Editor’s Observe: The next interview encompasses a GreenBook Future Record honoree, Marlena Mattei. The GreenBook Future Record acknowledges management, skilled development, private integrity, ardour, and excellence within the subsequent era of shopper insights and advertising and marketing professionals inside the first 10 years of their careers.
Introducing Marlena Mattei of Pearson
Marlena Mattei is College of Pennsylvania graduate and a Client & Cultural Insights Senior Strategist at Pearson. She is keen about rising the neighborhood and dealing to bolster the trade by mentorship and thought management. She has continuously developed modern and inventive methodologies, instruments, and analyses and introduced them at trade occasions together with the QRCA and Insights Affiliation. She is presently engaged on growing a framework to raised perceive the relationships between complicated private drivers, which she plans to share when it’s full.
With a cultural anthropology background, she has developed a singular perspective and skillset to take consumer-centricity one step additional and perceive not simply the buyer, however all the HUMAN — together with cultural and environmental forces shaping their experiences, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. She fuses creativity and analytical pondering, permitting her to develop modern strategies and evaluation frameworks, together with distinctive mixed-methods analysis drawing from completely different fields of thought.
What’s a enjoyable truth about your self that will shock individuals to know?
I began doing analysis once I was a cultural anthropology scholar on the College of Pennsylvania. My curiosity in public life and utilizing statement as a analysis device led me to work on some… unconventional tasks. I as soon as volunteered at a up to date artwork museum the place I bought to be a part of the exhibit – observing individuals observing me. Throughout one other challenge, I spent a whole summer time on the Philadelphia Zoo – watching individuals watching animals. You will discover my contributions in my professor’s ebook, American Zoo. Each of those tasks have been such distinctive and enjoyable “meta” experiences. I really feel fortunate to have labored on them, and they’re undoubtedly conversation-starters. And another enjoyable truth – I haven’t visited a zoo since that challenge!
What are three expertise you consider to be essential to reach market analysis and why?
Past foundational expertise like analytical pondering and emotional intelligence, I’ve discovered that probably the most profitable insights professionals are inclined to excel in a couple of extra nuanced areas:
- The willingness to query your personal assumptions: That is so essential in our work; it permits us to be extra empathetic, artistic, and modern. It challenges us to assume past what’s and begin to think about what could possibly be.
- The power to establish and talk probably the most vital insights: I constantly hear from colleagues inside and out of doors of insights that one of many greatest challenges they’re going through is coping with the overwhelming quantities of information they encounter. It’s essential to not simply know easy methods to gather and current information, but in addition easy methods to join crucial components to a corporation’s targets and easy methods to talk it successfully, so it doesn’t get misplaced within the sea of knowledge. Storytelling is a good talent to hone for this.
- The power to forecast and plan for the longer term: With the ability to assume past the current and provides strategic suggestions primarily based on doubtless future eventualities is turning into more and more essential. This requires a deep understanding of rising cultural shifts to be able to assist anticipate how the panorama will evolve and what a corporation must be ready for. And even inside our personal analysis and insights trade, expertise is quickly altering and it’s essential that we’re adaptable and able to make the most of these developments.
How do you advocate for others in your crew or your prospects?
Advocating for individuals is certainly one of my priorities and intently aligns with my values, so I’m fortunate to work in an trade the place it’s so pure to do that since our toolbox is basically well-equipped for it. We use information which might lower by bias to assist individuals perceive the realities of others. We use empathy to grasp views, challenges, and motivations. We use storytelling to create highly effective narratives that may assist propel change. Personally, in my work, I’m consistently asking – how can we higher perceive what our customers really feel, need, and want? What’s going on of their lives, even past the place they contact our manufacturers? How can we make their experiences higher by being extra seamless and human-centric? And this extends to the individuals I work with – understanding their experiences, targets, and challenges permits me to raised advocate for them and champion their work.
