james wycherley

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

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.

All rights reserved                                                                        

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

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.

All rights reserved               

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

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.

All rights reserved                             

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

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.

All rights reserved                  

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

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.

All rights reserved                             

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

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.

All rights reserved      

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

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.

All rights reserved    

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

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.

All rights reserved                                                                        

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

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.

All rights reserved       

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

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.

All rights reserved     

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

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.

All rights reserved       

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

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.

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

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.

All rights reserved                                                   

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

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.

All rights reserved                                        

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

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.

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.

All rights reserved        

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

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.

All rights reserved                                                                        

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

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.

All rights reserved                                            

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

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.

All rights reserved

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

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.

All rights reserved                                              

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

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.

All rights reserved