Tag Archives: Christopher Gutierrez

Speaker Spotlight: Christopher Gutierrez

We were lucky enough to catch up with Future of Consumer Intelligence 2014 speaker
Christopher Gutierrez of AIRBNB before the event in a few weeks. Gutierrez shared
with us his thoughts on the humanization of data, and how technology has
changed the way we do things and the way we understand people. 
We are fortunate to have him share this critical insight
with our FOCI community. This year, FOCI
explores the emerging role of decision science and the convergence of knowledge
points – insights, foresights, social science, marketing science and
intelligence with technology as a central driving force and profound connector.
We are barraged by information – and within this sea of data
we must remember to think of the problem we are trying to solve and how we can
we use this convergence of information to better understand people.
 Translating the new “understanding” into future opportunities
means that the role of a researcher is changing. FOCI accelerates disruptive
innovators in the research space and pushes people to take risks, to think
outside of traditional research methods and insights gathering and explore new
and alternative tools and technologies. FOCI will bridge the gap between what
people say they are going to do and what they actually do.
Here is what Gutierrez had to say:
IIR: A big theme
of this year’s conference is ‘humanization of data.’ Why do you think understanding
PEOPLE (not consumers) presents an opportunity for strategic action?
Gutierrez: Data
*is* the user experience. Customer tickets are the direct voice of a person.
Data logged from people’s actual site sessions highlights problems and the
magnitude of problems.  With A/B testing, logged data can lead products to
potential solutions. Data is the distillation of the human experience.
IIR: How is
technology not only changing how we do things, but also how we understand the
world, business, and people?
Gutierrez: Technology
increases the impact an individual can make. Prior to the advent of recent
technologies, a company needed to be large before it could impact a significant
number of people. As technology advances, it reduces the necessary size of a company
before the company is impactful. Airbnb itself was impactful at 100 employees.
More importantly, Airbnb hosts are impactful at an individual basis. Uber,
Lyft, and others are making it possible to have many successful ‘companies of
IIR: How has
consumer intelligence strategy and action planning helped drive your business?
Gutierrez: People
are communicating with us simply by using our site. How they traverse the site
tells us what is frustrating or confusing to them. Data gives our users a voice.
The data science team translates their experiences to the rest of the company.
IIR: How has the
role of ‘the researcher’ changed?
Gutierrez: A
researcher has always developed a hypothesis. A modern researcher spends less
time writing proposals, and more time testing hypotheses.
IIR: Describe a
situation where you’ve taken a risk or thought outside the box of tradition
market research methods. How did that benefit your business?
Gutierrez: I
replaced a complex model, with a carefully constructed GROUP BY query. It
allowed the system to run in line with daily updates and more features and
records. Often, something simple and with better data, can beat a sophisticated
model. Maintenance was easier, and profit was higher.
Want to hear more
from Christoper in person? Join him at 
Future of Consumer Intelligence 2014 in Los Angeles, CA in May. To learn
more about the event and register, click here: 
** As a reader of our blog, you get an exclusive 15%
discount on your FOCI 2014 pass. Use code FOCI14BLOG when you
register **

About the Author:
Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the 
Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including 
Big Design
, and ProjectWorld
and World Congress for Business Analysts
She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where
can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.