GreenBook Future List Honoree Manuela Isliker on the Power of Empathy

What’s a fun fact about yourself that would surprise people to know?

Based on a delicious family recipe, I created with my mother a homemade pie business called “MenuManu,” which I’m really proud of. It was a pleasurable activity; I would actively make the pies together with her during the night and also would take care of the business matters such as branding & customer service – my husband was our right hand on financial controls and customer management sheets.

Our business – @menudamanu on Instagram, lasted about 4 years, and it was a happy piece of my life that ended in 2018. With my maternity moment coming and career ascendence, I needed to choose between expanding it or following my career, and that’s where we chose by closing – or at least giving a long, long break and stayed with the delicious pies on our weekends at home!

 

Since starting your career in MRX, what would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?

I believe I’m living one of the best moments of my career. I’m playing a key role in how we are transforming our R&D Insights team to accelerate innovation. Acting as the Insights voice on several Innovation and Business related projects, I’ve been leading the development of a new, unique combination of consumer science, entrepreneurial methods, Agile & UX research. We have been applying this new blend of Insight generation to our Innovation programs. I have brought a significant impact by creating an innovation process & full tool kit for R&D, Insights, & Business Innovation at Colgate.

 

When did you know you wanted to enter a career in insights, and what inspired you?

I like to say I was distracted when Insights got me on the curve! It wasn’t a plan I did, but the right thing happened when I was still in college, looking for my first job. Once I was in and understood I could dive into human behavior and actually be the voice of people into companies; I really fell in love with this pleasurable task that I was calling work.

I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to work on meaningful projects for society, with goals from better feeding the population until relevant health solutions, and this is actually what inspires me every day: PEOPLE! I truly believe it’s a privilege to transmit people’s needs & desires to business people and be able to ensure their voice is driving the future.

 

How has market research changed since you first started your career?

Market research has been truly changing every day, following the world’s, people, and companies’ direction, and when I look back 10 years ago, the transformation is HUGE! All that was seen as trends are our lives now, digitalization & globalization hugely impact people’s mindset and the way they make choices. Companies are now managed by the “Speed Over Perfection” mode and Insights has been following this transformation at a fast pace, starting from the way of approaching people: if in the past we would have long and formal interviews with hundreds of people in a controlled environment, now it’s all about empathizing with enough of them, into their real lives & routines as much as we can, using powerful agile tools – it’s all about having real valuable information in a shorter period of time. Also, because people are now expressing themselves in new ways, using different languages and channels, a new part of Insights’ role is to gather this huge amount of data and generate value where most people would overlook.

 

What are three skills you believe to be crucial to succeed in market research, and why?

I have a list of 3 things I look for when hiring someone; for me, these are the major factors of the success of an Insights person.

Being curious like a child is the first essential one! Insatiably curious people are keen to learn every day and from different sources, are not satisfied with basic or incomplete information. Given that only a few questions we need to answer in our daily routine are linear, curiosity leads you to drill down, enhance the level of knowledge, and often see beyond the obvious.

I also believe Empathy ability is as important as drinking water for an Insights person (and all human beings!). If you cannot wear other people’s shoes, you will hardly be able to discover and understand their needs and even less to create something meaningful to them, which is why we are there for you.

Last but not least, for me, is the ability to properly connecting the dots. We are flooded every day by information from all sides, which it’s wonderful from an abundance point of view but can bring more complexity or lead us to wrong conclusions when considered isolated. Having the ability to connect information from different sources helps you be assertive and build a holistic analysis of the subject. If possible, the ability to transform it into a good story is also guaranteed to earn many points!

 

What do you think the key characteristics or qualities of a leader are? How does this play into MRX?

For me, leadership to me equals INSPIRATION; if you are able to inspire people, you are a successful leader.

To achieve that, a leader has to be OPEN MINDED and OPEN HEARTED.

Open-minded to receive ideas, be able to look at things from different angles & embrace different thoughts – many times different from his own, and empower its team – not looking at your team members as a threat, but as a part of a whole making decision that drives results. Open-hearted to listen, be empathetic, and build an open two-way communication channel that makes you comfortable with each other.

Also, and very important, a leader DEEPLY KNOW your team member’s strengths and opportunities to leverage their best to achieve maximum overall performance while focusing on long-term development.

Practicing empathy is what Insights leaders need to be proficient at to deliver the most accurate message from people outside the company to decision-makers inside. A strong leader achieves more powerful results when also applying in their own teams.

 

How do you advocate for others on your team or your customers?

Having empathy as a mission in my life in several spheres, I would say I start by that, trying to put myself in their place to understand the feelings behind their actions & choices. Not hearing but actually listening is the main powerful tool we have for that purpose, and I can say it’s something I try to make sure I’m using all the time, in every aspect of my life. Having this evidence is important to have clarity on problems & needs; this way, I’m able to evaluate and set a plan on how to approach it, evaluating If it’s something I can solve properly or if it’s necessary to have a broader alignment.

 

If you could change one thing about insights, what would it be?

Although Insights is evolving at a fast pace, catalyzing change and being key to leading companies’ transformations by a people-centric approach, it’s not uncommon to hear biased views or resistance, sometimes referring to complexity or slowness around research projects. I don’t blame this position but see it as an opportunity for us, Insights professionals, to raise this flag, keep showing the change, exposing the amazing new solutions available to drive results in a simple & agile way. I would say, Insights is now one of the most well-equipped and integrated teams in a company, and I can only see benefits to diverse stakeholders to take advantage of!

 

What challenges do you see facing newer MRX professionals as technology advances?

I see 3 main challenges. First, we love technology and its key to our role, but it does not replace human feelings, perceptions & sensitive skills. For me, technology and human contact are complementary and super powerful together, and we need to walk side by side; and the challenge is to ensure we have both of them as they should be.

Second, the challenge of keeping updated. New technologies appear with unbelievable speed – I cannot tell you how many emails I receive every day offering a new approach! So, understanding the purpose of all these new possibilities, test & learn, and in the next day do it again is necessary and beneficial, but it’s challenging.

The third is related to people. With technology rapidly changing human behavior, what is true today, might not be true 2 months from now, so for an Insights professional, we must always be aware and willing to re-evaluate our personal beliefs.