:31)

This is episode 77 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 76: Summer roundtable

Emma Jones, James Wycherley, Lisa Dutton — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 08:00:00 +0000

We start with AI: Where have Insight teams moved to in their adoption of AI tools? How do they feel about that adoption? How can we learn from each other as we all explore new tools?

Then we look at the roles which we think are going to be increasingly important for Insight people in the future, starting with the role of ‘foresight pioneer’. Most Insight teams include some foresight work in their Insight product mix, but we don’t always name it, give it sufficient attention or know how to get our organisations to act on it.

And how critical is it at this moment to embrace change? The recent Client Sight 2025 research in the UK showed that most corporate Insight professionals intend to stay in the sector, but job satisfaction could be higher and there is a widespread desire to feel more valued. But the problem as James sees it is that there is no value in Insight unless it is utilised and recognised by senior management. That’s a challenge we need to address as individuals and teams within our companies.

We can’t necessarily predict the organisational roles, the job titles or reporting lines of the future, but we can think about the behavioural roles which it’s becoming increasingly evident we need to embrace. As well as foresight pioneers, we discuss the roles of growth consultants, Insight influencers and knowledge stewards. The need for the latter will grow and grow as the range of data and sources accessible through AI expands.

Finally, we look at what’s coming up at the next Insight forums. In September we’ll discuss the evolution of Insight comm’s, in October at the career path of Insight leaders, and in November we’ll delve into more detail on those Insight roles of the future.

Topics Discussed

Update on Insight teams’ adoption of AI (01.30)
Our ambition to see Insight teams as foresight pioneers (9.43)
Where is the Insight sector in 2025 and what new foundations do we need? (16.55)
The critical Insight roles in an AI-shaped future (24.45)
What will the IMA research next? (34.03)

Please listen to find out more!

This is episode 76 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 75: A practitioner’s approach to Insight products

Clare Gough, James Wycherley — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 10:34:14 +0000

Clare and I shared a stage at Quirk’s London in May, and we were reflecting on the amount of disruption in the corporate Insight world at this moment. Reorganisations, budget freezes, headcount cuts, senior roles disrupted… we’re seeing it all.

And – spoiler alert for next week’s roundtable episode – I personally don’t think this period of change is going to end any time soon.

In this environment, it’s particularly important to reflect on our Insight team’s output, because it’s the output that you will usually be known for. It’s what will largely dictate other departments’ views of Insight itself and the role we could play.

Clare is a great advocate for ‘Insight productisation’; identifying our core outputs, structuring them, packaging them, branding them, using test and learn to see how they land, then developing a comm’s plan to encourage more stakeholders to engage with them. She has also always had KPIs in place to measure each Insight product’s success – usually its return on investment.

Topics Discussed

Insight teams and product optimisation (00:09)
Transforming Insight teams through productisation (08:50)
Product differentiation (15:19)
Strategic Insight management for impact (20:40)
The future of Insight teams (28:39)

Highlights

“Businesses are constantly having to anticipate change. Now they're having to think forward. They're having to react quickly, get on the front foot and navigate change, and COVID made that business as usual.” (05:14)
“Another part of my role was developer cap innovation, so we were quite specific on exactly what we were doing, what the products were and how we were taking best practice from design, research and various other things agile work to productize what we needed to deliver.” (14.51)
“So it was initially targeted at the board, but then that became the consistent knowledge base and fact pack for the rest of the business and it was a Halo product because the KPIs that had been identified within it were then the things that we tracked and we reported onto the business on a monthly basis.” (21.14)
“I think my other advice would be to embrace AI and use it to empower you. There is nothing more empowering than being able to do insight faster, quicker and enabled by tech.” (25.52)

Please listen to find out more!

This is episode 75 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 74: Refreshing Insight products

James Wycherley — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Any small business owner writing a playbook would want to consider their company’s products and how they’re packaged. Similarly, as Insight leaders, I think we should review our Insight team’s products each year (our output), and how our products are packaged (our communications).

In this episode we look at:

Working on our Insight teams (0.50)
Regular products (2.49)
Insight investigations (3.42)
Forward-looking pieces (4.49)
Big picture summaries (5.59)
Models and segmentations (9.30)
Packaging and consuming our products (11.12)

Please listen to find out more!

This is episode 74 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 73: Prioritisation to drive growth

James Wycherley, Nick Rich — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 08:30:00 +0000

This has a particular bearing on how we approach the prioritisation of our work. In episode 72 we explored the twin importance of Insight leaders assigning time to identify the biggest business issues they could research in more detail, and the benefits of developing more agency over which topics would then be their teams’ main focus. If we overlay a commercial mindset, we can make sure that we’re looking at prioritisation through a lens our CEO will understand, and the perceived value of our Insight teams will rise.

This week James is joined by Nick Rich, former Insight leader at Carlsberg and InterContinental Hotels Group, and now the founder of a new business called Growth Constructors that seeks to provide organisations with tools that enable them to find sustainable growth through Insight.

Together, they discuss how Insight teams can move from being reactive service providers to proactive strategic voices, gaining more agency in their roles by making essential choices about how to allocate time and resources.

Nick has also played the lead co-ordinating a joint IMA, MRS and AURA initiative in the UK, the Client Sight 2025 survey. Launched this week, it looks at corporate Insight professionals’ views of Insight, of their careers, their future in the sector, and how we all need to develop our skills and capabilities. It reveals a gap between the value that Insight teams seek to add, and the value they feel is placed on Insight by their organisations, and an understandable desire to gain more attention from senior people and a greater voice in strategic decisions.

Finally, we address the critical role of embedding commercial prioritisation within Insight teams to drive organisational success. Nick and James both believe in linking insights to commercial objectives, in providing new team members with an immersion in commercial factors as part of their induction, and, conversely, in an Insight team helping the rest of its organisation to be more commercial in its thinking.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Insight prioritisation and value contribution (06:01)
Closing the gap for Insight (10:50)
Insight teams and revenue generation (19:07)
Budget allocation for business growth (25:06)
Unlocking commercial success with brand trackers (29:42)

Highlights

“One of my biggest frustrations that I had, particularly on the client side, was really linking insights to the growth of a business, and I think there's definitely a gap there in how do we make insights more commercial, but how does Insights really lead the way in identifying growth opportunities for a business and then leading the business to that growth?.” (04:44)
“So you know, to quote, essentially, gaining respect from the C-suite and senior business leadership, getting Insight analytics teams more important within my organisation and having the organisation invest more heavily in Insights analytics.” (11.17)
“First thing you do, just work out exactly all the myriad ways this business can make money, because that opens up your understanding about who your real stakeholders are, who the channels are that you've got to be involved with, the relationships you've got to form.” (18.09)
“We talked about finding your purpose and understanding how the business makes money, how it makes decisions. I think the first thing for an Insight leader is to take a look at your current agenda, take a look at your team and work out whether you are truly connected to those commercials.” (28.51)

This is episode 73 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 72: Setting Insight priorities

James Wycherley — Thu, 5 Jun 2025 15:09:14 +0000

But whose priorities are we talking about?

Who identifies the business issues that Insight could investigate?

Ho much agency does the Insight have in allocating its own time, budget and focus?

In this episode we look at:

The Insight prioritisation matrix (1.30)
The paramount importance of proactivity (4.17)
Making essential choices (7.40)
The daily discipline of prioritisation (10.55)
Value-based prioritisation (14.04)
A commercial mindset (17.50)

Please listen to find out more!

This is episode 72 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 71: Nurturing partner relationships

James Wycherley, Ruth Hinton, James Endersby — Thu, 22 May 2025 08:30:00 +0000

In our conversation, we look at the busy workload of both client-side Insight teams and market research agencies, and the empathy that the best of each demonstrate for the other. This includes the well-being of all concerned in the research process, and steps we can all take to help each other.

Central to the discussion is AURA's Working Well Together charter, which has been designed to foster healthier, thriving collaborations. Ruth talks about the 6 principles enshrined within the charter, and James E. gives his perspective on the principles that agencies think most important and those that he would like us to prioritise.

Do agencies receive all the information that they would like when making proposals for new projects? Do Insight teams themselves always know the full commercial and strategic context surrounding the business issues? How can we take time to share feedback at key moments in the research process?

We couldn’t finish our conversation, looking ahead. Will generative AI prompt changes in the mix between agency work and in-house research? And how can we all place the emphasis on building great relationships that James and Ruth both see as so critical?

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Strengthening client-agency partnerships in Insight teams (02:46)
Importance of agency collaboration in projects (11:50)
Maximising stakeholder involvement for Insight (17:01)
Future of client-agency partnerships and AI (24:51)
The development of corporate and agency Insight teams (28:02)

Highlights

“The topic of wellbeing and mental health more broadly in the UK sector: research that was done by the MRS a few years ago showed that there are high levels of poor mental health and examples of stress and a lot of that comes from the interface between clients and agencies.” (04:12)
“Over time, as that relationship grows and you get to know their business better, that just becomes even easier and easier and easier, and you know so much more anyway. But it really is essential to give as much information as possible.” (15.34)
“In AURA’s webinar about procurement, we had an expert who specialises in marketing services who absolutely acknowledges that research is not widgets and you can't put out a request for proposals and assess it in the same way in which you could assess buying something physical for your business or buying a commodity for your business.” (22.35)
“We do all need to be mindful of training needs for our people on both sides. Training needs, perhaps on the client-side, of communication and championing insights inside the organisation, so that those conversations are very easy to get the briefs that we've been talking about, because all the stakeholders are fully aware of what's needed and what's required and how important it is.” (28.02)

This is episode 71 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 70: Working with Insight’s partners

James Wycherley, Roy Hammond — Wed, 7 May 2025 14:00:00 +0000

James is joined by IMA Senior Insight Adviser, Roy Hammond, who developed a more strategic approach to managing agency relationships at Barclays.

In this week’s episode:

We can’t just rely on the people we manage (1.30)
Don’t forget internal departments (3.06)
Roy Hammond’s approach to the strategic management of agencies (8.46)
We’re never trained in how to manage partnerships (11.27)
How do we measure agency performance? (14.17)
The attributes of great partnerships (18.12)

Please listen to find out more!

This is episode 70 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 69: Easter roundtable

James Wycherley, Lisa Dutton, Emma Jones — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0000

James is joined by Emma Jones, the IMA’s Head of Content, and Lisa Dutton, Head of Customer, to look back at the term just gone, and forward to the summer term to come.

In this week’s episode:

The need to embrace ‘uncomfortable influencing’
Tactical tips for managing difficult conversations
The bunch of fives… what’s the worst that can happen?
What do CEO’s think about Insight?
The need to understand stakeholders and their communication preferences
What’s on James’s mind for Quirk’s Chicago, London and New York?
The next Insight forums we’ve organised for our members

Please listen to find out more!

This is episode 69 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays Bank from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA).

He published his first book, Transforming Insight, in 2020, and his second, The Insight Leader’s Playbook, in 2025, and he hosts the Insight forums and the Transforming Insight podcast.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 68: Supporting Insight people through change

James Wycherley, Lara Meyer — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 08:00:00 +0000

James is joined by Lara Meyer, an expert on Insight team stress and well-being, to discuss the ongoing importance of developing Insight professionals and nurturing our teams amidst rapid technological advancements. Lara shares her personal journey, highlighting the necessity of balancing high performance with well-being for sustainable success.

Burnout can creep up on even the most resilient among us, quietly eroding our passion and energy, and Lara explains how this can easily happen to Insight professionals.

What is burnout?
What are the signs to look out for?
How can we help our colleagues to avoid or alleviate stress?

This is a critical issue for Insight leaders and anyone who aspires to be a senior manager in an Insight team.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Developing Insight People Through Change (00:36)
Balancing High Performance and Happiness (06:10)
Recognising and Preventing Burnout (14:12)
Importance of Work-Life Balance (19:29)
Benefits of Self-Awareness in Leadership (27:06)

Highlights

“Sometimes as individuals I speak from personal experience and as managers or leaders, or even organizationally, we don't take care of ourselves or the people that we're working alongside quite as well as we should do.” (04:59)
“Having many clients and many stakeholders, certainly when I was in my client-side roles in Microsoft, balancing, many, many requests from across the business mean that you're trying to do the best that you can and wanting to deliver as much as possible, which can often mean taking on too much.” (09.18)
“That balance between work and out of work always fascinates me. This was, you know, I've just been putting the finishing touches to a book called the Insight Leader's Playbook, and I found myself finishing the book by making reference to what's a bit of a bugbear of mine.” (18.42)
“The key is in the small steps that you can do for yourself, specifically outside of work. So it is about how you can do small things for yourself that help you to recharge, because the antidote to, you know, being overly stressed, being burnt out, isn't just taking a pause, taking a break.” (24.35)

This is episode 68 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East, and regularly hosts the IMA’s Insight forums - London, Manchester, UK Online and US Online.

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 67: Developing your Insight people

James Wycherley, Lisa Dutton — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000

Arguably it’s never been more important than it is today, because the environment in which we are generating insights and impact the business is changing fast, and the tools that we and others have available are also changing.

That gives us some key questions to address:

What types of activity should we prioritise?
How many people should we have in our teams?
How can we make the case for extra headcount?
How should we structure our teams?
Which skills, mindsets and behaviours will be critical in the future?
How can Insight leaders guide their teams through change?

To answer these questions, James is joined by Lisa Dutton, Head of Team Development at the IMA, and a regular guest on the Transforming Insight podcast.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Key questions to ask (1.54)
Thinking of ourselves as Insight influencers (4.04)
Uncomfortable influencing (7.11)
Time for a bit of tough love (11.44)
The experience mix (16.10)
Different types of ambition (19.58)

This is episode 67 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 66: How Insight leaders improve their team profile

James Wycherley, Joanne Pearson, Helen Passard — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 08:15:00 +0000

Join us as we explore the transformative journey of Insight teams striving to elevate their influence within organisations. We are thrilled to be joined by Joanne Pearson from Jaguar Land Rover and Helen Passard from Suntory Beverages Europe as we discuss strategies for enhancing the profile of Insight teams. We unpack the challenges faced by introverted teams and the constraints of hierarchical structures that often stifle effective communication. Joanne and Helen share their expertise on building credibility and trust across the business, underscoring the critical role of Insight teams in influencing decision-making and ensuring their valuable insights reach key decision-makers.

Emotions matter as much as analytics in the realm of insights, and we explore how emotive storytelling can be a game-changer for Insight teams, enabling them to craft narratives that resonate across complex, global organisations.

Listen in as we reflect on the future of Insight teams, emphasising the power of simplicity in communication and the importance of personal branding for Insight leaders. We discuss the essential skills needed to elevate the team's profile and ensure their work resonates across the organisation.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Raising the profile of Insight teams (00:09)
Elevating Insight teams through emotion (10:49)
Raising the visibility and impact of insights (15:49)
Simplicity in communication (21:50)
The future of Insight teams (27:38)

Highlights

“But probably for me the biggest piece of it is that ultimately, insight is not valuable to a business unless it's influencing decision making and the actions that we're taking. And I kind of think of it's easy to think of profile as kind of a negative thing, like you're shouting about what you're doing but actually what you're really doing is building trust and credibility.” (03:21)
“What's our cycle plan? What products are we launching? How much of our customer experience, you know, are we measuring? What are we doing with our brands? That sort of drives that agenda.” (05.38)
“I think there's two sides to it, isn't there? There's one, that is, you know, use the non-rational information to bring stories to life. I think actually sometimes insight teams, because we feel a bit of pressure to be evidence-based, and so then, when we're sharing and we're trying to build this profile, we can fall into that trap a bit. (13.10)
“I think it makes our role more important than ever. Clearly, things will change, but AI tools are only as good as the data set that they're sitting over the top of that they're sitting over the top of and, yes, we're starting to get into the likes of synthetic research, where tools are simulating what the response might be, but that can only work for a while before you refresh it with additional content. (28.46)

This is episode 66 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 65: How Insight leaders build their team profile

James Wycherley, Jana Prahl, Debra Walmsley — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 09:30:00 +0000

We're excited to welcome IMA associate Debra Walmsley, and Jana Prahl, Insight leader at Savage X Fenty, who share their experiences and expertise.

We discuss the art of crafting a compelling brand identity for your Insight team. Learn how building a brand board can help articulate your collective vision and establish your team as trusted advisers and innovative thinkers. Discover the power of marketing skills to position your team effectively internally, and see how identifying milestone projects can showcase your team's unique contributions, solidifying your reputation as key players within the company.

Our guests provide inspiration by showcasing real-world examples of successful initiatives, such as transforming customer feedback into powerful visual stories that resonate with leadership. These initiatives highlight the significance of embedding insights into the hearts and minds of organisational colleagues. By focusing on both "headspace" and "heart space," your Insight team can become a formidable force for change, driving effectiveness and impact within corporate structures. Tune in to discover actionable ideas and inspiration for elevating your Insight team's presence and impact.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Improving an Insight team's branding (03:35)
Consistent branding and reporting best practices (15:04)
Building a strong Insights team (19:39)
Elevating an Insights team through customer exposure (24:20)
Impact of Heart-centred customer engagement (29:37)

Highlights

“When we talked about this topic at the Insight forums last year, we decided that the answer to that big question was often to be found in our approach to three smaller questions. The first was what position does your insight team occupy in your organisation's hearts, minds and decision-making processes?” (01:49)
“But there are two other ways of improving your insight team's profile which are more linked to insights day-to-day activities. The first relates to the best practice territory that the IMA refers to as Insight influence. Most progressive Insight leaders would agree that their teams can't succeed without improving their ability to drive decisions.” (05.46)
“I suggested to people that they do an exercise which is building a brand board. It's something that I've done in a few companies that I've worked in and it's worked really well to really get people to explore that whole concept of what does this team stands for, what's it like to work within the team, how does it look and feel to people and also what do stakeholders think about the team?” (10.57)
“I remember someone coming up later to me saying that it was like a museum for them, like all they wanted to do was go around the office and read each quote from each of our customers that said something to us and so got a lot of positive feedback, and it was just a way for us to bring the voice of the customer a little bit more closely in an unconventional way.”(22.29)

This is episode 65 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 64: How Insight leaders define purpose

Amanda Wigginton, Sandra Kampman, James Wycherley — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:37:09 +0000

Sandra discusses her journey at ASOS, highlighting the importance of establishing a cohesive purpose when integrating diverse analytics and Insight teams.

Amanda (Wig) sheds light on how insight can drive business growth and help achieve revenue targets. We emphasize that without a clear purpose, insight teams risk becoming fragmented and struggling to demonstrate their value, which is crucial for securing budget and resources.

We discuss strategic prioritisation, resource management, and innovative approaches like the "stop, start, continue" method to redefine team roles.

This year our podcasts will focus on the "Insight Leaders Playbook," an exciting initiative aimed at helping Insight leaders to become truly transformational.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Transforming Data for Revenue Growth (03:17)
Strategic Choices in Insight Teams (12:27)
Involving Business Leadership in Decision-Making (19:36)
Insightful Ambition in Business Transformation (25:15)
Proving Value and Making Choices (29:37)

Highlights

“They're data experts, they're communicators, they're analysts. Obviously there's so many things that they need to do and I think if you don't sort of focus the team on what they should be doing, or at least where you plan to get them to. You run the risk of them working across all kinds of things and often things that don't necessarily add the most strategic value, because they're insight people” (05:05)
“I think one of the things I've realised actually as a consultant is there's a lot of businesses where leaders don't value it as a function actually, and I think I was quite fortunate and quite lucky. But the reason I suppose they say you create your own luck was because I linked everything back to revenue and delivering, so you know, on an objective.” (08.30)
“There were two things that really helped my team and I thought I think I mean I'm really open and I think it's really important to let your team play a huge role in this so that they're happy and they come out the other side happy too, but also so that they understand their role or their purpose within the overall purpose and what they're delivering” (15.12)
The John Barnes rap is perfect. I mean I'm not going to rap it for you, but I have it in front of me that I could read it if you'd like me to, the first line is perfect. You've got to hold and give, but do it at the right time. You can be slow or fast, but you must get to the line which picks up on Sandra's point about changing priorities. You need to be adaptable and flexible. They'll always hit you and hurt you, defend and attack.”(21.30)

This is episode 64 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 63: Defining your Insight team’s purpose

James Wycherley — Thu, 6 Feb 2025 10:22:14 +0000

Ultimately what you put in your playbook is for you to decide. But James’s suggestion is that we all use a 9 P framework. How do we decide which to look at first?

The English-born, American author Simon Sinek says we should always start with why.

So the 1st P in the Insight leader’s playbook is for Purpose.

The way you define why Insight exists in your organisation, and the roles it could play, will provide you with a reference point for every other aspect of Insight transformation.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Why does your Insight team exist? (1.51)
The corporate eco-system (3.50)
Insight team resources (6.39)
Insight team performance (8.22)
Do you need an Insight strategy (10.37)
Ambitious, relevant and motivational (12.44)

This is episode 63 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 62: The ADDER checklist

James Wycherley — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000

A framework that could work very well in combination with the 9 Ps of the Insight leader’s playbook which were described in episode 61, and which will form the spine of the Transforming Insight podcast this year.

But also a framework that might help you effect change in other aspects of life as well. Who knows? Ignore it if you don’t like it, feel free to borrow it or adapt it if you do!

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

An unintended episode (0.46)
A story about personal change (1.41)
5 key steps of personal change (6.09)
The ADDER checklist (8.43)
Simple first steps (9.31)

This is episode 62 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 61: A playbook for Insight leaders

James Wycherley — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 07:45:00 +0000

Organisations can only make sustainable, profitable changes if they take better decisions. Not just on occasion, but across the board, when senior managers get together to discuss strategy, new product development, new delivery channels, new service enhancements, pricing, marketing and customer communications.

These decisions need to be based on individual insights and on big-picture, joined-up customer knowledge.

But we all know that if we want Insight to transform our organisations and their performance, we first have to transform our Insight teams and their impact.

For 20 years, leaders have met at the Insight forums to discuss how we might move our teams from being reactive, service providers, to proactive shapers of big strategic decisions.

But it’s one thing to observe what successful Insight teams do, and imagine the benefit our organisation might feel if our own team played a more prominent role. It’s quite another to find the time, energy and inspiration to lead that transformation.

The reality is that most of us could work seven days a week just responding to emails, running our current research projects, answering database queries, agreeing priorities with stakeholders. Then changing our plans as new issues emerge.

If we want to work on our Insight teams rather than just in them, I think senior managers need to write their own Insight leader’s playbook.

The over-arching theme of our Transforming Insight podcast this year will be what this playbook might look like, and the nine critical aspects we should all address.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

A wonderful opportunity (1.19)
The best time ever to work in Insight (4.31)
A rather big problem (7.49)
It will only get worse (10.49)
Becoming transformational Insight leaders (13.02)
The importance of writing things down (16.07)
The 9 Ps of the Insight leader’s playbook (17.49)

This is episode 61 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 60: Accelerating the evolution of Insight

Lisa Dutton, James Wycherley — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 10:10:49 +0000

But by the end of 2020, it was becoming clear that in many organisations, the lockdowns and the disruption they caused to normal living and purchasing behaviour had presented Insight teams with a moment in the spotlight.

For some this was built off the back of having already enjoyed quite a high profile, but for many the uncertainty that senior managers were feeling in 2020 and 2021 elevated the position of the Insight team as never before.

What’s happened since? James is joined by IMA colleague Lisa Dutton to bring us up to date.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Insight in the spotlight (1.54)
Adjusting to life after the lockdowns (5.33)
Lots of busy Insight teams (8.41)
Generative AI and its impact (11.00)
Beyond AI, attention on analytics (12.56)
Collaborating with stakeholders (19.49)

This is episode 60 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 59: Transforming Insight at McDonald's

Fainareti Schortsaniti, James Wycherley — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:30:00 +0000

In this episode, we discuss the ambitious strategies driving McDonald's UK and Ireland's customer engagement, Fainareti underscores the critical blend of consumer and business insights. Her team’s ability to speak both the language of the consumer and the business is key to breaking down barriers and fostering impactful decision-making. The conversation highlights how McDonald's lean head office structure enhances communication and collaboration, making it possible to translate insights into actionable commercial strategies. She shares her insights on the importance of training and hands-on experience in building a solid commercial foundation for insight teams.

In the final segments, Fainareti emphasizes the shift towards storytelling-driven approaches within insights teams, urging leaders to cultivate commercial acumen and engaging communication. Her advice for aspiring Insight leaders focuses on understanding business priorities and presenting insights in compelling narratives, ensuring that insights aren't just heard, but also acted upon. Join us for this enlightening conversation that intertwines curiosity, influence, and the art of storytelling in the ever-evolving world of consumer insights.

Topics Discussed

Evolving Consumer Insight Team at McDonald’s - (06:36)
Breaking Down boundaries - (11:03)
Lean Processes in Head Office Operations - (15:09)
Global Standardization and Local Flexibility - (17:59)
Advice for Insight Leaders to Succeed - (24:57)

Highlights

“I'm very fortunate to have this job and to work for a company like McDonald's. What our job entails is really to be the voice of the customer in the business, making sure that the decisions we're making, the course of actions we take in the business, is really done with the customer at the heart of these decision”(03:46)
“I guess my ambition for my team so we are consumer insight experts, so we spend a lot of our time speaking to customers. My ambition is that my team are as fluent in terms of standing up and presenting the sales and commercial data as our business insights colleagues are.” (10:49)
“There's certainly a push and desire from both the center, the global team and the local teams to standardize the way we look at things, so the way we work, to insight. So there are certain products, or insight products, if you like, that will be globally consistent and quite often the global team will own the methodology of those, but they will.” (17:49)
“I don't think AI will ever replace necessarily the human and the added value that you bring, but I think it will require us to keep proving the added value that we bring and in a way I find it's quite exciting because if it can liberate from the mundane tasks that we don't want to do and really focus our efforts on the things that we do want to do, which is like joining the dots,” (21:30)
“You know we're always looking. We're a big business and you know we're always looking at best practice and new methodologies and you know what it is that we can that perhaps is more traditional, that you know things have moved on, that we can switch off and how we can modernize both, I guess, some of the methodology but also some of the ways that we provide the insight, serve the insight back to the business as well.” (23:59)
“Be curious, so don't stop at the facts. Go deeper to really understand what is going on and you know what other insight we might have that may help us develop hypothesis or corroborate that kind of insight that we've uncovered.” (25:41)

This is episode 59 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 58: Investing in Insight

Jane Woolley, James Wycherley — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 12:30:51 +0000

If we routinely estimate the size of the prize before we prioritise projects, and then record the value delivered by the business and other departments’ estimate of Insight’s contribution after they’re completed, we can elevate everyone’s appreciation of our work.

And that’s invaluable when we want to argue for more resources - or when we need to make the case for keeping those we have.

To help explore this topic, James is joined by Jane Woolley. Jane is a former Insight leader at the London Underground and BMRB International, and now a senior adviser at the IMA and their lead on Insight commercial thinking and return on investment.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Is insight discretionary? (
The Insight valuation process (5.07)
Asking others for their view of Insight’s contribution (8.09)
A pleasant surprise for IMA members (11.07)
The importance of commercial curiosity (15.01)
Common challenges faced (18.24)
ROI in the public sector and charity sector (22.32)

This is episode 58 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 57: Applying commercial thinking

Parveen Bdesha, James Wycherley — Thu, 3 Oct 2024 09:03:03 +0000

Having explored the importance of building commercial foundations for our work in episode 52 and getting into the habit of estimating the size of the prize, we now need to think about how we can apply our new commercial understanding.

I think there are 3 key aspects to this:

What we do: use value to prioritise our research and analysis activity
How we do it: using a commercial context at each stage of our work, and ultimately identifying new value opportunities for our company
What we have done: record the value opportunities we have identified and those that have been actioned

To help me explore this topic, I’m joined by Parveen Bdesha, a former Insight consultant at eBay and Insight leader at News UK, and now one of the IMA’s professional Insight advisers.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Using commercial thinking to prioritise Insight projects (2.17)
Identifying commercial opportunities for our companies (4.45)
Recording the value we have uncovered (7.39)
The importance of commercial champions in Insight (8.42)
Parveen Bdesha’s experience working on a strategy for ebay’s fashion vertical (10.06)
The insight behind the launch of Times Radio (15.59)
Finding proxies for Insight ROI (18.57)

This is episode 57 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 56: Transforming Insight at Google

Laura Roberts, James Wycherley, Roy Hammond — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we examine the evolution of Google's approach to insights and prioritization, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Laura sheds light on how AI is being integrated into Google's processes, balancing immediate business needs with future requirements. Laura and Roy discuss the iterative process of aligning insights with global and product perspectives, and how AI is scaling insights, speeding up project timelines, and transforming traditional research methodologies.

In the final segments, we dive into the practical applications of AI within Google's Insight teams, including the development of an AI-powered Insights chatbot. This tool enhances desk research and decision-making processes by acting as a central repository for synthesizing answers from various sources. Laura and Roy explore the broader implications of AI adoption, how it could reshape team structures and the evolving landscape of Insight teams.

Topics Discussed

Insight-Driven Organizations - (00:09)
AI Adoption and Insight Prioritization Evolution - (07:32)
AI Integration in Insight Teams - (14:06)
Evolution of Insight Teams - (25:07)
Insight Teams and AI Adoption - (29:48)

Highlights

“It wasn't by design, it was, as I think I'm sure most people's journeys take, a kind of windy path. So I actually started in marketing. I worked in music marketing, so quite different to where I am now interesting and analytical and creative force, that was felt like my home”(05:08)
“We're 20% shooting ahead and thinking about what the business will need but don't realize they need yet, and that's always been quite a good rule of thumb, and that's another thing that's been part of the setup since we started as a team.” (10:27)
“We have run training sessions and, you know, launches all to our stakeholders as well, and I think we've definitely found that there are some people who lean in harder and use it on a more regular basis, others who kind of would perhaps want us to bring the insights and have the discussion rather than go seek them out themselves, and I think that's kind of an interesting new discovery.” (16:03)
“So qual at scale, I think is really really interesting. When we wouldn't have been able to interview a thousand people qualitatively and synthesize the output, it's just too much to be able to fathom. So AI techniques allow us to do that and that's fascinating and new that we wouldn't have been able to do before” (20:06)
“so generative AI is very kind of text-based and at the moment, you know, the language is pretty, pretty good, but I'm assuming it can go even further and also we'll get better. Everybody will get better at writing prompts and how to use it. At the moment, you know there's a big difference between somebody writing a prompt that is, six words long in the way that you might use in a search term, to writing a proper prompt which is actually going to give you really interesting results.” (25:04)
“I think one of the things that shocked me because I've obviously had the benefit of being agency side and client side I think one of the things that I really missed when I moved to client side was the amount that you get out and about when you're client side. You spend so much time in your company and I don't know if that's particularly healthy. I was so used to seeing different people from the agency side, I'd be in multiple different businesses.” (27:32)

This is episode 56 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 55: The value of valuation

James Wycherley — Thu, 5 Sep 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Some years ago I interviewed Sue Whelan Tracey, former commercial director for one of the UK's big four banks, and at that time a director at Moneyfacts, an NHS health trust, and a major diabetes charity. Sue told me how much she tried to champion the use of customer insight in every organisation she worked with, but she thought that we didn't always make it easy for ourselves.

Her observation was that senior people in business always speak the language of finance, and that shapes their perception of business issues.

But when they ask the Insight team for help addressing those issues, we respond in a different language - sometimes the language of the customer, sometimes the language of research methodology or analysis.

Sue's frustration was that Insight teams know so much that could help their organisations, but by failing to translate our knowledge, findings, recommendations and opinions into the right language, we are failing to optimise our impact.

And worse, our organisation misses out and doesn't leverage its investment in Insight.

Customer and market knowledge, said Sue, is far too important - and expensive - for us to leave it to senior decision-makers to translate our findings into their language 'through the filter of their own ignorance'.

So this episode of our podcast is all about the importance of placing a financial value on the projects we work on, the observations we make, and the recommendations we put forward.

It's often easier than we might think, and the potential benefit is enormous.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Speaking the wrong language (2.45)
Estimating the size of the prize (8.11)
Using the IMA’s prioritisation matrix (12.02)
Adopting valuation as a habit (16.02)

This is episode 55 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 54: Summer roundtable

James Wycherley, Lisa Dutton, Emma Jones — Thu, 1 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

But the topic that’s resonated most for us personally and many of our members has been Insight team wellbeing and the ways we can all identify and help our colleagues to manage stress. Emma’s conversation with new IMA associate Lara Meyer, recorded and shared at the July Insight forums and now available for all members to watch on the IMA website, explored many angles to this, including the critical importance of talking about wellbeing and giving our colleagues permission to raise it.

Just back from Quirk’s New York, we also recognise that this is a time of change for many Insight leaders and their teams, and it’s never been more important to get ourselves up to 10,000 feet and look back down on our Insight teams in their organisations, and our organisations within their markets. We need that sense of perspective to figure out which ways of working are no longer fit for purpose, and when we should all learn to say no.

Finally, we finish on a positive note. There is a lot of change in the air at the moment, with uncertainty for some over job roles, budgets and team activity. But there is always another Insight leader or corporate Insight professional out there who is tackling the same challenge, and we’d encourage all our listeners to contact the Insight Management Academy any time they like if they feel the need for some inspiration and support!

Topics Discussed

The latest Insight forums (1.13)
Learning to say no (3.57)
Recognising and managing stress (8.09)
Managing our energy (12.53)
Quirk’s New York and a time of change (15.41)
A sense of perspective (18.14)
Perfecting our processes and managing change (19.52)
We’re not in this alone! (23.20)

This is episode 54 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 53: Transforming Insight at Lloyd's Register

Caroline van den Bos, James Wycherley — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 08:00:00 +0000

In this episode, we dig into the transformative power of integrating various disciplines within data analytics to answer complex business questions. Drawing from Caroline's experiences at Prudential and Lloyd's, we discuss how combining data analytics, client research, marketing, and competitive intelligence can lead to more comprehensive and impactful insights. Furthermore, Caroline delves into the unique challenges and rewards associated with expanding into customer experience (CX), including the methodological hurdles and emotional dynamics of delivering feedback.

Lastly, we examine the intricacies of excelling in customer experience roles, especially for analytical and introverted individuals. We emphasize the need for high interpersonal energy and empathy, understanding that business decisions are often driven by emotion. We advise on the value of being honest about one's strengths and weaknesses and the need for a balanced team to complement those areas. Lastly, encouraging leaders to think bigger and aim higher, we explore the exciting opportunities that come with an expanded scope in insight roles.

Topics Discussed

From Historian to Insight Specialist (01:11 - 03:37)
Building Insight Capabilities for Success (07:56 - 10:18)
Importance of Cross-Disciplinary Data Analysis (14:35 - 16:05)
Navigating Career Growth in Insight (20:13 - 21:56)
The Role of Complete Leaders (26:01 - 27:17)

Highlights

“So the core purpose of Lloyd's Register is to make sure that ships and other maritime assets are really fit for purpose. So we assess the designs to which they're built, we set standards and then survey vessels and assets to make sure that they continue to operate safely and effectively, and that really means protecting people's lives, protecting the environment and protecting commercial assets”(04:28)
“The other thing I think about starting from a very, very low base is that almost anything you do deliver is seen to be amazing. That's really very life-affirming. So you know, the bar gets higher and higher the longer that you're in, and you expect that” (10:49)
“When I look back at the days when, the days before we started doing client experience, it was very difficult at the time the insight piece to build that and you're all working very hard, but in hindsight it seems that that was the easy bit. So really, the problems that we were facing there were largely methodological problems, which problems we're very comfortable with as researchers” (18:52)
“I think that as I've grown older, more of my inner empathy has come out, come to the fore and that's become a stronger suit. But you know, if you do shy away from confrontation, I think it may not be the best choice for you. You need to be pretty robust, I think, and resilient, and also remember that 90 to 95% of business decisions are made emotionally, not rationally” (22:47)
“I think no one is the complete leader. You want to have people around you who really make up for your weaknesses, you know, have a complementary balance of skills and personalities across your team.” (26:04)
“I think that we have the potential as Insight people to paint landscapes instead of painting miniatures. And if we choose to think more broadly and to increase our scope, we can genuinely change the course of a business. We can genuinely improve the lives of our customers and our colleagues.” (27:36)

This is episode 53 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 52: Building commercial foundations

James Wycherley — Thu, 4 Jul 2024 08:00:00 +0000

If we want to transform our Insight team’s commercial impact, we need to build a commercial foundation for our work.

What does that look like? What are the first steps?

And how can we make it easier for ourselves by helping our colleagues adopt a commercial mindset?

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Core stats and a business blueprint (2.05)
Overlaying key dynamics and trends (5.30)
Adopting a commercial mindset (8.06)
Look around us at simpler businesses (11.07)

This is episode 52 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 51: Optimising impact through commerciality

Christine Stoddart, James Wycherley — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 09:10:52 +0000

Over the last 20 years, there has gradually been more focus on commercial thinking in Insight teams, and some organisations have made notable progress.

But 400 Insight leaders have taken part in the IMA’s capability benchmarking in the last 5 years, and commerciality remains the best practice territory given the lowest scores.

In today’s episode I make the case for changing the paradigm through which we see commerciality, and Christine Stoddart, former Insight leader at William Hill, Wilko, Co-op and DFS, draws on her wide experience of using Insight to add commercial value.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

What does it mean to be commercial? (0.49)
Our organisations need Insight to have commercial success (3.25)
Our role joining it all together (5.30)
Grounding Insight in commercial processes (8.32)
Insight teams need to step outside of their comfort zone (11.25)
A playbook for developing commercial thinking in Insight (17.25)
Adopting value-based prioritisation (21.48)

This is episode 51 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 50: Transforming Insight at Nestle UK

Carolina Otero, James Wycherley — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

A look back at Carolina’s past roles (2:30)
Seminal moments in Carolina’s Insight career (11:50)
Learning from transformations at PepsiCo (14:50)
Being a driving force for transformation at Nestle UK (16:07)
Building capabilities in the team to be bigger than the sum of the parts (25:37)
Developing the plan for a transformation initiative at Nestle UK (26:45)

Highlights

“It's very good in terms of foundation to learn, to be on an agency to start with. It's really very varied and it's giving you a very formative experience, so I think that that's why it tends to be the normal path” (06:32)
“You cannot think so much at the moment of the fire! But you look back, and I do realize that there's a lot about how I connect with people and create those collaborative relationships. And you realize that you deliver, and are able to achieve through others and through the combination of a strong team working together” (14:20)
“So, it was really a moment of total reset and redefinition. And yes, and I have to say that I'm very, very proud of the team. We did a very thoughtful process of getting to the point where we are right now. The UK is also leading in many projects and ways of working in the region. And we've done a very strong process of team building and capability building within the team” (17:05)
“I felt that everybody needed to understand and embrace that if you stay behind, you're going to be behind more and more as everything keeps evolving. So just to give that sense of urgency that we needed to get on the bus and make sure that we were moving all together to this future, that where we were required and required to play with different skills” (21:55)
“There are a lot of these skills that in the past maybe we were looking more at technical skills, but now these are core skills that, to be successful, we need to develop and we need to help everybody in our teams to get there and feel that they can develop them, even if they haven't tried so much in the past.” (25:22)
“I think that one thing for leaders is to develop the team, to empower the team and use the talent that you have within” (34:36)

This is episode 50 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 49: Respecting the rhythms and rituals

James Wycherley — Thu, 23 May 2024 12:09:11 +0000

Today’s episode looks at the fourth pathway, process, and this one is a bit different because it starts not with the Insight team, but with the rest of the organisation.

Whether we like it or not, senior decision-makers, like consumers, will have their own ways of making choices. In our companies, that might mean committees that meet each month or only as part of a planning process at certain points in the year.

It might be a case of an individual director or small groups of directors discussing issues outside formal meetings. Or the hidden influence of managers who might not appear very senior, but play an important role at certain moments in the planning cycle.

So, the fourth pathway to improving the position of our Insight teams is to familiarise ourselves with our company’s decision-making processes, its rhythms and rituals, and then figure out how, when and where Insight can become part of those processes to guide evidence-based decision-making.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Senior decision-makers will make decisions regardless (1.47)
Is every company different? (4.38)
Insight’s role in marketing decisions (5.56)
Is process the most important pathway? (7.26)
What if Insight were like Finance (9.32)
We have to keep trying to optimise our positioning (11.01)

This is episode 49 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 48: Improving your Insight team's reputation

James Wycherley, Lisa Dutton — Thu, 9 May 2024 07:20:00 +0000

In today’s episode, James and Lisa look at the reputation of our Insight teams, and how we need to manage it carefully to enhance our positioning.

It’s a bit like our companies obsessing about customer experience so that individual interactions don’t undermine their corporate brand: we can say what we like about the purpose of our Insight teams, but their positioning will be fatally undermined if the practical experience of working with any of our colleagues gives a very different impression.

There are two angles to this topic. First, how do we help our Insight teams to do things right? And second, how do we put processes in place to make sure we are doing the right things?

In my experience, the first is often easier than the second, but unless we address both, we can reinforce the wrong assumptions that other departments make about the role of the Insight team.

Remember the old joke? That poor organisations use Insight like a drunk uses a lamp post… more for support than illumination? Well, we need to look carefully at how our team works and ask whether we don’t sometimes encourage that perception.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

The importance of user experience (2.18)
Doing things right (3.47)
Doing the right things (5.27)
Examples of best practice (7.03)
The importance of consistency in a hybrid world (9.15)
Reflecting on team performance (14.00)
Identifying top performers (20.58)

This is episode 48 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 47: Easter roundtable

James Wycherley, Lisa Dutton, Emma Jones — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 08:00:00 +0000

We also see this as a time of team change, with lots of restructures, some redundancies, and a loss of people with years of experience. In response, the most successful Insight teams have doubled down on commercial thinking and influencing skills.

Finally, we look at leaders’ roles in guiding their team members through change. Lisa provides a personal perspective on coaching and explores how Insight teams can learn from coaching principles. And Emma talks about imposter syndrome, and how we can all learn to recognise it, and help ourselves and others to manage it.

Topics Discussed

Insight team’s early use of AI (1.15)
It’s a time of change and restructure (8.20)
Insight leaders need to be agile and aware of the politics (11.01)
Learning from coaching (12.30)
How to recognise and manage imposter syndrome (19.35)

This is episode 47 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 46: Transforming Insight at Coca Cola Europacific Partners

Hazel Nicolson, James Wycherley — Fri, 8 Mar 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

Hazel’s journey to becoming Associate Director of Insights at Coca-Cola EP(1:38)
Enabling colleagues to self-service their data needs (5:02)
Three-pronged approach to drive a more Insight-led business (8:31)
Hazel’s approach to team management and Insight leadership (21:06)
Collaborating with agency partners for success (25:10)
What advice would Hazel like to pass on to Insight leaders? (29:46)

Highlights

“I enjoyed working with customers, however challenging that sometimes is. But felt like there was a real opportunity to kind of use my skill set to see how I could apply that internally to influence business strategy and business planning and be able to see some of that Insight impact within my own business, rather than be reliant on the customers as to whether they would kind of take that Insight on board.” (2:57)
“For me, that was about how do we enable the business to be able to access that data and be able to service their questions themselves, in order to free up time in my team to do more of the deeper analysis.” (5:10)
“It was a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, in that we were trying to inspire them with their vision of what an Insight-led organisation looks like, but then also talk to them about these new tools that we've got that could help them be more self-sufficient in answering their own questions.” (14:00)
“My time is kind of split, probably in two ways. One is kind of leading the team. So making sure that we've got the team set up in the right way to deliver what the business needs. Whether that be about kind of helping prioritizes we've just discussed that the key projects coming in, making sure that we've got the right people assigned to the right pieces of work. That's more about the management. And then the second part is then more about the leadership. So I think that is where I will be looking at, the things that we've got in the pipeline from a transformation perspective.”
“That's, in reflection, I think, of the value that we've added to the business, and they've been able to recognize that bringing more head count in will deliver better business results.” (24:02)
“It's almost being brave to take that leap of faith and trust yourself to be able to make some of those changes.” (30:32)

This is episode 46 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 45: Increasing the awareness of Insight

James Wycherley — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 15:40:11 +0000

There’s no point developing detailed brand concepts if nobody has heard of our companies in the first place. And the same is true for our Insight teams.

So in this week’s episode, I’m going to suggest that whilst we should certainly reflect on our Insight team brand, we should also recognise that we often simply need to promote awareness of Insight as a concept and our team as a department.

This requires an opportunistic mindset as our internal market for Insight is always changing. It’s very easy to assume that everyone knows who we are, but in a large company they probably don’t. And we have to start again every time there is a major restructure or new senior managers arrive.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

An opportunistic mindset (2.12)
The need to make deliberate decisions (5.17)
Introducing signature pieces (7.37)
James’s own experience of signature pieces (10.15)
Insight managers as entrepreneurs (12.33)

This is episode 45 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

To find out more about our insight forums please click here for further details.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 44: Transforming Insight at Transport for London

renate brockes, James Wycherley — Thu, 8 Feb 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

Renate's journey to leading the Insight Team at TFL (1:50)
Navigating the team through a re-org (4:21)
Annual goals, priorities and team collaboration (10:04)
What is Renate most proud of her team achieving? (14:15)
Maintaining the heightened profile for the Insight team post-pandemic (17:05)
Challenges and success of a leadership role (19:58)

Highlights

“This year, 2023, is the year of communication… That year everybody has an objective linked to that one thing. On top of the day-to-day and the project delivery, that everyone has objectives within their own development plans that is also speaking to that objective. That it's not my priority, it's a team priority. And that everybody understands how everybody kind of contributes to that.” (10:17)
“That's how you get a seat at the table is by helping people out when they asked you. But obviously there's a balance in there. We can't then say yes to everybody, at all times. And how you continue to build that good reputation and that helpful reputation, without just doing other people's admin for them.” (12:53)
“Suddenly, wanting to know what customers were thinking and doing and going to do next was the organization's number one priority and suddenly we were under pressure to deliver almost daily Insights and figures and facts.” (14:28)
“It was a really useful exercise to review absolutely every single thing you do as a team and I think, by nature of doing that, I think it made us more focused and more kind of specific and deliberate in what we did and what we didn't do” (17:27)
“It was realising that they don't need me to be the most experienced researcher. They need me to provide direction and vision and challenge, and that's my role.” (20:35)

This is episode 44 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 43: Developing the Insight team brand

Lisa Dutton, James Wycherley — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:05:23 +0000

According to the entrepreneur.com website:

‘Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.’

In our world of corporate Insight, we might rephrase that paragraph as:

‘Simply put, our Insight brand is our promise to other departments. It tells them what they can expect from our products and services, and it differentiates our offering from that of other functions. Our brand is derived from who we are, who we want to be and who senior people in other departments perceive us to be.’

All Insight teams already have a ‘brand’ of some sort whether we realise it or not. But do other departments’ views of our team align with our views of Insight? And do they help us to optimise our team’s position in the hearts, minds and decision-making processes of our organisation?

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

What does brand mean for an Insight team? (1.58)
Leveraging our knowledge of brand development (4.42)
The role of personal brand (7.03)
How do we become good influencers (8.57)
AI and its impact on the Insight brand (13.00)

This is episode 43 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 42: Optimising our position

James Wycherley — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 10:35:46 +0000

An Insight team looks outwards to an organisation’s customers and markets and shines a light on issues of strategic importance.

In stormy weather, it is there to pinpoint rocks upon which the organisation might founder, and competitor companies with which the company might collide.

Many Insight teams pride themselves on their ability to understand customer behaviour and its drivers. They have developed a powerful light to shine upon market issues, and they aspire to serve as a lighthouse, a beacon to guide their organisation as it navigates the market.

However, a lighthouse helps nobody if it is not in a position to be seen. Positioned inland, or hidden by cliffs, its light cannot help shipping.

Likewise, there is little point in building an Insight capability to identify issues and guide management teams along the best route if our Insight teams are not well positioned within our companies.

Effective Insight teams succeed in identifying and occupying an optimal position in the hearts, minds and decision-making processes of their wider organisation. And that’s never been more important than this year with the AI tide just starting to come in.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Are you pushing water uphill? (1.27)
Insight as a lighthouse (3.56)
An improvement in benchmarking scores (6.17)
Positioning Insight teams for success through 4 pathways (7.49)
AI – a profound positioning challenge for Insight teams (10.07)
Learning from the mistakes of big data (12.19)

This is episode 42 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 41 - Christmas roundtable

Lisa Dutton, James Wycherley, Emma Jones — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 10:05:00 +0000

In this episode…

How can our teams adopt Insight tools & systems to make the communication part of our roles easier and more effective? (2.31)
How can we inspire all our researchers and analysts to become Insight influencers? (7.47)
Taking control of our personal brand (13.02)
The importance of mapping stakeholders and allies (15.16)
The organisations investing in Insight management (18.38)
Looking forward to the Insight forums in 2024 (21.33)

Please listen to find out more!

This is episode 41 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes.

Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight and podcast host

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 40: Transforming Insight at Deliveroo

Hayley Ward, James Wycherley — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

Looking closer at Hayley’s switch to Deliveroo (2:00)
Transforming Insight culture to look more toward consumer understanding (4:48)
The importance of clear objectives (10:40)
Has Hayley’s view on the role of Insight changed? (14:27)
The opportunities and threats of AI to Insight teams (18:48)
One piece of advice Hayley would give Insight Team Leaders (25:15)

Highlights

“Yes, there's a great customer concept there, but it's actually a really smart piece of Tech that has enabled the business to scale as quickly as it has. And it's not really until there's more competition in the market, and the business gets onto that sort of next phase of development, that there's suddenly an appreciation that a rather more structured, rounded approach to customer and market Insight is needed.”
“Even though we had used OKRs, so every quarter would have our Objectives and Key Results. But that in itself didn't seem to be enough to equip team members to say “no”, whereas this sort of very succinct one-pager worked really well.”
“You have to make sure that you are able to touch every part of the organisation, otherwise you're not really going to enable customer-centric thinking. And by that, I mean, quite often we do lots and lots of research and we speak to lots and lots of teams, but there's some teams that we probably never ever would speak to unless we organise some quite large-scale events. So, HR teams or Finance teams or even some of our engineers probably wouldn't get invited traditionally to our debrief. So, what I make sure that we do as part of our research plans now is have large-scale events. That means that everybody can come and listen to the customer.”
“[Being] less precious as well, in that we don't own the customer in as much as we can democratize data and enable teams to dive into specific areas themselves. That’s not a threat to Insight functions. Actually, it's really helpful in terms of helping make sure that the customer data we captured is being used as much as possible”
“I think the skill set just needs to kind of shift, but there'll definitely still be a role for people. And it comes back to what we do as researchers right, asking the right questions in the right ways, making sure that the right material is there.”

This is episode 40 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 39: Building an Insight team

James Wycherley, Debra Walmsley — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 08:00:00 +0000

To discuss that topic, James is joined by Debra Walmsley, one of the most inspirational corporate Insight leaders in the UK. Debra has led Insight teams at British Airways, British Gas, Saga, Halfords and now Virgin Atlantic. And she has recently joined the IMA as one of our part-time senior Insight advisers.

She also has very impressive form on this podcast. She joined James in episode 8 to talk about her work transforming Insight at Halfords, and it’s still one of the top 5 most downloaded episodes out of the 38 we’ve published so far.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

A structured approach to recruitment (2.20)
The importance of business understanding (5.09)
The skills and attributes that Debra looks for (7.45)
How to induct new recruits (12.16)
How do we make money? (18.06)
Ongoing learning and development (23.30)

This is episode 39 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 38: Adopting an Insight perspective

James Wycherley — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 07:00:00 +0000

In his celebrated book, Factfulness, Hans Rosling said that:

‘People constantly and intuitively refer to their worldview when thinking, guessing or learning. If your worldview is wrong, you will systematically make the wrong guesses.’

Rosling founded the Gadminder Foundation, with a mission is ‘to fight devastating ignorance with a fact-based worldview’. If you think that ambition is relevant to your Insight team, then you might agree that we need our researchers and analysts to develop an Insight perspective.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

How well do we know the world around us? (0.46)
Why should all Insight managers read Factfulness? (5.53)
The continuing relevance of Rosling’s work to the world today (8.12)
Fighting devasting customer and market ignorance in our organisations (10.03)

This is episode 38 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 37: Insight skills & attributes

Lisa Dutton, James Wycherley — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:47:46 +0000

What skills and attributes do the most successful Insight teams recruit for? Which do they find it most difficult to develop? And which would Lisa prioritise?

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Categorising Insight skills (2.28)
Not accepting the status quo (5.43)
The skills and attributes that Lisa would prioritise (9.03)
Introducing the 9Ps (11.41)

This is episode 37 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 36: Working on our teams

James Wycherley — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

The Insight leadership framework (1.50)
Working on our Insight teams not in them (5.30)
The Insight playbook (9.08)
Introducing the 9Ps (11.21)

This is episode 36 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 35: All about the people

James Wycherley — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Clever analysts, incisive researchers, creative Insight managers... these people can bring joy to working in an Insight team and unlock a world of potential for organisations that want to use customer and market understanding to improve business performance.

So, how can we develop an Insight people plan?

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

It’s all about the people (1.45)
Mapping the key aspects of a people plan (3.40)
AI: a climate change moment for Insight generation? (6.38)
The wider implications of AI for Insight management (8.58)

This is episode 35 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 34: Summer roundtable

James Wycherley, Lisa Dutton, Emma Jones — Thu, 3 Aug 2023 09:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

Learning from Quirk’s New York (1.40)
From reactionary service providers (4.50)
What is an Insight-driven organisation? (8.55)
The IMA’s online library of best practice (11.15)
The range of companies now transforming Insight (13.42)
The implications of AI on Insight management (20.34)

This is episode 34 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 33: Transforming Insight at Carlsberg

Nick Rich, James Wycherley — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Nick speaks about his time at Carlsberg and how he was able to successfully transform their Insight analytics function. We hear about how he worked to develop talent in the Insight team and the importance of adapting to the changing face of Insights talent.

He also touches on the challenge of finding a common ground between different marketing philosophies, and the need to be prepared for changes in leadership that may require a different approach. Nick speaks about the concept of "marketing religions" and how Insight teams need to maintain neutrality while understanding the culture of the business.

We also examine the three main pillars of Insight investment and how to diversify and redirect budget to focus on more forward-looking Insights.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

A look back at how Nick got into Insight (03:05)
Developing a successful Insight team and the changing face of Insight talent (05:30)
Reconciling marketing philosophies and understanding "marketing religions" (11:30)
Key aspects of Insight Transformation (16:55)
Diversifying budget for forward-looking Insights (19:00)
Biggest challenges in Insight Transformation and Top Tips (23:40)

Highlights

“No longer necessarily are we looking for people who have come from traditional research backgrounds. I'm really excited by the idea of that further developing where you're getting people who come from very, very different backgrounds, could be marketing related but other business functions, they all have something to offer.”
“Sometimes you need to take the research out of the research and give people something that's really recognisable and meaningful to sales teams, to advertising teams, to digital teams, who need answers about what decisions they make. So, you need someone to really give that human element that perhaps we've been missing previously.”
“The idea of ‘marketing religions’ is something that is cyclical. You see some businesses follow a very strict religion and want everybody on board thinking the same way. Others you have a disparate set of views and activities that support different ideas. Whichever business you're in, I think as an Insights team you have to have some sense of neutrality.”
“One thing that really helps you understand how the business perceives Insights is how they invest in it”
“Knowledge as an asset. I would love to see more the value of Insights being included on profit and loss accounts and balance sheets, because it has inherent value. It can also give competitive advantage to a business. I don't think we've done enough as an Insights industry to help organisations understand the true value we bring.”

This is episode 33 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 32: Implementing our strategy

James Wycherley — Thu, 6 Jul 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

The importance of implementation (0.45)
Change management principles (3.25)
Learning from a corporate strategy guru (7.15)
The implications for Insight strategy (10.53)

Highlights

“If this is the first Insight strategy we have written, we may feel that the hard work is done when we have crafted our vision and come up with some profound recommendations for how our organisations should organise and use Insight in the future. We might not appreciate the resistance we will face in actually making these changes happen”
“Our plan should include quick wins and short-term milestones as well as our long-term objectives. Making a noticeable difference relatively early on signals change and success wins support for further change. We should think big but start small.”
“The precise circumstances you face, the pace of change you desire, the barriers to progress that you will meet will all differ enormously by company. Only you can reflect on the universe that you need to win over and the milestones you need to achieve along the way.”

This is episode 32 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 31: Identifying options

James Wycherley, Tim Downing — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 10:30:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

Developing a mission statement with your team (2.27)
The importance of conscious choices (4.40)
Think creatively and think big (7.48)
The perils of developing parallel strategies and plans (10.00)
It’s all about choosing you will do and not do (12.15)

Highlights

“You could say that we all have an Insight strategy already – the question is whether our current strategy – what we do – has been arrived at through a series of explicit choices and with reference to an overarching vision for Insight?”
“For Insight teams, a mission statement usually takes the essence of a vision, and crafts it into a punchy sentence that describes what the team aims to do in a particular period of time and what effect this will have”
“Just like the process of developing a vision, it is important to think creatively and think big because if you constrain your thinking at this stage then there’s every chance that you will actually implement something even less ambitious”

This is episode 31 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 30: Defining your ambition for Insight

James Wycherley — Thu, 1 Jun 2023 07:30:00 +0000

I think it’s only possible to create a successful vision for your Insight function by examining both the potential ways that Insight could make a difference to your organisation’s performance and then your ambition for it to actually seize those opportunities.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Why ambition is important (2.06)
The IMA’s Insight participation matrix (5.34)
Becoming the Voice of the Customer (7.57)
Becoming project consultants (9.30)
The optimum position to occupy (11.30)

Highlights

“What is your ambition for Insight as a function and a concept in your company? How much does your own personal ambition cause you to be optimistic about how transformative a role Insight could play? Or does your lack of career ambition - maybe for perfectly good reasons - impede your thinking when you consider the potential for the Insight department?
“Something else that might influence your thinking in this space is the ambition shown by other Insight leaders. Whether you meet your peers at one of the IMA’s Insight forums, through professional associations, research and analysis conferences like Quirks, or online networking groups, it is worth reflecting on the ambition that they reveal when they talk about Insight’s role in their organisation”
“If your Insight team focuses primarily on contributing analysis and research to individual projects, and the research or analysis is mainly concerned with what is happening, where, when, by whom, and why, it is likely to be playing the role of a service delivery function”

This is episode 30 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 29: The opportunity for Insight

Jane Woolley, James Wycherley — Thu, 18 May 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Jane leads on Insight strategy and draws on her wide experience to explain why developing a strategy need not be daunting and can actually be a very validating experience.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Imagine it’s your first day as an Insight leader (1.45)
Imagine you’ve been fired (3.30)
The first step to take (4.55)
Chunking up the process (11.05)
It’s a validating experience (15.50)

Highlights

“It’s not just new Insight leaders who are asked to explain their vision for the future of course, You can design a new vision for Insight in your organisation at any time, and you don’t need to wait to be asked. However, there is something about the mindset of a newly appointed leader that makes it a particularly easy time to think about things clearly.”
“If this seems like a weighty responsibility, the good news is that the first phase is not to conjure up a brilliant form of words that can immediately satisfy your CEO and motivate your colleagues. First you need to do some analysis to make sure that you really understand the lie of the land”
“The best place to start your analysis, and our first step, is to look beyond your organisation altogether, to look out of the window and focus on real people living their lives. Which aspect of their life is your organisation trying to improve? Which market is your company really in? Is that market static, changing, growing or disappearing?”

This is episode 29 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 28: A strategy for Insight

James Wycherley — Thu, 4 May 2023 07:00:00 +0000

So that’s what we’re going to focus on at the July 2023 Insight forums and for several of our podcasts this season.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

A challenge for Insight leaders (2.38)
Doing the right things as well as doing things right (4.34)
The potential keeps growing, but so do the difficulties (6.25)
Why do so few organisations have an Insight strategy? (7.39)
What we really need is very different from an activity plan (10.47)

Highlights

“If your team generates new, joined up insights focusing on solving business issues, develops big picture customer knowledge, influences senior decision-makers, and communicates insights across the whole organisation, then you’ll certainly identify more value for your organisation and drive more change within it. But is that enough to create an Insight-driven organisation?”
“Many Insight functions report an ever-growing workload, with less time to stop and think about big questions, like why your organisation has an Insight team, how much it spends on Insight activity, what return it gets on its investment, and whether there are structural issues to challenge if you want to create an Insight-driven organisation.”
“Our team at the IMA believes that Insight leaders need to move their planning upstream, ideally developing a strategy for Insight as a concept and as a department which either aligns directly with a top-level corporate strategy, or better still, examines the data and thinking behind that corporate strategy and, if necessary, challenges it.

This is episode 28 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East, and regularly hosts the IMA’s Insight forums - London, Manchester, UK Online and US Online.

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 27: Easter roundtable

Emma Jones, Lisa Dutton, James Wycherley — Thu, 30 Mar 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

Bringing Insight teams back together (2.30)
Renewed interest in assessing Insight capability (5.04)
Recruitment challenges (6.45)
The Insight playbook and leaders’ achievements (10.25)
Responding to requests and saying no, nicely (14.09)
Developing big picture knowledge (16.24)

Highlights

“Leaders have to think differently about what leadership means in a post-pandemic world. They need to adopt the hats of the synchroniser, the innovator, the coach and the chief collaborator.”
“In order to work on our teams rather than in them, it can help all Insight leaders to document and develop their ideas in an Insight playbook. It can help us move from being transactional leaders to transformational leaders.”
“The vision is to move away from individual projects and see the value of focusing on accumulated knowledge. But what are the habits and enablers that successful Insight teams adopt to make that happen?”

This is episode 27 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 26: Painting Insight pictures

Julia Joskey, James Wycherley — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

So why are visuals so important? A few years ago, our colleague Julia Joskey carried out the IMA’s first best practice research on this topic, and she joins me in this 18-minute episode to share her learning.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Why are visuals so important? (1.36)
Thinking like an Insight designer (3.22)
The designer and the editor (5.50)
The barriers for most Insight teams (8.57)
The best visual to choose (13.20)

Highlights

“We can train ourselves to think like an Insight designer and give some thought to how we can use pictures to help us to solve problems and to present ideas. It doesn’t have to be complicated; we can have huge impact just by using simple shapes like triangles, squares and circles to communicate our ideas.”
“We can marry the talents of the Insight designer to those of the Insight editor and produce charts that enable one key message to stand out. David McCandless, data journalist and author of Information is Beautiful, believes that all Insight professionals have a ‘dormant design literacy’ that gives us the potential to produce effective infographics”
“Moving images are even more compelling than still images, and we should look for ways to incorporate animations and video footage of consumers at every opportunity. The late Hans Rosling, author of Factfulness, was celebrated for his moving bubble charts (see examples on YouTube) and many progressive Insight teams from Unilever to CocaCola make great use of customer vox pops on their Insight portals”

This is episode 26 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 25: Sharing Insight stories

James Wycherley, Lisa Dutton — Thu, 2 Mar 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Topics Discussed

Learning from the Insight author (2.30)
Writing headlines like an Insight journalist (4.28)
Making time to edit (6.31)
It’s not rocket science! (8.35)
Lisa’s top tips (10.54)

Highlights

“On the one hand it is imperative that we develop our overall project story as we go through each Insight investigation, but the actual writing of individual pieces of communication should be done once we know the conclusion we have reached and the key aspects to share so that our readers arrive at the same place.”
“Headlines that make an impact are also more likely to leave an impression. Insight audiences – our key decision-makers, or the broader groups of colleagues who consume our content when we are not in the room – are not likely to be in a position to take action there and then”
“A key take out for Insight teams is to allow time to edit. That might seem obvious, but in a world where there is always pressure for talented analysts and researchers to move onto the next investigation, it’s tempting to breathe a sigh of relief when we have finished writing our reports, building our presentations or compiling our videos”

This is episode 25 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 24: Shaping Insight stories

James Wycherley — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

In this 16-minute episode, James looks at how progressive Insight teams can drive change by using the SCQAB structure. It’s great for framing projects at the start and shaping the story along the way.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Adapting the Pyramid Principle (0.43)
Situation, Complication, Question, Answer and Benefit (4.10)
Shape the comm’s throughout the project (6.03)
The Insight communication grid (8.35)
T-shaped communication (12.50)

Highlights

“A progressive Insight team wouldn’t want to focus on research briefs but on the underlying business issue. Nor would it want to prioritise methodology when communicating to decision-makers; methodology is strictly an internal issue for the Insight team to sort out, and only merits a mention in an appendix when communicating to senior managers.”
“When Insight teams work in this way, the structure of our story evolves as we complete our investigation. It isn’t something that we ‘write up’ at the end of our project, it’s an integral part of the project itself”
“Whether we’re having a conversation with someone, a video call, making a presentation or having a chat over a drink in a pub, we usually have a finite amount of time. So there’s a trade-off we all make, usually without thinking about it, between breadth and depth”

This is episode 24 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 23: Insight communication programmes

Roy Hammond, James Wycherley — Thu, 2 Feb 2023 08:00:00 +0000

In this 17-minute episode, James looks at how successful Insight teams can drive change by developing Insight communication programmes. He is joined by the IMA’s Roy Hammond, who shares five top tips that any Insight team could adopt.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Introducing the Insight CMO (1.59)
Starting with the audience (2.45)
How Barclays made use of comm’s channels (6.09)
Making friends with other comm’s professionals (9.44)
How much effort should we put in? (11.47)

Highlights

“Who are the audiences within your organisation that would benefit from seeing more customer and market insight? There are probably many, ranging from the boardroom to operations and customer-facing roles. We’re really interested in anyone who is in position to make decisions that affect how our company’s products and services are designed, promoted and delivered.”
“Although most communication plans quite rightly start with the audience, there’s also merit in sometimes starting with our content. If we’ve just delivered great insights to one part of the company, are there now others that could benefit from the same content?”
“How can we deliver different types of message to different audiences? Can we move away from PowerPoint, Excel and Word, and think about video, animation, intranet portals, competitions, postcards, posters, physical objects, town hall meetings or brown bag lunches?”

This is episode 23 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 22: Transforming Insight at Sainsbury's

Liz Boffey, James Wycherley — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

This breadth of experience strengthened her ability to look at things more holistically, rather than looking at Insight in an organisation through one lens. It gave her the ability to join it all up in a powerful way, to be an important voice in organisations.

Throughout her career, Liz has cleverly used Insight and data analysis in a multitude of ways to achieve success at Disney, PepsiCo, Birds Eye, Nestle and Sainsbury’s.

With her current role at Sainsbury’s, we hear about Liz’s goals for her Insight team going forward.

Topics Discussed

A look back at Liz’s past roles (1:10)
The influence her early move into category management had on her view of Insight (6:27)
Combining functional knowledge with commercial context and business needs (11:11)
Being creative about how you get to the Insight (14:42)
What “good looks like” at different organisations (20:23)
Driving Insight at Sainsbury’s to have the right impact (23:54)

Highlights

“That brought a different dimension to using data analysis, pushing it more into the commercial aspects of how you use insight and storytelling to drive solutions and opportunities for retailers and distributors.”
“We didn't have a huge amount of free-flowing cash to spend, but it forced you to be a bit more creative about how you got to the Insight to guide the business.”
“Often you have the answers because of all of the wealth of what has come before. And therefore, you can make a very educated decision of what you know, rather than needing to spend more money and commissioning more research.”
“The power comes from how we join the dots between all of the different aspects of what we know. We talk about having a hive mentality.”
“Don't be impatient. Once you've got the vision and the organization is bought in to what you're trying to do. You can start small, you can get some quick wins, you can pilot some things. But I think the transformation will not come overnight, because it is that cultural change of driving much more of an insight led philosophy through an organisation.”

This is episode 22 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 21: Driving change through communication

James Wycherley — Thu, 5 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000

For the most successful Insight teams, that includes a proper communication programme; an ability to shape and share stories; and an awareness of visual communication techniques to really make an impact and leave an impression.

So, throughout season 3 of our podcast, we hope to inspire Insight leaders to take communication far more seriously, and introduce frameworks that can help our team members to develop key skills.

Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

Does your organisation aspire to be truly customer-centric? (2.20)
We should stop thinking like Insight leaders (4.09)
Is Insight communication getting better? (8.09)
How do we spend our time and energy? (9.30)
Let’s move the goalposts (11.15)

Highlights

“The way we share our knowledge is at least as important as the insights themselves. As members of the IMA’s Insight forum recognised many years ago, a great insight badly communicated will sink without trace, but a reasonable insight, brilliantly communicated, will spread like wildfire throughout your organisation.”
“If we are to share our knowledge and ideas more effectively, perhaps we need to forget that it’s usually our day job to run research projects and manage teams of analysts. We should stop thinking like Insight leaders altogether and think like the IMA’s six characters of Insight communication.”
“There are now some brilliant pieces of Insight communication being produced, but there’s still plenty of rubbish as well. Slides that have no message, charts cluttered with lines and data points, verbose reports written like technical, scientific papers rather than compelling calls to action. It’s the frequency and consistency with which our teams adopt best practice that determines how successful they are.”

This is episode 21 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 20: Nudging decision-makers

James Wycherley — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

An understanding of behavioural biases is critical for anyone who runs market research projects; you’ll know that there’s always been a gap between what consumers claim is important, and what they actually do when you can observe their behaviour.

But the IMA believes that our corporate Insight teams need to pay just as much attention to understanding senior stakeholders as they do to understanding the company’s end customers.

If we don’t know how corporate decisions are taken in our own head office, we stand little chance of influencing those decisions. And if we don’t influence those decisions, there was no point in doing any analysis or research on consumers in the first place.

So how can Insight teams use an understanding of behavioural biases to nudge decision-makers? Please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

The trouble with market research (4.02)
The connection to corporate decision-making (5.38)
Do we all need to be experts on behavioural biases? (7.43)
Making the use of Insight socially acceptable (11.18)
Embracing behavioural economics (12.56)

Highlights

“As David Ogilvy is reported to have said, ‘The trouble with market research is that people don’t think what they feel, they don’t say what they think, and they don’t do what they say’
“A knowledge of behavioural biases can be just as useful to Insight teams who want to influence their stakeholders as to those who want to learn more about the drivers of consumer choice. It can help us to develop a list of handy tactics which we can use, almost irrespective of how well we know the decision-makers concerned.
“The UK Nudge Unit have used the EAST framework to categorise behavioural biases, but there is a lot of merit in keeping things simple to start with and just using the four EAST factors themselves. If we want Insight to be influential, we have to make adopting our ideas Easy, Attractive, Socially acceptable and Timely.”

This is episode 20 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 19: Influencing for introverts

James Wycherley — Thu, 8 Dec 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Several years ago, the IMA’s Julia Joskey looked at ways we could all harness the power of our introverts. More recently, at the November 2022 Insight forums, Lisa Dutton explored the broader but related topic of managing Insight people in a post-pandemic world.

In this episode we draw from both pieces of research - please listen to find out more!

Topics Discussed

The mix of introverts and extroverts in Insight teams (1.58)
Corporate life isn’t easy for introverts (3.28)
How do we square these issue with the demands of influencing stakeholders? (5.30)
Varying attitudes to in person and online events (8.27)
The roles which effective leaders are playing in a post-pandemic world (10.51)

Highlights

“Psychologists think that about one in three of the population are more introvert than extrovert, and informal surveys and discussions at the IMA’s Insight forums suggest that it’s probably a far higher proportion of Insight specialists.”
“Corporate life isn’t always very comfortable for introverts. The problem is not us; the problem is that many of the working practices that have developed in our offices over the last few decades implicitly favour extroverts over introverts.”
“A noticeable issue in recent months has been the varying degree to which leaders have grabbed the chance to come back to face-to-face forums or still prefer to sign up for online events; and another, the social awkwardness we sometimes see in more junior team members who have often joined their organisation during the lockdowns.”

This is episode 19 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 18: Transforming Insight at Card Factory

Liz Lamb, James Wycherley — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 08:00:00 +0000

Liz talks about the transformation she’s been on throughout her career and how she takes her learnings and “Blueprint” for what a successful Insight team looks like with her to each new role.

Liz tells us about finding her dream role at Card Factory that challenges her, has a culture that aligns with her values, and gives her a work-life balance and the ability to control her own destiny.

We hear about the transformation Liz is striving to bring about at Card Factory, just as she has with her other roles in Insight teams.

Topics Discussed

A look back at Liz’s career in Insight (1:18)
The triangulation of data, research, and commercial finance figures. (6:00)
Speaking the language of the business to get traction with the Insight (15:57)
Her current role at Card Factory and how it ticks all her boxes. (20:00)
The challenge of a blank sheet of paper (22:05)
Collaboration and the Power of 3 (27:35)

Highlights

“It was a time when things were being triangulated. Data was coming together with research and coming together with some of the commercial finance figures. It was brilliant to see that side of bringing pieces of the jigsaw together.” (6:00)
“It is the commercial understanding, but it’s also applying the customer lens to that. You’ve got the pricing analytics of course, but how can we ensure that we are investing in the right areas, giving the customers the prices that they want and need, whilst still making money.” (13:48)
“You’ve got to speak the language of the business, there’s no two ways about it. I think it’s the only way that you get the traction with the Insight.” (15:57)
“There was no foundational knowledge. There was no real sense of customer. Data analysis happened in pockets but didn’t come together as a whole. First job: establish what we do have, what that’s telling us, and where are the gaps.” (23:00)
“Talk to your stakeholders. Get an understanding of what’s important to them, where the business is going and how can you help achieve that ambition. With that foundational knowledge that you’ve got, you’ve also got the piece that says ‘does that reflect of what we’re seeing from a customer point of view? What do we need to deliver to the customer? Where are some of those gaps? Do those two things align?’” (26:23)

This is episode 18 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 17: Improving stakeholder relationships

James Wycherley — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 08:00:00 +0000

So how do the most successful corporate Insight teams improve their relationships with stakeholders? Please listen to this week’s podcast to find out!

Topics Discussed

A more personal challenge for our colleagues (1.41)
Learning from the Trusted Adviser book (5.47)
Where do Insight professionals have natural strengths? (7.11)
The need to take a few risks (10.20)
Are we sometimes too defensive? (11.30)

Highlights

“The perfect advisers are people we like and who we also think are more knowledgeable than us on the subject in question. Our opinions are often shaped by theirs without us even realising it. In the language of behavioural science, we all constantly buy the messenger, not the message.”
“The way that influence operates in the workplace has far more in common with the way it works in our personal lives than we often assume. People buy from people just as much between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday as they do in their home life at the weekends.”
“As knowledge workers, it should be relatively straightforward for us to find ways of demonstrating our credibility, but the key question is whether we can demonstrate an ability to translate our technical competence into customer and market understanding that helps to solve business problems.”

This is episode 17 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 16: Seek first to understand

Lisa Dutton, James Wycherley — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, James is joined by Lisa Dutton, Senior Adviser at the IMA, and an expert on influencing skills.

Lisa provides her top tips for choosing which stakeholders we should influence, understanding what it feels like to do their role, and the importance of understanding individuals’ communication preferences.

Please listen to our podcast if you have the ambition to transform your Insight team!

Topics Discussed

Taking time out to think about our internal audience (2.17)
Are our communication preferences the same as theirs? (4.13)
A question of translation (5.32)
Choosing who we should influence (7.27)
Having empathy and not being intimidated (9.50)

Highlights

“Just like a company needs to understand its external customers if it’s going to influence their behaviour, so our Insight teams need to understand our internal customers if we’re going to influence their decisions.”
“There are often pronounced differences between analysts and researchers within teams, and between both these groups and the marketing teams and wider organisations in which they work. All these types have strengths and weaknesses, and they tend to be compounded when the departments in which we work have a structural bias towards people who are quite like us.”
“We need to be very deliberate when we think about who we would like to influence, and once we have got those people in mind, it’s then about understanding what it’s like to be in their world.”
“We can be guilty of seeing ourselves as service providers and being quite intimidated by our stakeholders.”

This is episode 16 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 15: Driving change through influence

James Wycherley — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

An Insight team needs to solve problems and identify value opportunities for its company, but then it also needs to drive the corporate changes necessary to profit from those opportunities.

So how do the most successful corporate Insight teams influence decision-makers? Please listen to our podcast if you have the ambition to transform your Insight team!

Topics Discussed

Sharing knowledge is as important as generating it (1.41)
Pareto’s law applies to corporate decision-making (3.10)
Seek first to understand (5.16)
The benchmarking data on influence (8.27)
The challenges of influencing remotely (9.31)

Highlights

“In a big organisation, a great insight, poorly communicated will sink without trace, whilst a reasonable insight, shared brilliantly, that can spread like wildfire.”
“Market researchers and customer analysts tend to be recruited, developed and promoted for their research and analysis skills, and too little focus has historically been placed on our colleagues’ ability to drive change.”
“We need to recognise that Pareto’s law applies to corporate decision-making, just like it applies to many aspects of business life. 80% of big decisions will be taken by the top 20% of senior executives, or maybe just the top 10%, or even 5%! so we all need to give a disproportionate amount of our attention to influencing that senior group of managers.”
“On balance, whilst I recognise that remote working has undoubtedly added to the size of the problem for some teams, I think that the fact that there is now clearly no alternative but to have an explicit plan in place for how we are going to influence, can only be a good thing.”

This is episode 15 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 14: Transforming Insight at Carnival

Jan Worsley, James Wycherley — Thu, 6 Oct 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, Jan describes what it was like to lead an Insight team at an organisation that had to close its global operation during the pandemic, and how, despite the tragedy, he managed to seize the opportunity to make Insight ‘the lead huskey’.

Please listen to our podcast if you have the ambition to transform your Insight team!

Topics Discussed

The importance of being yourself (4.45)
The varied world of cruises (7.30)
The Carnival Insight team and its journey (10.23)
Working in Insight when the world stopped (14.03)
The need for continuous development (20.03)

Highlights

“We can see [the pandemic] as a huge opportunity here. With all the things that we've got sat there ready to go, this is the time we can see what the business needs, that maybe it hasn't realised yet. We should be turning all these residual contracted tools we have at our disposal to really help the business navigate this pandemic and work out what we can do.”
“This idea of “Lead Husky” - the Insight leading the business. Going into the fresh snow, no one wants to be this sort of husky in the back. You want to be the husky at the front, really plowing through the fresh snow, working out what, and where, the opportunities are.”
“So much of the past data ceased to be relevant for the data science models. But by joining together the strengths of the different sides of the Insight function, you could really put Insight in a far better place in your business, and a better place to understand what might happen next.”
“If you can embed things like always taking time to join the dots at the end of the project. Think: Which are the stakeholders that could do with hearing this story? How does this new finding relate to things that we've seen in the past? How is it contradicting it? These are the times when more interesting things emerge, aren't they? But you need to build in time for that."

This is episode 14 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 13: Developing Knowledge Systems

James Wycherley — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

The smartest systems are no replacement for developing an acute understanding of Insight’s purpose and role in your company; acting as consultants to nail and map key business issues; approaching Insight investigations like forensic detectives, and farming insight to cultivate knowledge.

Systems are a means to an end, and in this episode, we consider some top tips for developing them.

Please listen to our podcast if you have the ambition to transform your Insight team!

Topics Discussed

Systems are a means to an end (1.42)
Systems do not have to be sophisticated (3.00)
Start with the Insight team’s own needs first (4.55)
Only 10% of Insight teams have effective knowledge systems (9.33)
Roy Hammond’s top tips (10.52)

Highlights

“Insight knowledge systems do not have to be very sophisticated. If you were tempted to skip this episode because your company isn’t going to give you several $100k to build or buy the system you saw demonstrated at a research conference last week, don’t worry.”
“I would always start with the Insight team’s own needs first; no matter how many brand managers and marketing executives sign up for email alerts or browse your latest reports looking for inspiration, it is nearly always the Insight team itself that will be the most frequent user of any knowledge system you develop.”
“Many knowledge management systems work at a project level; they are effectively systems for recording and retrieving lists of projects that have been carried out. That’s OK in itself, but if you want to provide opinions based on accumulated insight, you will need a system that allows the recording and retrieval of insight, not just insights.”
“If you’ve been to an Insight or research conference recently and come away wowed by an unbelievably impressive presentation about a system used for recording insights and developing a knowledge base, it’s worth bearing in mind that such examples are in a small minority.”

This is episode 13 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 12: Cultivating Knowledge

James Wycherley, Emma Jones — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this episode, James is joined by Emma Jones, Senior Insight Manager at the IMA, and an expert on Insight farming.

Emma provides her top tips for Insight teams who want to develop as knowledge farmers and create a knowledge-sharing culture.

Please listen to our podcast if you have the ambition to transform your Insight team!

Topics Discussed

Compiling a greatest hits presentation (1.34)
The heart of the knowledge cultivation process (3.10)
The Insight farming mindset (5.25)
Examples from successful Insight teams (8.50)
The importance of discussing insights (11.38)

Highlights

“Stage 1 may be as simple as listing the key findings from all the best pieces of work your Insight team has done in the last year. If you have a 1-page summary, or a killer slide, for each of these pieces, you can simply stitch them together to form a ‘greatest hits’ compilation.”
“Another critical aspect of knowledge cultivation is conversation between Insight professionals. If you have team meetings where all you ever do is report on project progress, you are wasting a wonderful opportunity to develop knowledge and collective understanding.”
“I’d emphasise that creating effective insight is an on-going process, with every insight project providing context for the next one. Reviewing what we know and prioritising it by relative importance can be a really effective way of building a robust and joined-up knowledge base. In turn, that places our teams in a much stronger position to influence and drive key business decisions.”
“What I love to see Insight teams introduce is a ‘knowledge-sharing culture’ - a set of unwritten guidelines that promotes sharing knowledge, experiences and insights - all of which can be fundamental to a team’s collective knowledge, intelligence and abilities. It enables people to continue growing both personally and professionally.”

This is episode 12 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, but we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct fromwww.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 11: Sowing the seeds

James Wycherley — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 07:00:00 +0000

In this 16-minute episode, we’ll begin with Sowing the seeds – crystallizing and recording our findings.

Topics Discussed

The practical steps to take (2.25)
Who should do the work? (5.41)
The Insight manager skillset (6.52)
Taking your time (9.23)
The need for effective processes (10.58)

Highlights

“Insight farming appeals to many on a cultural level, as well as offering obvious cost savings by cutting out project duplication.”
“In a perfect world I would like to believe that everyone in an Insight team should take part; the distillation, crystallisation, and recording forming an integral part of each project. However, there are two problems with this: time and talent.”
“It’s particularly important to identify contradictions between the outputs from related pieces. Contradictions don’t necessarily mean that either piece of work was wrong – they may just reflect different data sources or different moments in time – but identifying contradictions is key to deciding whether the big picture that has emerged from a range of previous pieces is now out of date, or whether a more nuanced view is now appropriate.”
“If recording insights and joining the dots is everyone’s second most important task, then it tends to get pushed to the very end of the week by the more urgent task of hunting for new insights.”

This is episode 11 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

The Insight Management Academy is the world’s leading authority on transforming Insight teams.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 10: The evolution to Insight farming

James Wycherley — Fri, 8 Jul 2022 09:30:00 +0000

We need to move away from a world where we spend all our days hunting for new insights, because wise Insight teams know that Insight farming is more valuable to their organisations and more sustainable for the team itself.

Topics Discussed

Do senior people care about individual insights? (1.52)
What sets the most effective teams apart? (3.58)
Cutting out duplication and responding in an agile way (6.25)
Farming is more valuable (9.34)
The importance of process (11.40)

Highlights

“Insight projects tend to be planned bottom-up: we look back on our work each year and see a collection of projects undertaken to support different decisions made by different stakeholders, not one comprehensive piece of work to which the individual pieces of research and analysis have contributed.”
“The vast majority of our Insight specialists’ time is spent working on new investigations, so when senior people ask us to explain the big picture, we often have to think on our feet, and there’s every chance that our colleagues would come up with a different answer.”
“Putting all our focus into new projects means that we never have time to reflect on all the things that we already know, make connections we hadn’t spotted, investigate contradictions, and come up with a comprehensive view of our customers, our markets, and our organisations.”
“Just like real farming, Insight farming requires patience, hard work, the ability to change Insight professionals’ ways of working and then stick to a plan. Effecting this sort of behaviour change in our teams is not easy, which is probably why the IMA’s benchmarking scores reveal that most Insight leaders consider their teams to be considerably better at generating new insights than at cultivating and harvesting accumulated insight.”

This is episode 10 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visitwww.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct fromwww.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 9: Insight investigations

James Wycherley — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

What happens next in an Insight project will depend on the question you have identified and the sources of information and data collection available to you. However, effective Insight teams tend to adopt a common mindset regardless of whether they are data analysts or market researchers. It’s the mindset of the detective.

Topics Discussed

The importance of hypotheses? (1.54)
Joining up across multiple sources (4.32)
The requirement to form opinions (7.27)
Technical skills are critical but not transformative (9.34)
The iterative nature of Insight investigations (11.24)

Highlights

“Insight teams tend to adopt a common mindset regardless of whether they are data analysts or market researchers. It’s the mindset of the detective.”
“We need to spend as long trying to disprove our hypotheses as we do trying to validate them. But we are still better off starting with hypotheses and adapting them to the data as we go along than starting with a blank sheet of paper and hoping for a Eureka! moment.”
“There is a classic trade-off between wanting to drill into more and more of the detail supported by our favourite data source and remembering that Insight projects have to address the overall business issue.”
“Technical skills are really important for Insight teams, and developing great analytic skills or keeping up with the latest research methodologies is a requirement for all Insight teams. But it’s a hygiene requirement; in itself it’s not going to transform the performance of your Insight team, that happens when we change our mindset and reframe the way we define our roles.”

This is episode 9 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, but we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 8: Transforming Insight at Halfords

Debra Walmsley, James Wycherley — Thu, 9 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

The really important questions when you join any company are ‘How does this organisation make money?’, ‘What are its drivers of success?’ and ‘Who makes the key decisions?’

Debra has enjoyed a career spanning market research agencies and big brands, but she thinks she is happiest working in corporate Insight.

She has worked for Safeway, Homebase, British Airways, British Gas and Saga before her current role at retailer Halfords, and in this conversation she reflects on the different cultures and circumstances she has experienced and the common questions that she has found to be key.

Key topics discussed in this episode

Debra’s career path from agencies to large brands
The key questions to ask and the importance of frameworks
Adapting to the culture of different organisations
Building relationships with busy stakeholders
Data journalism and the importance of the Rule of Three in communication
Building customer instinct with the drumbeat of customer knowledge

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team, please listen to our podcast!

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 7: Nailing the real business issue

Insight Management Academy — Thu, 26 May 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Einstein said that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he would spend fifty-five minutes thinking about the underlying problem and five minutes thinking about the solution to it so in this episode we consider how Insight teams can act like consultants to nail the underlying business issue, and in a subsequent episode we’ll look at how we should investigate it.

Topics Discussed

How can we generate better insights? (2.10)
Reflecting on the context for the question being asked (3.59)
Engaging business decision-makers (4.28)
Diagnosing like a doctor or a management consultant (5.15)
Adopting the SCQAB model at Barclays (9.12)

Highlights

“It should be perfectly possible for intelligent people to draw commercially useful conclusions and recommendations from data and observations without the need for magic spells.”
“Most Insight projects fail because they start in the wrong place.”
“We cannot generate insights in a vacuum, we need to speak to business decision-makers. The stakeholder who asked us for the new research might have a clever plan for how they are going to use the new data to help them to solve a problem. Or they might be passing along a request from their boss, which has probably gone to other departments as well, sowing the seed for contradictory data and a confused strategy. I’ll let you decide which is more likely in your company!”

This is episode 7 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased direct from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 6: Making up the numbers

Insight Management Academy — Wed, 18 May 2022 07:20:00 +0000

Does the idea of making up the numbers fill you with horror?

It shouldn’t… making up the numbers, in other words becoming comfortable with estimation techniques and focusing on accuracy rather than precision, is actually a critical skill for everyone in Insight. It supports agile decision-making, forces you to explain your assumptions, and facilitates constructive conversations with others who are trying to solve business problems.

Topics Discussed

The difference between accuracy and precision (3.23)
Back of an envelope intelligent guesswork (4.47)
How to handle big numbers (6.27)
A technique to help our mental maths (7.48)
How many Insight directors do you need to size the toothpaste market? (10.05)

Highlights

“To support agile decision-making, our senior stakeholders often need answers fast, even if it’s just ‘something to work with’. So, for every decision, a trade-off needs to be made between insights based on perfect data and agile decisions. This middle ground is where the most workable solutions are found.”
“In many instances, an accurate range of outcomes is far more useful in Insight than a precise number that will almost certainly never be right and might well give a false impression of confidence.”
“This bit might surprise you, but we actually want our stakeholders to challenge our assumption. This is because our stakeholders may be in a better position to supply an accurate figure, but also because being transparent about our assumptions helps us to work collaboratively with others and get to better answers.”
“What I hope becomes clear from a very simple example like this, is that even if we have no prior knowledge of a topic, we can arrive at a perfectly reasonable estimate if we use Facts, Assumptions and Logic.”

This is episode 6 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, but we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 5: From the market to the money

Insight Management Academy — Wed, 11 May 2022 15:55:00 +0000

To produce insights, we need to reframe our approach to Insight activity. We should move away from a focus on functional disciplines like market research, customer analytics and competitor intelligence, and instead, see each as input to the creation of a holistic story – a story about how consumers in our market become customers of our organisation and create value for it.

Topics Discussed

Organisations need joined-up Insight to succeed (1.10)
Reframing our approach to Insight activity (3.30)
The MADE in Insight model (3.53)
Should we start with the market or the money? (8.05)
Engineers without a blueprint (9.34)

Highlights

“A key problem for Insight teams is that we behave like engineers without a blueprint. If you think about an engineer – a heating engineer for example, or a mechanic working on aircraft – they will always have a blueprint that describes the key components in a system and the way in which those components work together when the machine operates.”
“If you work as a corporate Insight manager, analyst or market researcher, the machine you are working on is your organisation. You are researching and analysing the way that consumers in a market interact with your organisation and how that creates or destroys value for your organisation.”
“The MADE in Insight model was developed to help my Insight managers at Barclays appreciate the four broad categories of our eco-system: the market environment, consumer choices, customer behaviours and financial outcomes, and to encourage analysts and researchers to map from the market to the money every time they were engaged in a new piece of work.”
“So here’s an interesting question… is it really MADE or EDAM... Where should we start? We can actually start at either end, depending on the nature of the business issue we are looking at.”

This is episode 5 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, but we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 4: Transforming Insight at ASOS

James Wycherley, Sandra Kampmann — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 10:15:00 +0000

Sandra talks candidly about the challenges she faces and the lessons Insight teams can learn from Finance, and she also recommends a book that has changed her working life.

Topics Discussed

Insight and Analytics at ASOS (1.45)
Creating a joined-up Insight team (5.45)
Sandra’s day job and diary (10.02)
The book that changed Sandra’s working life (15.15)
An Insight team creating value for the business (23.59)

Highlights

“I understood what Insight was and I also understood the value, but within the limitation of doing it within a finance function. We looked at transactional data, we were always focused on customer profit and customer value. Knowing what I know now, looking after a broader team, we weren’t looking at web analytics or other customer behaviour, everything was always in the confines of financial numbers.”
“In a Finance function, you are very much at the forefront of the decision-making at ASOS. The value of the work Insight was doing was very visible to me because it would always inform new business initiatives.“
“We are fast-growing, and things are changing all the time…When I took over, ASOS was going through a painful growth phase, and we really needed to look at our organisation. Unfortunately for me, I was tasked with looking at some cost-efficiencies for the team. It was a tough decision, but one that I needed to take.”
“It requires me to work across the breadth of the organisation. ASOS has very big growth ambitions and lots of strategic transformation initiatives. It’s not just organising my own time, but getting that time from busy people, which requires a lot of planning.”

This is Episode 4 of the Transforming Insight podcast.

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future episodes. Not only will we explore the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams as outlined in the Transforming Insight book, but we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practices research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About - James Wycherley, Chief Executive, IMA and the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 3: The purpose of Insight

James Wycherley, Insight Management Academy, Transforming Insight — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 10:00:00 +0000

Insight is an expensive business so we have a collective responsibility to make sure that our organisations are getting the best possible return on their investment, otherwise there’s a good chance that those resources would be better deployed elsewhere.

The 2nd secret of successful Insight teams is that they recognise an underlying purpose: to identify value for their organisations and to drive change within them.

Topics Discussed

What can we learn from the IMA’s Insight capability benchmarking? (1.03)
From service functions to proactive business drivers (2.45)
The four key activities for Insight teams (3.54)
We shouldn’t just work at the task level (5.48)
We’re all too busy working on other things (7.47)

This is Episode 3 of the Transforming Insight podcast which will outline the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams. In this episode James Wycherley, Chief Executive of the IMA and author of the Transforming Insight book, explores the underlying purpose of an Insight team.

Highlights

“Insight is an expensive business. It costs a lot of money to acquire data, to manage it, to analyse it, to buy market research from agencies, to employ people with analytical or research skills...So, like every corporate department, we have a collective responsibility to make sure that our organisations are getting the best possible return on their investment, otherwise there’s a good chance that those resources would be better deployed elsewhere.
“We should also study our own organisations with the same focus we bring to studying our customers and our market. Why? Sometimes we know exactly who these people are, and we can try to develop close working relationships with them. “
“The most successful Insight teams share another attribute. They don’t just work at the task-level, they reflect on their underlying purpose and use this insight about themselves as a reference point and a source of inspiration.”
“If our teams are clear that their focus should be on identifying value and driving change, then it naturally follows that we would question a lot of the activity that we tend to get drawn into because other people have asked us to do it.”

If you have the ambition to transform your Insight team and the role it plays in your organisation, please tune in to future editions of this Transforming Insight podcast. Not only will we explore all 42 secrets outlined in the Transforming Insight book, but we will also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members.

You won’t want to miss this! So please hit subscribe - and thank you for listening.

About - James Wycherley, Chief Executive, IMA and the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 2: What Is Insight?

James Wycherley — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 08:15:00 +0000

The 1st secret of successful Insight teams is that they agree on a more progressive definition of insights and insight as a basis for all their subsequent activity.

Topics Discussed

The IMA’s definition of insights (2.06)
The many sources of customer and market insights (3.19)
The importance of actionability (5.47)
The difference between insights and insight (7.00)
The danger of narrow definitions (9.25)

This is Episode 2 of the Transforming Insight podcast which will outline the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams. In this episode James Wycherley, Chief Executive of the IMA and author of the Transforming Insight book explores the IMA’s definition of insight and insights and why it is so important that we don’t define our work according to the data we use or the methodology with which we have the most expertise.

Highlights

“It seems to me that one of the main issues is that we all have a tendency to define our Insight work according to the data, or the methodology, in which we have most expertise. If you began your career working in a market research agency, there’s always going to be a danger that you will view requests for help from other departments in your organisation through the lens of market research.”
“If our focus is on the underlying business question it would make no sense to limit the sources of data that we would consider. It’s not a competition where we’re out to prove that internal data is better than market research, or competitor analysis is worth more than complaints analysis. Insight teams have to think more strategically than that.”
“If insights are individual, contextualised discoveries, insight is the accumulated understanding that is built up from many insights. It relates to the process of collating evidence and findings from multiple projects and sources, reflecting on the connections, and investigating the contradictions.”

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About - James Wycherley, Chief Executive, IMA and the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Episode 1: The best time ever to work in Insight

James Wycherley — Wed, 2 Mar 2022 16:25:00 +0000

But, be honest, do you work in an Insight-driven organisation? Very few of us can say that we do, in fact Insight teams across every sector in Europe and North America often report that it is actually getting more difficult to do their job. If, as Insight leaders, we want our organisations’ performance to be transformed by Insight, we first have to transform our Insight teams and the role they play in our companies.

Topics Discussed

The exponential growth in customer data (1:15)
Our ability to understand human behaviour (1:40)
CEOs’ appetite for consumer insights (2:00)
How many organisations are truly insight-driven? (3:30)
The discipline of Insight management (4:40)

This is the very first episode of an exciting new podcast series that will outline the 42 secrets explained in the IMA’s Transforming Insight book. In this fascinating episode, you will learn:

The first key imperative for every Insight team (7:40)
Insight teams need to drive change (8:50)
The importance of developing a strategy for Insight (10:05)
How we can optimise the impact of Insight (11:15)

Highlights

“Data is the world’s fastest growing resource, and the appetite and ability to use customer and market data is growing exponentially. With no exaggeration, it can be said that there has never been a greater opportunity for Insight teams to transform the performance of an entire organisation.”
“I think that the increase in available data and ways in which it could be manipulated, together with the ever-expanding demand from decision-makers, have combined to make Insight teams more task-focused. We are doing more and more analysis and research, but in itself, this doesn’t make our companies Insight-driven. Far from it.”
“If we want our organisations’ performance to be transformed by Insight, we first have to transform our Insight teams and the role they play in our companies.”

You won’t want to miss this! So hit subscribe, and thank you for listening.

About James Wycherley, the author of Transforming Insight

James Wycherley was Director of Customer Insight and Analytics at Barclays from 2005 to 2015 when he became Chief Executive of the Insight Management Academy (IMA). A popular keynote speaker and acknowledged expert on Insight leadership, strategy, and communication, he is the author of the book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams, and over 35 IMA publications. He has provided thought leadership in the UK, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, and the Middle East. Over the last five years, over 20,000 Insight professionals worldwide have received his 5 Minute Insight emails.

Resources:

If you would like more information on any of the ideas discussed in this episode of the Transforming Insight podcast, please visit www.insight-management.org

Copies of James Wycherley’s book Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams can be purchased directly from www.transforming-insight.com

Disclaimer

The Transforming Insight podcast is published by the Insight Management Academy and produced by Zorbiant.

Transforming Insight Podcast - Trailer

James Wycherley — Tue, 1 Mar 2022 15:45:00 +0000

In the Transforming Insight podcast, we not only explore all 42 secrets outlined in the Transforming Insight book, but we also talk to senior corporate Insight leaders, delve into books that have inspired us, and discuss new best practice research carried out with the IMA’s corporate members. You won’t want to miss this! So hit subscribe!