Special Edition / Audience-first Innovation: How to Use Data to Create People-Centric Products, with Quincy Olatunde

Product Momentum Podcast

What’s the point of building a product if it doesn’t actually help to solve a user problem? And how do you grow and scale your product without understanding consumers’ behavior with it? Quincy Olatunde, Peacock’s VP of Products, Direct-to-Consumer explores these questions through the lens of data – what he calls the third leg of the 3-legged stool.

Only when working in concert do the interface, the platform, and the data support the product, Quincy says. In the same way it’s true for stools it’s true for software.

Quincy also talks about the nuanced distinction between being data-driven and data-informed. One constrains our curiosity, the other nurtures it. Being data driven, he adds, means that everything you do is tied to the data. Being data-informed, on the other hand, combines art with science to find the right solution.

As subtle as the difference seems on its face, it lies at the heart of what it means to be a product manager or leader – the ability to influence people, to lead through influence. “Half the time you don’t have the authority because you’re working across so many teams and departments to make your product successful,” he says.

It’s a reality that requires us to be curious about what can be, to be vulnerable in front of our colleagues, and to be comfortable asking questions when we don’t know.

On this last point, Quincy Olatunde leaves us with two all-time classic quotes:

• “Don’t let data be the limitation of your imagination.” In other words, if our approach to problem-solving is limited to being data-driven, there is only so much that we can grow.
• “Wake up stupid every day.” Borrowed from a colleague, Quincy reminds us to embrace each day “with the curiosity of a child.”

Tune in to catch the entire conversation with Quincy; see how the product truths that apply to his world of global media apply to us all.

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