james wycherley

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.”

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 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.

All rights reserved

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.”

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 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.

All rights reserved

 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!

Our guest on this episode is James Wycherley, an expert on Insight strategy and Insight team transformation and author of the new book, Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams. James joins us on the Room 101 podcast to share what things in the industry he’d like to see banished in Room 101 forever. The main pet peeves James describes are: naming conventions for things like “market research teams”; research briefs or data analysis; and thinking of “commerciality” as a dirty word. James provides meaningful criticism during our conversation, and we hope you enjoy it. 

Key Quotes:

• “By accident. I joined Insight by accident, before it was called Insight. I left university. I joined Barclay’s Leadership Program. I found myself working on strategic marketing projects. And I was fortunate, in retrospect, to work on a number of projects that had a great deal of requirements for customized data.”
• “What happened over the 20 years that followed is that organizations that never knew who their end customers were before had started selling things online. Many more have started interacting with people through social media. And the markets have sprung up in third-party data and secondary data that allows organizations of all shapes and sizes to have a more granular understanding of consumers in a marketplace.”
• “If we refer to ourselves as research teams or analysis teams, there’s a danger that we’re going to perpetuate the organizational view that we are all about methodology rather than about outcomes, that we’re all about data or information rather than about insights and intelligence driving decisions.”
• “Too many insight teams, in my view, allow their agendas to be set for them by other departments and indeed set themselves up as order takers for the other departments.”
• “Insight is, or at least it could be, a strategic asset for an organization. I personally believe that insights, done well, have got the potential to transform the performance of an organization. But we tend not to manage it like a strategic asset.”
• “What I’m calling for is a fundamental rethink of insights’ role in the organization. And the whole question of briefs and ways of working and interacting with different departments – that’s just one aspect of that order of the role that insight plays within its company.”
• “My suggestion is that insight teams try to reframe the way in which they think about this concept of commerciality. I believe that sustainable commercial success relies on organizations harnessing and understanding customers, as well as a whole operational data, and an understanding of their role as providers. The value exchange that takes place is between customers and providers.”

Key Topics: 

• James describes writing book during the lockdown in 2020 (2:00)
• He provides advice for those who want to write a book (3:46)
• Describes how he got started in his career (5:24)
• Notes the difference between his time at Barclays in the late 1990s until now (8:20)
• The first pick for room 101 is market research teams or rather the naming conventions (10:57)
• Describes that the best already override the naming conventions, focusing on the insights and intelligence (14:00)
• Expands on teams who do this well (15:30)
• Explains how heritage has led to the current siloed practices (18:39)
• The next pick for room 101 is research briefs or data analysis (21:22)
• Shares how other departments view insights teams (26:29)
• Reflects on the personality type attracted to research and data, perhaps people pleasers – but not meant as a criticism (29:54)
• The third pick for room 101 is the concept of insight teams treating commerciality as a dirty word (31:58)
• Explains how to remove the barrier to help insight teams embrace commerciality (36:52)
• Agrees to place his third pick in room 101 (43:26)

About - James Wycherley:

James joined the IMA as Chief Executive in May 2015 after 10 years as Director of Customer Insight and Analysis at Barclays. He is an expert on Insight strategy and Insight team transformation, knowledge development and communication, and he represented Barclays at the IMA's Insight forums for over a decade before joining the IMA team himself.

James has delivered consultancy and keynote presentations in Europe, North America, Australia, India and the Middle East, and has lectured at the Winchester, Anglia and Ashridge Business Schools.

He is the author of over 30 IMA publications and has just published a new book - Transforming Insight: the 42 secrets of successful corporate Insight teams.

Relevant Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-wycherley-9193995/

www.dayonestrategy.com 

www.transforming-insight.com

www.insight-management.org. 

The Day One podcast is published by the Day One Strategy and produced by Zorbiant.

All rights reserved.