2022-23 Board of Director Nominees

As Google’s Chief Analytics Evangelist, author, and instructor I have devoted my career to analytics. I am positive I can help build world-class programs for the Digital Analytics Association.

I have built and managed several successful analytics organizations. As Director of Analytics at Google, I led the largest analytics organization in Google’s global network: a 70+ person team of analysts and measurement specialists supporting a $10 billion media sales organization. At Draftfcb I led the largest insights practice in its global network – a 40+ person team charged with using data to improve the Agency’s marketing programs.

In addition, I am the Executive Sponsor for two Google DEI programs designed to provide analytics opportunities to underrepresented communities. For Google's Data Analyst Certification program, I led the design of an analytics curriculum to provide students with job-ready skills. For Google's Data Analyst Apprenticeship program, I lead a program to develop inexperienced future analysts into job-ready analytics professionals following a 20-month Google internship.

Finally, I am the author of "Digital Marketing Analytics: In Theory And In Practice" and I have over 10 years of experience teaching future analytics leaders at the University of Chicago, Notre Dame, University of Illinois, and Northeastern.

What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?

I am confident that my experience as an analytics leader, practitioner, and instructor will help me make major contributions in many areas. But one unique area of contribution I can make is in the DAA’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

As a member of a Google sector’s DEI Council, I worked to design impactful DEI initiatives anchored in the core objectives of awareness, action, and practice. These programs included the sector's DEI allyship program, DEI onboarding materials for new hires, DEI Manager Workshops, and Neurodiversity Inclusion training to equip Googlers with the tools needed to create a safe and supportive environment for Neurodiverse thinkers.

I sit on the Board of an organization named Above The Stigma whose mission is to empower all individuals and communities to feel safe in talking about their mental health journey with pride, perseverance, and empathy.

Most importantly, as a person with autism, I am acutely aware of the challenges some people face today. This has driven my demonstrable commitment to DEI concerns. I was this year's Keynote Speaker at Google's "Tech On The Spectrum," a Neurodiversity awareness summit, and I am a frequent featured speaker on issues of diversity and inclusion.
 

How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?

I believe that my experience as a strategic advisor and educator makes me posed to advance the use of data.

I have served as a key strategic business partner to senior leadership across a wide variety of teams to influence business strategies, resource allocations, and investment decisions. In my current role at Google, I am developing and advancing Google’s thought leadership as the author of several whitepapers focused on critical analytics topics. As Director of Analytics, I actively played this role across a wide variety of Google clients contributing to double-digit year-on-year sales growth every year in the role.

My deep experience as an educator preparing future analytics leaders at some of the world's top graduate programs will also allow me to understand and improve the digital world through professional development and community.
 

Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?

Should I be fortunate enough to earn a two-year appointment, I would like to achieve new heights for the DAA in several key areas.

First, I would like to strengthen the DAA’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. My direct personal and professional experience with DEI is considerable and will help me make significant contributions.

Next, I would like to expand the DAA’s educational efforts. My experience as an educator makes me uniquely qualified to contribute to the development and delivery of educational workshops, materials, and other activities.

Finally, I would like to extend the DAA’s recognition to analysts throughout the world. My global business scope and significant connections with students who attend US graduate programs from every corner of the world can help me establish and raise the DAA’s profile.
 

Lynn is a strategic analytics leader with more than 20 years’ experience in data analytics, digital transformation, and strategic business planning for Fortune 100 companies. Highly analytical and skilled at using data to drive strategy and business decisions, understand customer behaviors, improve customer experiences, optimize business performance and identify marketing opportunities. Proven track record of building best-in-class analytics teams, recruiting and developing data analytics talent, and motivating team members to achieve business objectives. Passionate about helping the business leaders connect the dots by transforming data and information into insights and recommendations that result in better decision-making and improved business results.

Core Qualifications & Strengths:

• Analytics thought leader with a track record of creating a strategic vision to enable data-driven decision making
• Ability to identify data trends and develop analytic solutions
• Ability to analyze, interpret and identify actionable insights from various data sources
• Ability to drive change throughout an organization
• Proven leader adept at leveraging individual team member skill sets and talents
• Ability to enhance collaboration among team members and across business units
• Effective communicator and influencer across all levels of the organization
• Proven ability to adapt to changing technologies and business priorities

Current role: Director, Digital Analytics (Ally Financial)

Previous Roles:

• Director, Digital Analytics (Norwegian Cruise Lines)
• SVP | Director, Marketing Technology and Analytics (U.S. Bank)
• Director, Digital Intelligence & Optimization (Best Buy)

Industry Involvement:

• DAA Board Member (2020-2022)
• Member of Executive Committee
• Community Task Force Board Liaison
• Chapter Leader for the local chapter of Digital Analytics Association in the Twin Cities
• Digital Analytics Hub Huddle Leader (2016, 2018)
• Member of Forrester Research Customer Insights and Analytics Council
• Adobe Analytics Customer Advisory Board
• Experian Consumer Insights Client Advisory Board
• Hitwise Client Advisory Board
• xChange Huddle Leader (2012-2014)

What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?

The major contribution I can bring to DAA and its membership is my track record and leadership in developing and evolving analytics capabilities and teams. And it all starts with the people. My goal as an Analytics Leader has always been to hire smart people and get out of their way. Business moves fast, so I must enable the team to make decisions and not be afraid of mistakes. I also know that if I invest my time and energy in their development that they will move on to bigger roles elsewhere. It is a risk I am willing to take to grow new leaders who will amaze when given the chance. For me, it has always been about the people.

How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission? I can help the DAA meet the objectives of its mission by first and foremost listening to the Community. What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? What is getting in the way of analytics success? Understanding what they need will help in developing new and/or refining existing programs, research, and events. One area I am very much interested in is the update of the DAA Competency Framework. I was involved in the creation of the original framework and found the process as well as output extremely valuable when developing job descriptions. Not only has the digital analytics industry evolved since the original framework was developed, my perspectives from being in a new industry (moved from Retail to Financial Services) and expanding my responsibilities beyond digital analytics to include direct mail and digital targeting, and the competencies to succeed in Analytics have evolved as well.

Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective? Just as Analytics teams will continually evolve over the next two years to meet the demands of the business and technology changes, so must the DAA evolve. In my experience, Analytics teams are no longer doing just digital analytics. Many data topics are being integrated to complete the 360-view of the customer for marketing purposes as well as managing operations and improving the customer experience across all touchpoints. Companies will continue to invest in digital transformation activities that are focused on improving the customer experience, identifying monetization opportunities, and exploiting new data sources. The analytics landscape continues to grow and change, and just as it did in 2012 when the Web Analytics Association chose to update its name to Digital Analytics Association, the time may be upon us to undergo another re-branding to again reflect the ‘full gamut of the data analytics field’ the DAA strives to support. In addition, while digital data will continue to be important data in the toolbox, customer privacy regulation and the eventual death of cookies, will result in the data being less valuable. Now is the time for DAA to seek feedback from its membership on potential name changes. Possible updates to the Digital Analytics Association name could be Customer Analytics or Data and Analytics. DAA could still be used for Data and Analytics minimizing the impact to brand awareness and possibly save some money on re-branding efforts. In addition to evolving the name, as a DAA Board Member, I can provide thought-leadership as the conversation shifts from analytics technologies to building a culture of analytics through data literacy programs focused on outcomes and business benefits. Analytics teams are challenged with determining the value of data and analytics, and providing proven methods for building analytics cultures and data literacy programs would benefit even the most established Analytics programs. I would provide the members with best practices that leverage research from industry consulting (Gartner, Forrester or McKinsey, etc.) as well as input from Analytics practitioners who have built a culture of analytics and/or have established data literacy programs.

In 2003 when I began my career in search marketing, it wasn’t long before I realized that I was a far better analyst than I was a client-schmoozer. I could care less if my client ranked #1 in Google--it mattered more to me that their increased rankings were contributing to meaningful business impact such as sales, conversions, phone calls, etc. This conversion focus set me apart from my peers early on in my career as I fully embraced analytics as my calling. And I haven’t looked back.

Now, almost two decades later, I’m blessed to have been able to make a career out of my passion for linear thinking and my drive to always ask the so-what questions.

Over my career, I have been able to serve clients such as Chiquita, Ford, Radisson Hotel, and Siemens, providing digital marketing and analytics solutions and driving qualified conversions to their businesses. I’ve spent the last 5+ years as VP, Digital Strategy and Analytics at Mower (www.mower.com), a leading independent marketing agency with 9 locations throughout the U.S. There, my responsibility was to oversee the agency’s cross-office digital marketing team, and develop the analytics products necessary to sustain our position as a forward-thinking agency. And the DAA has been instrumental in my success. I was able to grow the team, expand our offerings and lead the adoption of a major BI tool that enables advanced analytics and digital transformation

My DAA membership has been more than influential in my career growth, and I cannot say enough about the wealth of support it has afforded me. Equally important is the fact that I am committed to the DAA as well. My journey with the DAA began In 2017 when I was asked to represent the DAA as its Women in Analytics keynote speaker at the last-ever eMetrics Summit. Later that year, I volunteered for and subsequently served on the University of British Columbia’s Content Review Task Force, helping the DAA organization revise the digital marketing coursework provided by the university. Since then, I’ve been blessed to join the DAA board where I’ve served as the liaison for the Education taskforce, Women in Analytics initiative, the 2020 Symposia project, and a resource to the marketing team for consultation on marketing channels and strategies. I’ve served these roles with a deep commitment and would love the opportunity to continue to see the DAA move forward in these initiatives.

I believe that to live is to change--and I recently left my corporate career and entered academia full-time. It was a HUGE change for me, but I needed to start saying yes to spending more time with my family--and yes to democratizing the digital analytics field for future generations. I love that through the case studies and open discussions I share in class, I'm able to bring diversity, equity and inclusion into the classroom so that students (MBAs and undergrads)--regardless of their backgrounds--can appreciate each other and take their learnings back to their workplaces and their inner circles. I love pushing the envelope with them and making them really think about how marketing and analytics intersect with diversity, society, sustainability, ethics, and just about everything in-between. In fact, I’ve been an adjunct professor since 2012, and in that role, I’ve helped introduce many new digital analytics professionals into our field. I’ve been inspired by them as I’ve coached and mentored them--and I’m especially proud of the women and the people of color who have joined our field after being students in my classroom.

Through my continued involvement with the DAA board, I hope to continue to bring an innovative perspective to a STEM field that's often seen as complex and complicated, drive up membership, and diversify our base.

What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?
Build upon the DAA’s commitment to inclusion by helping to grow racial diversity at both the member and board levels. It goes without saying that diversity, equity and inclusion are important tenets to any organization. The DAA has done an incredibly notable job of building up gender diversity. I would like to keep the momentum going by putting a focus on the racial minority segment as well. If reelected to the board, I will work with my peers to assess the DAA’s penetration with people of color, and based on what we learn, develop strategies for sustained diversification and inclusion. For example, I would love to explore how we can leverage partnerships with urban communities and perhaps inner-city colleges and high schools to elevate awareness of the DAA while expanding the diversity of our member base.

How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?

The DAA’s mission of advancing the use of data to understand and improve the digital world through professional development and community resonates deeply with me. As a relatively young person who has advanced professionally within the analytics field, I know how important professional development and networks are to growing in this field. As a member of the DAA board, I can bring leadership and best practices to the young analytics professionals within the DAA by forming and engaging in groups and communities where we can all learn, network, kick imposter syndrome to the curb, and become stronger in our work. I also think the mid- and senior-level analyst is a critical group for the DAA. I like to think that I fall within that category and will be personally motivated to help the DAA organization develop effective “safe places” where this group can air day-to-day challenges, and get help from our peers.
 

Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?

Continue working with the Education task force to clarify and define the DAA’s education offerings. One of the tenets of the DAA’s mission is professional development—and education is at the core of that. Over the years, the DAA has offered various educational services to our member base. With so many online courses available elsewhere to members now, we need to identify and leverage a niche where the DAA can add the most value. I’m committed to helping the Education task force continue to explore partnerships and opportunities that make us a go-to resource for analytics education.

Advance the DAA’s reach and its mentorship program. The DAA has been a well-kept secret for a long time. Membership has grown steadily yet slowly, and awareness of the DAA continues to be low across various groups within our target market (be that non-marketing analysts e.g. PR practitioners, data scientists, or anything in-between). We need to define exactly who our ideal customers are, then hyper-target them through specific awareness advertising to drive up membership. I am looking forward to continuing to be a resource for the DAA’s marketing team (as I have been) to ensure that we continue to challenge ourselves, put forward break-through creativity, define our perfect customer avatars, and track/optimize our campaigns for razor-sharp performance.

Build stronger networks between the DAA and the academia segment. Since 2012, I have spent part of my career teaching digital marketing and analytics to college-aged undergraduate and graduate students. And this year, I’ve fully leaned into my calling and made a full-time professorship my career. In today’s world, many colleges are trying to patch together “digital marketing” and “analytics” degrees and certifications, but many are unsure of how to go about it—and even more of them are unaware that there is an association that can be a partner to them in the process. If reelected to the board, I will work with my peers to determine paths to effective integration with colleges across the world. The more awareness we can build for DAA within the academia segment, the more members we can grow, as students, professors and administrators begin to see the value that the DAA offers to the field.

Reenergize or create a program that allows DAA members to give back to the world at large through pro bono analytics work. What good is data if we can’t use it for good? It’s no secret that the field of analytics is daunting to many businesses, and non-profits/NGOs/humanitarian groups are no exception. As a member of the DAA board, I will work with others to assess the opportunity for establishing a means by which DAA members can meaningfully offer pro bono work to organizations that would otherwise be unable to afford such services. I *think* such a program may have been created by the DAA in the past – so as a board member, I will work with my peers to uncover what worked, what didn’t, and how we can use those learnings to develop something that delivers and helps those who need it most.

I hold a BS in Information Systems and an MBA from BYU. While earning my MBA, I was part of a team that competed in the Omniture Web Analytics Competition (now called the Adobe Analytics Challenge), ultimately winning 1st place. We were able to identify new insights regarding loyal segments that shifted marketing spend, resulting in higher ROI and thicker-margin AOV. Adobe recruited me, and I joined the company in 2010 as a product marketing manager in the Analytics group. I was given go-to-market responsibility for SiteCatalyst eight months later, and then over the analytics portfolio of products a year later. I have spent the last twelve years in the Analytics business and am now Director of Product Marketing for Adobe Analytics products. In addition to having deep knowledge about Adobe and its analytics products, I am intimately familiar with other analytics tools and the analytics market in general. I work with several of the top brands in the world regarding their analytics use cases, challenges, and opportunities on a weekly basis. Additionally, I work closely with third party Analyst firms such as Forrester and Gartner on reports and thought leadership, and speak publicly on Adobe’s behalf regarding analytics.

What major contribution will you bring to DAA and its membership?

One of things that my team and I at Adobe are known for is developing successful programs or franchises, if you will. We ideate, plan, bootstrap and execute new initiatives in the analytics business, largely to great success. These programs then get copied or mandated by leadership across multiple lines of business. In addition to programs already mentioned such as the Adobe Analytics Challenge, Higher Education Curriculum, and Diversity Outreach, I have pioneered changes to Adobe Summit tracks (Analytics is consistently #1), and digital maturity assessment. Additionally, my model for competitive intelligence has become the standard across the DX business and is utilized by groups from sales to business development to executives. This is a skill that I can contribute to the DAA. As we look forward to more exciting changes coming to our market, I believe I can help the DAA pivot quickly with novel ideas that can be executed and adopted by the membership.

How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting the objectives of the DAA Mission?

One key area that I can assist with is community and new DAA memberships. I have had responsibility for the Adobe Analytics Challenge over the last ten years, and during that time have been able to grow the program from approximately 150 participating students from 2 US-based universities to nearly 10,000 students from 700 schools across the globe, partnering with brands such as Nike and Disney. As part of this growth, my team and I have developed curriculum materials and are partnering with several universities in ongoing development and adoption. This program has given Adobe credibility to provide expert guidance and opportunities for students entering analytics roles (hundreds of students have taken analytics roles through this program, many of which had no prior analytics training). I believe there are dovetail opportunities for the DAA and this program, such as content/curriculum dev, professional development, diversity/inclusion, promotion and community involvement – to name a few. Additionally, my role as an executive for the Analytics business at Adobe ensures high-level participation and sponsorship to assist the DAA in meeting its objectives.

Where do you think the DAA should be in the next two years? How can you specifically assist DAA with meeting that objective?

The DAA has been a bedrock of the analyst community during unprecedented digital disruption and is helping to advance equality and inclusion across the industry. The mission and success embodied by the DAA is something that I want to see expand. In 2012, the organization embraced the changing technology landscape to become the DAA. Evolution continues, we are now in an inherently omnichannel world. New consumer behaviors and expectations require new analysis and metrics, such as omnichannel, sequenced journeys, and CLV. Complicated market forces such as cookie deprecation and regulations have left many brands seeking guidance on consented, first-party relationships. The DAA can be a leading voice with thought leadership, best practices, community expansion and strategic influence as data-driven decision-making and actioning touch virtually every part of an organization. I believe my role at Adobe can support the DAA as a vanguard through the next few years of this accelerating change. I also believe I can help accelerate the social mission of the DAA. For instance, I have also made diversity a top priority for the Adobe Analytics Challenge, including dedicated HBCU inclusion (and internship / full-time opportunities), resulting in over 60% of finalist students representing women and minorities.