Wendy Lynch Podcast Transcript
Wendy Lynch joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive Podcast.
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Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Wendy Lynch. Dr. Wendy Lynch is a researcher, author, and longtime analytic translator who helps organizations turn data and AI in decisions that actually stick.
For more than three decades, she has worked with Fortune 100 companies to bridge the gap between business leaders and technical teams. Improving how questions are framed, results are communicated, and value is realized. Wendy is the author of multiple books on communication and analytics, including get to What Matters and Become an analytic translator.
Through her writing, teaching, and advisory work, she trains leaders and data professionals to use translation. Not just technology to unlock the real potential of analytics and ai. Well, good afternoon, Wendy. Welcome to the show.
Wendy Lynch: Thank you for having me. Nice to be here, Brian.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. Joining us again, I really appreciate that.
A two timer on the, uh, the show is, is awesome. Not many people come back, but people that do is, they’ve always got some new stuff to share, so I appreciate that. And Wendy I know you’re in Phoenix. I’m in Kansas City, so we’re both having a little bit of warmth today, which is great. Maybe too much for you, but.
Either way. Let’s, let’s jump in and let’s talk about the first question I’ve got for you. You’ve spent more than three decades working with Fortune 100 companies, helping bridge the gap between data scientists and business leaders. What experiences led you to become what you call an analytic translator?
Wendy Lynch: I think the overarching experience is one that’ll be familiar to a lot of your listeners, which is that business teams and analytic teams don’t. Necessarily collaborate well and they don’t communicate well. So that was probably the environment that fostered this personally. My background is in advanced analytics, but I’ve also spent 25 years learning about and teaching communication skills.
And I started to realize that the communication skills were coming in a lot more handy than the analytic skills when it came to delivering good outcomes.
Brian Thomas: That’s awesome and I really love that and that resonates with me. I know it resonates probably with a lot of my audience. There’s a gap sometimes with the business side, the technical side, and, and absolutely seen this even as a project manager that I had there for a little while back in my career.
Business teams just don’t understand what the analytical jargon that is going on sometimes. I really appreciate you bringing your gift as I call it that strong background and as an analyst into the business world. And you’re just a great communicator, so I appreciate that.
Wendy Lynch: Sure.
Brian Thomas: And Wendy, many organizations invest heavily in analytics and AI, but still struggle to turn insights into action.
Why does this disconnect between data and decision making persist?
Wendy Lynch: The short answer I really believe is communication and a dedication to intentional human communication between those teams. But if we think about the specifics about it, number one, those two types of people are extremely different. They speak different languages.
Like you mentioned, both sides have their own jargon. Both sides have their own ways of communicating. They both have their own unique perspective about what success means. And I don’t mean that we’re, that we differ. About wanting the company to succeed. I’m not talking about the big macro success, but in terms of what makes a good project or what makes a good result, they think about it differently.
And one other aspect is that it’s helpful to understand that this mismatch between data and business people is not, unique to any one organization. Now, if you’re like me, you’ve gone into different companies and each time they believe that the problem is Fred or Jane or some individual. So the CEO says, oh, we have this head of analytics and he doesn’t make any sense.
Or the head of data says, yeah, these business leaders, they can’t be clear about what they’re saying. So, they believe that it’s a personality individual thing, but actually it’s systemic and it’s pretty much everywhere. That we have that struggle. So, we need to think about it as systemic rather than as a personality conflict or two teams that just don’t happen to get along.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. I appreciate that. That’s very helpful. Of course. But again. It goes beyond you talked about that, right? So, a lack of deliberate and planned communication can be a big part of that. Uh, it’s really good to have a culture where there’s a lot of communication, up, down, sideways, on diagonal.
But additionally, both these groups have their own way of communication, you mentioned, and their viewpoint of success obviously differs. Uh, in their sphere of, expertise. Right.
Wendy Lynch: Right, right.
Brian Thomas: But ultimately is what you said I took away, this is a systemic issue. And it’s something that, yeah, you can have that deliberate plan communication, but also it needs to be really part of that culture so that we can overcome this systemic breakdown of communication and I totally agree. So, I appreciate that.
Wendy Lynch: Yes. And I don’t wanna say that there needs to be an initiative where all employees are trained communicators, because not everybody’s gonna be oriented that way, and not everybody’s going to want that. But what we need is to recognize there can be trained translators in place to help those teams trust and collaborate.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. Appreciate that clarification. And when Wendy, communication often becomes the biggest barrier between technical teams and executives. What practical techniques help data professionals present insights in ways that resonate with decision makers?
Wendy Lynch: Yeah. The first thing is to think about the projects from beginning to end.
Understand that things go wrong between the two groups most often because they didn’t start correctly. When we get to that end point and somebody is explaining how they did some really crazy amazing method to find a particular result, we’ve already gone way too far and probably gotten off track before that.
So, the few things that I would suggest is, number one, have a discussion as the project is getting started, and I’m gonna advise people to go exactly the opposite direction from what I see. So, if you have been in these kinds of projects where analysts have been burned over and over again because they bring a result.
The people requesting it said, oh, that’s not what I meant, and they have to go back and do it again, and they get demoralized and discouraged. So, the tendency is for them to get really picky about the criteria and parameters and specific data fields that are being defined. So, a business leader comes in and says, oh, I want a dashboard.
And the way to protect themselves, they think, is to say, okay, what exact data fields do you need? What exact timeframe do you need? What exact, visual do you need? And they get really, really specific. My approach and what I train people in analytic translation is we have to start by going back up to the 30,000 foot purpose and find out how this request will be useful to the requester and the business.
Because usually they don’t know how to ask for what they need. Not that they are not smart people. They just don’t operate in analytics. So, if you say something like, so how did this idea come up? Tell me how that will be useful. Tell me about the audiences that are gonna use this. Usually by the time they’ve talked about it for three to five minutes, it morphs into what they really need, and I would say 50 50 chance they ever really needed a dashboard.
That’s the way that they could express it. So that’s part of the way we approach it, is we go through what I call the discovery process to expand our thinking and get clearer and help them get clearer because they don’t know what to ask you. And if you force them into getting really specific, it’s probably gonna go off track.
Even though they quote unquote defined it, it’s still not gonna give them what they need.
Brian Thomas: That’s great. Thank you. Appreciate that. And you’re right, you think of this. Project right from beginning end, what is that gonna look like? And having that discussion up front, you, a lot of times you have a project kickoff, et cetera, but you, the thing I’m gonna highlight is you said it’s important to ask the right questions.
What’s that? Why, who’s your audience? Those types of things will help frame it for the analysts to produce something that the decision maker really wants to see. And I appreciate your insights there.
Wendy Lynch: Sure.
Brian Thomas: Wendy. As we look ahead to the future, how do you see the role of analytic translators evolving as AI and data-driven decision making become even more central to business strategy?
Wendy Lynch: I believe that translators are going to evolve to not just help decision makers define analytics and translate results, but given the way that AI is. Evolving so quickly if you’re like me, I try and stay on top of it. And even trying to stay on top of it, it’s flying by and expanding and changing so fast.
So, translators I believe will need to take on this role of helping business leaders not only understand it, but grasp what is possible. And my belief is that every organization. That has data involved in it, which pretty much is everybody now, and leaders need an individual that both teams trust, that can advocate for both perspectives.
And that’s what a translator can be is that person in the middle that can keep things on track, keep things realistic, but also give people the insights that they need.
Brian Thomas: Thank you so much. I appreciate that. And you’re absolutely right. It’s important that an analytic translator is a leader, the person in the middle that can really have that empathy, have that EQ, be able to understand really both parties and again, bridge that gap in the communication.
But you talk about AI just real quick is it’s evolving so quickly that. Analytic translators will need to take on that role. Not only the understanding, but what is possible. And I thought that was interesting. Yeah. So, I appreciate you highlighting that. Sure. And Wendy, it was such a pleasure to have you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Wendy Lynch: Okay. Well, Brian, thank you for letting me be a two-timer and I hope that the rest of your week goes great.
Brian Thomas: Absolutely, my friend. Bye for now.
Wendy Lynch Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s Podcast Page.
