Builders Wanted – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode features an interview with Jennifer Peters, Director of DTC, Martech, and Digital Compliance at OLLY. Here, she drives their direct-to-consumer business growth and champions the fusion of technology and marketing for top-notch digital experiences. Jennifer is a passionate CPG expert with extensive experience spanning marketing, tech, and business development in eCommerce.

In this episode, Kailey and Jennifer discuss the challenges of integrating AI in regulated environments, the implications of new legislation on data privacy, and leveraging omnichannel strategies effectively.

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Key Takeaways:

• By understanding and mapping out journeys across various channels, brands can design better experiences that cater to consumers’ evolving preferences.
• AI tools are used strategically to optimize consumer interactions and predict behaviors, helping to improve engagement and retention without infringing on data privacy regulations.
• The integration of data from multiple channels remains a challenge, but it's crucial for creating seamless consumer experiences.

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“Anyone in retail and eCommerce right now feels that weight of we've got to get the customer to convert for the first time. We have to think about cost of acquisition. We have to think about it from an advertising perspective. We have to think about it from a discounting perspective and, ultimately, long-term, what is this customer going to be worth to us? What is this customer's LTV? Maybe guessing what that might be for two years. We were guessing before and now you don't have to guess.” – Jennifer Peters

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:36) - Jennifer’s career journey

*(07:32) - Trends impacting consumer experience in DTC and eCommerce

*(12:59) - AI in regulated environments

*(19:11) - Omnichannel strategies and digital channels

*(30:57) - How Jennifer defines good data 

‍*(38:12) - Jennifer’s recommendations for upleveling consumer experience journeys

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Links:

Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Grammarly’s Chief Marketing Officer, Lena Waters, and Eric Weber, Head of Data. Lena leads marketing strategy, focusing on delivering the brand promise to customers, driving demand for products, and growing revenue to scale the company.  Eric leads teams of data scientists and software engineers who are responsible for improving how to measure and iterate on the product to create the best communication assistant. 

In this episode, Kailey, Lena, and Eric discuss their collaborative approach to aligning business and customer priorities, the implications of a cookieless world on marketing attribution, and the balance of data insights and human judgment to drive meaningful customer experiences.

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Key Takeaways:

• Leaders should have a clear understanding and conviction about their business goals and use data to test and refine their hypotheses, instead of relying solely on data to dictate actions.
• The key to navigating a cookieless world is to focus on fundamental marketing principles and broader customer understanding, rather than obsessing over the loss of precise individual data.
• Creating a culture where leaders and team members feel empowered to make informed decisions ensures that teams leverage data effectively to drive meaningful business outcomes.

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“I think as leaders, we have to think about that decision-making environment that we're creating for our teams so that they do have the right resources, but we're not overloading them with false expectations of we have to try everything. We would drown. We're looking for, I think, clarity. We're not necessarily looking for everything.” – Lena Waters

“You're going to have to have conviction and a hypothesis and a belief about what is true, and you should still use data to try to refute that or gather evidence against it. But, you're going to have many fewer situations where the data's going to be like, ‘Here's the path forward.’ Guess what? That's not going to happen. I think the more that we embrace that, we're going to be more successful in one or two years when a lot of this visibility is actually gone.” – Eric Weber

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(03:14) - How data and marketing work together at Grammarly

*(05:30) - Trends impacting customer experience

*(22:45) - How Grammarly is measuring effectiveness in a cookieless world

*(29:13) - How marketers can address the overreliance on data and dashboards

*(36:34) - How Grammarly is using AI

*(43:32) - Lena and Eric’s advice for upleveling marketing and data strategies

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Links:

Connect with Lena on LinkedIn

Connect with Eric on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Guneet Singh, Vice President of Customer Experience and Care at AppFolio. Prior to AppFolio, Guneet built customer experience, research operations, and business transformation functions to enable scale and meet the hyper-growth needs of companies like DocuSign, GE, and ADP. Today, he leads AppFolio’s CX strategy, building and driving sustainable experiences for consumers and businesses by accelerating value realization.

In this episode, Kailey and Guneet discuss the role of customer experience in an organization, implementing effective feedback loops, and balancing AI and human interaction.

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Key Takeaways:

• We can use AI to provide instant resolutions to customers. In turn, freeing up agents to have meaningful and empathetic interactions with customers.
• However, AI isn't a magic tool. You have to understand which tasks are low risk enough to automate and grow from there.
• AI also allows customers to get support through LLMs while your agents create emotional connections with customers.

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“Same agent who was going to provide that instant resolution to the customer now is free or is available to now drive more empathy on the high complex or high painful experience. There are tasks which are highly emotional because we don't give our agents enough time to show empathy or to engage in a very emotional way with the customer. You're creating the time for them.” – Guneet Singh

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Episode Timetamps:

‍*(02:51) - Guneet’s career journey

*(07:14) - Trends impacting customer experience

*(18:33) - The role of customer experience in an organization

*(24:12) - Balancing AI and human interaction

*(41:17) - How Guneet defines “good data”

‍*(46:24) - Guneet’s recommendations for upleveling customer experience strategies

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Links:

Connect with Guneet on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Llibert Argerich, Chief Marketing Officer at Thumbtack where he leads the company’s marketing, brand, and communication teams. Llibert has nearly 20 years of experience at high-growth marketplace businesses, holding leadership roles at Udemy, eBay, and Expedia Group. 

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Llibert to discuss the challenges of building a frictionless customer journey, the need for human interventions in AI, and how cross-functional teams help drive the holistic customer experience.

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Key Takeaways:

• While AI can’t replace all interactions, it can improve efficiency and productivity by delegating tasks to conversational AI that can accelerate solutions to customer problems.
• Marketing cannot be separate from product experience and customer value. Enhanced product market fit goes hand-in-hand with higher return on investment 
• Chief Marketing Officers should also think of themselves as Chief Customer Officers. They are accountable for all marketing levers and demand that drives customer experience.

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“Thanks to the computational power, to AI, to the technology advancements, we can go down to one-on-one. Using everything we know about them, all the data they volunteer, all the data that we capture through their interactions with our products, and personalizing their experience for them to exactly what they need and where they are in their journey.” – Llibert Argerich

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:19) - Llibert’s career journey

*(05:00) - Trends impacting customer experience

*(07:41) - How Thumbtack is leveraging AI

*(17:44) - The biggest challenge in building a frictionless customer experience

*(24:27) - How Llibert defines “good data”

*(38:53) - Who’s doing it right in terms of customer experience

‍*(44:20) - Llibert’s recommendations for upleveling customer experience strategies

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Links:

Connect with Llibert on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

-------------------

Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Glenn Vanderlinden, Co-founder and Lead Solution Architect at Human37. Glenn has over a decade of analytics experience and has held various roles at Semetis including Executive Director of Technical Operations and Services, and worked as a Business Analyst at Deloitte. Today, Glenn helps organizations drive business results by leveraging customer data. 

In this episode, Kailey and Glenn discuss bridging departments to create a consistent customer experience, focusing on the boring parts of AI to drive results, and making the most of customer data with a flexible enterprise.

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Key Takeaways:

• Creating a consistent and coherent customer journey requires communication between departments and the bridging of tech stacks.
• Without a Chief Data Officer in place when implementing AI, garbage in, garbage outwill result at an unprecedented scale because everything is over automated.
• Ensuring you have the right structure and processes in place for AI may seem boring, but it’s essential if you want the tech to work for your business.

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“If you want to start with personalization, if you want to start with data or upgrade, whatever you have, start with use cases. Verify what you need in order to bring them to life. Be specific about the requirements. Take into account privacy, consent, data minimization. But, the user story is so important because otherwise you might end up with data that has no use case.” – Glenn Vanderlinden

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(03:10) - Glenn’s career journey

*(06:06) - Trends impacting marketing and customer engagement

*(11:51) - Glenn’s take on flexible enterprises

*(18:47) -  AI use cases

*(25:58) - How Glenn defines “good data”

‍*(40:22) - Glenn’s recommendations for upleveling customer data strategies

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Links:

Connect with Glenn on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Shannon Duffy, Chief Marketing Officer at Asana. Shannon leads global marketing efforts, including corporate, product, growth, revenue, and engagement. Prior to Asana, she held the role of Executive Vice President Cloud and Industry Marketing at Salesforce where she guided messaging, experiences, and go-to-market strategy for their flagship products. Shannon is a technology marketing veteran who has held leadership positions in the industry since 2003. 

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Shannon to discuss how Asana is building the future of work with AI workflows that complement a deeply human customer experience. From AI to human hand-offs to prescriptive use cases that delight customers, we discover how Asana has harnessed the power of good data to fuel it all.

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Key Takeaways:

• Making a B2B buying decision is complex. Having human and data touch points working together provides an excellent customer experience for B2B buyers.
• For companies like Asana, AI can identify a signal, create a workflow for the right salesperson, and start the customer interaction much faster. 
• Creating a culture of data within teams helps ensure marketing tactics are performing and resonating well with customers.

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“It's really important to me that my teams have a culture of data. How is that woven into the fabric of our marketing work? It's not just enough to do, you have to make sure it is performing and you have to make sure it is resonating with your customers. It's not just like, ‘Did this do well or did it not?’ If it's not doing well, it's not resonating with their customers.” – Shannon Duffy

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:56) - Shannon’s career journey

*(05:36) - Trends impacting marketing and customer engagement

*(11:55) - How Asana is testing AI and the customer journey

*(17:01) - How Shannon defines “good data”

*(27:05) - Changes in customer engagement in the next 6 to 12 months

‍*(32:35) - Shannon’s recommendations for upleveling customer experience strategies

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Links:

Connect with Shannon on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Gabrielle Boko, Chief Marketing Officer at NetApp. Gabrielle has over 22 years of experience in technology marketing, connecting customer success to innovative experiences in software applications and cloud services, digital strategy and marketing, customer storytelling and experience, AI and Big Data and funnel management. Prior to NetApp, she led organizational transformations and built high impact teams for companies like HPE, Sage, SAP and Cognos.

In this episode, Kailey and Gabrielle discuss AI as a competitive differentiator, NetApp’s brand refresh and the sustainability of AI.

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Key Takeaways:

• Championing data security and bias reduction in AI helps us be more responsible with tech and become better humans.
• When customers are at the center, we can advance things like sustainability and ethics without sacrificing other areas where we need to be successful.
• Customers don’t like brands to make quick assumptions about them. They want effortless interactions they can see value in.

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“Customers are looking for simplicity. They're looking for simplicity and engagement. I think digital has already elevated that. Adding AI on top of digital allows us to take simplicity to a new level. Which is reduction of costs or how to think about content in a really personal way.” – Gabrielle Boko

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:38) - Gabrielle’s career journey

*(09:54) - AI’s impact on sustainability

*(16:15) - The biggest challenge of building a best in class customer experience

*(19:38) - How Gabrielle defines “good data”

*(22:02) - Gabrielle dives into NetApp’s rebrand

*(41:01) - Changes in customer engagement in the next 6 to 12 months

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Links:

Connect with Gabrielle on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Dana McGraw, Senior Vice President of Data and Measurement Science at Disney Advertising. Dana leads teams responsible for data science, analytics and audience modeling – in addition to attribution, advertiser performance and insights. She leads data science and advanced analytics for advertising sales, covering Disney’s portfolio of linear, streaming, digital, and social properties. Previously, Dana held several positions within Yahoo!’s Media Group, analytics roles at leading interactive agencies, and also coached women’s college basketball for seven years. 

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Dana to discuss how data collaboration is evolving, the importance of interoperability, and the ins and outs of Disney’s Audience Graph.

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Key Takeaways:

• Building relationships with consumers isn’t about collecting data just to collect it. You should collect data in a way that creates the best consumer experience and maintains a relationship of trust.
• It’s possible to create interoperability for measurement in ways that are compliant, respectful to the consumer, and achieve the goals you’ve set out to achieve.
• Data science is often thought of as math and engineering, but it’s more of a social science in that it reflects culture and society as a whole.

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“Don't just collect everything you can collect. It doesn't make any sense. Do what you need to do to make the consumer experience the best one possible and to maintain that relationship of trust. That's our guiding light, independent of everything else.” – Dana McGraw

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:49) - Dana’s career journey

*(07:29) - Trends impacting adtech and consumer experience

*(11:05) - Disney’s data collaboration solutions

*(20:13) - How Disney incorporates modeling and machine learning into their solutions

*(29:04) - How Dana defines “good data”

*(40:31) - Dana’s recommendations for upleveling inclusive marketing strategies

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Links:

Connect with Dana on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Kevin Niparko, Vice President of Product for Twilio Segment CDP. Kevin joined the team in 2015 to lead Growth & Analytics, before helping form Segment’s Product Management organization. He’s led a variety of Twilio Segment’s products over the years, from Connections, Cloud Sources and ETL, and Profiles.

In this episode, Kailey and Kevin discuss future proofing organizations to take advantage of AI breakthroughs, accelerating time to value, and solving problems through data strategy alignment.

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Key Takeaways:

• Keeping up with the evolving landscape of data management requires flexibility, extensibility, and interoperability built into your data architecture.
• How modern enterprises can quickly and continuously adapt to the proliferation of tools and technologies.
• The importance of creating a data strategy to evolve with the needs of your business and serve your cross-functional stakeholders.

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“The problems that we see our customers running into that really feel intractable are the ones more on the people and the process side of data. It's something that technology can help with. It's something that CDPs can play a role in. But, I think we're also realistic that no tech or software is going to be the silver bullet. It's about different parts of the organization coming together and aligning on an overall data strategy that everybody will abide by.” – Kevin Niparko

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(02:59) - Kevin’s career journey

*(05:52) - Trends impacting technology and customer engagement

*(09:04) - Components of a flexible enterprise

*(16:55) - How AI intersects with data management

*(30:04) - How Kevin defines “good data”

*(36:50) - Kevin’s recommendations for upleveling inclusive marketing strategies

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Links:

Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com

This episode features an interview with Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel. Anastasia is a Senior Insights Lead at Reddit and the author of Cultural Intelligence for Marketers: Building an Inclusive Marketing Strategy. She earned her doctorate in cultural studies from Duke University and has consulted for the world's top brands, including Nike, Samsung, and Disney. Anastasia is a cultural theorist, writer, social critic, and strategist specializing in inclusivity within marketing, media, and tech. 

In this episode, Kailey sits down with Anastasia to discuss the nuances of inclusive marketing, the importance of cultural intelligence, and fostering trust through co-creation.

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Key Takeaways:

• Practicing cultural intelligence to influence society in a positive way and gain commercial advantage
• The importance of reciprocal relationships between brands and cultural communities
• Deconstructing the profit versus purpose method of marketing

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“I find that line in the sand to be quite ineffective and almost troubling at how easily we are ready to go back to the status quo, which is to make profits without consideration for ethics. Cultural intelligence really tries to bridge that gap or bridge that divide to say, ‘We can do culturally intelligent work that is driving commercial advantage and still be attentive to issues of inclusion, equity, and fostering belonging among our audiences.’” – Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel

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Episode Timestamps:

‍*(03:11) - Anastasia’s career journey

*(06:14) - Anastasia dives into her book

*(09:48) - The false binary of profit vs. purpose 

*(13:24) - How brands should think about inclusive marketing 

*(20:36) - The intelligent ways to use AI in marketing 

*(28:09) - How Anastasia defines “good data”

*(40:27) - Anastasia’s recommendations for upleveling inclusive marketing strategies

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Links:

Connect with Anastasia on LinkedIn

Read Cultural Intelligence for Marketers

Visit Anastasia’s website

Connect with Kailey on LinkedIn

Learn more about Caspian Studios

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Sponsor

Good Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today’s digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It’s necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting Segment.com