Q&A with Brad Dancer, SVP of Insights and Analytics, WWE
Brad Dancer, senior vice president of insights and analytics, WWE, is hosting a session called, “Data and Creatives: Immovable Object vs. Unstoppable Force?” at the Quirk’s Event New York. He was kind enough to chat with us a bit more about the upcoming session.
Dancer’s favorite stories are the ones in which a creative becomes a data advocate. He likes to show that data does not ruin the art but makes it that much better.
“I love showing any and all the power of understanding your consumer, but not letting the data dictate what you do, but help lead what you do,” Dancer told us.
Continue reading to hear more about Dancer’s session and his process before speaking.
What do you do to prepare before speaking?
It varies by context, but for an event like this, really not that much. I love to talk and can get on tangents, so I try to remind myself of what I would want to hear from the audience, go through the deck a few times, thinking of the points I want to make. Then I try to take my mind off of things, listen to music, read something not work related, go through personal e-mail – something to just let my mind go before getting up to speak.
What would be the one thing you would want an attendee to take away from your session?
I want them to take away real-world examples and an understanding of how other people deal with similar situations. I have always gravitated to presentations, lectures, panels, etc., that had more of a pragmatic, operating lens. Even if the business was completely different than mine, we all deal with similar issues. Many of us have known co-workers or partners that were not data-friendly or suspect of being told what consumers think. So, if attendees walk away with some examples of how it worked in another world that they can apply to their own, that’s a huge win. That, and I always want attendees to laugh and have a good time.
If you had to pick one strategy that would be the most important when presenting data to creative people what would it be?
You have to be empathetic. In order to get creatives to want to understand your material, you need to be in their shoes. As best as possible, knowing what stresses they have, how they do their jobs – do they get a lot of advance notice, how much decision-making authority do they have, what are their goals, how are they evaluated by bosses – anything that will help you understand the types of decisions that they make. Once you know some of that, you can use that to craft the presentation to make it more relevant and speak in their language.