Greenbook Podcast

Greenbook’s inaugural IIEX West brought together the insights community for two days of innovation, collaboration, and fresh perspectives on the future of the industry. In this special event recap, Karen Lynch is joined by Margaret Mariani to reflect on the highlights, standout sessions, and conversations that made the event memorable. They explore the growing convergence of market research, UX, CX, and data science, the evolving role of AI in research, and the importance of challenging traditional ways of thinking. They also revisit key discussions on synthetic data, research methodologies, respondent quality, and practical innovation, along with highlights from the Insight Innovation Competition. Beyond the sessions and technology, they reflect on the collaborative spirit and community connections that made the first IIEX West such a standout event.Key Discussion PointsThe Highlights of IIEX West: Reflections on the energy, venue, community connections, and collaborative spirit that made Greenbook’s first IIEX West event special, along with a look ahead to next year.The Convergence of the Insights Industry: How market research, UX, CX, and data science are breaking down traditional silos, creating new opportunities for collaboration and elevating the role of insights in organizational decision-making.Emerging Trends and Innovations in Research: Key takeaways from sessions exploring AI-powered research, synthetic data, AI moderation, practical applications of AI, and the importance of keeping human judgment in the research process.Rethinking the Future of Work and Research: Standout ideas from Microsoft, Space Doctors, Expedia, Airbnb, Applebee’s, and others on challenging assumptions, embracing new ways of working, and bringing more innovative thinking into organizations.Celebrating Industry Innovation and Community: Highlights from the Insight Innovation Competition, including the winners Datacy and Enlightn, emerging approaches to respondent recruitment and data quality, and the collaborative spirit among this year’s finalists.Resources & LinksGreenbook Insight Innovation CompetitionIIEX EventsDatacyEnlightnYou can reach out to Margaret Mariani on LinkedIn.Many thanks to Margaret Mariani for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

What does it take to stand out in today’s evolving insights job market? In this special episode of the Greenbook Podcast, host Karen Lynch welcomes Karen Goldstein, a seasoned research and technology leader formerly at Qualtrics, and Matt O’Mara, Founder and Managing Director of Cranbrook Search Consultants, for a candid conversation about career transitions, experienced talent, and hiring strategies.Drawing on Karen’s recent experience navigating an unexpected career change and Matt’s expertise in executive recruitment, they explore the value of transferable skills, the importance of company culture, and what makes seasoned professionals valuable to organizations. They also discuss how hiring managers can look beyond job descriptions to recognize transformational talent.Whether you’re exploring your next career move or looking to strengthen your team, this episode offers practical insights into navigating today’s competitive job market.Key Discussion PointsThe Value of Experienced Talent: Why leadership, adaptability, cross-functional collaboration, and problem-solving skills can outweigh a perfect match to a job description.Navigating Unexpected Career Transitions: How experienced professionals can approach job searches strategically, identify opportunities, and find roles that align with their strengths.Company Culture as a Competitive Advantage: Why organizational values, flexibility, and an experimentation mindset matter when attracting and retaining talent.The Changing Insights Job Market: How emerging technologies and shifting industry demands are influencing hiring priorities and the skills employers value.Networking and Career Development: Why maintaining professional relationships, staying current with industry trends, and proactively addressing hiring concerns can help candidates stand out.Resources & LinksCranbrook Search ConsultantsOpen When by Camille Nicita HigleyJ.T. O’DonnellAn Interview with Qualtrics’ Strategy & Research Suite GurusMatt O’Mara, Cranbrook: AI, Jobs & the Insights MarketYou can reach out to Matt O’Mara and Karen Goldstein on LinkedIn.Many thanks to Matt O’Mara and Karen Goldstein for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

AI is reshaping research, marketing, and professional services, but real human insight remains a critical part of the equation. In this episode of the Greenbook Podcast, Lenny Murphy sits down with Andrew Au, Co-CEO of Intercept, to explore why organic human signals remain essential—even as synthetic data and AI-powered personas become more sophisticated. Andrew shares how Intercept uses its Watchtower platform to analyze unprompted buyer conversations and combines those insights with synthetic audiences for message and creative testing. The conversation also explores agentic AI, hyper-personalized B2B marketing, and Intercept’s evolution from a traditional agency into an AI-native organization. Andrew and Lenny ultimately examine how human judgment, creativity, and innovation can become even more valuable as AI makes execution faster and more scalable.Key Discussion PointsOrganic vs. synthetic data: Why Andrew sees real human conversation as the foundation for understanding buyers, while synthetic audiences can add value for hypothesis, narrative, and creative testing.Listening instead of asking: How Intercept’s Watchtower uses public, unprompted conversations to uncover buyer concerns and signals that structured research can sometimes miss.Turning insights into action: How AI and agentic workflows can connect fragmented data, personalize B2B experiences, and move insights closer to sales and marketing execution.Reinventing the agency model: Why AI is pushing agencies and consultancies away from labor- and hours-based models toward technology-enabled delivery, experimentation, judgment, and value creation.Why human expertise still matters: As average execution becomes easier to automate, Andrew argues that judgment, category expertise, creativity, and the ability to generate genuinely new ideas become increasingly important.Resources & LinksInterceptYou can reach out to Andrew Au on LinkedIn.Many thanks to Andrew Au for being our guests. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

What if one of retail’s most valuable datasets has been hiding in plain sight? In this episode of the Greenbook Podcast, Karen Lynch sits down with Charlotte Kiddle and Yasmin Ayoub Sanusi of Vazen, formerly Virtual Store Trials, following their double win at IIEX Europe’s Insight Innovation Competition for both the Audience Favorite Award and Industry Impact Award.Charlotte and Yasmin explain how Vazen transforms planogram, transactional, store, and shopper-related data into practical intelligence for brands and category teams. They explore how AI can make years of shelf data easier to query, reduce range-review analysis from days to hours, and reveal opportunities for assortment, innovation, and shelf optimization. The conversation also examines changing retail dynamics, cross-functional decision-making, and why the next phase of AI in insights will be defined less by hype and more by practical impact.Key Discussion PointsUnlocking planogram data for better decisions: How Vazen makes complex shelf and retail data accessible to brands, category managers, and insights teams.Turning AI into a practical retail tool: Why reliable, standardized data matters more than AI hype—and how Ask Vazen enables teams to query retail data in plain language.Reducing range-review analysis from days to hours: How AI-assisted analysis can quickly identify assortment changes, delistings, share-of-shelf shifts, and potential sales impact.Responding to a changing retail environment: How range reductions, premiumization, retail media, and a shift from category-based to occasion-based merchandising are changing shelf strategy.Connecting insights, category, and brand teams: Why better access to shared data can help organizations make stronger cross-functional recommendations—and ultimately influence what happens in-store.Resources & LinksVazenGreenbook’s Insight Innovation CompetitionYou can reach out to Charlotte Kiddle and Yasmine Ayoub Sanusi on LinkedIn.Many thanks to Charlotte Kiddle and Yasmine Ayoub Sanusi for being our guests. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

Fresh from IIEX AI, Karen Lynch and Sarah Snudden unpack the ideas that stood out across two packed days of conversations about AI and the future of research. They explore why AI’s biggest opportunity isn’t simply greater speed or productivity, but creating more room for strategic thinking, stronger relationships, and better business decisions. Sarah and Karen discuss accountability in AI-assisted work, the evolving role of synthetic data and AI-moderated qualitative research, and why human judgment remains essential even as research workflows become increasingly automated. The conversation also underscores a key takeaway from IIEX AI: cognitive offloading can be useful, but cognitive surrender is not. Researchers still need to question AI outputs, apply critical thinking, and remain accountable for the work.Key Discussion PointsMoving beyond productivity: Why time saved through AI can be reinvested in strategic thinking, skill building, relationship building, and higher-value business advisory work.Keeping humans accountable: Why researchers need to own AI-assisted decisions and outputs rather than fall into “accountability offloading” or cognitive surrender.Synthetic data and AI-powered research: Where synthetic data, digital twins, and AI moderation can add value—and why real-world data and thoughtful validation remain important.The changing research toolkit: How AI-assisted qualitative research is expanding access to richer conversations while UX, MRX, technology, and cultural insights increasingly converge.Developing the next generation of researchers: Why experienced researchers need to model critical thinking and methodological rigor so early-career professionals learn how to recognize, question, and improve AI-generated work.Resources & LinksIIEX WestYou can reach out to Sarah Snudden on LinkedIn.Many thanks to Sarah Snudden for being our guests. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

What if an insight doesn’t lead to action? Does that mean it failed? In this episode of the Greenbook Podcast, Karen Lynch speaks with Nadine van Rooyen, Senior Effectiveness Manager at WEX, about challenging one of the insights industry’s most persistent assumptions: that value is defined by actionability. Nadine explains why insights can create meaningful business impact even when recommendations aren’t implemented, and how decision quality, prioritization, and organizational trade-offs offer a more complete picture of success. They also explore the importance of understanding internal stakeholders, tailoring insights to different audiences, and using AI to strengthen communication without losing the human relationships that make insights influential. For research and insights professionals, it’s a compelling case for measuring value across the entire decision-making process.Key Discussion PointsMoving beyond actionability as the ultimate measure of success: Why a recommendation that isn’t implemented can still improve understanding, prioritization, and decision-making.Measuring insights across a value chain: Nadine explains how trust, context, prioritization, trade-offs, and decision quality all contribute to the impact of research.Why better decisions matter more than perfect outcomes: Business decisions rarely happen with complete information, making insights an essential piece of a much larger organizational puzzle.Treating internal stakeholders like distinct audiences: How tailoring insights for finance, sales, customer service, leadership, and other teams can increase relevance and influence.The future of insights in an AI-powered organization: Why AI can help researchers better understand stakeholders and communicate effectively, while human relationships remain irreplaceable.Resources & LinksWEXIIEX EventsYou can reach out to Nadine van Rooyen on LinkedIn.Many thanks to Nadine van Rooyen for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

What happens when AI becomes more than a tool and starts shaping the interface itself? Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred of Big Medium, co-authors of Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI, join Karen Lynch to explore a new approach to designing AI-powered experiences. They discuss treating AI as a design material, moving beyond chat-based interfaces, and creating products that adapt to users’ context and intent in real time. The conversation also examines one of AI design’s biggest challenges: trust. Josh and Veronika share approaches for building transparency, explainability, and healthy skepticism into intelligent systems. For UX researchers and insights professionals, they explain why user research becomes even more important as AI changes product development—and how researchers can take a more active role in shaping the products themselves.Key Discussion PointsMoving beyond chat with AI: How sentient design uses AI as a creative design material to build intelligent, adaptive interfaces rather than simply adding chatbots or AI tools to existing products.Designing experiences that adapt in real time: How interfaces can respond to user context and intent, including dynamically generated dashboards and AI agents that work alongside users within familiar environments.Building trust into AI-powered products: Why AI’s confidence can be misleading and how transparency, explainability, visible sources, and “productive humility” can help users evaluate AI-generated outputs.Balancing AI opportunity with risk: How designers can determine where AI is appropriate, identify unacceptable risks, and build safeguards into systems where failure has meaningful consequences.The evolving role of UX research and insights: Why researchers need to participate throughout design and development—and how research findings can become direct instructions that shape how AI-powered products behave.Resources/Links⁠Sentient Design: Crafting Intelligent Interfaces with AI - Use code SENTIENT-GREENBOOK for 20% off your purchase of the book at Rosenfeld Media through September 30, 2026.⁠Big MediumYou can reach out to Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred on LinkedIn.Many thanks to Josh Clark and Veronika Kindred for being our guests. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

How can established insights organizations innovate with AI without sacrificing the rigor and trust that made them successful? Thania Farrar, Senior Vice President of Corporate Innovation at Burke, joins Lenny Murphy to explore how the firm is evolving from traditional market research toward decision intelligence. They discuss building AI-enabled systems that connect fragmented data, deliver insight closer to the moment of decision, and preserve the value of expert judgment. Thania also explains why high-quality human data remains essential, how transparency strengthens client relationships during uncertain times, and why governance, privacy, and provenance could shape AI adoption. The conversation closes with a call for greater industry collaboration and renewed attention to qualitative research, behavioral science, and the complexities that make people—and business decisions—impossible to reduce to data alone.Key Discussion PointsHow Burke is evolving its long history of research innovation into a more intentional decision intelligence model.Why AI can accelerate insight production, but cannot replace quality data, expert judgment, and human understanding.How connected data systems can shorten the distance between a business question and a confident decision.Why trust, transparency, governance, privacy, and data provenance will be essential to responsible AI adoption.The growing importance of qualitative research, behavioral science, and industry-wide knowledge sharing.Resources and LinksBurke, Inc.You can reach out to Thania Farrar on LinkedInMany thanks to Thania Farrar for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

What happens when evidence, communications, and AI converge? Crispin Beale, Worldwide CEO of IDX, joins Karen Lynch to explain why organizations must rethink how they manage their narratives in an era shaped by answer engines, synthetic audiences, and machine-led discovery. He shares how IDX is integrating data and insights across performance marketing, corporate communications, and investor relations to help clients make more rigorous decisions without slowing down creative work. Crispin also explores the promise and risks of synthetic data, arguing that transparency and clear tagging are essential to prevent contaminated “data lakes” and protect longitudinal research. The conversation also covers IDX’s Geneva data and insights hub, the value of global industry networks, and how leaders can build cultures where experimentation, collaboration, and responsible innovation thrive.Key Discussion PointsWhy communications must be designed for both human audiences and AI-powered answer engines.How IDX is embedding data and insights into creative, performance marketing, corporate communications, and investor relations.The value of testing creative concepts with real consumers and synthetic audiences before launch.Why synthetic data must be clearly tagged to maintain transparency, research integrity, and trustworthy data.How leaders can encourage innovation through cross-functional collaboration, open communication, experimentation, and permission to fail.Resources and LinksIDXThe Future Role of Communications is Taking ShapeInsight Innovation CompetitionYou can reach out to Crispin Beale on LinkedInMany thanks to Crispin Beale for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.

Mary Beth Jowers, VP of Americas Consumer and Market Insights at Heineken, joins Karen Lynch to explore how insights professionals can become more effective drivers of organizational change. Drawing on her leadership experience across global, regional, and developing markets, Mary Beth explains why insights teams should operate like internal businesses—prioritizing work that delivers measurable value and supports better decisions. She shares how empathy, stakeholder understanding, and behavioral insight can help teams overcome resistance and influence how organizations operate.The conversation also examines practical ways to increase research ROI, from repurposing existing studies to creating snackable content, interactive training, and action-oriented deliverables. For insights leaders seeking greater influence, Mary Beth offers a compelling framework built around partnership, persistence, persuasion, and meeting colleagues where they are.Key Discussion PointsHow Mary Beth’s unconventional career path shaped her approach to insights leadershipWhy insights and analytics teams should operate like internal businessesApplying consumer empathy and behavioral understanding to coworkers and stakeholdersTurning research into action through training, snackable insights, and engaging contentIncreasing ROI by repurposing existing research and embracing “good enough” informationResources and Links⁠The Heineken CompanyIIEX Conferences You can reach out to Mary Beth Jowers on LinkedIn.Many thanks to Mary Beth Jowers for being our guest. Thanks also to our production team and our editor at Big Bad Audio.