👋 Hey! I'm a Marketing nerd and spent most of my career at Uber building Marketing Science teams across Brand, Perf, and Lifecycle.

During that time, I partnered with world-class marketing, data science, and martech leaders to help scale and measure the ROI of over $1Bn in Marketing Spend driving $200M+ in incremental revenue.  

After Uber, I worked at early stage consumer startups and scaleups helping founders and marketing leaders make better Marketing decisions with data and experimentation. Across my career, I've been at every stage of companies from seed to Enterprise so there's no Marketing Science challenge I haven't faced. 

Now I share those same playbooks we used to scale and measure ROI with 2,600+ Marketers from companies like Netflix, Spotify, Uber, and Google → https://experimental.beehiiv.com/subscribe

I also consult and advise for CMOs and Growth leaders helping you with complex Marketing Science challenges. 
⮑ For a quick jam session, grab some time here → https://app.hubble.social/sundarswaminathan
⮑ For longer engagements, DM me (no need to connect) to start up a conversation

Lastly, I love spending time with my 2 beautiful kids and my incredible wife. We used to love traveling and eating out but you know... kids ...  so now I love cooking and exploring all the fun things little kids can do!

Thanks for reading and for your time 😊

Sundar Swaminathan

CFO: Our CAC is too high.

New CMO: Which CAC?

CFO: …what do you mean?

CMO: Are we talking blended CAC? Paid CAC? Marginal CAC? Incremental CAC? 

CFO: Isn’t CAC just CAC?

CMO: Nope, there isn’t just one CAC. We should align because if we don't then we'll make the wrong decisions. 

CFO: Go on.

CMO: If we only optimize for the lowest CAC which is blended then we’ll keep pouring money into retargeting, brand searches, and discounts. It looks great on paper, but it doesn't necessarily grow the business. 

CFO: So which CAC should we look at?

CMO: All of them

CFO: What do you mean?

CMO: Blended to understand holistic business performance. We need to compare it to LTV to understand if our business as a whole is reasonable. We can combine that with payback period too. 

I'd ignore Paid CAC because it's based on attribution which we know is wrong.

Incremental CAC by running incrementality tests to cut inefficient spend on channels where we're not actually getting wins.

Marginal CAC to understand where the efficiency frontier is. 

CFO: Okay great. Marginal / Incremental CAC is what I care about most. 

CMO: Exactly. I figured. Let's work together to be more in sync!

CFO: Brilliant. Can't wait.

CMO: Why are we having this conversation at 12:05 AM?

CFO: Money never sleeps.

–
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CEO: CAC is up 25%. What are we doing?

CMO: I'm asking the same thing. What are WE doing?

CEO: What do you mean? You own CAC.

CMO: Yes, I do but CAC is a cross functional output metric. What are other teams doing about it?

CEO: What other teams?

CMO: My team launches 100 creatives a week, runs experiments, and is on top of budget allocation, but we're blocked. It's now on Eng to help. 

CEO: What can they do to fix CAC?

CMO: 3 things off the top of my head:
1. Product feed is broken or behind. Ads show items that are out of stock. CAC takes a hit.

2. Server-side tracking is broken. We're losing 30% of conversions in attribution. We can't feed the right data back. CAC takes a hit. 

3. Some landing pages load in 4 seconds. Customers are churning before they see a page. CAC takes a hit.

CEO: Okay, I see this. What are they prioritizing?

CMO: When I ask they always say new features or other fixes.

CEO: Why is this the first I'm hearing about this?

CMO: I've flagged it for 6 months. Product team says these aren't revenue-driving features, but they're costing us $125K/month in wasted ad spend. 

I’ve always hit CAC targets but I no longer can.

CEO: SH*T! $125K a month?! Let's fix this now. 

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CEO: I need profitable growth. Let's stop brand spend

New CMO: That's going to do the exact opposite. 

CEO: Really? How so?

CMO: It makes performance marketing more expensive short term and hurts long term growth.

CEO: How? Brand is the expensive stuff. Performance drives direct revenue.

CMO: Our MMM + testing shows brand is making performance cheaper. When brand spend is up, our CPCs drop and conversion rates improve.

CEO: Why does that happen?

CMO: Because brand builds awareness. When people already know us, they're more likely to click our ads and convert. Performance capitalizes on that equity.

CEO: So cutting brand hurts performance immediately?

CMO: Within a month to three months, yes. Our performance CAC will climb because we're competing for attention with a cold audience that hasn't been introduced to us. 

CEO: And long-term?

CMO: Six to twelve months out, you'll see volume drop too. Fewer people be searching for us and when they do look for a solution, we won't be top of mind. 

CEO: So we're stuck spending on brand?

CMO: We're not stuck. We're building a Marketing strategy based on your goals. This is the best path to reach it. 

CEO: Hmmmm true. Still a little nervous though.

CMO: Fair point. Shall we do a geo test to show you impact? We had it planned for next quarter but can move it up.

–
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Podcast

Listen here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2508383

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheExperiMENTALPodcast

Former Head of Marketing Science at Uber who optimized $1Bn+ across Brand, Performance, and Lifecycle → Sharing weekly playbooks used by top Marketers to measure and scale ROI.

Sumitha N.

CEO: Isn't Last Click always wrong? Why use it?

New CMO: Do you have an alternative? 

CEO: What do you mean?

CMO: Do you think I should be using MTA or First Click or some other attribution? I prefer Last Click because it's consistently wrong which is an advantage.

CEO: Consistently wrong doesn't sound great.

CMO: Agree, but focus on the "consistent" part.

CEO: That's philosophical . Break it down for me. 

CMO: Of course. First, let's look at the pros of LC:
1. It's easy to set up
2. It's easy to explain

I prefer LC over Multi Touch attribution any day.

But, my marketing team is smart and knows it's not the truth.

Here's how we use it:
1. Directional signals
2. Compare within platform 
3. Use it to prioritize where to dig.

CEO: Makes sense. 

CMO: Week to week it's over / under estimating to the same degree and so I can tell at a quick glance if something we did moved the numbers in the way we expected. Also, we can use ratios from our incrementality tests to convert LC numbers to actual ones.

CEO: Got an example?

CMO: Yeah. In Google, we were testing increasing bids. 

On a LC basis we expected Google Search to go up for obvious reasons. But, it only went up X% when we were expecting Y%. That's a signal for us that we can dig deeper into.

CEO: Ohhhhh. So using last click isn't an issue?

CMO: No. Believing it's the truth is. We're too smart for that.

–
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CEO: Woah! We're cutting Google Ad spend?! 

New CMO: Yup. By 65%. It's as I feared...

CEO: Um but but but... the dashboards are showing 6X ROAS. Aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot? It's the best channel we have!

CMO: Ahhhh, welcome to the illusion of attribution. So yeah it does look good "on paper" but that's why we run tests.

CEO: Can you share more?

CMO: Yup! So we ran a geo test where we lowered spend in some markets while keeping others the same. Think of it like an A/B test but with locations instead of randomizing by users. Here's what happened:

1. Revenue was the same
2. New customers were the same
3. Profit was wayyyyy up

In summary, 65% of our spend on Google wasn't incremental. 

CEO: So we were just paying for users that would've converted?

CMO: Yes 😢 

CEO: Why do you think that was happening?

CMO: Oh the classic... we were bidding on branded search which attracts people that already know about us. This makes ROAS look great because:
1. You're bidding on less competitive Brand terms
2. People know us so conversion looks great

⬆️ Conversion ⬇️ Ad spend = 📈 ROAS

CEO: Woah. This is nuts. What's next?

CMO: Well I want to validate the incrementality of Meta. My hunch is that Meta is getting less credit than it deserves. It's a classic dynamic where Meta shows the ads to get people interested then Google converts.

CEO: Just 🤯 . So do we need to redo our attribution too?!

CMO: NOOOOOO! We need to learn to stop being so addicted to our attribution dashboards. 

CEO: Wow, I guess Marketing is more complicated than I thought...

CMO: 😵 

–
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CEO: Are we ready for an MMM?

New CMO: Are you ready to be wrong?

CEO: Wrong about what?

CMO: Wrong about "best performing" channels?

CEO: I don't know. I'm lost. Why are you asking?

CMO: So, the worst thing I can do is use $X of my budget on an MMM, run it, see that our "best performing" channel might not be incremental, propose we run a test, and then guess what happens?

CEO: We run the test and growth drops?

CMO: No! My biggest concern is that you'd block us from running the test because it might hurt growth. 

If growth falls, that's a great thing! It's a sign. It's data. It's progress.

CEO: Oooof fair. I feel like I'd be okay with that, but idk! What else do we need to do to be ready for an MMM?

CMO: Are we ready to move budgets up and down to introduce volatility so the MMM can pick it up? 

Are we ready to stop making so many decisions using Last Click? 

Are we ready for Last Click and MMM to have conflicting signals?

CEO: Idk! I've never thought of this. What do we do?

CMO: Let's first make sure we have the culture to support experimentation and more data driven decision making. What if I ramp down spend by 15% on Google Search because my hunch says it's not incremental?

CEO: I'm down to try but just need you to keep in the loop because I'm definitely nervous.

CMO: Good. Nervousness = growth.

CEO: You sound like my high school coach...

–
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CEO: What's the diff between Performance vs Brand?

CMO: Sooo glad you asked. Here it is...

CEO: Ooooh I got my notebook out...

CMO: Ready?! Drumroll please...

CEO: Omg, I'm so excited to finally understand!

CMO: THERE. IS. NONE. 

CEO: WHAT?! Why do I keep hearing about it?

CMO: I have no idea but there is no real difference especially for our customers. 

CEO: What do you mean?

CMO: When you look at ads, do you go "Woah! This is a Brand Marketing ad... now I have more mental availability" or do you go "Woah! This is a Perf Marketing ad... I need to click it!"?

CEO: Hahahah no not at all.

CMO: Exactly, but also think of it another way. You can see a "Brand" ad and then decide to purchase because you were in a buying moment. You can also see a "Perf" ad and then log it in your mind for later. 

CEO: So, how should we be thinking about this?

CMO: We have channels and we have objectives. Our goal is to deploy budget on the channels that are the best at driving the objectives we want. 

CEO: Got an example?

CMO: Youtube looks terrible on a CAC basis but the objective of Youtube is usually to build awareness and consideration at a large scale. 

But if we didn't have Youtube then our Meta lower funnel CAC would spike. 

Channel → Objective
Youtube → Increase consideration
Meta → Convert when ready 

They work together.

CEO: That is SO much simpler than we make it out to be.

CMO: Yeah, not sure why us marketers keep shooting ourseles in the foot. 

–
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Dr Dre and Eminem - but about Marketing Science. 

We're making things too complicated.

Talkin' about use this metric and that metric.

Shoulda kept it simple.

Y'all forgot about M.R.E.

The CAC Album dropping July '26. 

Inspired by Henry Hayes and Tycho Luijten who are the real OGs. Still got a long way to be even close to your level but I'll get there.

Also Cian Weeresinghe, I've never met you but I think you'll appreciate this?

CFO: Google Ads ROAS is 5X! More budget there?

New CMO: How sure are you that it's 5X?

CFO: What do you mean?! I thought ROAS was 5X?

CMO: No! You've been bamboozled! 

CFO: Bamboozled?! How?

CMO: Platform attribution is misleading. Google Ads is notorious for looking better than it really is so we paused it just to see what happened.

CFO: ... and what happened?! 

CMO: We picked up 3 signals that confirmed our suspicions. 

1. The “pause bump”
We paused it and all the other channels picked up the credit. Google Ads is notorious for being over attributed. 

2. The “too good to be true ROAS”
In-platform ROAS looked too good. It felt fishy and we confirmed our suspicion that it’s not as incremental as we'd expected. 

3. The “flatline paradox”
Our total business KPIs stayed flat even as channel performance skyrockets. That only happens if our channel was non incremental. We were confusing activity for impact.

CFO: So what do we trust instead?

CMO: Nothing blindly. We triangulate. Blended CAC and ROAS for business sanity, incrementality tests for truth, MMM for calibration, and platform numbers for steering. But, we don't confuse platform numbers for truth. 

CFO: So attribution isn’t reality?! It’s just one opinion.

CMO: Yes. And like most opinions, it gets louder the more wrong it is. Sound like someone you know? 👀

–
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CEO: Is the brand marketing campaign working yet?

CMO: What do you mean by working?

CEO: Is it driving business metrics? ROI?

CMO: No, but that doesn't mean it's not working. 

CEO: What do you mean?

CMO: Well we're in month 1 of the campaign and I told you I didn't expect to see business impact until month 3. 

CEO: Why is that? 

CMO: Because of how our customers purchase. We have a product that people really only buy once a quarter. So when we launched our brand campaign we started to introduce our product to users but most of them will only be ready to buy in the next few months.

CEO: But, I thought it was demand "Generation" 

CMO: Ugh. That is such a stupid term. Here's what's actually happening:

1. A customer wants to buy a thingamabob
2. Before, they didn't know about us or that we sold them
3. Now, they've seen us and hear about us and know we sell thingamabobs.
4. When they're ready, they'll think of us and hopefully buy thingamabobs from us. 

We can't magically make them want a thingamabob.

CEO: Oh my god. That makes total sense. So it's not really demand generation?! 

CMO: No, it's Staytopofmindforwhentheyreready-tion

CEO: We need to find a better term for that... 

CMO: Yeah, it's called Mental Availability. 

–
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CEO: What's your 90 day Marketing plan?

CMO: Become BFFs with Product and Finance.

CEO: Hmmm... not what I was expecting but explain?

CMO: Sure. Let's be honest here. The CMO role is in the hotseat from day 1 and there's two reasons for that:

1. It doesn't look like we're having an impact
2. It looks like we're too expensive

Sound accurate?

CEO: Yeah, I guess. So how does aligning with Product and Finance change that?

CMO: I can only Market what Product is building / selling. I need to undertand our vision, roadmap, and customers. I also need to know who owns pricing and likely will have some product asks so I want to build a great relationship with Product from day one. 

Finance is an obvious one but we need to build a collective understanding of how to measure impact of Marketing. I also need to sync regularly with them so we make investment decisions and keep them in loop so they're not surprised .

CEO: Okay seems fair, but I was kind of expecting a "quick" win. 

CMO: Do you care more about actions or impact? I have no doubt that I'll be able to identify a quick win but how often are the most impactful problems easily solvable? 

CEO: Basically never... 

CMO: Right... so it's no different in Marketing. I can't just "tweak" positioning here or copy there and expect huge wins. So, for me to last in this role, have the biggest impact, and deliver on what I believe I can , I need to align with Product and Finance.

–
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CEO: Can you cut our CAC by 30%? 

CMO: I love a fun challenge. By when? 

CEO: …. by next month. 

CMO: Oof I can do it but it’ll hurt growth. 

CEO: No growth must go up.

CMO: Lol what? Okay Eng can ship some asks. 

CEO: No their backlog is full. 

CMO: Okay… We’ll try a lot of new creatives.

CEO: Need to let designer go. Budget cuts. 

CMO: Okay. Will run incrementality test on Google

CEO: No! That’s our Golden Goose!!!!!

CMO: Wtf do you want me to do? 

CEO: Idk. That’s your job to figure it out. 

–
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CEO: I want us to gain 10% market share this year!

CMO: I want to be excited, but I know there's a but...

CEO: But... we are cutting your budget 50%.

CMO: Say what? 

CEO: And your headcount by 75%.

CMO: Huh?!

CEO: And I don’t like TikTok or IG. So don't advertise there. 

CMO: Okay…

CEO: Also, I will be blindfolding you. 

CMO: WTF. Why? 

CEO: When you lose one sense your others get stronger. 

CMO: This is madness…

CEO: THIS. IS. MARKETING!

–
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CMO: I'm struggling with our Data Science team

New CDO: What are you struggling with?

CMO: Idk, I can't get what I want out of them.

CDO: Sorry, but it's likely you.

CMO: Why do you say that?

CDO: It's usually strategy, comms, or skillset. 

CMO: That's pretty broad. Elaborate?

CDO: Of course. Let's start with Strategy.

Have you shared your Marketing Strategy? 

What bets are you making?
What audience are you going after? 
What audience insights are you using? 

Without context, data is just a jumble of numbers.

The team performs better when knowing what and where to look. 

CMO: Fair point. Communication?

CDO: How often do they talk to your team?

How often are they in your leadership meetings? 

If you meet 1x a month, it's weeks too late. They're operating on stale information. You need to meet with them weekly AND treat them like a part of your team. You're their partner not stakeholder.

CMO: Woah. Okay. And Skillset?

CDO: Generalist rarely succeed because there's too much business and channel knowledge required.  

Also, don't do pooled resourcing. 

Analysts should have clear lanes of scope. 

CMO: Shoot, might be a combo of all 3. What should I fix first? 

CDO: Fix comms + strategy. Then skillset. Even the best data scientist are going to stumble if they don't know where your heads at. 

CMO: Okay, this sounds promising. 

–
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CEO: We need to fix our Marketing!

New CMO: Why do you think it's not working?

CEO: We're spending too much. Our CAC is too expensive.

CMO: I hear you. What do you think we should do?

CEO: Definitely cut our Brand Marketing spend.

CMO: Got ya. What's our growth rate?

CEO: It's fantastic! 50% YoY.

CMO: Nice. And what was it before we started Brand Marketing? 

CEO: Like 40%

CMO: So we're growing more? 

CEO: Yeah but so much more expensively. 

CMO: How long has the Brand Marketing campaign been running?

CEO: Idk. Probably 1-2 months. 

CMO: And our customers buy 1x every 3 monthish?

CEO: Yeah, usually! 

CMO: Okay great. So I don't think we should change a thing yet.

CEO: What?! 

CMO: We need Brand Marketing to do it's thing. I'll dig in more but high level the impact of Brand Marketing hasn't start to hit. Our growth rates will go up even more and likely our CACs will come even further down than before. Here's what it'll look like compared to last year:

✅ Lower CAC
✅ Higher YOY growth
✅ Higher acquisition volume

CEO: So we've been doing the right thing?

CMO: Yeah. I believe so. Who was leading these efforts before me?

CEO: Jane Smith. Why?

CMO: I'd like to give her a raise.

–
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My next guest is who the world's biggest CMOs call on when they need to figure out their AI Marketing strategy. 

Nuno Leal, EY Studio+ CMO Practice Leader for the Americas, joined me to break down how the best CMOs are deploying AI and why marketing orgs are stuck in AI purgatory and.

We chat about:
⮑ Why the future of marketing needs 2 CMOs
⮑ How to show Gen AI ROI in months, not years
⮑ Why companies aren't ready for pattern changes

My favorite discussions:
⭐ The smartest CMOs are using the AI hype cycle to finally get CFO buy-in for the data infrastructure they've always needed. 

⭐ Gen AI is production-ready today in text based communications so that's where the quickest ROI is. 

Example: One of Nuno's clients saw 70–80% traffic growth from content they already had with zero ad spend by building an AI content system.

⭐ As agents take over transactions, consumers will spend more time evaluating brands emotionally. 

If you're not investing in brand, you're going to be invisible when it matters most.

If you're a CMO or growth leader trying to figure out where AI actually fits in your roadmap ( and how to prove ROI fast), this conversation is for you!

Nuno brings a rare 30,000-foot view of what's actually working across the world's largest marketing organizations right now. 

Tune in wherever you love listening to podcasts ( links in the comment).

Founder: Why do you say platform # are wrong? 

Me: Do a quick math exercise for me? 

Founder: For sure. What’s up? 

Me: Add up the acquisitions from Meta and Google. What is it? 

Founder: 350.

Me: And what does Stripe say? 

Founder: 308! Wtf?! 

Me: Haha don’t worry it’s not that bad. Meta and Google don’t always see the other channel's journey. They’re just giving credit to what they believe they drove. 

Founder: So what should we do?! 

Me: First, don’t trust any attribution blindly whether it’s platform or internal. 

Second, look at overall numbers. Are you happy with your LTV, CAC, and growth rates? 

Founder: Yes for the most part. 

Me: Okay so keep going for now. At some point you’ll want to care about incrementality but you don’t need to yet. You’re still likely incremental on these channels. 

Then, make sure you’re not making decisions purely on attribution. Use in platform numbers to optimize the platform and then overall blended numbers to steer the business.

Founder: Give me an example? 

Me: Yeah. Right now you’re spending $100 on Meta. Double it tomorrow. 

Give it a week and see what happens to your blended CAC. You can make some inferences there. Don’t purely trust platform . 

Founder: Ohhhh okay ! That makes sense. So platform for directional and blended for truth. 

Me: Yes but just remember blended doesn’t mean incremental but we’ll get there eventually.

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CEO: Got website feedback from a Marketing friend.

New CMO: Nice. Are they our target customer?

CEO: Hm... no not really. They've just got a lot of experience.

CMO: Do they work in or advise in our industry?

CEO: Well, not exactly, but broadly speaking kind of.

CMO: Have they worked with us before?

CEO: No. We were just chatting at dinner and then I asked about their thoughts so they took a quick look.

CMO: Okay. I really appreciate you sharing, but that "quick look" is not super helpful and actually it's going to hurt us.

CEO: Oh no. How so?

CMO: First, it makes me look defensive because 99% of the time I'll probably say no we're not going to do that. 

Second, our problems don't need "quick looks" . They're deeper rooted and holistic and it's my job to work through that. 

Third, everyone things they can do Marketing. Even Marketers. But there's too much context and understanding of our customers required and I need the space to just think and execute.

CEO: Oh damn. This all makes sense.

CMO: I know it's well intentioned and I'll create the space for us to have these chats and for you to share your opinions / ideas, but it's too early for that.

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CEO: You made it go viral! Let's do more.

CMO: It was awesome! But I didn't "make it go viral" 

CEO: What do you mean? We hit 3M impressions!

CMO: I know. I'm saying I specifically can't do it again.

CEO: Why? Can't you just replicate that success? 

CMO: That's the problem. You can't replicate virality.

CEO: Really? Why? We know what worked. Same creative style, same platform, same targeting.

CMO: Well, virality isn't a specific formula. It often feels like It's lightning in a bottle. I've had so many times where I thought it would go viral and it flopped and countless times when it was the opposite.

CEO: So we just got lucky?

CMO: Partially, yes, but don't make it sound like that. We can't always control timing, cultural moment, algorithm quirks. 

CEO: But we still made good creative. That has to count for something.

CMO: It does. Good creative is necessary but not sufficient for viral. You also need the perfect storm of shareability and timing.

CEO: What if we just make ten campaigns and hope one goes viral?

CMO: Then you're gambling, not marketing. And the other nine campaigns that don't go viral still cost money.

CEO: So viral is worthless?

CMO: No, it's amazing when it happens. But you can't build a marketing strategy around hoping for it.

CEO: What should we build strategy around?

CMO: A consistent content system. We study formats and ideas that have made others go viral, then show up regularly with quality content. Some will hit bigger than others. That's exactly what happened this time. 

CEO: So we're not chasing viral, we're just showing up consistently?

CMO: Exactly. Viral is the byproduct of doing good work consistently, not the goal. The companies that obsess over viral end up with spiky, unpredictable results.

CEO: That makes sense. Consistency over home runs.

CMO: Right. And when something does take off, we'll know how to capitalize on it because we have a system in place.

–
👋 I'm a former Uber Head of Marketing Science where I optimized $1Bn+ across Brand, Performance, and Lifecycle Marketing

🔔 Follow for Marketing Strategy & Science
♻️ Repost because sharing is caring
⬇️ Save to send to the C-suite later

By 30, I was a multimillionaire .

Here's the exact blueprint:

Step 1: Inherit $2.9 Billion dollars.

Step 2. Launch a 4 sided consumer marketplace.

Easy business model. Plus 4 sides is more upside.

Pun intended.

Step 3: Hire a CMO pre PMF. 

They'll help me find it.

Step 4: Fire CMO even though they said they were underresourced, under listened to, and I kept overruling their decisions . 

All I heard was excuses. 

Step 5: Set up Last Click attribution for all sides of the marketplace.

Clicks over d*cks. 

Step 6: Steer based on platform attribution because internal attribution was broken. 

OOH campaigns weren't showing up. 

Plus, Meta and Google only share numbers in the best interest of their customers. 

I know Mark, Sergey, and Larry personally.

They'd never lie to me. 

Step 7: Bid aggressively on Branded Search. ROAS was INSANE. Like 10x+.

Gotta spend money to make money. 

Step 8: Use revenue to model out LTV and focus only on 5 year LTV because that's where LTV / CAC was 3x. 

Margins are for the marginalized.

Pay back? You need to stay back. 

Step 9: Invest more money when low on runway because LTV / CAC was too good so I just needed to wait it out.

Step 10: Focus religiously on Perf Marketing. Brand isn't measurable. Perf is. We knew EXACTLY where every dollar was going. 

Step 11: Declare Bankruptcy after investing $2 Billion Dollars + at peak 2021 valuations because somehow I was never able to become profitable even though my attribution, LTV / CAC, and ROAS were all saying I was.

Still not sure what went wrong, but who cares?

I'm about to launch my AI based crypto web 3 trader on openclaw.

I'll let you now how it goes.

Tris J Burns 🔥

Data is largely viewed as a technical challenge rather than a business one by leadership teams across industries. This causes them to be disengaged from data’s potential as an effective business driver and to focus solely on technical initiatives and solutions.

Through my data leadership coaching and group facilitation, I help data leaders and leadership teams develop robust data-centric cultures to help them increase accuracy and velocity around decision making to maximise ROI from strategic initiatives.

I combine my extensive career experience as a Global Head of Data within a Fortune 500 alongside my experience as a consultant, coach and mentor to work with leaders to develop a company wide, data-centric culture that will ensure individuals and organisations are in the right place to maximise their growth potential.

I am deeply passionate about technology and startups and have been endorsed by Tech Nation as a Global Talent in Tech. I speak frequently at tech events and have experience as a founder having started two marketplace businesses.

Director

My toxic trait is that I don't believe data folks should field data requests from stakeholders - at all. 🫢

We should be close enough to the business that we preempt their data needs and participate proactively in the decision making process. We should know what data is needed and when, and bring it to the conversation.

Of course, we can and should answer questions as part of that conversation.

Bu the current service desk/dashboard factory dynamic we've created for ourselves is dumb and produces little, if any, real value. 

It also excludes us from the wider conversation, because once we've provided the data we're rarely needed any further.    

In an ideal world, we'd already operate like this. But alas, we live in the current world and if we stopped taking data requests today we'd all get fired tomorrow. No bueno.

What we should be doing today is implementing processes and behaviours that allow us to crawl slowly out from under the burden of the service desk role, so that we can dedicate time to becoming the influential business partners I described above. 

We need guardrails and parameters for what we will accept and what we won't accept, with VALUE and strategy as the core components of our framework. 

I'd love to know what you think of my intake framework below 

👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

----------
Hi I'm Tris 🔥 and I help data leaders become more strategic and influential in their organisations. If you'd like to discover how I can help you, why not grab a free 30 mins with me to discuss by heading here: https://lnkd.in/gb6CQYCZ

★ Strategy & Data Leadership Coach | Helping leaders maximise the potential of their careers!

A decision flowchart titled "Should we action this data request?" by Tris J Burns. Starting from a new stakeholder data request, the chart asks five sequential yes/no questions: (1) Is the business outcome clearly defined? If no, pause and reframe the request. (2) Does this meaningfully move a priority business goal across revenue, cost, risk, or strategic performance? If no, deprioritise or decline. (3) Will this lead to a concrete decision or action? If no, re-scope to drive action. (4) Can we deliver this with current data and capability? If no, agree a new scope or roadmap milestone. (5) Does this outrank existing committed work? If no, schedule for later prioritisation. If yes to all five, proceed.

Be honest, did anyone open your latest dashboard?

And the one before that? 

Dashboards feel like productive work because they're highly tangible. You look at and interact with them. They're easy to show off to people and they require a lot of hard work. It can be very satisfying to produce dashboards. 

The problem is that for most dashboards, that hard work is often - all for nothing. 

Your dashboard can't provide value if it is not looked at. 

It can't help someone make a decision or better understand the challenges their business is facing if they don't open it. 

When I hear about data teams that have built and maintain hundreds (or thousands) of dashboards, I can't help but wonder:

What has been the opportunity cost of all that work....? 

There are better ways for us to provide value. 

There are better ways for us to interact with the business. 

(I talk about these ALL the time)

Dashboards CAN have a role to play. But it's a much smaller role than the one we're giving it.

While you’re here, check out my data leadership newsletter, Strategies For Effective Data Lesdership. 

Here’s the link: https://lnkd.in/gdzmF_-v

Since I quite my full time corporate life, I'm often asked how I make a living working as a solo operator in the data space. So let me tell you... 

(Don't worry - I won't be so cringe as to include any £$¥ figures.)

Here goes:

🔹 1:1 Data Leadership coaching/advisory.

My main source of income. I help data leaders become more influential and strategic in their roles and organisations. This is underscored by my strong belief that data is a business discipline rather than a technical one: 
https://lnkd.in/gb6CQYCZ


🔹 Group coaching for data teams. 

I call this my Data Team Accelerator. I working with data teams to help them become strategic partners to the business, strengthen their influence and communication skills and increase their commercial impact: 
https://lnkd.in/evGh99t4


🔹 Strategies For Effective Data Leadership

My humble newsletter does some decent pocket change - and it's growing. Anyone is welcome to sponsor my publication (other newsletters, podcasts, agencies and consultants, SaaS products etc.) and you can easily book slots via my self-service site: https://tally.so/r/EkkeAX


🔹 Business & Data Strategy Workshops

New in 2026 - so I've not technical made any income from this yet but I'm very excited about it. It's a structured 2 day workshop to help data leaders and their teams align on what matters most for the business and to build a plan: https://lnkd.in/e3hGzyE5 

If anyone would like to help me pilot this, I'll do you an epic deal too!

That's about at the moment, save a few side projects that I get involved with from time to time. 

Oh and the hat? 

I can't stand this phrase: "I turn complex data into actionable business insights"

Why do I hate it? Producing "business insights" is only have the job!

“Focus on delivering data requests.”

"That's your job, mate."

The odds are often stacked against data leaders. And that’s what many of us are told every time we pushed for more strategic involvement.

It's a common theme in the conversations I have with my data leadership coaching clients...

Their ambition? 

To play a bigger role in shaping company strategy.

Their reality? 

Running a glorified service desk:

🔹 Endless ad-hoc requests
🔹 A team stuck in reactive mode
🔹 No bandwidth for strategic work
 
They knew this isn’t just a challenge for their team, its a roadblock for their own career growth. How could they step into a strategic leadership role when their job is framed as purely operational?

So together with my clients, we build a plan to break the cycle.

✅ Repositioning the team.
 We shift the team’s narrative from a reactive function to a business partner. One that proactively drives value, not just fulfils requests.

✅ Creating boundaries.
We establish prioritisation frameworks so they weren’t drowning in low-value work, freeing up capacity for more strategic projects.

✅ Owning the conversation.
 Instead of waiting for leadership buy-in, they start influencing discussions, showing how data could shape company priorities, not just support them.

The shift is often clear:

💡 Less firefighting, more high-impact work.
💡 A team seen as a strategic asset, not just a service function.
💡 A clearer career path towards senior leadership.

If you’re stuck in reactive mode, constantly serving requests instead of shaping strategy, you won’t grow into the leader you want to be.

⭐️ If you want to step out of operational chaos and into strategic leadership, let’s talk. DM me or book a free 1:1 chat here: https://lnkd.in/gb6CQYCZ

Let’s make the shift happen together!

A two-panel meme. In the top panel, a cartoon figure labelled "Data leaders" happily reaches toward a large yellow balloon labelled "Contributing strategically." In the bottom panel, the same figure is being grabbed and pulled back by a large pink creature labelled "Ad hoc data work," visibly straining to reach the same balloon.

How does this tweet from Sam Altman make you feel?

it's giving me serious Bond villain vibes.... specifically Tomorrow Never Dies where the main bad guy, Elliot Carver says "It seems you have outlived your contract" and promptly kills his henchman tech genius, Gupta.

It's got that real smarmy, "we'll take it from here, thanks" ickiness to it...

Just me? Ok nevermind...

👉🏼 While you’re here, it would mean the world to me if you could check out my data leadership newsletter. 

Next edition hits tomorrow: https://lnkd.in/gdzmF_-v

Tweet from CEO of OpenAI that reads: "I have so much gratitude to people who wrote extremely complex software character-by-character. It already feels difficult to remember how much effort it really took.

Thanks you for getting us to this point."

Decentralised data team structures provide a unique challenge for data leaders. 

When you're operating centrally it's a hell of a lot easier to rally the troops around things like metric definitions, business logic and tooling etc. 

But when you're dealing with shadow data teams and otherwise decentralised models, the whole thing can become very difficult to manage.

It's a common challenge for my data leadership coaching clients and a central part of many conversations. 

Essentially, there 2 ways to approach this:

1️⃣ Via a Centre of Excellence

2️⃣ Via Communities of Practice

So what are these?

🏆 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲
A Centre of Excellence is a formal governing body that owns definitions, standards, and decision rights across the enterprise. It exists to create consistency, reduce ambiguity, and ensure that what must remain aligned actually does.

👥 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲
A Community of Practice is a peer network of data practitioners who regularly share challenges, surface edge cases, and improve how work is done across domains. It exists to spread learning, strengthen relationships, and keep standards grounded in operational reality.

Do you operate any of these across your data function?

Both of these approaches address some of the challenges of distributed data teams, but each comes with its own set of problems. 

The best outcome IMO is a hybrid of both. 

And that's exactly what I'm writing about in my n_wsletter that goes out tomorrow.

If you're interested in this topic but not yet subscribed, here's the link: https://lnkd.in/gtn6ymPj

Quitting a well paid data leadership job to go into business for yourself is about as stupid as it sounds...

Lucky for me, I'm just stupid enough 🤪 

In my last role, I was the Global Head of Data & Analytics where I led data initiatives at a US$1Bn+ tech company.

Leaving 3 years ago to set up my own business allowed me to double down on the parts of the job I loved, while leaving behind the parts I was less interested in. 

So what did I love about the job?

The people challenge. 

I loved:

💙 Supporting my team to be the best they could be. 
💙 Leading and educating the business around data.
💙 Working with other to solve business problems.
💙 Watching others win.

Lucky for me, these are the things I get to do everyday in my practice as a data leadership coach. 

Everyday, I help data leaders across the world become more influential and strategic in their roles, as they become more confident and respected data leaders. 

I've worked with over 70 clients globally!

It's an immense joy and.... I LOVE IT. 

If you're struggling with your data leadership career and would like to find ways to love it more, then grab some time with me for a free 1:1 chat. 

You can find time with me here: https://lnkd.in/gwNChJVf

(Also, ask me about how I can help you secure funding from your company)

👉🏼 P.S. Don't quit your job - work with me to make it better!

--
Hi, I'm Tris🔥  I write about strategies for becoming a more effective data leader.

Me standing in a field of daffodils at Kew Garden in London.

I'm wearing a navy blue gillet and a dark green hoodie with Wayfairer sunglasses on. 

The number one data leadership challenge I encounter? 

90% of the data leaders I speak to struggle with this...

It's the data request intake process. 

Folks are literally overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of the requests they receive. 

For most of them, it's seriously impacts their enjoyment of their role in data. 

Quite a few have told me its the top reason they'd 'consider moving' on from data.

Some have described the feeling to me like they're drowning in requests.

Everything else they hope to achieve in their roles is impossible if they don't first get their data request intake process under control.

Most just need a better intake process.

And this is what I help them with.

The purpose of a good intake system isn't to simply improve the way requests are made - it's purpose is to:

🎟️ Standardise requests
🎟️ Prioritise accordingly
🎟️ Delegate the work easily
🎟️ Reject strategically irrelevant work 
🎟️ Collect data on team performance and impact

If your current process isn't working for you, your team or your business, then this needs to be a high priority for you to fix. 

Without fixing it, you're severely limiting your chances of having a greater and more positive impact on the business. 

If you need help taking a look at this - I can help.

Hit me up for a free 1:1 coaching intro call via my profile page.

I'm obviously a strong believer in data leadership's role as a strategic enabler. 

I believe with full conviction that data is a business discipline (with technical components - like most modern business areas)

The problem with my point of view on this however, is that MUCH of the hiring that goes on around data leadership doesn't share this perspective. 

When it comes to data leaders, hiring execs treat it as a purely technical field and only focus on candidates that tick the boxes on an exhaustive list of technical capabilities and tooling experience. 

BUT - that all changes about 12-18 months down the road, when the exec teams turns to the data leader and says:

"Show me the money, man"

"We've invested in all this tech, where's my ROI?"

Well, there isn't any. 

You hired a purely technical person to deliver a business outcome.

And therein lies the Data Leadership Paradox.

👉🏼 Thanks for stopping by. If you're not yet receiving my weekly data leadership newsletter, here is how to change that! 

https://lnkd.in/gtn6ymPj

In my experience, AI is spoken about very differently on LinkedIn than it is on Twitter. 

Obviously the algorithms are unique to me, but it seems that on LinkedIn there is a stronger sense of scepticism towards the threats from AI than there is on Twitter .

One explanation is that LinkedIn folks are usually in corporate roles where their professional exposure to AI's abilities is more limited to their company's risk appetite, and enforced limitations on AI's usage.

The folks I follow on Twitter are typically independent digital creators/solopreneurs working on their own projects with free reign over what tools they experiment with. 

But whether the change is existential or not, change in one form or another is most certainly coming (if not here already).

Now would NOT be the time to become and excellent dashboard builder. 

If were a data leader TODAY, these are the skills I'd be laser focused on:

🔹 AI Fluency
🔹 Business Fluency 
🔹 Narrative Communication
🔹 Cross-Functional Influnce
🔹 Strategic Thinking & Literacy
🔹 Emotional Intelligence and Resilience

Do you agree with me or am I getting too far ahead of myself? 

Are there some skills missing from this list do you think?

Hi I'm Tris 🔥 I help data leaders and their teams to become more strategic and influential inside their organisations. I'm hyper focused on helping them become seen as a value add - not costs centre so they can survive a little longer in the coming AI storm!

If you'd like to have a chat about how I can help, set up time with me for a free 30 min conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gb6CQYCZ

I haven't forgotten my new years resolution/theme: BE BOLD.

This year my goal is to be bold AF.

One way I plan on being bolder in 2026 is this 👇🏻

This year, I'm enabling ANYONE to be a guest sponsor for my newsletter: Strategies For Effective Data Leadership.

But I'm doing it in a cool way.... (cool by my standards)

👉🏼 Each week, I'm selling sponsorship slots that increase by £15 weekly. 

Last week was £105, this week is £120 and so on throughout the year.

Once a week is gone, it is gone gone. 

My newsletter goes out weekly to senior data leaders inside some of the world’s most recognisable organisations across Europe, the UK and North America.

❓ Who's buying?

So far, it has mainly been solo-datapreneurs and data consultancy folks. 

Which makes sense seeing as my newsletter audience is mostly made up of senior data people across UK, Europe and N.A.

Truth is, this is available to anyone who wants to get seen by the right people. 

🔹 Data consultants
🔹 LinkedIn creators
🔹 Newsletter writers
🔹 Coaches/Facilitators
🔹 SaaS Product People

Head here to take advantage now: https://tally.so/r/EkkeAX

Also, if you check that link you'll get all the inside scoop on my newsletter metrics 🕵️‍♂️

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