From quick bites to strategic bets: How Mars and OLLY turn insights into confident decisions
Speed is no longer the advantage. Research has gone DIY and any stakeholder can pull a quick answer from [insert LLM here] in seconds. The real question for insights leaders is what that speed is for: a seat at the decision table or a faster way to produce the same overlooked slides.
The teams pulling ahead don't fight the DIY shift. They use it to show up with evidence, confidence and a point of view that makes leadership act. This panel brings together two insights leaders who challenge that from different altitudes.
At Mars, Lumeng Jin builds certainty amid ambiguity, taking small, rapid, self-run steps that de-risk critical assumptions rather than waiting for the slow, perfect report.
At OLLY, Liz Riley Raukohl is navigating what happens as a hyper-growth brand reaches a mature stage: how a senior insights function protects its credibility and strategic relevance, avoids the slow-roadblock trap and prevents the AI slop that erodes trust by orchestrating and interpreting signals into consumer truths that lead leadership to clear actions.
Moderated by Betsy Shaak, vice president of product at Voxpopme, the conversation moves between the day-to-day reality of moving fast and the higher-level work of protecting strategic value. Expect real problems and hot takes, not a product pitch.
Key takeaways:
1. Turn DIY speed into agility. Continuous, fast reads compound into real-time market agility, with the certainty to back the call.
2. See where DIY and AI earn their place and where human judgment protects strategic value.
3. Walk in with answers, not questions. Shift from order-taker to the voice leadership depends on.
