Influencing Strategy
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Advising executives is best approached as a partnership of equals, not managing from below.
-
•
Less than 10% of big corporate decisions are truly driven by research despite the industry’s size.
-
•
Understanding the internal harmony of an organization—including jargon, assumptions, and financial flows—is crucial to influence.
-
•
A company's financial literacy is fundamental for researchers to gain strategic influence.
-
•
Each organization has a distinct rhythm or cadence that governs timing for change and decision-making.
-
•
Introducing challenging ideas (dissonance) requires precise timing, minimal new concepts at once, and a foolproof presentation.
-
•
Memorable hooks or riffs—small, repeatable stories—are vital for executives to retain and act on insights.
-
•
Ethnographic skills are as important internally as they are externally in understanding organizations.
-
•
Deep understanding of both micro organizational rhythm and broader societal context is necessary for impactful advice.
-
•
Opaque or complex business models, especially in tech, require intense ethnographic effort before credible advice can be given.
Notable Quotes
"Managing up assumes research is below something, but I see advising as partnerships and equals."
"Less than 10% of big decisions are based on research, which is rare given how much we spend on it."
"If you don’t understand the financial flow in an organization, you’re financially illiterate and you’re on top."
"The rhythm of a company is like a drumbeat—knowing when to suggest changes is everything."
"I wasted five years being blind to the rhythm of the place before we moved billions of dollars addressing major issues."
"When you introduce dissonance, people listen only to catch your mistakes, so you have to be precise like tweezers."
"Without memorable hooks or riffs in your presentation, executives forget your message the minute they leave."
"The story of the immunotherapy patient and his daughters became a riff that executives remember to understand complex life impacts."
"Ethnography inside companies is about living in France and caring to learn French."
"If you stop reading journals and practicing your instrument, you’re done as an expert."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Every board member can interpret an NPS score differently depending on their role and responsibilities."
Landon BarnesAre My Research Findings Actually Meaningful?
March 10, 2022
"Poverty isn’t the absence of money. Poverty is the absence of relationships."
Victor UdoewaResearch in the Pluriverse
March 29, 2023
"Anchor yourself in what you know to be right and true."
Jemma AhmedTheme 1 Intro
March 10, 2026
"A service must not unnecessarily expose a user to the internal structures of the organization providing the service."
Kristin TaylorBuilding Bridges Across Organizational Silos
November 18, 2022
"You cannot provide end-to-end service for every researcher, but you can deliver highly supported self-service — Kate Towsey."
Kate TowseyThe State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory
June 20, 2019
"AI can’t experience data subjectively or fulfill curiosity, which drives human insight and discovery in qualitative research."
Weidan LiQualitative synthesis with ChatGPT: Better or worse than human intelligence?
June 4, 2024
"In the enterprise, how quickly and easily your design system can scale is directly proportionate to the amount of impact it can have."
Dawn ResselFull-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
June 9, 2016
"Birth centers would be replicable if reimbursement structures were adequate, but they can't survive without payment."
Meghan BausoneSystems Thinking and Design Innovation: Working with Leverage Points in Rural Maternal Health Systems
April 17, 2026
"Workshop content is equivalent to a one-day in-person event spread over 10 virtual hours with coaching and support."
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW Victor Udoewa Jennifer StricklandEverything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations
May 17, 2022
