Insights leaders in transition: what works, what doesn't, and a 30 day action plan

A personal note

At NextMinder, we work side by side with insights teams every day. As providers of Synthetic Humans, we've seen the pressure leaders face: budgets tightening while expectations expand. The challenge for insights leaders: embed in business decisions, scale with tech, and guard against bad data. All at once!

The Pressure

Markets shift monthly, tech cycles compress, and customer-centricity is now table stakes. Budgets tighten while expectations expand. The challenge for insights leaders: embed in business decisions, scale with tech, and guard against bad data. All at once!

1. Move to Strategic (from data to decisions)

What's working

• • Framing delivery as What → So What → Now What. Executives act faster when insights land as recommendations, not just numbers.
• • Embedding insights pros with operating teams. They gain context, credibility, and influence.

What isn't working

• • Delivering only the datapoint. It makes you replaceable by dashboards or AI.
• • Big-bang studies that land once a year. By delivery, context has changed.

What you can do now

• • Adopt the mindset: you'll never become strategic unless you try. Don't stop at the data point — be a business partner who frames decisions.
• • Standardize every deliverable with "Implications" and "Now What."
• • Shift to shorter, iterative pulses that inform decisions continuously.

2. Source & Steward Data (blend + shepherd)

What's working

• • Blending multiple sources: survey data + behavioral analytics + synthetic/simulated inputs.
• • Human-in-the-loop validation. AI drafts, humans ensure relevance and guard against bias.
• • Promoting test-and-learn cultures. Small experiments inform bigger bets.

What isn't working

• • Assuming you won't need direct consumer voice. Real people are irreplaceable anchors for empathy and discovery.
• • Panels plagued by AI-generated answers and survey farms. They're trying, but visibility is limited. You must partner with them to flag, clean, and validate data quality. This is getting worse.
• • Ignoring bias. Without stewardship, AI can magnify existing blind spots.

What you can do now

• • Audit your data ecosystem. Tag where synthetic augmentation helps and where direct consumer voice is essential.
• • Add lightweight validation for every AI-driven analysis.
• • Run at least one controlled experiment per month to normalize "evidence over opinion" and build a culture of testable insight.

3. Scale Operations (automation + AI)

What's working

• • Automating repeatables: trackers, open-end coding, win-loss summaries. Time reclaimed goes to strategy.
• • Retrieval-augmented AI assistants. Answers are traceable and faster, and let the business engage directly with insights in a controlled sandbox environment, without risking sensitive data or overwhelming the team.
• • Early AI agents in narrow, well-defined tasks (e.g., pulling data from systems, drafting updates).

What isn't working

• • "ChatGPT/Gemini is our strategy." Tools ≠ strategy; value comes from workflow redesign.
• • Waiting for "perfect pipes." Delivering value with messy data beats waiting years for ideal integration.
• • Tool soup. Redundant, disconnected platforms create inefficiency and confusion.

What you can do now

• • Host an insights hackathon: pick one repeatable task and hack together a way to automate or accelerate it.
• • Before piloting a retrieval-augmented assistant, check what's already available in your org. Use only lower-risk data—never PII—and frame it as a sandbox where stakeholders can explore past insights directly.
• • Start a tool consolidation audit; push vendors to show how they integrate.

The Pattern Behind Wins

• • Sufficiency first. Faster is better. What's good enough to discard or prioritize is more valuable than perfect answers.
• • Evidence-grounded. Every claim traceable to a datapoint, verbatim, or transcript.
• • Testable is better. Experiments beat opinions.
• • Humans in the loop. AI drafts; people decide.
• • Target repeatables. Automate the time sinks first.
• • Redesign workflows. Don't bolt on tools—re-wire the chain.

30-Day "No Regrets" Action Plan

Week 1 – Strategic Shift

• • Team workshop: map time sinks and pain points; pick 3 opportunities.
• • Create a template that forces every deliverable to end with "Implications" and "Now What."
• • Set a team mindset goal: don't stop at data points; practice framing strategic actions.

Week 2 – Scale Operations

• • Run an insights hackathon: automate or accelerate one repeatable task (e.g., coding open-ends, building dashboards).
• • Begin tool consolidation audit: spot overlaps and gaps.

Week 3 – Source & Steward

• • Pilot a retrieval-augmented assistant after checking policies and approved data sources. Use only non-sensitive data, and invite stakeholders to explore in a sandbox environment.
• • Hold a 1-hour AI Lab: team shares hacks, fails, and lessons.
• • Vendor check-in: ask top partners about AI roadmaps, data quality practices, and integration options.

Week 4 – Reallocate & Communicate

• • Replace one big-bang study with a leaner pulse approach—freeing budget for innovation (you won't get more).
• • Refresh one legacy project with AI re-analysis or a new dashboard.
• • Share a 1-page "what we did, time saved, insights gained" with stakeholders.

Final Note: Leadership in the Long Game

This is a marathon, not a sprint. Don't expect that saying "AI" will make your team operate differently. People need to understand the change story: this is not about replacing them, but about making them more effective and impactful: ensuring insights teams become more valuable, not less.

Your role is to model the behavior. Have your own projects, prompts, and agents. Be curious. Keep a living repository. Provide ongoing training. Treat this as relentless, not one-off. My own goal is at least two hours a week of focused practice. It's hard, but necessary with so much change.

And don't forget the feedback loop and incentives: what's the ROI for a person who adopts and becomes super-productive? How do you reward them versus non-adopters? How do you keep them on your team? Can you afford delays from those who refuse? These are tough questions, but new times require new leadership.

Embrace it. Lead it. The future of insights depends on it.