The Data Chief

Joining Cindi today is Radha Sankaran, the Executive Director of Advanced Analytics/AI and ML at Verizon. Radha is a technology executive with more than 24 years of hands-on leadership experience with a proven track record in fast-paced and quality-driven product delivery. She has led and managed high-performance teams in the telecom and wireless industry for 4G LTE, IoT, and 5G technologies.Today, Radha and Cindi discuss the benefits of personalizing customer experience - including why personalization is Verizon's number one priority moving forward. Radha also shares her strategies for empowering frontline decision makers with data in a way that helps rather than overwhelms, how to protect customers’ privacy while putting their data to best use, and what women in tech aspiring to excel in this field should know to succeed and break the glass ceiling. Key Takeaways:Get personal. Leverage data to view your customer’s journey from their perspective. Whether it’s email, SMS, chatbots, in store visits, or interacting with a call center, tie cross-channel experiences together seamlessly to create a positive and personalized experience. But not too personal. Protecting customers’ data is at the core of everything Verizon does. When building personalized journeys, you have to find the balance between providing a valuable experience for your customer, while not overstepping their privacy in a way that feels invasive. Empowering frontline employees with data. Compiling and sharing every data point with your team is not helpful. Rather than overwhelming frontline decision makers with mountains of data, distill need-to-know data in a way that’s easy to consume. For Radha, this means equipping her team with only the data needed to determine the next best actions (NBX) for serving customers.Advice for girls and women in tech. “To all of those women and girls out there wanting to get into STEM, be bold. Don't let anything hold you back."More About Radha:Radha Sankaran is the Executive Director of Advanced Analytics/AI and ML at Verizon. She's a technology executive with 24+ years of hands-on leadership experience and a proven track record in fast-paced and quality-driven product delivery, leading and managing high-performance teams in the telecom and wireless industry for 4G LTE, IoT, and 5G technologies. Radha has a strong foundation of strategic thinking, operational excellence, people, and culture development, all anchored in integrity.  She has spent 12.5 years with Verizon and currently serves as the Exec Director of the Systems of Insights portfolio leading Advanced Analytics and AI-Driven Customer Experience Strategy and Development within the Customer Experience Organization for the Consumer Verizon Business. Before assuming her current position, she was the Executive Director spearheading omnichannel customer experience for all wireless assisted channels in addition to the overarching responsibilities for strategy, architecture, development, analytics, and quality assurance in Verizon IT resulting in annual revenues of $5B to $8B.Prior to Verizon, Radha spent 13 years at AT&T/Lucent/Avaya until 2007, where she did some pioneering work in the field of HDTV and Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) and CRM technologies. In her last responsibility at Avaya, she was in a technology architect role for implementing the Sales Module in SAP as well as Avaya's multimedia contact center application integrated into Siebel's service management module.Radha holds a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from SUNY, Stony Brook.--The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com. -- For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

This week we have a very special episode featuring insights from three data and analytics leaders on what to expect in 2021. You’ll hear from:Donald Farmer, a principal at TreeHive StrategyWayne Eckerson, the Founder and Principal Consultant at Eckerson GroupTom Davenport, Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College They discuss everything from how to remain relevant in the rapidly evolving data and analytics industry, what technologies will have the biggest impact on our lives, and what the future of the workplace will look like and what those changes mean for your business. Enjoy the lightning rounds on Super Bowl predictions, snow, and best books to read! --The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com. -- For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Joining Cindi today is Chris Powers, Senior Vice President and Global Product Manager of Business Data Analytics & Digital Innovations at Citigroup.On this episode, Chris and Cindi discuss data literacy as a thought process that is nurtured by a good old-fashioned willingness to take things apart and put them back together again, what common data sense is and how it can be taught to people without shaming them, and why "the five whys" are an invaluable technique for solving almost any problem.They also examine the real -- and counterintuitive -- purpose of self-service analytics. Plus, Cindi and Chris explain why data's role as the new oil is only as good as knowing what engine can use it.Key Takeaways:If data is the new oil, you need to make sure it gets to the engine that can use it. Data, like oil, doesn't do anything on its own. In order for it to be of use, you need to have processes in place to contextualize that data and ensure it gets to the right experts and business decision-makers.Business users often know what they want, but not how to reach it. Your job is to connect the dots between them and their goal, while challenging false assumptions that obscure the path to that goal. For this (and many other problems you'll encounter), the five whys can prove to be an indispensable technique.The success of self-service analytics relies on data literacy. The "sink or swim" strategy will only drown prospective users faced with an overwhelming ocean of data they don't know how to process. The good news: anyone can learn the basics if they just start small.Data literacy is a thought process, not a formula. Cultivate an inquisitive mind that seeks to understand how pieces fit together to make a functional whole. It will serve you and business users better than pointing to a graph that tells you something you both already know.More About Chris:Chris Powers has been at Citigroup for the last 24 years. In his current role working with client experience data, he focuses on providing the tools and insights to interpret the data so people can be empowered to make the best decisions for their clients. But for him, it is not just about the data. People tell stories with their data, and to do that effectively, they need to be able to understand what their data is telling them. Chris works to create a community of people that can effectively work and communicate with their data in order to build a data-driven culture. He doesn’t just do this inside Citi.Chris is one of the founding members of the Tampa ThoughtSpot user group and is also a 2020 Qlik Data Luminary, creator, and co-organizer of the Tampa Qlik Meetup group. Since his childhood, he has had quite the journey to get where he is today. Learning how to overcome his own data anxiety, navigating through a rollercoaster of education decisions, and putting his sometimes exhausting questioning of "But why?” to good use. He spent more than 10 years in customer service before finally joining Citi. Now Chris uses the unique experiences from his journey to help people with common data sense.--The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com. -- For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Joining Cindi today is Jim Tyo, CDO at investment management firm Invesco, and the former CDO at Nationwide, where he was responsible for overall strategic vision, planning, execution, and management of all activities related to the operation of the Enterprise Data Office (EDO).On this episode, Jim and Cindi discuss best practices and the evolution of data governance and information quality over the past decade, taking the 'digital twin' approach from the world of manufacturing and applying it to the world of data, the ethical nuances of navigating privacy laws and nontraditional inputs for complete datasets without introducing undue biases, advice for people aspiring to pursue a career in data, and much more.  Key Takeaways:Strategies Jim has leveraged to properly balance data governance and information quality (for which his team has won awards), and how the conversation around data governance has changed during his decade in the field.How the concept of the digital twin transitioned from the world of manufacturing to the world of data, and how organizations can use it to get an even more complete picture of their organization.How Nationwide created an internal data marketplace for people to more easily find all the data available within the company.The ethical considerations of navigating privacy laws and using nontraditional data inputs like fitness wearable devices and social media to ensure fair coverage without bias.Why good teamwork is critical in analytics, a world where nobody knows everything. About JimJim Tyo is CDO at investment management firm Invesco, and the former CDO at Nationwide, where he was responsible for overall strategic vision, planning, execution, and management of all activities related to the operation of the Enterprise Data Office (EDO).With more than a decade under his belt as a senior executive in the data field, Jim has envisioned, championed, and built data analytics organizations, processes, and technologies from concept to design in implementation and through execution. His vision has created significant culture changes while shifting information delivery methodologies — including innovative agile execution approaches — ensuring appropriate controls and governance focused on a data-driven experience and empowering business outcomes.--The Data Chief is brought to you by ThoughtSpot. For more on how the most successful data leaders are driving value in their organizations, join Cindi and the ThoughtSpot team at Beyond 2020, the leading data & analytics event of the year. Go to www.thoughtspot.com/beyond2020 for more information.-- For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Joining Cindi today is Suzette Kent, the former US Federal Chief Information Officer. Suzette joined the Federal Government in 2018 from the financial services industry with two key goals: drive IT modernization and overcome the challenges in federal IT budgeting and funding alignment.On this episode, Suzette and Cindi discuss the creative friction between the public and private sector, the pros and cons of how the public and private sectors operate and what they can gain by collaborating with one another, and the challenges of avoiding minutiae and focusing on the big picture when working with massive datasets. Plus, Suzette shares the origin story of the federal data strategy and how she hopes it can be used to solve the problems we face today.Key Takeaways & Discussion Points:Creative friction happens when private and public sectors collaborate and each side benefits from the experience.You can't drive change only from a technology side; people need to be involved in the process, and this requires adaptation to the pace necessary for the task at hand.Why striking a balance between indexing details and focusing on outcomes can be particularly challenging when you're dealing with the overwhelming number of datasets available to the public sector, the laws that govern their use, and the sometimes conflicting purposes of multiple agencies within that structure.How the federal data strategy came about, what it strives to accomplish, what private sector CDOs can learn about it at strategy.data.gov, and how they can utilize the resources available at resources.data.gov.The outcome-driven approach to getting students truly interested in pursuing careers in data.More About Suzette:Suzette Kent served from 2018 to 2020 as US Federal Chief Information Officer, spearheading a wide range of technology and workforce initiatives. Her tenure was devoted to setting governmentwide standards while also giving agencies the freedom to tailor efforts in mission-appropriate ways.Suzette was selected from the financial services industry to replace outgoing Federal CIO Tony Scott. She was a principal with Ernst & Young and had been a managing partner at Accenture and worked in other capacities at JP Morgan and the Carreker Corp. This background allowed her to see the challenges in federal IT budgeting and funding alignment and its IT modernization.--The Data Chief is brought to you by ThoughtSpot. For more on how the most successful data leaders are driving value in their organizations, join Cindi and the ThoughtSpot team at Beyond 2020, the leading data & analytics event of the year. Go to www.thoughtspot.com/beyond2020 for more information.-- For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Joining Cindi today are two guests: Jon Osborn, Software Technology Executive and former SVP, Chief Technical and Data Officer at Ensemble Health Partners, and Todd Crosslin, the Global Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Snowflake.On this episode, Jon, Todd, and Cindi discuss how people in the healthcare chain of command can collaborate with one another more freely than ever before thanks to cloud innovations that make sensitive data safely and instantly available to all parties, why the countless benefits of moving to the cloud far outweigh the seemingly hefty upfront price tag (provided you adapt your strategy to fit your budget), and how a data chief can build a case to make these points evident to the stakeholders and higher-ups responsible for paying the bills.Key Takeaways:Experiment with internal and external stakeholders. The level of collaboration between people involved in the chain of providing healthcare is enhanced by the cloud in ways that have only recently become possible.Choose based on value. The price tag for moving to the cloud is real, but the benefits are too substantial to pass up - and there are hacks  to adapt your strategy to align with your budget.Be brave. The ROI for innovation pays back with interest, but you need the courage to make a case for all your various stakeholders.More About Jon:Jon Osborn is a Software Technology Executive and the former SVP, Chief Technical and Data Officer at Ensemble Health Partners, with a proven ability at the executive level to build technical organizations, direct and manage technical projects and architecture, manage agile software development teams, and work with business owners to deliver value and modernize technology.More About Todd:Todd Crosslin is the Global Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Snowflake, with a history of success in start-up and high-growth/complex environments. He specializes in strategic business planning, agile lifecycle management, liaison and mediator activities, team building and leadership, key contract negotiations, and software development lifecycles. --The Data Chief is brought to you by ThoughtSpot. For more on how the most successful data leaders are driving value in their organizations, join Cindi and the ThoughtSpot team at Beyond 2020, the leading data & analytics event of the year. Go to www.thoughtspot.com/beyond2020 for more information.-- For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Today's guest is Craig Rowlands, the General Manager of Medibank. Craig is an ambitious leader with a proven track record for delivering major projects including data management, production, and business intelligence solutions. On this episode, Craig and Cindi discuss the life- and cost-saving benefits of leveraging data to improve decision making in healthcare, how moving from financial services to healthcare has given Craig a more holistic view of what's possible with data, why an individual should never stop learning and broadening their skills at any age, and establishing beneficial relationships with vendors that make you partners in each others' success.  Key Takeaways: There's nothing like a life-changing event to demonstrate how data from the patient's perspective can be used. Craig demonstrated how he was able to research options for his own heart bypass surgery informed by the available data. Always broaden your skills. In Craig's case, this has meant moving across industries -- from banking to the medical field -- to maximize his knowledge of what's being done versus what can be done with data. Establish a two-way partnership with vendors. Ensure they understand the value of being a partner invested in the welfare of both sides rather than merely filling the traditional, transactional vendor role, and that you're invested in keeping that relationship ongoing as well. Have a clear strategy when starting a new role. Look at the outcomes that you want and make sure that they align with your business goals. More About Craig: Craig Rowlands is the General Manager of Medibank. He is an ambitious leader with a proven track record for delivering major projects and managing data management, production, and business intelligence solutions, enabling optimal performance via leading-edge warehousing infrastructure, improved functionality, and best in class data quality controls and checks. Leading a large, multi-site team that constantly exceeds business expectations and thrives in a testing, team-focused environment that drives improved individuals' performance and career progression. Craig remains a highly experienced and technical analyst with a clear understanding of the strategic importance of data warehousing, business intelligence, and analytical software within an information-dependent business. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Joining Cindi today is Bernard Marr, internationally bestselling author, futurist, and keynote speaker. He advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organizations and was voted by LinkedIn as one of the top five business influencers in the world and the number-one influencer in the UK. On this episode, Bernard and Cindi discuss why businesses should treat AI as a focused strategy rather than a resource-draining experiment, five ways to determine how to implement AI as a strategy that addresses the needs of your business, and overcoming a company culture's resistance to change. They also talk about how to ensure that AI augments rather than replaces humans and what it means to nowcast versus forecast in a post-pandemic world. Key Takeaways: Use AI as a strategy, not an experiment. AI should be applied strategically to the needs of your business, not treated as an experiment. Here, Bernard presents five lenses that will help you determine how AI can be focused appropriately. Don't reinvent the wheel. Chances are pretty good there's an existing AI tool -- from Salesforce, Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, etc. -- that will suit the needs of your company without having to invest the time, energy, and money to start from scratch. Overcoming a company culture's resistance to change. What it takes to get the top levels of your organization aware of what AI is capable of doing for the business, and communicating to all levels that it's a tool for augmenting -- not replacing -- human staff. More About Bernard: Bernard Marr is a futurist, big data expert, storyteller, visionary, keynote speaker, and strategic business and technology advisor to companies and governments. He advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organizations, helping them improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things. LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top five business influencers. He is a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that reaches millions of readers. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Joining Cindi today is Chad Hawkinson, the Chief Product and Data Officer at Vertafore, the leader in creating modern insurance technology. A seasoned data and analytics guru, Chad has seen first-hand the profound impact data-driven insights can have on customers’ success.  On this episode, Chad and Cindi discuss how the cloud makes it safer to use sensitive data, when it was long-feared it might do just the opposite. They cover everything from alleviating client concerns about the use of this data and securing this data from cyberattacks, to the value of streamlining data collection into everyday workflows rather than making it an additional headache for the client to manage. Plus, Chad shares the three components responsible for the 38 percent failure rate of analytics investments in insurance and what can be done to fix them. Key Discussion Points: The cloud gives us more power over our data, not less. Qualified availability unlocks a level of control over that data that would be impossible on a purely local level. Having a clear direction where data can be brought to bear. The three problems most responsible for a high failure rate in analytics investment and how to solve them. The value of insights in context. Data is most useful when streamlined into the everyday workflow rather than existing as a number of separate processes that bring that workflow to a grinding halt.   More About Chad: Chad Hawkinson is the Chief Product and Data Officer at Vertafore, the leader in creating modern insurance technology. A seasoned data and analytics guru, Chad has seen first-hand the profound impact data-driven insights can have on customers’ success. He brings deep experience with AI and ML technologies in the energy, aerospace, defense, automotive, and construction industries to help agencies and carriers discover new opportunities to drive dramatic business growth by leveraging insights previously hidden deep within their data. Prior to Vertafore, Chad spent seven years as Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Engineering & Product Design division at IHS Markit. An experienced go-to-market strategist in both the software and data analytics industries, Chad also held leadership roles at Progress Software, PTC, and Intel. He earned a BA in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, as well as an MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

This is Part 2 of our interview with Jason Lally, the Chief Data Officer for the City and County of San Francisco. [Listen to Part 1 here.] In Part 1, Cindi and Jason talked about the kindness of data clarity and the power of a declarative mission statement. In this episode, Jason discusses making the government's data work for the people it serves, the key gateway to better communication, and how to turn problems into opportunities. Key Takeaways: Improving communication. Part of becoming a better communicator is just listening to what people don't understand and then figuring out a different way to explain it. And if you're trying to turn problems into opportunities, communicating one on one or in smaller groups allows everyone present to contribute to solving the problem which builds trust between them for the success of future efforts. Making data work for the people: Government data has the power to transform the services citizens experience, and can improve numerous facets of the lives of citizens. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.