Headline Partner
What has been your path to power?
Trained as a journalist, I spent a few years working at the BBC and Sky online before becoming more and more intrigued about how this digital content was performing. I was part of the first BBC News live outside broadcast web stream in 2000, sat in a broadcast van outside Westminster Cathedral with a laptop and feed from the TV transmission and I wanted to know how many people watched. And the team and I delivered the first use of the red button email functionality via Sky and BBC Interactive on a Crimewatch broadcast in 2003 – we only got two emails, but I wanted to understand the data.
Over a number of years at some big brands, I expanded my knowledge in mobile and web content and user behaviour, understanding hardware and software performance through data, watched the growth of apps and app stores and witnessed surges in tech and capability around data alongside increased regulation, too.
In a 20-year career, I’ve built high-performing teams and worked with and developed some incredibly talented people who have gone on to bigger and better things. I’ve been privileged and proud to help people and businesses realise value and drive real change through the use of data and analytics.
What impact has the pandemic had on the role of data in your company/organisation?
On a personal level it’s meant an even greater focus on the team, checking in with people more frequently as we’ve moved between working remotely and in offices, and with a particular focus on mental health. It’s been important to make sure that everyone has been watching out for one another, particularly as many people joined remotely and hadn’t met that many colleagues in person.
Does data now have a seat at the table during strategic discussions? If not, what will it take to get it there?
Data is a fairly broad term for a lot of different activities – I certainly think that more and more decisions are being made that are influenced by insight and analytics. I also think there’s a recognition that we can use the marriage of data and technology to automate more and provide more relevant experiences to customers.
What we need to continue to do is get trusted data into the hands of the decision-makers in the right way, at the right time as quickly as possible. And that’s while maintaining the quality and integrity of the output and in parallel continue to support the cultural changes business needs to leverage data.
What are your key areas of focus for data and analytics in 2022?
I’d like to continue to use the position that I have in the data industry to find more and more ways of being an ally to people who are under-represented. I want to continue to listen to people who are different from me, to learn from them and to try in any way that I can to champion them. And I want to continue the mission to find others who are willing to do the same, no matter how hard and uncomfortable it becomes. We need to make sure that we’re finding ways to increase diversity in data across all areas, not just in the ways that we can see.
Tell us what leadership means to you in the context of your role as a senior data leader.
First and foremost, for me it’s about showing up and standing for what you believe in, while always seeking to learn.
It’s about helping people within your organisation to understand what data is and how it can help them in their own roles and getting them excited about that rather than intimidated. And critically, that they trust it. It’s about making data more accessible to people and the tools and services that we use.
And finally for me, it’s finding more ways to create diverse teams and get more younger people interested in the exciting world of data.
What key skills or attributes do you consider have contributed to your success in this role?
I do believe that a background in journalism has helped me to bridge the gap between business outcomes and the data requirements to be able to support them, and vice versa. It’s helped with storytelling to bring to life the world of data and what it can do for people.
How did you develop – and continue to develop – these skills or attributes?
I love to learn and for me that was historically by doing. But when you get to a certain point in your career, the types of things that you are doing changes from the practical to the strategic. So I like to talk to the team, informally, on a regular basis. Understand what they are doing, what challenges they are facing, what blockers they are experiencing, what gaps there might be. And then more broadly really keep in touch with what the business is doing, so data can stay aligned with and help drive some of the outcomes we’re aiming to deliver.
Is the data tech you have keeping pace with your goals and requirements? Are your providers leading or lagging behind your demands?
I think they are largely keeping pace – we have a reasonably modern tech stack for data. I think the world of open source is helping everyone test and learn more quickly without having to invest in bigger or more complex stacks that might take precious time and effort to integrate, only for the business to have moved on by the time it’s up and running. And that’s the real crunch point – the pace of innovation is so quick I don’t think anyone could truly keep up.
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