Editor’s Observe: The next interview incorporates a GreenBook Future Listing honoree, Marlena Mattei. The GreenBook Future Listing acknowledges management, skilled development, private integrity, ardour, and excellence within the subsequent era of shopper insights and advertising and marketing professionals throughout the first 10 years of their careers.
Introducing Marlena Mattei of Pearson
Marlena Mattei is College of Pennsylvania graduate and a Client & Cultural Insights Senior Strategist at Pearson. She is enthusiastic about rising the neighborhood and dealing to bolster the trade by means of mentorship and thought management. She has steadily developed progressive and inventive methodologies, instruments, and analyses and introduced them at trade occasions together with the QRCA and Insights Affiliation. She is presently engaged on creating a framework to raised perceive the relationships between advanced private drivers, which she plans to share when it’s full.
With a cultural anthropology background, she has developed a singular perspective and skillset to take consumer-centricity one step additional and perceive not simply the patron, however your complete HUMAN — together with cultural and environmental forces shaping their experiences, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. She fuses creativity and analytical pondering, permitting her to develop progressive strategies and evaluation frameworks, together with distinctive mixed-methods analysis drawing from totally different fields of thought.
What’s a enjoyable reality about your self that might shock individuals to know?
I began doing analysis after I was a cultural anthropology scholar on the College of Pennsylvania. My curiosity in public life and utilizing remark as a analysis device led me to work on some… unconventional tasks. I as soon as volunteered at a recent artwork museum the place I obtained to be a part of the exhibit – observing individuals observing me. Throughout one other mission, I spent a whole summer time on the Philadelphia Zoo – watching individuals watching animals. You will discover my contributions in my professor’s e-book, American Zoo. Each of those tasks had been such distinctive and enjoyable “meta” experiences. I really feel fortunate to have labored on them, and they’re undoubtedly conversation-starters. And another enjoyable reality – I haven’t visited a zoo since that mission!
What are three expertise you imagine to be essential to achieve market analysis and why?
Past foundational expertise like analytical pondering and emotional intelligence, I’ve discovered that probably the most profitable insights professionals are inclined to excel in just a few extra nuanced areas:
- The willingness to query your personal assumptions: That is so necessary in our work; it permits us to be extra empathetic, artistic, and progressive. It challenges us to suppose past what’s and begin to think about what may very well be.
- The power to determine and talk probably the most vital insights: I persistently hear from colleagues inside and outdoors of insights that one of many greatest challenges they’re dealing with is coping with the overwhelming quantities of information they encounter. It’s vital to not simply know methods to gather and current knowledge, but in addition methods to join crucial elements to a corporation’s targets and methods to talk it successfully, so it doesn’t get misplaced within the sea of knowledge. Storytelling is a superb talent to hone for this.
- The power to forecast and plan for the long run: Having the ability to suppose past the current and provides strategic suggestions primarily based on possible future situations is changing into more and more necessary. This requires a deep understanding of rising cultural shifts with a purpose to assist anticipate how the panorama will evolve and what a corporation must be ready for. And even inside our personal analysis and insights trade, expertise is quickly altering and it’s essential that we’re adaptable and able to reap the benefits of these developments.
How do you advocate for others in your group or your clients?
Advocating for individuals is considered one of my priorities and intently aligns with my values, so I’m fortunate to work in an trade the place it’s so pure to do that since our toolbox is de facto well-equipped for it. We use knowledge which may lower by means of bias to assist individuals perceive the realities of others. We use empathy to know views, challenges, and motivations. We use storytelling to create highly effective narratives that may assist propel change. Personally, in my work, I’m always asking – how can we higher perceive what our customers really feel, need, and wish? What’s going on of their lives, even past the place they contact our manufacturers? How can we make their experiences higher by being extra seamless and human-centric? And this extends to the individuals I work with – understanding their experiences, targets, and challenges permits me to raised advocate for them and champion their work.
