Rock n' Roll Research Podcast

Jonathan Rudick, Director of Customer Insights for Financial Services at Walmart, grew up and was educated in South Africa. After a brief stint in London, he traveled to Los Angeles and never went back. He got his start as a focus group facilitator and eventually found his way to HSBC, Capital One and finally Walmart. Jonathan’s mother was trained as a concert pianist. Sitting under the piano whil...

If you feel more like a rockstar on tour than a researcher traveling for qualitative research, then you’re probably working with Daniel Berkal of The Palmerston Group. Daniel considered a career in music before pursuing advertising and eventually research. Qualitative research has been the perfect outlet for his creative mind, which persistently pumps out fresh ways to uncover insights and keep ev...

Rogerio Monteiro is Chief Client Officer for Worthix, a leader in using AI to measure what value truly means to customers. Rogerio is dynamic, sharp, energetic and uncommonly resilient. If you’re in need of a good mood and some inspiration, Rogerio is a great person to spend time with. He started his research career in Brazil with General Motors and Kraft Foods before going all-in as an entreprene...

Right on time for the holidays! Elizabeth Saulsbury of Cox Enterprises, has just released her debut album, “Peppermint.” It is a wonderful, jazzy collection of holiday standards and original compositions, accompanied entirely by colleagues from Cox. Elizabeth started her career at Cox as a research analyst and has navigated her way to her current role as Employment Brand Manager. She discusses why...

Adam Conley is the Regional Director of Insights for North America at Mars Wrigley who, let’s be honest, is home to all the best confectionary brands. A torn ACL as a college basketball player got him focused and led the way to a career in insights. In this short conversation, he has sharpened my own understanding of what insights are and how to make them stick. Adam draws deeply insightful parall...

David Corsaro is a Client Director at MetrixLab and he fooled me on this podcast. I don’t feel so bad, though, because he also took the trophy on “Fool Us” by stumping Penn & Teller.  David has always had two careers, a magician and a market researcher. They are not one and the same, but he has distilled insightful lessons from each. In fact, he recently delivered a compelling presentation at...

Before founding COMARKA Research in the US 16 years ago, Isabel Aneyba was a Category Manager and CMO in consumer goods and retail in Mexico. Her multi-country and multi-disciplinary background has laid the foundation for her unique expertise in cultural insights and strategy. At COMARKA, Isabel employs innovative participatory methods for understanding consumers and culture. Stories are important...

How does a leader of one of the top master’s programs in market research prepare the next generation of insights professionals? The short answer is start with Mr. Miyagi, Ted Lasso and Sonny from “A Bronx Tale” and sprinkle in some Bruce Lee and Bruce Springsteen. What does that mean? You have to listen to find out! Scott Hanson is Director of the MSMR program at UT Arlington. He is deeply passion...

Andy Poe is the founder and CEO of TasteMakers Research Group, an insights firm creating innovative ways to test products with consumers.  Music was a consistent theme early in Andy’s career. She started out selling advertising for a radio station where she discovered the power of research to deliver relevant audiences. Later, in the heady days of the dot com boom, she was Research Manager for MP3...

Jeffrey Henning was a ‘teenage market researcher’ and later introduced several now-ubiquitous technologies to the industry including online surveys, enterprise feedback management and the #mrx hashtag. Today, he is the founder and Chief Research Officer at Researchscape International. But, in parallel, Jeffrey has also been a creator in the board gaming industry. He went from making his own rules...

According to Business Wire, the global cannabis market is expected to reach $176 Bn by 2030. New entrants into big markets require expert insight to take advantage of the opportunity. Mike Luce co-founded High Yield Insights in 2018 to help companies make sense of this new market landscape. After a successful career in research with top firms like IRI, Mintel and Market Track (now Numerator), Mike...

Donte Perry is currently Director of Client Development at Op4G (Opinions for Good), an insights company with a highly innovative model that uncovers unique, highly engaged research respondents for their clients while simultaneously benefiting the philanthropic community.  Donte landed in research after stints in early childhood education and R&D in the semiconductor industry, the consistent t...

Don Simons is CEO, Insights of the advertising, technology and data firm, Big Village, a highly innovative Top 50 insights firm that you may know as Engine prior to their rebranding. With Big Village, Don is helping lead the industry charge toward linking insights to activation to produce meaningful, commercial results. But did you know that, over 30 years ago, Don saw a relatively unknown band at...

Jon Giegengack knows entertainment as well as anyone. Ten years ago, he founded Hub Entertainment Research delivering expert consulting and insight on the world of TV, movies, gaming, music, sports and events. By night, he is the frontman for an outstanding, New England-based country rock cover band called Whiskey Horse (whiskeyhorse.com).  Jon shares his perspective on how to make sense of the co...

Katie Macdonald is an Enterprise Sales Director for Fuel Cycle, an innovative insights technology company that is part of the GRIT Top 50 Innovators and the Inc 5000. After starting her career in advertising, she found her way to GutCheck and was there through a period of tremendous growth. She has been in the research space ever since. Her story starts in small town Iowa where, as a kid, she help...

David Yin is unquestionably driven by purpose. Today he leads the consumer business for Labcorp, a company focusing every day on making people healthier including playing a critical role in advancing COVID PCR testing. David didn’t begin or end in insights, but his commitment to making ‘focusing on the customer’ the cornerstone of his expertise has led him to some of the best roles in insights and...

Hannah Taphorn is a Sr. Scientist, Information Research and Analysis at the great consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble. Her assignments require her to find, evaluate and make sense of global data sources to deliver credible, evidence-based answers to the myriad questions that come her way. Hannah didn’t join P&G directly out of school. She took an unconventional path that perfectly pre...

Neil James is an accomplished Director of Research at Solve Advertising and Branding in Minneapolis, a two-time winner of AdAge’s Small Agency of the Year. With clients as varied as Porsche, Rust-Oleum and Goodwill Easter Seals, it is no surprise their team is just as intriguing. Concurrent to taking a winding path that led to a career in market research, Neil has released 4+ albums and played cou...

Expertise requires more than just putting in the time, it requires being very intentional about what you choose to practice and learn. That’s true whether learning an instrument or an intellectual discipline. Leona Nadj is currently a Market Research Manager at Intel, inventor of the microprocessor and one of the world’s largest and most innovative tech companies. Leona has applied the same level...

By day, Mireya Arteaga is Lead Customer Researcher in CX Research and Strategy at GoDaddy (where this podcast is one of over 20 million happy customers). As a researcher she is thoughtful, measured, insightful and “professionally nosy.” But as a self-described risk averse person, you might be surprised to learn Mireya’s story. From finishing her degree as a single parent at age 30, to becoming a t...

When Tron Smith joined Suzy in 2020, she was stepping not just into a new company but a new industry. The market research learning curve can be steep and the esoterica daunting. To meet the challenge, Tron found a mentor. She became involved in the Insights Association and joined the Board. She has embraced the insights industry and is helping to make it better. She has rapidly become a valued con...

Larry Cheng was a mechanical engineer working to design a new baby stroller when he nearly tipped his own child out of a stroller at the airport. It changed his conception of the problem from one rooted in a series of calculations to one much more human-centered. Since that time, research has played a part in all of Larry’s roles from designer and project lead at IDEO, to experience design, strate...

As the founder of OdinAnswers and StoryHub, Tom Anderson has done much to advance the veracity and application of text analytics, AI and big data within the disciplines of customer experience, insights and business strategy.  But he also vaulted the market research industry into the modern world by creating Next Gen Market Research, enabling a network of tens of thousands of researchers to discuss...

Greg Park is in his third week as Director, Market Strategy and Understanding at Ipsos, the world’s foremost leader in understanding society, markets and people. Consumer Insights has been the focus of his entire career including 6+ years on the client side at Giant Food/Ahold. But in parallel to developing his research chops, Greg spent several years guitar-shredding for an East Coast prog/hardco...

Bianca Pryor is Vice President at BET leading their content optimization team and a Board Member of the Insights Association. Consumer Behavior is a long time passion but there is so much more to her than that. I am grateful to Bianca for bringing her whole self to the Rock n’ Roll Research Podcast. Bianca discusses her career, what she learned along the way from TNS Kantar and System 1/Brainjuice...