Which roles make up today’s hybrid Customer Insight Leader?

I was struck by this graphic published by Visually that was trending on Twitter a couple of days ago. Although about marketers, it set me pondering about today’s hybrid Customer Insight leader.

Apart from being an eye catching infographic and ringing true as to the challenge for modern marketers, it prompts an equal or bigger challenge for insight leaders. Over the years this role has evolved into one requiring CI leaders to have an even more hybrid mix of talents than their marketing peers.

The need to wear many hats, if you like (which puts me in mind of De Bono’s thinking hats).

I’d be interested to hear your views, but from my experience I’d say the ideal Customer Insight leader is a hybrid of:

• Data Scientist (as above & overlapping with IT experience);
• Psychologist (for effective use of research & interpretation);
• Creative Artist (for storytelling & data visualisation);
• Sales Person (for selling in the benefits & recommendations);
• Statistician or Economist (creating hypotheses & models);
• People Leader (motivating team and collaborative delivery).

Any I’ve missed?

For consideration of the equivalent balance needed in Data Scientists, see this post on an infographic circulating on them.