Design thinking with data

We were joined by Melissa Perry, Senior Manager, eCommerce Analytics at Peloton Interactive, Inc. Melissa is a value-driven data science leader with a passion for growing the next generation of data experts and moving beyond reporting, into optimized decision-making. 

Early in our conversation, we discussed design thinking with stakeholders and what that means for the data team. Melissa shared that on their team, design thinking is an approach to really getting to know people and their pain points as you’re trying to help them.

On our team, we have 4-5 different stakeholder groups where we have really strong relationships with the leader there.

For example, if it’s our extended warranty program – I get to know what’s bothering that leader data-wise by asking some of the following questions:

• What are you on the hook for?
• What are you struggling to measure?
• How much are you doing?
• How well are you doing it?
• What is your goal?

I try to help my team build the same level of consultation and empathy with their counterparts on that leader’s team so that they can really provide helpful solutions with data.

It helps them think about how they design their approach. What does this model that we’re going to build really going to need to do? What are the actions that this person is struggling to do? It’s really like a brainstorming activity, but you’re putting yourself in the shoes of that stakeholder.