Skill set (22)
Stephen in a few words
I provide freelance or interim management services that enable businesses to identify, interpret and respond to consumer, market and technology trends and plan for future scenarios, leading to new innovations, campaigns and partnerships.
My background is in insight (75%) and innovation/product development (25%) including leading or building functions in E.ON's innovation business, National Express, HomeServe and National Trust, as well as helping a B2B technology company to re-launch in the SaaS market.
I bring strategic focus, commercial acumen, and skills as a collaborator, coach and facilitator, along with countless research and analytic techniques to bear on the challenges at hand. See x2ytrends.com for more information.
Experience
- TelXLMarket analysis & innovation lead (partial contract, partial perm)TELECOMMUNICATIONSFebruary 2021 - January 2022 (11 months)Redditch, England, United KingdomProfiled a SaaS company’s market environment and customer and distributor needs to underpin rebranding, market positioning, product specification, and go-to-market strategy for a new category of contact-centre as a service (CCaaS) propositions.Also led the implementation of a new internal marketing capability including CRM.Research projects included:- B2B market analysis and mapping- Competitor and product analysis- Trends and futures analysis- User research- Buyer/reseller research- Target segment and company building- Content creation and pitch creation- Definition of marketing and proposition KPIsKey value added: Fundamental insight provided to define a new brand, product and marketing strategy, which radically increased brand awareness and helped create new sales pipeline, while also seeing the company win industry awards within months of launch.
- National TrustHead of Data Science (Interim management)TRAVEL & TOURISMFebruary 2019 - July 2021 (2 years and 6 months)Swindon, England, United KingdomLed three internal teams - Insight, Data science and an Internal insight "consultancy". Additionally adopted a remit to help the Insight and Data directorate team's work and collective knowledge to inform critical strategic challenges faced by the National Trust, through a role of being an insight business partner to the Strategic Management Unit and other Directors.Key projects included:- Led multi-method research to inform the organisation's low carbon strategy- Led a synthesis and analytics study to develop a regional growth strategy- Led insight to optimise cross organisational marketing effectiveness and define KPIs- Led design and delivery of (Tabeau-based) decision support tools- Responsible for brand, market, and voice-of-customer and staff trackers- Initiated/led internal insight communication to drive data-led decision makingKey value added: Gave the organisation strategic clarity on critical decisions about its low carbon position, and marketing effectiveness, to navigate key risks and support future growth. The implementation of new analytic tools and communications created a significant step change in the availability of evidence across the National Trust to make customer focussed decisions to influence commercial and strategic outcomes.
- HomeServeHead of Customer & Market IntelligenceBANKING & INSURANCEFebruary 2015 - February 2019 (4 years)Walsall, England, United KingdomBuilt and led a team of six to deliver the organisation’s insight, including identifying and promoting industry shifts toward smart insurance, digital consumer behaviour and market contraction.Key projects included:-- Market, consumer and customer studies to support a major acquisition- Implementation of a voice of customer programme (using Qualtrics)- Implementation of a customer community- Implementation of market, competitor and brand tracking- Creating a customer segmentation for strategic marketing and NPD- Introducing marketing and product-testing research processes- Market analysis for evaluating market entry to new sectors (e.g. smart homes)- Digital user research to plan web design and customer online journeysKey value-added: Built a high-value, high-performance insight capability to give the business clear direction and confidence to make a major acquisition, develop new products, pursue partnerships, choose to enter/not enter adjacent sectors, while also being key to churn and complaint reduction that offered £ms of annual incremental savings.
1 recommendation
AJ
Andrew Jones recommend Stephen
6/2/2023
Steve's credentials and ability in data science and analyses are unquestionable. Steve however is a rare find. His abilities in researching and presenting data based insight and analysis are totally enhanced by his experience in actually delivering Go to market and mature proposition planning on the basis of that work. The combination of strategic and tactical abilities meant that he was able to inform present and validate prior to incurring cost - which is a real fillip to any C suites or businesses aspiration. His capability is enhanced by training and accreditation around his well defined skill sets, but the main attribute is simply Steve's application to the job at hand, total commitment, flexibility and patience. An absolute joy to work with to boot!
Education
- PhD Electronic EngineeringUniversity of Sheffield1993Statistical modelling and experimentation into telecommunication systems
- MSc Marketing (Distinction)University of Leicester2007Coverage of key marketing topics, with specific focus on marketing within high tech and transforming markets.
- BSc PhysicsUniversity of Sheffield1990
Certifications
- Hubspot digital marketingHubspot2022
- Career counselling and coaching certificationCCS2022
- Tableau 2020: A-Z Hands on Tableau training for data scienceUdemy2020
- Data science and machine learning bootcamp with RUdemy2020