2. WEBINAR Build Systems Of Insight To Deliver Great Customer Experiences
Brian Hopkins, Vice President, Principal
Ted Schadler, Vice President, Principal
May 21, Call in at 12:55 p.m. Eastern time

4. Agenda Why is big data not enough to improve customer experiences?
Build systems of insight to consistently turn data into action.
How will you build systems of insight?
What do you get from systems of insight that’s different?

5. Great customer experiences pay off
Sources: Forrester Research, Watermark Consulting (
Source: Forrester Research and Watermark Consulting

6. In the age of the customer, we gather massive amounts of data
Financial data
Sales data
Product data
Transaction data
Customer data
Third-party data
Behavioral data
Social data
Mobile data
Environmental data
Sensor data

7. “We are drowning in data and starving for insight.”
— Global Bank
Image source: Undercover Tourist (

8. Big data promises insights discovery
65% of firms will be using big data analytics to optimize digital experiences.
56% of firms will have implemented Hadoop.
38% of firms will have spent more than $10 million on data and analytics. .
Base: 3,005 business and technology decision-makers Source: Forrester’s Global Business Technographics® Data And Analytics Survey, 2015

9. With that data and investment, surely . . .
Customer experience teams can show how great experiences drive business outcomes.
Marketing teams can deliver deeply personal, contextually relevant experiences.
Service teams can anticipate a customer’s problem before she calls.
Commerce teams can optimize product targeting in every channel.
Product teams can predict whether their dynamic pricing based on context will work.
Sales teams can know with certainty what each customer really wants.

10. “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards toward the technology — not the other way around.”
Steve Jobs Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, 1997*
Data and insights are also not enough on their own to drive great customer experiences.
Image source: YouTube (

11. We’ve been solving the wrong problem
Too much data
“All the data we need will never come from one place. There is too much of it.”
Carlo Torinai Data Scientist Tesla Motors
Not enough action
“Data scientists are great at finding insights, but it’s hard to keep them focused on the the outcomes our business needs.”
Assad Shaik Chief Data Scientist

12. Insights masters don’t focus on big data — they consistently turn data into action

13. They talk of gaps between data and action
Source: April 27, 2015, “Digital Insight Is The New Currency Of Business” Forrester report

14. They link data and action through digital insights and continuous learning
All possible data
Digital insights
All possible actions
Right
data
Effective
actions
Learnings
Source: April 27, 2015, “Digital Insight Is The New Currency Of Business” Forrester report

15. Example: Stitch Fix has mastered insights
Stitch Fix predicts what a customer wants before she even orders it — clothes you want show up at the door.
The company is insights-driven where predictive models learn from people, and people learn from models.
Stitch Fix has built digital insights and learning into their business — a constant state of controlled experimentation.
The result: a disruptive shift in business models and fashion retail experiences

16. We call this systems of insight
The business discipline and technology to harness insights and consistently turn data into action

17. Systems of insight power digital business
engagement
touch people.
Systems of insight power digital business.
Systems of automation
connect the physical world.
Systems of
record host processes.
Source: April 27, 2015, “Digital Insight Is The New Currency Of Business” Forrester report

18. How systems of insight turn data into customer-obsessed action
Implement digital insights directly in software.
Embed tested insights into everyday work to improve customer engagement.
Empower employees to make insight-driven decisions.

19. A system of insight is an operating model: people, process, and technology working together
Insights team
Insights-to-execution
process
Possible Actions
All Data
Right
data
Effective
actions
Digital insights
architecture

20. You will have many insights teams
Business leader
Manages the team to optimize a specific business outcome
Technology leader
Responsible for insights testing, implementation, and architecture
Domain experts
Recognizes insights worth the investment
Developers
Test and implement insights in software and business rules
Data scientists
Build models and exercises them to reveal potential insights
Data engineers
Gathers, assesses, integrates, prepares, and manages data
Source: April 27, 2015, “Digital Insight Is The New Currency Of Business” Forrester report

21. Master an insights-to-execution process to consistently turn data into effective actions
1. Develop and test insights
2. Implement insights
Possible actions
All data
Right
data
Effective
actions
4. Capture new data to extend insights
3. Measure and track results

22. Shutterstock has mastered insights-to-execution
Stock photo and video company
SSTK valued at $2.2B
55 million royalty-free images
Grew 39% last year
An entirely digital business
Shutterstock wins when customers find and engage with images.
Multidisciplinary teams focus on pricing, engagement, and so on.
Shutterstock uses a companywide process to test 100s of insights to validate a handful that matter.
Hadoop is the foundation for insights discovery.

23. You will need a digital insights architecture
Sales and marketing
Operations
Product design
. . . lots more
Insights-driven applications
Data feed
management
Execution
engines
Insight discovery and implementation tools
Collaboration and governance tools
Services framework
Federation and virtualization
Big data management
Cloud services
Insight
Fabric
Image source: Find Icons ( and Brightfind (

24. How Tesla uses a system of insight to create a great experience
Improve CX by fixing before problems happen.
Team works together to turn data into action.
Insights services let engineers find and test insights.
Developers implement insights firmware (create action).
Engineers
Firmware
developers
Data
scientists
engineers
Insights services
Pipeline

25. Systems of insight will redefine digital winners and losers
Firms that treat big data as an IT function
Firms without the willpower to democratize data and insight
Vendors focused on closed insights technology systems
Data-driven
Winners
Firms that link data to action through digital insights
Insights-driven business service companies
Service providers building insights competencies
Vendors building digital insights ecosystems
Insights-driven
Image source: Pearson (

26. CIOs: Partner with your CMO to fund the first insights teams and process
Look at the customer insights team for best practices.
Extend your big-data investments to create a digital insights architecture.
Push projects that harness insights in customer and customer-facing employee software.
Start with digital customer experiences: They are ready for insights-to-execution.

27. The building blocks of digital insights are well-researched and available
Source: April 27, 2015, “Digital Insight Is The New Currency Of Business” Forrester report

28. Brian Hopkins
Ted Schadler

29. What’s different about systems of insight?
The same
Different
The need for all the data
Insights discovery
Most of the technology
Most skills and investment
Insights teams are multidisciplinary and embedded in operations.
Insights aren’t insights until proven valuable and implemented in software and customer engagement.
The digital insights architecture extends into collaboration, execution, feedback, and insights fabric.