Amy Hughes Email and Phone Number

At Trane Technologies, as the Director of Market & Customer Insights since 2020, I've led the integration of analytics, insights, and user experience teams amid an organizational restructuring, demonstrating adaptability by expanding my leadership to over 14 members. I spearheaded efforts to transform our team into a central source of actionable intelligence, delivering deep insights into market trends, customer behaviors, and competitive dynamics, thus empowering strategic decision-making. My role involved uncovering opportunities to enhance margins and customer experience, establishing a formalized process for evaluating and streamlining research requests across the business, and ensuring strategic alignment with our objectives.I've administered a $1M+ insights budget, effectively managing over 50 annual projects, and commanded remote teams of varying sizes to ensure effective collaboration. Initiatives under my leadership include establishing a monthly customer panel for direct engagement and insights gathering and collaborating with product teams to identify and address knowledge gaps, culminating in a comprehensive 3-year roadmap for leadership.Key achievements during my tenure include supporting the Commercial HVAC Business Unit, the largest at Trane, as the primary resource for insights, transitioning data management to Google Cloud, and developing a Salesforce Add-On that contributed to a $500,000 revenue increase. I also pioneered the inaugural AI Foundry project, helping executives connect with answers to business questions faster. My efforts in budget management and team leadership have been instrumental in maintaining precision in budgeting and fostering a culture of continuous development and professional growth within my team, significantly elevating manager effectiveness scores and outperforming company averages.

During my tenure as Director of Analytics & Process at Ingersoll Rand-Trane from 2019 to 2020, I tackled the critical issue of poor data quality head-on by bringing on board an analyst, resulting in transformative improvements in data integrity and a marked increase in the effectiveness of our data-driven initiatives. My responsibilities included establishing a standard workflow and meeting cadence within the Product Management organization, significantly streamlining processes to achieve enhanced strategic alignment. I developed and implemented a MarTech strategy for the Commercial HVAC marketing organization, focusing on optimizing technology integration to improve marketing outcomes significantly. Recognizing the need for a focused approach toward data analytics, I spearheaded the creation and implementation of a vision for a startup Data & Analytics group, setting a strategic direction that would underpin our future initiatives.

As the Market Insights Leader at Ingersoll Rand, I significantly expanded our internal survey panel from 800 to 5,000 participants, drastically improving our customer data collection's cost efficiency and effectiveness. My role was multifaceted, encompassing the prioritization of tasks, managing urgent demands, and directly contributing to project delivery, adopting a player-coach mentality. I successfully led over 25 quantitative and qualitative research projects annually, fostering innovation and deepening market understanding. My strategic initiatives broadened insights for Ingersoll Rand's SBUs and customers, increasing loyalty through precise information delivery. A critical project was coordinating a diverse customer panel for bi-monthly online surveys, gathering continuous feedback and insights. I created a quarterly newsletter to share pivotal research findings with executives and managed a comprehensive database, streamlining access to over 200 historical research projects. This significantly enhanced our knowledge retrieval process. Strategically aligning research requests with corporate objectives was central to my role, ensuring projects directly contributed to organizational success. I managed the Custom Research team's annual budget, maximizing research impact and fostering sustainable growth. My collaboration with internal teams simplified complex research findings into actionable insights, bolstering strategic decision-making and operational effectiveness.I played a crucial role in executing over 7,000 surveys annually through the Trane Panel, reducing external panel costs by over $500K and maximizing efficiency. Additionally, I oversaw the creation of RFPs and guided external vendors through all research project phases, ensuring smooth execution and high-quality results. This role underscored my ability to lead and innovate within the market insights domain, significantly impacting the organization's strategic direction and growth.