(US and Canada) Faker Zouaoui, Asurion Chief Analytics Officer, speaks with Jason Masker, Field Chief Technology Officer, Stratascale, an SHI Company, about measuring outcomes with KPIs, driving innovation, and finding and retaining talent.

Zouaoui says that it is important to have an oversight of all work in order to measure it even before starting the work. He adds that most of the initiatives are tied to one or more KPIs (key performance indicators) or key business metrics, like improving the customer satisfaction rating or increasing customer retention.

His team works closely with the business units to measure outcomes through extensive experimentation. Zouaoui elaborates that the ultimate success is achieved through having the highest impact or the highest usage. He adds that the learnings from less successful experiments are equally valuable because they help in refining hypotheses and rethinking next steps.

Sharing his approach to innovation, Zouaoui says that their business counterparts know the requirements and can describe them, but sometimes they may have opportunities or problems that need help addressing. The data scientists then deep dive into the business and try to identify ways to leverage skills, tools, and technologies, and prescribe actions in real-time to influence a KPI.

Further, Zouaoui speaks about the key to success in finding and retaining talent. He believes the scarcity of talent is turning around in recent years with a lot of options available for students at academic institutions that do continuous learning and provide tools. He mentions that the data literacy programs at Asurion are helping refine skills and providing additional tools. However, he indicates that the challenge now is in competing for the best talent and retaining them.

Concluding, Zouaoui says that it is the attributes of the organization’s culture that help it retain talent. He mentions three that Asurion has. First, Asurion’s model is more of a hub with spokes in the way it organizes teams in the business. Second, the diversity of teams is measured from different angles. And third, Asurion not only rewards successes but also failures.