PT Toronto #26: Mitchell Gillespie (Director of Product Management at Wave HQ) shares his talk “Qualitative Intelligence: The art of qualitative data turned powerful insight." Intelligence is defined as "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge." When it comes to leveraging qualitative insight the difficult and consistent fallacy of any person acting as the Voice of the Customer is a struggle to successfully "acquire" and "apply" without hours of tedious, painful, and isolated effort. Every audience member will leave the talk understanding how to assess/score their organization's ability to acquire and apply qualitative insight by reflecting on 4 critical dimensions (with recommended approaches): 1. People & Teams Is your cross-functional organization participating in building qualitative insight? 2. Strategic Frameworks Is your cross-functional organization using appropriate strategic frames of thinking to parse and isolate qualitative insight? 3. Automation & Facilitation Is your cross-functional organization facilitating people's ability to easily capture, analyze, and share insight? 4. Tooling Is your cross-functional organization using the appropriate tools to empower everyone in the company? (e.g. NomNom Insights) Throughout this discussion Mitch will highlight his ideological belief in the power of qualitative insight, some hypotheses being experimented at Wave, and some examples of success he's experienced. Also, if you haven't caught on already, you'll also leave with the appreciation of how building qualitative intelligence is a team sport. Product departments alone (incl. product design) could never achieve optimal results without the participation of many other cross-functional peers. Mitch is inspired by engaging with people who are passionate about making an impact in any shape or form. He believes internal optimism, grit, and resilience is critical to succeed in today's digital product industry. Currently, as the Director of Product Management at Wave, Mitch is responsible for supporting & sharpening the organization’s ability to deeply empathize and collectively solve the needs of the brave small business owner. As the number of competitive entrants grows Wave (and the product group specifically) is acutely focused on optimizing the strengths and motivations of every employee as a competitive advantage. Mitch has taught numerous 10-week cohorts at BrainStation in product management because he thoroughly enjoys every light bulb moment observed. When Mitch is not raving about Wave, customer’s pains, or the role of product managers you will likely find him lost in the backcountry of Algonquin Park or some beautiful mountain range.