Truth Be Known

This episode features an interview with Nasim Khoshkhou, SVP of Analytics and Data at Synchrony, a premier financial services company with one of the industry's most complete digitally enabled product suites.At Synchrony, Nasim is responsible for driving data-driven decision making across the organization as well as leading both the analytics team as well as the business insights and solutions team. Prior to Synchrony, Nasim spent 12 years at Argus Information and Advisory Services where she started as an Analyst and worked up to become President of Argus Portfolio Management. In this episode, Nasim discusses her top three priorities as a data leader, personalizing the user experience through data and AI, and how to be a strategic partner to the business so that you're delivering more than just the baseline.Quotes*”AI has been used heavily in a number of use cases around credit and fraud. And there's always a trade off and an analysis that has to be done, which is how much incremental benefit does it bring to a particular use case, versus the complexity. But more and more because customer interactions are digital and they're more in real time, we can use tools and partnerships that we have in the digital space that enable us to customize to the particular user. What is the most effective, for example, banner ad that they should see? And so, those kinds of things are a really effective use of AI because you absolutely would not be able to, as a human, react quickly enough to interfere with that.”*”Curiosity and creative thinking about how we can apply solutions is really beneficial to delivering more than baseline. Because we don't want to just deliver baseline. We want to deliver something that's helping the business leaders to look around the corner at the next problem.”*”One of the things that's really important for me as a leader is listening. Sometimes it's about listening to your team. Sometimes it's about listening to the client. It internally helps to make sure that we're not making decisions in a silo, or just based on our first instinct of what we think is the right action or right next step. So I think that's really important for leaders.”Time Stamps[2:00] How did Nasim first get involved in data and analytics?[2:51] How is Synchrony a data-driven organization?[3:45] What skills does Nasim look for when hiring for her team?[5:18] How does Nasim's analytics team act as a business enabler?[9:29] On the road to becoming data-driven, how does Nasim handle change management?[13:42] How does Nasim's team leverage AI in her work?[17:50] What was the most difficult decision Nasim has ever made in her career? [20:57] How does Nasim measure success?[23:23] What resources does Nasim use to stay on top of her game?LinksConnect with Nasim on LinkedInCheck out SynchronyConnect with Faisal on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Navid Alipour, founder and CEO of AI Med Global. AI Med Global is focused on Artificial Intelligence Technology that improves healthcare and helps save lives. It's made up of two companies Navid co-founded: CureMetrix and CureMatch. Navid is a long-time entrepreneur in the AI space with an emphasis on combining AI and the life sciences, known as Wellness Science. He seeks to identify scientists and domain experts that solve massive pain problems to take to market by building brand new companies.In this episode, Navid describes AI's role in medical imaging to detect cancer with more certainty, and using AI in precision medicine to match patients to personalized cancer therapies. Navid also talks about responsible use of data and how doctors can save valuable time with new technologies.Quotes“We can never have enough data. And there's that saying that data is the 21st century oil.”“It's important to train your data sets, because at the end of the day, artificial intelligence–as much as some will say the robots are gonna take over the world–we have a ways to go before that happens. You still have to train it. Machine learning is: you feed it the data, you clean it, you process it, and that's why we say garbage in, garbage out. You have to clean the data and collect it in an elegant manner to then train the algorithms to detect what you wanted to detect… You still have to train it to specifically detect what you want to detect, recommend, predict, or forecast.”“If a doctor wants to recommend a three drug combination, there's literally over four and a half million combinations. So it's beyond human cognition to process that. That's what we do, based on the person's lab work, their next generation sequencing lab work. That's our input. And we'll say, out of the millions of combinations, here's the recommended three drug, two drug, one drug combination.”“We have data, we have papers that have been published and we can show definitively that the recommendations we made helped, as oncologists say, increase the progression free survival or the overall survival… That speaks volumes to be able to show that we can detect the cancer, we can detect the heart disease, and of course you get them on medication earlier, that reduces the risk of a cardiac event, a heart attack.”“AI's not gonna replace the doctor, but the doctor using AI will replace the doctor that is not.”“No two snowflakes ever look the same. No two cancers molecularly are ever the same. So we define cancer by the part of the body, the organ it's found in. But really it should be defined by the molecular makeup. And no two will ever be the same. So if no two are ever the same, how can you train a machine learning algorithm? You can't. And so that's where machine learning will never be the AI tool that'll get the best treatment recommendation for that specific patient.”“I'll say that lab work of that cancer, it's like the 23 And Me of that cancer. And so we'll say, based on this person's specific cancer, there's no other kind in the world. And all the drugs available, the algorithm will match. Hence why we named it CureMatch. And we'll say, here's a recommended combination. It's for that person. It's true precision medicine.”“But I've heard of examples of a doctor having ChatGPT write a prescription or send a letter to insurance in 90 seconds instead of 30 minutes, right? So if you can give that time back to the doctor at the primary care level to then take care of their patients, which is their true passion, not filling out paperwork in clicks and clicks and clicks. That's huge. That time is priceless.”“Doctors see this and they see the results. And the fact is that an AI algorithm doesn't need a coffee break. It doesn't get distracted. It doesn't have a food coma after lunch. It doesn't get tired. And so that's where you marry the HI, the human intelligence, and the AI, the artificial intelligence, and that's gonna help deliver better care. We have a shortage of doctors, by the way. I wouldn't be concerned about doctors losing their jobs. They're gonna use this technology to do their job better and more efficiently.”Time Stamps[00:16] Navid's background[02:14] Data's role today[03:13] Why it's important to train data sets[05:08] How can we trust AI technologies?[06:34] Using AI for precision medicine[08:54] Data frameworks[11:12] How Navid uses augmentative AI[15:17] How Navid uses generative AI[18:07] Measuring health and quality of data[19:26] Regulatory confines affecting healthcare AI[21:44] Main advantages of AI[22:59]  Building tech literacy[25:29] Navid's challenges as CEO[26:51] How to build a great team[28:26] The best advice Navid's received[30:21] Navid's advice for people in his fieldLinksConnect with Navid on LinkedInCheck out CureMatchConnect with Faisal on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Mayank Goel, VP of Financial Crimes Compliance, Data Management and Governance at MUFG. MUFG is one of the world's leading financial groups, with over 360 years of history and a global network.As a data governance risk manager, Mayank works in a second line of defense to mitigate risks and solve data problems. With over 13 years in the industry, he can make data tell a story that helps clients make decisions. In this episode, Mayank describes the three-line defense model for bank risk. He also emphasizes the importance of trusting data, defining policies and procedures, and knowing your business objectives.Quotes“Most banks operate under the three line of defense model. The first line is, generally, what people know as the business or the revenue producing side. The people who make sales and services and interact with our customers on a day-to-day basis. They produce the data the rest of the bank generally uses for their work. The second line is the independent risk management function, consists of various risk disciplines, such as credit risk, market risk, financial crime risk, and so on. Both first and second line generally roll up to the chief executive. The second line provides the policies and procedures framework under which the business is expected to operate under. The third line, which is internal audit, is independent. It provides independent oversight to the first and second line, and generally reports directly to the board. As you can imagine, it's a human and regulated industry. All this is a very formally documented and understood governance structure with each line playing their own role and having their own set of responsibilities."“Trusting data is probably the most important thing that we have worked towards. If you don't trust the data that you are using, you're not gonna be able to trust the analysis, defend our decisions, and satisfy our mandates that we have. Trust in data is, in fact, the most important.”“I'd say in my experience, essential components would be having documented and agreed upon policies and procedures. That includes frameworks for establishing accountability, consequence management, pros and responsibilities, having ways to escalate matters as needed. Second would be well-defined business objectives, with the right messaging from the key stakeholders as to why they need governance or why they feel governance is important. The third would be having ways and means to measure and monitor your data quality, and then putting the right set of controls, then going back to the previous question around establishing that trust in data and then making it fit for purpose. And last, I'd say is the change management aspect. How you keep up with the changes in your infrastructure, in your piping of the data and then making sure it's always trustworthy. I'd say those could be the four most important things.”“One way to think about the BCBS framework of aggregation and reporting in banking is: you have a data production layer, right? People who originate a loan for a customer. Then you have your aggregation systems such as your warehouses, or maybe a data lake, where you bring everything together. Then you pick what you need and transform it in various ways. Then you make it relevant for any sort of reporting and consumption based decision that happened in that consumption layer. So, in a risk-based approach, each of these layers has controls that they're responsible for implementing and that are relevant for them.”“The subjective measure of success, in my opinion, is things such as, ‘Were you able to improve your data culture? How successful were you in bringing along the key stakeholders? To close off the project or to get a win.'”“Who do I need to bring along for this journey and how do I bring them along? Knowing who you need, and then secondly, knowing what they need. Knowing their problems and then tying them to your objectives.”“Overcommunicate. Don't make assumptions of what you said, and what the other side understood. Be very transparent and open. Just lots of deep breathing when things are going wrong. And then try to keep yourself calm and if you do yoga, maybe do that, or whatever keeps you calm… You try and control what you can control.”“In my early career, I was quite hesitant to learn about the audit world. I fought a lot to not be part of the world. But everything I do today has some foundations in what I learned in my early career. And I think it's made me quite successful because of that. So don't be afraid of doing something that you have very little idea of.”Time Stamps[01:17] Mayank's start in data[03:06] Mayank's role at MUFG[03:33] The three line defense model[05:01] Breaking down financial crimes[06:03] The importance of trusting data[06:31] Essential components of governance[08:10] Where self-service is heading[09:31] What is the BCBS framework?[11:45] Obstacles to becoming more data-driven[14:08] How to prioritize data projects[15:12] How Mayank measures success[19:26] Handling pressure when stakes are high[21:22] Mayank's career advice[23:12] Staying on top of your gameLinksConnect with Mayank on LinkedInCheck out MUFGConnect with Faisal on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Daniel Marovitz, Senior Vice President of Booking.com's recently established Fintech unit. You probably know Booking.com as one of the world's leading digital travel companies, with over 28 million accommodation listings, including homes, apartments and other unique places to stay. There, Daniel is responsible for facilitating easy and seamless access to Booking.com's marketplace across borders and currencies. Over his more-than 20-year career, Daniel has established himself as a global leader in data. He served as co-founder and CEO of software startup Buzzumi, which has since been acquired by F1000.com. He has also held leadership positions at Deutsche Bank, Gateway, and iVillage, which he helped take public in 1999. On this episode, Daniel discusses how he used data visualization to better understand client relationships and improve conversion rates, Booking.com's approach to data experiments, and how they're facilitating their cloud migration.Quotes*”Investment banking is like consulting a balance sheet. And a lot of what makes investment banking work are relationships. And relationships always feel like quite a qualitative topic. But you always want to find a way to make those kinds of problems quantitative, not qualitative. So we started to think about the heuristics of relationships and how that might be represented, and what was the source of data we could use.”*”There has long been this quite opaque internal marketing culture that exists at banks all over the world. I think there's kind of this veneer of evanescence, something magical, about the client relationships and how well we know each other and how much we can depend on those relationships. And I think what was great about it is that we were able to actually get really quantitative about performance and also try to figure out how many relationships does it take to be successful? You know, is there a correlation between very close relationships and more deals or higher value deals, or faster time to actually execute deals.”*”I think it's something that maybe people don't talk about enough, which is that with a data-driven, analytics-driven culture from an engineering and product perspective, which is not married to a culture of kind of human openness, you lose a lot of ground. I think you lose a lot of value. So I think it starts with the kind of human engineering of making people feel comfortable and safe to share information and failure Is also important, right? Most experiments fail dramatically. Not a little bit. Like most experiments are a colossal failure. And that's okay. What's not okay is not to test. And what's even less okay Is to test, fail, and hide.”*”This culture of onboarding, like building an onboarding plan for somebody, think through what do you want them to learn? Who do you want them to work with? What do you want them to understand?”*”[Data] is a space where you will never know what you're talking about. It's impossible, even, just in payments. If you ignored regulation or insurance, or other aspects, you can never fully know what you're talking about. There's so much depth and so much detail. And so I think one is just to be respectful of that, right? Just be respectful of the fact that you're gonna have to keep studying. You're gonna have to ask questions and be very comfortable saying, ‘You know what? I don't know. Can you explain it?' I think it's a good lesson for life, but certainly it's good for a FinTech career.”Time Stamps[2:11] Get to know Daniel[2:57] Daniel's path into the field of data[5:25] How do you use data visualization for better decisioning?[7:13] How do you identify the highest value customer relationships?[10:56] The Booking.com approach to running data experiments[16:42] Building a truly data- and analytics-driven culture[18:14] How Booking.com ensures data literacy with new hires [19:37] The complexities of working across a two-sided market[24:26] Understanding the growing importance of data in business[28:50] Why choosing a CDO with an unconventional profile can lend itself to business growth[35:36] Daniel's advice to anyone entering Fintech for the first timeLinksConnect with Daniel on LinkedInFollow Daniel on TwitterCheck out Booking.comConnect with Faisal on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Anita Gandhi, Vice President of Analytics at SmileDirectClub, leaders in oral care and creators of the first telehealth platform for orthodontia. Anita has been with SmileDirectClub since 2019. Prior to SDC, she served as Head of Analytics at FreshDirect. On this episode, Anita talks about how she would rework the data structure at SmileDirect Club if she could start fresh, enabling data self-service among the SDC analysts, and how she helps strengthen her analytics team.Quotes*”My number one thing about building trust in the data is admitting when it's wrong. I have seen people go down in flames[… ]by defending the data till the end and then it turning out to be wrong. Data is imperfect. It is built by human beings, and there are lots of reasons why it can go wrong. And when there's a question about the data, if you approach it as, ‘Well, it's possible. Let's look into it,' and when there is a problem, being very communicative and accepting that there was something wrong with the data, then people start to trust you when you say, ‘This data is right.'”*”Anyone on the analytics team who got a request from the CEO would drop everything that they're doing and work on that. And we had a lot of trouble finishing projects. So it's been building the confidence in the team, and the leaders on my team to ask that question when something comes in from leadership, ‘Hey, we wanna know this,' or ‘Hey, we wanna do this,' and say, ‘We can do it right now. Is it more important than finishing this project? Or is it something that can wait for a couple of days for us to get to it?' And I think really debunking the idea that everything is urgent and putting a pin in false urgency is what really helps you make that happen.”Time Stamps[2:20] What was Anita's path to VP of Analytics at SmileDirectClub? [5:05] How is SmileDirectClub data-driven?[7:12] How does Anita build trust in the data?[11:15] What kind of challenges is Anita navigating as VP of Analytics at SDC?[13:54] How is Anita powering smart decisions at SDC through data analytics?[17:29] How does the analytics team navigate prioritizing data projects, especially with requests from leadership?[19:04] What are the issues with catering to self-service among a data team?[26:29] Why is it important to let the people on your team fail?[29:02] How does Anita stay on top of new information in the data field?[30:15] What advice would Anita give someone going into her role for the first time?LinksConnect with Anita on LinkedInCheck out SmileDirectClubConnect with Faisal on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This is a special episode in which Rob passes the torch to our new host, Faisal Khan. Faisal is VP of Business Applications, Data and Analytics at Talend. Prior to his current role, he was leading Talent's Global Customer Success team and managing the digital and customer experience. He has 20+ years of experience in the Data Management & Analytics domain. He has held leadership roles at Informatica and IBM prior to joining Talend. He is an experienced technology evangelist focused on delivering successful digital transformation initiatives with emphasis on Cloud Data Management & Analytics.

A new season of Truth Be Known is coming your way. Talend is bringing you all-new insights from top data leaders as they crack the code of what it means to be truly data-driven. Philip O'Donnell: You need to understand the data. You need to understand what it can tell you, what it can't tell you, and then you need to figure out what you can do [with it], because that's how you demonstrate value.Kelly Hereid: You can do amazing research and come up with really interesting conclusions. But if you don't have any way to tie it to the needs of your audience, the needs of your end user, it may as well have not have happened.KJ Gupte: When it comes to data, things are needed as of yesterday. And the moment you get data, it is stale. You have data right now, but it has gone light years ahead. So you have to be extremely fast and evolve with the data.And this season we're introducing our new host, Faisal Khan. Faisal is VP of Data and Analytics at Talend. He'll be turning to the biggest names in financial services, retail, healthcare, and more, to derive actionable insights that you can take and use in your business. So you can have the most important, trusted and healthy data at your fingertips. Make your data work for you. Welcome to Truth Be Known.

This episode features an interview with Scott Zoldi. He is the Chief Analytics Officer at FICO where he is responsible for the analytic development of FICO's product and technology solutions. Scott is involved in developing new analytic products and applications, and has authored more than 100 patents. His current focus is on self-learning analytics to detect cyber security attacks. On this episode, Scott talks about how to attract and retain world-class data scientists, the importance of following a model governance process, and responsible AI.Quotes*”Responsible AI is really ensuring that you have a level of competence of what it's learned. You can explain it, you can justify it. And when things start to go off the rail, you know how to react.'”*”Machine learning and AI can become callous. Particularly if it's starting to provide value. Very often people don't inspect where it could go wrong. Because when AI is wrong, it's very wrong. Whereas when the human is wrong, it's typically not tremendously wrong.”*”Standard algorithms and capabilities are very highly valued versus the one-off solution for our customer. Because we see that we can get multiples of usage out of these algorithms and it differentiates our entire company, not just one client at a time.”*”There's this constant noise and churn in our lives as CAOs. And it's very easy for that to consume every moment of our workday. Our value is not being a general manager. We can be important people managers and general managers. Our value is actually carving out a bit of time and thinking about how we could make our products, our solutions, the world, the industry, better through collaboration, through science.”*”That's where you're going to drive the most value, is what makes you different than the way you see the world and how you want to approach the problems that you're exposed to.”Time Stamps*[3:22] Scott's path to CAO*[5:53] The distinction between analytics science and data science*[8:05] The importance of exploration within analytics*[10:04] How Scott applies research findings at FICO*[13:24] About responsible AI*[17:58] Promoting regulation of responsible AI*[21:54] Who owns the operationalization process?*[25:48] How to prioritize responsible AI at your company*[39:28] The best career advice Scott has ever receivedLinksConnect with Scott on LinkedInFollow Scott on TwitterCheck out FICOConnect with Rob on LinkedInFollow Rob on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Robert Brown, the Senior Director of Research for the Venture Forward Initiative at GoDaddy. This is his 13th year at GoDaddy, having started as Director of Database Marketing. Prior to GoDaddy, Robert served as Director of Pulte Homes for 9 years. On this episode, Robert talks about tiering data for smarter decisioning, developing intrinsic motivation in employees, and being a successful steward of data and insights.Quotes*”It's very important as a manager to be invested in the career of the people I'm managing. To have these extended one-on-one conversations with people that are on my teams. And not just during review cycles but along the way. What's working well for them? What are their aspirations? How can I be different in terms of the way that I'm engaging with them? What do they need more of, or less of, from me? And I found that that first builds a lot of loyalty, but it's also just made me a better manager.”*”You have to give people an opportunity to fail or succeed in a safe environment. Start with a smaller group. Don't put them in front of the CEO the first time. Don't put them on the big stage. Give them those moments in smaller increments, smaller doses with a more comfortable audience for them to practice and learn and give them that feedback.'”*”I personally had a lot of managers who haven't given me a lot of feedback along the way. And it feels comfortable, but it doesn't make you better. And so how you frame that critique of course matters. But that it's even delivered is a big part of growing people and making them more expert in what they're trying to do. And telling them, ‘That's one way to do it. Here's a different way to potentially do it where I've found some success,' without bashing somebody over the head and saying, ‘Here's the way I want you to follow this template.' To me, that doesn't teach people. That just turns them into automatons or robots, of following somebody else's dictate or even personal style.”*”Step back and try not to control the individual. Just give them a broad target. Say, ‘Here's the goal,' and let them have some creativity. Let them do some experimentation within that broad framework of the outcome you're trying to get to.”Time Stamps*[6:26] How GoDaddy uses data to shift the global economy*[6:51] What is Venture Forward?*[12:34] How does Venture Forward work?*[15:31] Stitching together data to influence policy makers*[19:21] Branching into the UK*[21:59] GoDaddy's journey to becoming data-driven*[30:57] How Robert Brown leads high performance teams*[48:25] The importance of experimentation to progressLinksConnect with Robert on LinkedInCheck out GoDaddy.comConnect with Rob on LinkedInFollow Rob on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Philip O'Donnell, Group SVP of Global Data Platforms at the Adecco Group, the world's leading talent advisory and solutions company. Philip has 13 years of experience in data analytics leadership and strategy consulting across a variety of industries. Prior to the Adecco Group, Philip served as Director of Data Science at Lee Hecht Harrison. On this episode, Philip discusses managing data at a big enterprise, how to prevent business decisions based on bad data, and turning data into dollars.Quotes*”Just showing data to people leaves it up to their interpretation. And that's not usually the value you're providing. You're there to communicate something to them. And we talk about things like data storytelling or crafting narratives with the data, because data by itself is just too unhelpful. You really have to turn that into something that people can understand, and that's a different skill set than it is to just analyze and reproduce the same information.”*”Most large firms are struggling with knowing that it's better to have all this data in the same place. But that's really hard, and it takes investment, and it takes time, and it takes executive commitment and buy-in, and I'm blessed to be able to have that Adecco. They have really put the focus on, ‘Let's figure this out.' Like, ‘We know it's hard. We know it's not easy, but let's do it. Let's make sure that we're dedicating the resources to do it.'”*”It was always the question of how much do you trust the data that you're getting? As data professionals will tell you, we don't create the data. We're getting it, we're interpreting it, we're reading it, we're organizing it, we're structuring it. But we don't create it. Something else creates it, some sort of business process. And I'm not in charge of that. So in some cases, the data quality is, did the report refresh on time? Now that's the kind of data quality that we, as data, professionals should be able to own. But the other kind of data quality is, did someone enter it in the system correctly? And we can't really control that. But what we can do is give visibility to whether or not that's happening correctly.”*”It's one thing for a report to be wrong. It's a different thing for you to tell the person that report is wrong so that they don't use it to make a decision. And then there's some sort of a process that's correcting it. And I think that's where we have to try to focus, is it's a very realistic assessment of what our scope can be as data professionals. And we mostly focused on informing and visibility. If there are data quality issues, the worst case scenario is that someone makes a decision on bad data.”*”If there's a piece of data that we're asking people for as a part of the process and it's not actually required for the process, [but just] because we want to know it, it's going to be very difficult to have that be high quality [data]. Because there's not an incentive from the person entering it, other than the threat of being yelled at because you didn't do it right… So if you can give ways of providing value to those users with the data that they're putting in, then you create a sort of incentive feedback loop… You have to provide ways of giving people incentive to enter the right information that is actually then helping them do their job better instead of it just being something that management dictates you have to put in.” *”You need to understand the data. You need to understand what it can tell you, what it can't tell you, and then you need to figure out what you can do [with it], because that's how you demonstrate value.” Time Stamps[7:09] The role of the data professional[10:09] Consolidating mass amounts of data at a large company[11:07] Risk management and controlling exfiltration[15:18] Proving value and ROI in data[20:50] Understanding incidental data and how to monetize it[24:20] To centralize or to decentralize the data?[29:09] Learning to trust the data[31:40] Incentivizing accurate data inputLinksConnect with Philip on LinkedInCheck out the Adecco GroupConnect with Rob on LinkedInFollow Rob on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Dr. Kelly Hereid, Director of Catastrophe R&D at Liberty Mutual Insurance in the Corporate Enterprise Risk Management Group. Prior to Liberty Mutual, Kelly was a research scientist at Chubb in their primary side natural catastrophe unit. She has a Ph.D. in geological sciences from the University of Texas – Austin, focusing on climate science. On this episode, Kelly talks about using historical data to create catastrophe models, taking a strategic standpoint to invest in resiliency, and reducing vulnerability to changing hazards.Quotes*”There is a huge need in the financial sector to try and capture [climate] risk. Which means there's a lot of information that's available, but you also have to be able to sift through what's there and interpret it appropriately to make sure that you're not just ending up with perhaps nonsense just because the data is available does not necessarily mean that it's data that you can use.”*”If I have someone who's trying to say that they have a model that will tell me down to the cent what your hurricane losses will be in 2050, I would want to have some questions about that because I know that the scientific confidence in changes in hurricane frequency is comparatively low. We operate in a field that includes a lot of data, but also includes a lot of uncertainty. So we need to be really comfortable operating in a space of uncertain and developing science.”*The Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, at the time, the most expensive and destructive California wildfire in history in the past has almost exactly the same footprint as another fire called the Hanly Fire that happened in the 1960s. Literally exactly almost identical. The only difference is nobody knows about the fire in the sixties, because at that time there was no one living in the area. So it's that it's a change in hazard, but some of these are areas that have always burned, but now there are people there who are at risk.”*”Catastrophe models allow us to look at historical events in the context of where people live today. So you might run, say, a historical wildfire footprint, but run it with where people are actually living today. So you can be able to see those changes that are driven by exposure, by people moving to different areas. On my team, we also do things like stress tests, where we take the model as it stands. And we can do ‘what if' experiments, because each one of these events in the model has some characteristics of the event; how big it is, severity, spread, but it also has an assumed frequency. So we can say what would happen if you doubled the frequency of this particular characteristic of event, or tripled it? What kind of impact could that potentially have to sort of our overall book of business, our overall loss potential and damage potential from wildfires? So as a tool, we don't just use it at face value. We can use it as a place to drop, to run and drive experiments that can allow us to explore future climates when we don't necessarily know what that percent change is going to be.” *”You can do amazing research and come up with really interesting conclusions. But if you don't have any way to tie it to the needs of your audience, the needs of your end user, it may as well have not have happened.”*”We can't prevent disasters from perhaps we can, we can't prevent hazards from happening, but we do have the opportunity as a society to prevent more disasters. Because disaster is an intersection between hazard and a community.”Time Stamps[2:03] The path to becoming Director of Catastrophe Research and Development[3:44] What are catastrophe models?[12:44] Studying wildfires and why they have become more hazardous[19:59] How to change your risk profile[20:57] How updated building codes can affect your business resiliency[28:12] The role of the modeling team[32:51] Data integrity and challenges in modeling hazardsLinksConnect with Kelly on LinkedInFollow Kelly on TwitterCheck out Liberty Mutual InsuranceConnect with Rob on LinkedInFollow Rob on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Tom Edwards, Chief Digital and Data Officer at Omnicom Health Group, the largest healthcare marketing and communications network in the world. Prior to Omnicom, Tom served as Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Epsilon. Tom has been named one of the Top 50 Most Influential Business Leaders in Technology and a Top 10 Global Marketer Award winner by OnCon this year. On this episode, Tom talks about transparency in decision making, how to organize massive amounts of data in order to derive insights, and how to determine the ideal communication strategy for a target audience.Quotes*“You want to connect the vision coming from the top to how that's practically going to be rolled out across those different entities, and connecting the expediter to the vision and pulling that completely through. And then going and driving towards quick wins. Like that ultimately is the core driver of adoption. People have to see it in action. What is it actually doing for the business? How can this help me be faster to market, you know, ahead of my competition.”*“Communication is key. Making it easy and consumable is probably the other. There tends to be this stigma with data, digital and technology that it's complicated. And in a lot of ways, it is. But one of the core things that you have to do to be able to truly drive adoption across a large organization and transform it as you have to make it consumable. You have your subject matter experts who can go incredibly deep, understand the vernacular and the terminology, understand everything about taxonomy and data hygiene and all the things you need to do. But at the end of the day, if it's not understandable across the various functions within the organization from account to creative disservice or strategy, then it's not going to drive any comprehensive value.”*“Especially when we're going into new areas and new areas of expertise, I've learned not to just trust at face value when someone says they can do something. I need to verify the level of competency upfront before we engage on a major initiative and make sure there is a proven track record providing the type of solution we're looking for.”Time Stamps*[3:38] Merging Digital and Data*[5:10] Making the most out of data assets*[6:38] How to strategically enable agencies*[8:03] Predictive decisioning and the cookieless future*[9:30] Making massive data sets actionable*[11:47] Omnicom's data architecture and tech stack*[15:27] Creating common language across the organization*[20:13] Looking to partner with leaders in data-driven organizations*[23:14] Preparing for a shifting data landscape*[26:24] The importance of transparency as a leader*[29:23] Finding a mentor and sponsorLinksConnect with Tom on LinkedInFollow Tom on TwitterConnect with Rob on LinkedInFollow Rob on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Asha Saxena, Founder and CEO of Women Leaders in Data and AI. sha has 25 years of experience building successful tech businesses. She also serves as a CEO Coach working with women in tech, and she's an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, teaching enterprise strategy and data strategy. In this episode, Asha talks about how empowering women in tech means including male allies, investing in a simple user experience for improved adoption rates, and how to earn trust in data.Quotes*”My son asked, ‘Mom, you seem to be doing these multiple things. Where do you really truly get the satisfaction? Why don't you do something or build something for people like you?' And I said, ‘What do you mean?' He said, ‘Women in tech or women in data. Have you done anything for that?' And [at] first I got offended and I was like, ‘What do you mean women? Are you putting me in a box? I'm a professional.' All my life, I worked really hard for my worth. And I don't think my worth should be just boxed by my gender. [But] it's not about boxing, it's more [about] owning it. You can own that you're a woman in tech and there're not too many women. And women have challenges because they don't have enough role models on the top." *”You must have heard about the financial services companies who did this experiment. An algorithm for the high positions - the C-level positions - rejected women's resumes because the data didn't show that there were enough women [who] could succeed in that position. Because there [were] no women hired in the past. So we don't have enough data, we don't have diverse data, and we don't have women on the top who can help create that change. So what do you do about that?”*“What happens to the women who are on the top and don't have role models? What happens to women who are VP level or C level who don't have [a] peer group? And what happens to the environment? Is the environment ready? I tell you within our organization, I see so many women who are leaving their organization because they get on the top and they realize that the top is not ready for them.”Time Stamps*[4:59] How algorithms become sexist*[7:04] How to support women in positions of power*[12:41] Why support from men is important*[16:28] Facilitating change through simple steps*[19:32] Building trust in data*[25:50] Tips to develop a data strategy*[28:49] Supporting engineers in developing a data strategy*[35:12] How Asha Saxena uses data to make difficult decisions*[38:46] Advice for data leadersLinksConnect with Asha on LinkedInFollow Asha on TwitterConnect with Rob on LinkedInFollow Rob on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with KJ Gupte, Data Science Lead at Tradeshift, a cloud-based platform for supply chain payments. KJ has had nearly 15 years of experience in the industry. Before Tradeshift, KJ served as Data Analytics Manager at PwC where she led a team of engineers and developers in making data-centric products for customers like Apple, Google, and HP. She is also a graduate of the Harvard Business Analytics Program, and says her experience in the Data Science Pipeline and Critical Thinking course felt like rewiring her brain to think about data in new ways. In this episode, KJ discusses translating technical data for her stakeholders, building credibility in data among the C-suite, and being a trailblazer in the supply chain economy.Quotes*“I think what has helped me drive success is being extremely collaborative with the team and extremely transparent. Because many times when you are transparent and you exchange your thoughts, that's where you get the most gains. So I might be thinking about data from an angle and the users might be thinking about it from a very different angle. And a lot of exchange needs to happen. Because not everybody looks at the data in the same way. Everybody comes with a very different skill set, whether you are an engineer, whether you are a data scientist, whether you are a CEO, CFO, everybody has a core skillset that they bring to the table. It's not always the same or uniform. So collaboration and transparency is always the key.”*“We are absolutely data-driven right now. I'm very glad I was hired at the point that I was, because that's when we were scaling up. And that's when we were sitting on like chunks of data that was so potent that it was just a matter of using it. And in fact, we are sitting on buyer and seller supply chain data, which is the core of the supply chain disruptions that are going on. So we are in so many ways trail blazers to the whole supply chain economy.”*“The leadership knew that there was a lot of work that needed to be done in data. So my core job was to actually convey that message. Initially I spent a lot of time giving presentations on just what we had, not going into complexities. But, um, presentations around, okay, this is what we have. This is the story that data is telling. And just making people curious, you know, making people interested about data. Because if, if your data is not telling a story, it is just numbers.”*”When it comes to data, things are needed as of yesterday. And the moment you get data, it is stale. You have data right now, but it has gone light years ahead. So you have to be extremely fast and evolve with the data. So that was definitely a challenge, but what helped me is I had a lot of visibility. Right from the time I was hired, I was directly working with leadership. I was working with engineering to see the lay of the land, I was working with my CEO, my CFO, I was working with the head of engineering to see what they were talking about, to understand the language.” Time Stamps[8:34] Driving success through collaboration and transparency[14:28] Tradeshift's journey to becoming data-driven[19:05] Getting visibility on the freshest data[24:08] How to build credibility and trust in the data from company executives[29:24] How to deriving more value for customers[34:47] Under Pressure: How KJ Gupte makes difficult decisions[38:39] Advice to budding data scientistsLinksConnect with KJ on LinkedInCheck out TradeshiftConnect with Rob on LinkedInFollow Rob on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Tom Edwards, Chief Digital and Data Officer at Omnicom Health Group, the largest healthcare marketing and communications network in the world. Prior to Omnicom, Tom served as Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at Epsilon. Tom has been named one of the Top 50 Most Influential Business Leaders in Technology and a Top 10 Global Marketer Award winner by OnCon this year. On this episode, Tom talks about transparency in decision making, how to organize massive amounts of data in order to derive insights, and how to determine the ideal communication strategy for a target audience.Quotes*“You want to connect the vision coming from the top to how that's practically going to be rolled out across those different entities, and connecting the expediter to the vision and pulling that completely through. And then going and driving towards quick wins. Like that ultimately is the core driver of adoption. People have to see it in action. What is it actually doing for the business? How can this help me be faster to market, you know, ahead of my competition.”*“Communication is key. Making it easy and consumable is probably the other. There tends to be this stigma with data, digital and technology that it's complicated. And in a lot of ways, it is. But one of the core things that you have to do to be able to truly drive adoption across a large organization and transform it as you have to make it consumable. You have your subject matter experts who can go incredibly deep, understand the vernacular and the terminology, understand everything about taxonomy and data hygiene and all the things you need to do. But at the end of the day, if it's not understandable across the various functions within the organization from account to creative disservice or strategy, then it's not going to drive any comprehensive value.”*“Especially when we're going into new areas and new areas of expertise, I've learned not to just trust at face value when someone says they can do something. I need to verify the level of competency upfront before we engage on a major initiative and make sure there is a proven track record providing the type of solution we're looking for.”Time Stamps*[3:38] Merging Digital and Data*[5:10] Making the most out of data assets*[6:38] How to strategically enable agencies*[8:03] Predictive decisioning and the cookieless future*[9:30] Making massive data sets actionable*[11:47] Omnicom's data architecture and tech stack*[15:27] Creating common language across the organization*[20:13] Looking to partner with leaders in data-driven organizations*[23:14] Preparing for a shifting data landscape*[26:24] The importance of transparency as a leader*[29:23] Finding a mentor and sponsorLinksConnect with Tom on LinkedInFollow Tom on TwitterConnect with Rob on LinkedInFollow Rob on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

In this short episode,  Lauren is passing the torch to our new host, Rob Norman.  Rob is the Head of EMEA Marketing at Talend.LinksCheck out highlights from the last season:Taking Charge of Your Health Through Data with Unmesh Srivastava, CTO at P3 Health PartnersHow Technology Plays a Part in our "New Normal" with Wendy Pfeiffer, CIO at NutanixCreating a Culture of Excellence with John Foley, Former Lead Pilot of the Blue AngelsEmpathy and Data go Hand in Hand with Karl Hightower, VP of Enterprise Information Management and Chief Data Officer at Novant Health

A brand new season of Truth Be Known is coming. Talend is excited to bring you insights from top data leaders about how they make hard decisions on tight deadlines and with imperfect information.Lyssa Myska Allen: “No longer are we looking for like, where's our data or what's our data. We're trying to figure out what in the world to do with this data.”Randy Bean: “We're really at the beginnings in many respects of the, of the data revolution.” Alana Winter: “We'll never have all the data and we'll never have all the information. Make your best guess based on what you have.” We're also welcoming our new host, Rob Norman, Head of EMEA Marketing at Talend. He'll be talking with some of the brightest minds in data, including CDOs at some of the top technology companies in the world. They'll explore the pivotal decisions they've made in leading data-first organizations, the lessons they've learned, and how they seek truth in an uncertain world.So join us as we dive deep into data and how it's shaping the modern world. Welcome to Truth Be Known.

This episode features an interview with Ben Kepes, a professional board member, consultant, business owner and angel investor.  In this episode, Ben talks about how he chooses startups to fund, the overall importance of simple human connection, and finding patterns in data that lead to success.Quotes*“I remember talking to a friend once about what makes an angel investor successful or unsuccessful. And his thing was that it simply comes down to pattern matching. You see enough of these companies and you can identify the patterns that predict success. And to me that is all about data. It's taking insights from the myriad of different data types that we have available to us.  And what's really exciting is that today, that is able to be done by anyone because of the proliferation of data platforms, and because storage and processing of data is so much cheaper and more accessible. ” *“I think the thing that I have observed as an investor, as an observer and analyst of the tech space, is that there are so many entrepreneurs who deeply, deeply understand tech, but deeply, deeply don't understand people. And that just doesn't work. You have to understand the people you're selling to, the people that are going to be using the product and connect with individuals.”*“Leveraging data is very, very important as part of a toolkit that can then augment what you can do as an individual. It doesn't replace what we can do as individuals.”*“Data has been used for different reasons, but fundamentally the great thing about data platforms and technology, computer based data mining is that the infrastructure is the same. It's about getting lots and lots of different pieces of structured and unstructured data into a great big database and deriving some insights from that. So I really liked this notion of a great, big data lake and the ability to look at that data with different lenses. And I think that's the really exciting thing that we're seeing in our world. The ability for anyone within the business, within an organization to query data in a way that is meaningful and will derive insights that are meaningful for them.”Time Stamps*[5:23] Looking for patterns for success*[6:26] The right patterns to look for*[9:00] Data does not replace people*[10:51] Deriving insights across the tech industry*[15:19] Combining data with human knowledge for smarter results*[18:31] Looking at both qualitative and quantitative data*[23:53] The next bastion of data analytics*[30:27] How to make better decisionsLinksConnect with Ben on LinkedInFollow Ben on TwitterConnect with Lauren on LinkedInFollow Lauren on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with René Waslo, Risk and Financial Advisory Principal at Deloitte & Touche.  She works as a cyber professional within the Energy, Resources and Industrials sector.  In this episode, René talks about zero trust, trends in security breaches, sustainability in cyber, and encouraging women to enter the cyber industry.Quotes“Even though it's cyber that we're talking about, it's about relationships. Because cyber is trust. It's building digital trust in your environment, your systems. IFor us to be able to do that for clients, they need to trust us as humans. So, it definitely does come back to the ability to build those relationships.”Time Stamps*[5:03] Building Digital Trust with Clients*[9:15] Sustainability in Cybersecurity*[10:47] The Growing Complexity of the Digital World*[12:34] Cybersecurity as a Tech and Business Role*[14:04] The Growing Sophistication of Cybersecurity Breaches*[20:04] The Fast-Changing World of Cyber*[24:47] Implementing Identity Access Management, Including Connected Products*[26:25] The Explosion of Sensor Technology*[28:17] Discerning Important Data amid the Noise*[30:22] Choosing Your Specialty in Cybersecurity*[35:04] Women in CybersecurityLinksConnect with René on LinkedInFollow Lauren on TwitterConnect with Lauren on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Randy Bean, CEO of NewVantage Partners.  In this episode, Randy talks about what it means to be truly data-driven, growth in the industry, and the ethics around collecting and using data.Quotes“Being data-driven doesn't mean being a robot where you just look at the data and thereby make decisions blindly. You have to bring to bear human judgment and experience. But you should look at the data. You owe it yourself. You owe it to your customers, you owe it to your colleagues, and you owe it to the industry, to gather the best possible data, the most accurate, the most timely,  the highest quality data you have. Look at it, review it, analyze it, synthesize it, digest it, and then make some decisions.”Time Stamps*[3:26] Introducing Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Lessons in Data-Driven Leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data, and AI*[5:59] Why is good data so important?*[10:55] Common issues in becoming data-driven*[12:46] How to start on the pathway to being data-driven*[15:19] Data in layman's terms*[19:59] Using data to remain agile*[21:19] What does “data-driven” mean anyway?*[24:40] The beginning of the data revolution*[25:27] The good, the bad and the ugly data ethics*[35:13] Communicating the data messageLinksCheck out Randy's book, “Fail Fast, Learn Faster”Connect with Randy on LinkedInFollow Randy on TwitterConnect with Lauren on LinkedInFollow Lauren on TwitterThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Tom Mazzaferro, Chief Data Officer at Western Union.  In this episode, Tom talks about letting data from the customer experience inform next gen product development, tips to retain talent, and transforming a globally known, 170-year-old household name like Western Union to be more customer-centric.Quotes“Data really is the lifeblood of any company.  Without having high quality, seamless data, you're going to have customer experience problems.  So it's really about using the data to empower your organization, company, services and products.  Data is the way to drive a company forward. "Time Stamps*[0:03] Intro*[1:27] Interview begins*[4:53] Ensuring data security at scale*[5:57] From banking to CDO*[8:15] Advice for the future CDO*[9:15] The evolution of the CDO*[10:45] What's up next for Western Union*[13:44] How to get customers hooked on your product*[16:44] CDO: More than just data governance*[19:05] Difficult decisions*[25:18] Cultivating a positive team culture*[28:31] Using data to develop products*[35:00] Quick decisionsLinksConnect with Tom on LinkedInFollow Lauren on TwitterConnect with Lauren on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com

This episode features an interview with Alana Winter, CEO and Founder of MI6 Academy and Stiletto Spy School.  In this episode, Alana talks about tactical mindfulness, finding clarity on your objectives, and getting control in the most chaotic of situations.Quotes“In paying attention to your surroundings, you learn to see things as they are.  Get present in looking at the small data points.  What are the changes in someone's tone of voice?  In their pitch?  These are signs someone is uncomfortable or something is out of the ordinary.  When you notice something out of the ordinary, you're finding either a threat or an opportunity. "Time Stamps[0:02] Intro[1:40] Interview begins[3:27] Train with real special agents at MI6 Academy[7:38] Putting CIA skills to work at the office[9:17] What do I learn in spy school?[14:28] Becoming a better decision maker through spy training[16:21] Takeaways from corporate-meets-spy training[24:28] Making decisions with imperfect data[25:29] How Alana made her most difficult decision[32:51] How to pick your agent name[37:45] The truth about being a spy in real life[38:24] Quick DecisionsLinksBooks mentioned:The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel RuizConnect:Follow Alana on TwitterConnect with Alana on LinkedInFollow Lauren on TwitterConnect with Lauren on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Dr. Rachelle Ornan, Director of Cabin Research and Passenger Experience at Boeing.  In this episode, Rachelle talks about the advent of space tourism, the pent up demand in leisure flight, and how passengers expect life in the air to be as connected as life on the ground.Quotes“Travel is the spice of life.  I'm working in an industry that enables connection to other people.  It's the best weapon against xenophobia while also stimulating the global economy.  That's something I can contribute to through my work."Time Stamps[0:03] Intro[2:36] From Human Factors to Aircraft Interior Design[6:20] Traveling Post Pandemic[8:25] The Data of Air and Spacecraft Design[10:51] How the Consumer Market Informs Design[12:56] Staying Connected in Flight[16:23] The Future of Air and Spacecraft Design[18:56] Accessible Design[22:52] Space Camp Dreams[26:04] The Next Frontier in Travel[33:39] Rachelle's Favorite Things About Industry[37:18] Quick DecisionsLinksBooks mentioned:A Life of Meaning, by James HollisThe Golden World, by Robert JohnsonYour Brain on Love, by Stanley TatkinConnect:Connect with Rachelle on LinkedInFollow Lauren on TwitterConnect with Lauren on LinkedInThanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Koti Reddy, Chief Technology Officer for Conga.  Conga is the global leader in commercial operations transformation, helping businesses automate the process of creating quotes, contracts and documents.  We talk with Koti about building complex pricing algorithms, smart contracts, and making data-based decisions.3 Takeaways:When making a significant decision, don't take shortcuts.Leverage data to help make the big decisions instead of relying solely on your gut. Sometimes taking a little more time or spending a little more money is worth it to make a thoughtful, data-based decision.Key Quotes:“Especially when you are building a foundational piece like a multi-tenant SaaS solution that is going to be there for the next 10, 12 years or beyond, you need to be really, really careful in taking a shortcut that saves two months. I once went for the timeline-based decision and it took many years for us to dig out of that hole.” “The new customers that are coming into this ecosystem, we want them to be able to make smart decisions about their business and how they are dealing with customers based on data.  Using data, analytics and AI they can build decision support.” “If you want to build a feature, you need to figure out: Is it useful for a hundred of my customers?  Or is it useful for two of my customers?  Maybe you make a call saying, I'm going to do it for these two customers, because I'm going to acquire 200 after that.  We actually take the sales opportunity and help them to close it.  We put together the data, the products, the catalogs and the contracts in our quote-to-cash flow. We are making data-based decisions, not only in our applications, but we are also directing our customers based on data.”Bio:Koti Reddy is a technical leader with 20 years of experience in managing enterprise and SaaS product development.  He leads a multi-continental, multi-cultural team of 300 highly skilled engineers to implement world-class, scalable designs.  Before taking on the role of CTO, Koti served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Conga, using his expertise in engineering, R&D and other operations to grow Conga's business.  Prior to joining Conga, Koti was SVP of CallidusCloud and took charge of all product development and cloud operations.Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Unmesh Srivastava, Chief Technology Officer for P3 Health Partners.  P3 Health Partners are a patient-centric, physician-led company dedicated to improving the way care is provided.  We talk with Unmesh about how data can be used to predict medical issues, remote patient monitoring, value-based care, and his personal reason for going into medical tech.3 Takeaways:Look at how other countries are operating and use them as a model for improvement when possible.It’s important to use data to continually evaluate age-old institutions like healthcare, because there’s always room for innovation.Giving someone their own data empowers them to make decisions around that information.Key Quotes:“We work to deliver value-based care. And I think there is no other way than having slick data in your ecosystem that can drive that. You need to touch all these data points to identify physician performance, patient satisfaction, the quality of care, the cost of care...and if that's how you're going to pay the healthcare system and provide great care, then it has to be data driven.”“Data changes behavior. If you have the right data to see what might play out in the future, you will definitely change those actions to change that future. A lot of times we don't see that future, and that's why we don't change our actions today. I think data is the only way that you can do that.”“What is important? I think we all forget we are here for a finite time period, and you have to have a mission that's bigger than you and bigger than finances and other things.”Bio:Unmesh Srivastava is currently serving as a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) at P3 Health Partners. Unmesh fosters the company with innovative data-driven automation and technological solutions. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Rajasthan in India and a Master of Science degree from California State University at Northridge. His distinct list of accreditations also includes executive certifications through The Wharton School’s Emerging Leader Program, Artificial Intelligence Program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Entrepreneurship program from Harvard Business School. Previously, Unmesh has had the fortune of working as an Associate Vice President at Optum Care, besides working for other conglomerates like UnitedHealth Group, Toyota Financial Services, and Kaiser Permanente in Southern California.Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Evan Kirstel, a B2B thought leader, top technology influencer, and enterprise industry insider.  Evan’s business, eViRa Health, acts as a social media partner to clients in the healthcare industry to grow massive global audiences and deepen user engagement.  We talk with Evan about how he paired his expertise in social media with the healthcare industry, and helped revolutionize the future of healthcare tech.3 Takeaways:The pandemic has created a great shift in the healthcare industry towards the adoption of new technologies, including virtual care.People are already gathering their own health data through wearables, which could be helpful to doctors.Incorporating tech into the patient experience empowers patients  to manage their conditions.Key Quotes:“We need to make patients the center of care, strengthen the doctor-patient or nurse-patient relationships, and empower patients with data, insights, advice, guidance and education.”“We’re generating all of this data around ourselves from wearables to virtual care to remote patient monitoring. And getting all that data into systems in a clean way that doctors and researchers can use to gather insights is so important.”“Over the pandemic, we've seen virtual care and telehealth go from like 1% utilization to like 35, 40%.  So if there's a light at the end of the tunnel, maybe it's been some of the adoption of these new technologies.”Bio:Evan is a tech influencer and social media mastermind.  He has racked up more than 500,000 followers across Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, and has helped companies like Samsung, IBM and HealthTap increase their brand visibility to reach massive audiences across social media platforms.Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with John Foley, former lead pilot of the Blue Angels, keynote speaker and bestselling author.  After more than 20 years in the military, flying jets off aircraft carriers and performing in Fleet Week, John is an expert on high performance teams. In this episode, he discusses how to improve team performance by 300% by creating a culture of excellence. He explains how to do that by building a high level of trust, a commitment to improvement and the idea that a spot on the team has to be earned.3 Takeaways:Show your team what excellence looks like. Give them a visual that will help define their goal.Cultivate connections and alignments among team members to drive them towards a common goal.Establish a feedback loop of data to inform the team of what is - or isn’t - working with a debrief process.Key Quotes:“Any elite person, anyone in business in life, has this ability to focus, this mental toughness. So how do you block out distractions? How do you focus down on what's important? That's why data's so important.  What do I need to know? Okay, got it. Focus down.”“Here's the beautiful part: it's not just about you, it's about the team. It's this beautiful combination of personal mastery of excellence, and then connection to your teammates, alignment, commitments, and these high trust contracts.”“You need to have the mindset first. I call that mindset “Glad to be here,” which is the ethos of being grateful and appreciative to have the opportunity. But also to bring in your operational excellence. You've got to earn the right to be there every single day. And that's how I felt on the Blue Angels.”Bio:John is a former lead solo pilot of the Blue Angels, Sloan Fellow at Stanford School of Business, a bestselling author and an expert in high-performance teams. His Fearless Success System has transformed thousands of organizations around the globe.Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

This episode features an interview with Lyssa Myska Allen, VP of Global, Head of Marketing & Digital at Hinduja Global Solutions. Lyssa has more than 15 years of experience in digital strategy. On this episode, she discusses how to act as a “nerd translator,” why you need to use data to validate your instincts, why there’s no such thing as too much communication, and much more.3 Key Takeaways:When creating a company culture, look for leaders who might not necessarily have leadership positions. Those who have influence with the rest of the team are the key to building buy-in to a corporate culture.Breaking through with customers is all about being straightforward and honest. Transparency is key to connecting with your audience.Be the type of person who is able to connect people of various backgrounds. This is especially valuable when connecting those with a technical background with those who are more business-focused.Key Quotes“To some extent, you can make data say anything you want it to if you're good enough at it. So you want to be careful that what you're pulling out is not wishful thinking.”“Data can be dangerous when people don't have that education or the understanding of how important the whole funnel view is, or the whole dataset. It’s possible to put almost too much trust into it.”“If I could say one thing, it would be over-communicate. If you think you're over-communicating, you're wrong.”Thank you to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

3 Takeaways:Empathy and data are not two words that we typically associate with one another. But according to Karl, they don’t have to be completely separate, in fact, they can go hand in hand.Paying attention to data outputs can help you spot pain points for your customers.For digital transformation, it's important to get your employees to trust the process. Even well-implemented change requires time and patience.Key Quotes:“How do we take all of this data that we generate in healthcare and how do we cram it into information that is useful for making decisions? Healthcare has desperately needed that kind of change in order to interact with people and meet the expectations that customers and patients have.”“I [want to] understand your history so that I can better treat the problems that I'm seeing. How does what I'm seeing right now, as you've shown up into an emergency room, how does that fit with the history that you've had in the past? The more that I know about you specifically, the better I will be at being able to treat you.”“People are talking about the mRNA vaccines and how quickly it was developed. The technology has been worked on for 10 years, it's got a lot of history behind it.  Think of how effective and targeted this vaccine is. This is the way the vaccines will be done in the future.”Bio:Karl Hightower is Senior Vice President of Enterprise Information Management and Chief Data Officer for Novant Health, where he and his teams oversee the advancement of the use of information assets for the company. His teams deliver products and services ranging from advanced analytics and real-time messaging to delivering Cognitive Computing and AI solutions throughout the enterprise. Karl has an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in political science, and was in the first class to go through Carnegie Mellon’s prestigious ISRI Enterprise Architecture and Strategy program. Karl is the son of two college professors and is from a long line of educators. This upbringing instilled a continuous thirst for learning and creating opportunities for others to learn. While in Dallas, Karl helped to found and build the STEAM education program for the district. The program included one entirely Spanish immersive middle school as well as associate degree paths in the high schools. Karl was heavily involved in the Texas Amateur Golf Association as well as the Dallas LPGA events. In Charlotte, Karl has joined the District Advisory Board for Career and Technical Education (CTE) for the Charlotte Mecklenburg School district.

On this episode, Lauren is joined by Michael Dortch, the founder of DortchOnIt.com and a long-time data professional. Lauren and Michael discuss the importance of data, how data-oriented people make decisions, what effective leadership looks like, and much more.3 Takeaways:Data is just the observation of how facts stack up. Anyone who is interested in making good decisions should be interested in data.The beginning of good decision-making is curiosity. Curiosity about the world around us leads us to dig in and find the relevant facts and data.It's important to know the limits of your knowledge. Every decision involves unknown variables and unintended consequences.Key Quotes:“We're all data to somebody, right? So, there's is almost no way to separate life from data. Everything we do in life is driven by data, some of it's subconsciously and some of it consciously. So, in a sense, I've been paying attention to data ever since I understood that there was a world around me.”“Donald Rumsfeld, when he was secretary of defense, used to talk about known-knowns, known-unknowns, and unknown-unknowns. Technology is really good at known-knowns, and it's pretty good at known-unknowns, but that chasm dealing with the unknown-unknowns.”Bio:Michael is a growth-focused content marketing leader with 15+ years' accomplishments enabling companies to maximize revenues, increase ROI, and improve customer perception and satisfaction.As an IT industry analyst, consultant, journalist, and marketer, he has been translating “bits and bytes” into “dollars and sense” for four decades. Michael has served as Senior Content Strategist at Huawei Technologies USA, Senior Content Development Manager at Ivanti, Senior Product Marketing Manager for cybersecurity at LANDESK, Director of Marketing at Intréis (acquired by ServiceNow), and Senior Product Marketing Manager at ServiceNow.He has also been a senior analyst at Aberdeen Group, Robert Frances Group, Constellation Research, and Yankee Group. In 2010, Michael was included in the inaugural list of “The Top 500 Analysts Using Twitter” – twice. That same year, as Director of Research at Focus.com (acquired by Ziff Davis Enterprise), I built the Expert Network and created content that helped get that site named a “Top 10 Media Site” by Crain’s B2B Magazine.

On this episode, Lauren is joined by the General Manager and Worldwide Partner Co-Sell of Microsoft Alyssa Fitzpatrick to discuss how culture shift makes an impact on decision making and how to ensure that a culture shift will be successful.3 Takeaways:Making any type of transition within a major organization or company is always stressful and comes with lots of challenges. COVID has made those challenges even more difficult, but with the right plan of action, they can be overcome.Culture shifts are something that many companies are afraid to do because of the risk involved, but despite the risk, the reward can be far superior.“If you build it they will come.” Alyssa used that model in a previous job that has carried over to her current role with Microsoft. As simple as this might sound, Alyssa knows that in order for people to follow your lead, you need to have a plan and build something so that others can follow your lead.Key Quotes:“It takes a while to get that culture shift, but once you start to shift culture, that's when you know your change is taking hold and, and that's where we're at right now. We're not done, we still have a long way to go. And we're learning along this entire journey.”“If you want to put a yellow sticky on your computer, it should say, don't assume. Everyone needs to have that reminder because we do: We assume someone already knows, we assume they're already in our camp or they assume they're going to get the information from someone else. We assume that a topic is closed, done, and dusted. It's not, let's make sure, you know, make sure you finish that sentence. Get to that punctuation point.”Bio:Alyssa and her team focus on accelerating Microsoft’s business through partner sales engagement across all customer and industry segments. She manages the corporate strategy and worldwide field teams that are responsible for local, regional, and global partner sales. In this role, Alyssa maintains focus on all aspects of the customer engagement process and sales execution, which includes the sales model design, channel strategy, partner selection, partner co-selling motions, revenue attainment, and field incentives and readiness. With more than 25 years of leadership experience, Alyssa has led significant business transformation efforts, driving organizational changes, commerce initiatives, and cloud adoption across the global partner ecosystem.

Episode Description:Executive Producer Ben Wilson sits down with Lauren to discuss her predictions for 2021, including the evolving interface between digital and brick and mortar, how to connect when in-person meetings aren’t possible, the future of data  and what some of her personal predictions will be in what we all hope will be a better year than 2020.3 Takeaways:Data trust will become increasingly important in 2021. It will be vital for organizations to know where their data is coming from, how much they can trust it,  and what systemic errors might be present in their data sources.Brick and mortar retail isn’t going to return to the pre-pandemic way of doing business. A new hybrid model is emerging that will likely continue going forward. Digital events are going to be with us for a while - if they are done the right way. Digital events that can offer meaningful, high-quality interaction or access to valuable people and information will still be valuable, even as in-person conferences make a comeback.Key Quotes:“This was the forcing function for every single business to lean into digital. I even think about, all of the restaurants and there are so many restaurants that are impacted by this. I was speaking with a friend about this who had worked for software companies specifically for restaurants, and what they had mentioned to me was sales are up and I went, how are sales up? I thought the restaurant industry has taken such a big hit, and it was well now all of these restaurants that never really had to care about digital, they didn't really have to think that much about takeout or touchless ordering. That has to happen.”“It's really similar on the marketing side, both marketing professionals and IT professionals have had to adapt more quickly this year than probably any other profession. And it's this idea of don't rely on your laurels, adapt pivot as fast as possible for marketers, especially enterprise marketers who really heavily relied on in-person events, field marketing, that one-to-one interaction that's gone, but I don't know a single marketer who had a quota reduction because this year we all had to keep driving demand.”“I want to say in 2021, it'll be a little bit lighter, it'll all be easy. It hasn't happened yet in 2021. Maybe it will, but it's just going to keep going, and the added complexity that'll happen in 2021 is optimistically the second half of the year we'll be able to see each other in person again. So now IT professionals and marketers now have to go, ‘we knew the old world we pivoted and made this new fully remote world work. Okay. Now you have to make both work and they have to work together.’”Bio:Lauren Vaccarello is an award-winning marketing executive with a track record of accelerating revenue growth for the fastest growing SaaS companies in Silicon Valley. With a strong background in demand generation, she excels at building scalable integrated campaigns that leverage cutting edge marketing techniques. Although performance is at the core of who she is as a marketer, she believes businesses need to tell compelling stories and build a brand if they want to own a category.Lauren also co-authored the highly-regarded books “The Retargeting Playbook” and “Complete B2B Online Marketing.” She has held executive leadership roles at Box, at AdRoll, and at Salesforce. She was a member of the Google Tech Advisory Council and is a popular speaker at industry events such as South by Southwest, ClickZ Live, eMetrics, and the Online Marketing Summit. In 2014, Lauren was honored by the San Francisco Business Times and named to their list of “Influential Women in Business.”Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

When much of the internet is hosted on your servers, the decisions you make really matter. On this episode, Greg Khairallah, Director of Analytics at Amazon Web Services, explains how he thinks about expanding access, maintaining privacy, and the future of the cloud.3 Takeaways:Cost is still a barrier for many people when it comes to building and growing internet technology. Greg and his team at AWS have been working hard to expand accessibility when it comes to the cloud for that reason.Innovation should be the center of your decision-making. That often means pushing things forward in unexpected ways.Data governance and data privacy can no longer be ignored or deprioritized but must be taken into consideration by technology leaders.Key Quotes:“Really, what I saw the value in, what attracted me the most, was not just cost savings moving off on-premise to get rid of out of the data center business, though there is some valid economic value to that. But what I saw is that there's just a fundamental way that we could make innovation to be the center of our data decision-making.”“I've had the honor of meeting customers, not just in North America, but in India and China, in Korea, Australia. And the common patterns around getting value from data and being able to serve their customers better. That is a commonality, regardless of geography or industry."“I think part of this is this drive to really bring up the standards of interaction across multiple channels, and of course, this is where, data becomes at the heart of it all and the privacy of that data and how the data is used, become top of mind around data governance that we've been working hard at AWS to make that easier for customers of any size to be able to adapt to this new world."Bio:Greg leads the AWS (Amazon Web Services) global business development team for database and analytics. His background includes over 15 years’ experience at Intel, Oracle, and Business Objects (now SAP). A former officer in the US Army, Greg holds a master’s degree in Information System Management from Carnegie Mellon University. Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

Everyone is dealing with COVID-19 differently, but one thing most of us have in common is that we are using technology at home a lot more. In this episode, Wendy Pfeiffer, CIO of Nutanix, discusses how we are using technology to cope with the world we are living in and find a “new normal.”3 Takeaways:In this “work from home” world we are living in, we need technology more than ever and we need it to be the intermediary and sometimes even front and center.It’s important to adjust to your surroundings. Being too programmed or accustomed to routine can interfere with our ability to adapt to changing circumstances.It’s important to keep your head up and find moments of levity and hope every day, even in difficult circumstances.Key Quotes:“The future has always been unknown. We know that but I think the challenge is that we've already experienced a shift in our very way of being, whether that's as companies or as leaders. Our way of being is different. For a while, we were people who work in offices who were temporarily working remotely. We're not anymore. Now, we are people who work.”“You just have to keep showing up every day and eventually they have to give it to you. Don't let anything stop you from showing up every day. Don't stop. Don't quit. Don't get discouraged. Keep showing up every day. Eventually, they have to give it to you.”Links:Enterprise Cloud IndexA Shining Image (book)Wendy's TwitterWendy's LinkedInBio:As the CIO of Nutanix, Wendy's focus on enterprise adoption of modern technologies fuels the company's global mission. Wendy also serves on the boards of Qualys (NASDAQ: QLYS) and SADA Systems. A consumer tech enthusiast, Wendy has led technology and operational functions for Robert Half, GoPro, Yahoo! and Cisco. Wendy's recent accolades include being named one of Silicon Republic's Tech Titans, ORBiE Bay Area Enterprise CIO of the Year, the Fisher Center for Data Analytics' CIO of the Year, and one of HMG's Top Technology Executives. She was also ranked first on Enterprise Management 360's list of Top 10 Tech CIO's, named one of Silicon Valley Business Journal's Women of Influence and listed as one of the National Diversity Council's Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology. Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

Everyone’s lives are changing because of COVID-19 but for women that are pregnant, they have a higher risk of getting sick or having a problem with their pregnancy if they were to test positive for the virus. Luckily for them, Ann Holder and her team at Odonata are working hard to make sure they remain safe.3 Takeaways:Fetal monitoring is something that we are all still learning about but Ann and her team work every day to bring to the market new technology for non-invasive fetal monitoring.The US is lacking when it comes to the success and survival rate of C-Sections and it’s important for Ann and her company to work with doctors to make sure that we correct the mistakes that are being made to ensure the safety of women.Telehealth is not just taking over the doctor visit world for a cough or a runny nose, but women who are pregnant, even as much as 29 weeks are not actually seeing doctors in person and it’s problem, but how we have to find a way to make sure that the baby and mother are safe and healthy.Key Quotes:“I was talking to an OBGYN that was telling me that the number of non-stress tests for high-risk patients has gone down considerably but, the number of stillbirths has gone up considerably with COVID. So we had to make a pretty significant change in our strategy.”“I'm really happy with what I'm doing. It's been incredibly fulfilling and I talked to a lot of people that are really weighing the pros and cons of being an entrepreneur or a first-time CEO. My advice is just to have confidence in taking a risk, because quite honestly if you don't, you're always going to second guess yourself.”Bio:Ann Holder is a Medical Device Executive with a rich background in sales, marketing, finance, and operations.  Ann began her career in the US Army after graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point. In healthcare, Ann worked for Medtronic in a variety of roles in sales, finance, and business development and was an executive at a start-up. Most recently she has been helping companies commercialize in the U.S. while focused on developing fetal monitoring technology with the Mayo Clinic. Prior to Ann's career in healthcare, Ann worked in the consumer goods industry and in telecommunications for international companies in engineering and operations in the areas of manufacturing, supply chain, and logistics. Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

3 Takeaways:It’s not where you start, but where you finish. If you are someone that is brought into a company to do a job, don’t approach day 1 as if you’ve been there for years. It’s important to start any venture small and grow from there.You need to adapt to your surroundings. With everything that is on in the world with COVID, companies like AutoZone needed to change the way they attracted customers to go to their stores and that is part of what Jason and his team need to figure out on a daily basis. Having a plan is one of the most important things when it comes to working with a major company. It’s easy to say you can’t do something, but if you head into every job or every project with a plan and a template it will help you be able to handle whatever gets thrown your way.Key Quotes:“ In my case, it has been showing how much project work we can do versus how much support work we have to do. It's easy to drift into, “we can't do that now. We don't have the bandwidth, we can't do this because we don't have enough people to support it”, but we spend a lot of time designing and architecting and we have developed a series of, I call them recipes. You could call them templates, but it's reusable pieces of functionality that have become tried and tested, they're like building blocks.”“I always tell people that you need to find something in it that you can relate to. If you're a programmer if you're a data analyst or data scientist do something that you actually would want to use.”Bio:Since 2018 Jason has been the I.T. Manager, Business Intelligence/Data Management at AutoZone. Prior to that, he spent time as a senior consultant with IBM and American home Shield. Jason graduated from Rhodes College in 1994.Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

3 Takeaways:Great performance requires aggressive performance management. Moving people out of positions where they can’t perform well is ultimately a good thing for everyone involved.In today's digital environment, more often than not, the most data-driven wins.It’s important to go after something that you’re passionate about. No amount of data or great decision-making can substitute for passion.Key Quotes:“So the conundrum that I faced was like, I'm in my dream job as the CMO of Salesforce, but yet I have this desire to start another company, and I have a passion in another area. So, in a nutshell, that was the decision that I was staring down in 2012.”“Option three was to accelerate into the chaos. Do the opposite of what felt totally normal, which was, put your foot on the gas and put the pedal to the floor because maybe this is an accelerant for your business. Like it is for zoom. Like it is for Slack. Maybe this is an accelerant for your business.”“You just have to be super driven. You have to be super excited about what you're working on. Even in the lows of the lows, you have to be super excited about it. It's for that reason, it's not for, for everybody, but stick with it. That's my advice.”Bio:Kraig is an entrepreneur, product, and marketing executive with a track record of success in leading high growth internet/software companies. Founder of Qualified.com, Founder of GetFeedback (acquired by SurveyMonkey), Former CMO of Salesforce, Founder of Kieden (acquired by Salesforce). Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

Mark Settle, the 7 time CIO and author of the recent book Truth from the Valley, a Practical Primer on IT Management for the Next Decade, joins Lauren to discuss data mining, (and regular mining), how to recognize your constraints, the importance of performance management, and much more.3 Takeaways:Data mining is a lot like drilling for oil: You don’t unlock value by looking where everyone else is already looking. You unlock value by coming up with a new “play concept.”It’s important to recognize your constraints. By recognizing trends you can work within your constraints to affect positive change.Great performance requires aggressive performance management. Moving people out of positions where they can’t perform well is ultimately a good thing for everyone involved.Key Quotes: “ A lot of times people talk about the CIO role with all due respect to my colleagues. They sometimes almost attribute too much power and influence to it. In the real world, what you can do as a CIO is constrained by lots of things.”“Traditional IT is now shadow IT because it is the dirty jobs primarily, that IT worries about these days. Things like data management, security, and some of the integration activities, those are all behind the scenes things.“When I look back, I think one of the areas of personal improvement that I would have counseled myself about was to just be more aggressive in performance management.”Guest Bio:Mark Settle is a seven-time CIO with broad business experience in information services, enterprise software, consumer products, high tech distribution, financial services, and oil & gas.  He has led IT organizations that supported the global operations of Fortune 500 companies; maintained the R&D infrastructure required for software product development; and hosted customer-facing delivery systems for commercial products and services. He has received multiple industry awards and is a three-time CIO 100 honoree.He is the author of Truth from the Valley, a Practical Primer on IT Management for the Next Decade and Truth from the Trenches: A Practical Guide to the Art of IT Management which will be released in the fall of 2016.  Settle’s formal training is in the Geological Sciences. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from MIT and a PhD from Brown University. Settle is a former Air Force officer and NASA Program Scientist.Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

We all know that getting your executive team to make more data-driven decisions is important. But according to Scott Holden, CMO of ThoughtSpot, it isn't enough. At ThoughtSpot, Scott is focused on helping entire organizations become data-driven, from top to bottom. On this episode, he discusses how he's doing this, how he thinks about decision-making in general, and much more.Key TakeawaysNew AI tools can help push analytics and data-driven decision-making to every level of your organization.Data-driven decisions need to also be a part of the culture. Set an expectation that everyone can use analytics tools to make decisions.Making great decisions means taking risks. And that means you need to be comfortable defending the decision, no matter what the outcome.Quotes"Everything that I look at in my world comes through an analytical lens, and the power of that is that you can merge lots of different data sets together and get a more cohesive view.""You can start out small and have a little win and then keep going.""The power of the modern data stack is I don't have a data analyst on my team.  We all are able to bring up data sources like a data engineer."Thanks to our friendsTruth Be Known is brought to you by Talend, a leader in data integration and data integrity, enabling every company to find clarity amidst the chaos. Talend Data Fabric brings together in a single platform all the necessary capabilities that ensure enterprise data is complete, clean, compliant, and readily available to everyone who needs it throughout the organization. Learn more at Talend.com.

Truth Be Known is a podcast designed to examine how those decisions are really made.We will talk to CIOs, CMOs, Chief Data Officers, and other technology leaders about their decision-making process.In each episode our Host, Lauren Vaccarello, will ask our guests two questions: What is the hardest decision you have had to make in your current job?What is the hardest decision you have had to make in your career? We explore what data was used to make those decisions and how data could have been used to make better decisions in the future. This podcast is about seeking truth from chaos.  It’s for anyone in tech who’s looking to level up their game and make better decisions, whether you’re a c-suite executive or a brand new rising star.We’ve got episodes with some of the top leaders in tech, from Fortune 500 companies to high growth startups, and everything in between.So tap subscribe and get ready to hear the whole truth about what goes into decision making at the highest levels of Silicon Valley and beyond. Welcome to Truth Be Known.