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
"Situational disabilities like glare or temporary injuries affect a large portion of your audience and need to be considered in design."
Sheri Byrne-HaberThe Importance of Accessible Design Systems
January 8, 2024
"Target’s internal teams varied in design maturity from totally nonexistent to full design strategy, so we had to meet them where they were."
Abbey Smalley Sylas SouzaScaling UX Past the Size of Your Team
January 8, 2024
"You can be most successful at using new note-taking tools if you bring to the practice a different set of mental models."
Jorge ArangoExploding the Notebook: How to Unlock the Power of Linked Notes (2nd of 3 seminars)
April 19, 2024
"Using language that’s already common within the company helps principles feel natural and easy to adopt."
Sarah WilliamsA Framework for CX Transformation
June 11, 2021
"People who are struggling are constantly battling an unstable financial situation, which comes with a high cognitive and emotional energy cost."
Yasmine KhanChecking Bias and Listening to Financially Vulnerable Americans
March 30, 2020
"Who is missing from our efforts to make our paths more frictionless?"
Dave MaloufTheme 3: Introduction and Provocation
January 8, 2024
"Our goal ultimately is not to deploy a static solution but to make sure humans in the system achieve their goals successfully as often as possible."
Jeff GothelfWho does what by how much?
November 20, 2025
"Simplicity can be a differentiator, as shown by Tally, which gained traction as a free, easy form builder."
Aleksandra Korczynska Caroline Jarrett Justyna ParmeeSurvey Tools
March 12, 2026
"The absence of feedback during design demos was a red flag — we missed information and had to realign quickly."
Frank DuranPartnership Playbook: Lessons Learned in Effective Partnership
January 8, 2024
