Deb Leiding Phillips Email & Phone Number

Rosemount, Mn, Us

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Engage deeply in the business to design, manage, and execute insights projects to drive action and business results● Develop creative solutions to gather VOC from B2B customers across a variety of countries to inform NPI development, including product technical development and marketing messaging● Partner with business teams to understand pricing implications on demand, cannibalization, and purchase drivers to steer NPI and portfolio management decisions● Partner with technical teams to conduct user research, identifying customer requirements, competitive differentiators, and optimization opportunities to guide product development and messaging● Facilitate internal workshops to co-create Customer Journey Maps, building empathy and purchase path understanding to identify opportunities to strengthen the customer experience● Synthesize learnings from multiple sources to build persona understanding across teams and functions, focusing on key jobs, needs, drivers, and detractors to guide pipeline development and messaging● Collaborate with teams across divisions, business groups, and geographies to identify synergies and develop plans to execute to maximize budget and resources

Lakeville, Mn

Developed, managed, and communicated actionable insights that drive customer and marketplace success- Defined and led multi-phased research to develop a deep understanding of the consumer in order to drive empathy within the brand team and agency partners leading to more effective messaging and marketing. - Partnered with brand team to identify relevant and meaningful consumer target, determine compelling messaging and develop and test effective advertising campaigns.- Led testing throughout new product develop cycle from guiding ideation sessions, conducting flavor sorts, and managing BASES in-home and online testing to develop compelling new products, optimization opportunities, and forecast in-market performance.- Gathered retailer-specific insights to identify win-win opportunities and drive top-to-top meeting conversations with key customer accounts.- Developed and managed proprietary research community to gather agile insights and keep the consumer voice integrated into business decisions.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Partnered with executives and business managers from both Kraft and Target to customize and localize insights to create win-win solutions for both companies- Led development, integration, and synthesis of data sources to shape topics for and guide discussions at executive Top-to-Top meetings between Kraft and Target.- Tracked weekly sales data against promotional efforts to identify trends then designed a study to assess a variety of promotional activity across categories to determine the most effective methods to drive sales.- Identified share leakage within cold cuts category, fielded primary research to uncover the whys driving the behavior, and recommended assortment and merchandising changes to stem the leakage. - Conducted exploratory research to uncover innovation opportunities for the Lunchables category targeting a specific consumer group.- Integrated circular activity, Google food searches, menu and eating trends, retailer sales and share data, and consumer mindset studies to identify key opportunity periods and recommended products and messaging to drive trips and share.- Ensured research conclusions and recommendations were clearly communicated and appropriately tailored to a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders including sales leaders, category managers, Target buyers, and Target guest insights.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Infused customer and employee insights into business decisions to drive the appliances business• Drove strategic, multi-phased shopper insights study designed to uncover how consumers shop for appliances and the role emotions play to guide how Best Buy can further grow the appliances business by tapping into emotions and determine what, where, and how Best Buy should be communicating with consumers.• Gathered consumer and employee feedback to maximize business concepts leading to in market testing of a service, manufacturer guidance for new product development, more consumer friendly in-store signage, and stronger value propositions and growth initiatives.• Led consumer insights function for wedding registry initiative and delivered a customer-based POV regarding BBY’s opportunity which led to a much stronger business case for a registry moving forward.• Developed key strategy document synthesizing key consumer shopping needs and pain points for HBG lead team which guided fiscal year strategy planning.• Assembled and shared trend data and insights with appliances team to influence strategy, assortment, promotions, and marketing.

• Led strategic, multi-phased research project including ethnographies, employee roundtables, secondary research synthesis, and in-depth interviews to define enterprise Connected World strategy informing PR, business teams, new product and business development, and brand strategy.• Based on in-store observations, intercepts, and interviews in 27 lab stores, provided actionable recommendations to marketing, store design, merchandising, and executives to improve the in-store customer experience to guide future store designs.• Collaborated with business team and marketing to create project roadmap for online digital content platform, including business trade-offs and consumer demand through focus groups and discrete choice testing.• Synthesized studies from numerous primary, secondary, and partner studies to recommend marketing target and strategy for holiday campaign.• Combined insights from numerous secondary sources to form profile of “new normal” post-recession consumer and implications for Best Buy.• Created value propositions for Reward Zone Silver loyalty program to create emotional connection and drive loyalty and share of wallet among best customers through internal cross-functional brainstorming sessions, customer groups, and online surveys.

• Developed and managed online research communities allowing nimble solution for marketing, services business, online experience design team, and product merchant teams to gather quick customer feedback to guide business decisions.• Conducted retail employee roundtables to determine how to effectively extend the Geek Squad brand and culture beyond PCs to Home Theater and Auto Tech, resulting in a successful brand transition among employees.• Influenced Geek Squad business strategy by analyzing consumer targets through several sources of survey data including behavioral, attitudinal, and demographic, enabling team to identify core and halo targets.• Gathered in-store insights from professional male target customer using customer advisory boards, in-store intercepts, and exit interviews which optimized home theater experience rooms in lab stores into Magnolia Home Theater space which scaled to 1000 stores.• Measured lab store tests through shop-alongs, exit interviews, in-depth interviews, customer intercepts, and competitive shopping trips to gauge customer impact, translated feedback into recommendations to optimize the experience and move lab tests into pilot and scale.

• Developed and maintained best in class customer advisory panel for professional male customer target used to gather high-quality feedback while reducing costs.• Coordinated exit interviews in over 30 stores to gain customer feedback on value proposition elements including awareness, usage, and satisfaction and generated daily reports for retail store managers and corporate executives.• Leveraged secondary research to maximize research budgets.• Created impactful highlight videos from qualitative research, letting the customer speak directly to the client.• Supported high-growth customer-centricity initiative, personifying demographic segments.

• Produced weekly market share reports for entertainment software business team used to analyze performance in the industry.• Built Access database to efficiently create recurring reports.• Generated quarterly market share report delivered to company leadership to track market performance.• Partnered with marketing team to understand entertainment business to develop analyses anticipating issues.

• Project managed state assessment programs for a 31-school district. • Constructed databases and spreadsheets containing formulas, logic statements, and graphs for Executive Directors and Superintendent to understand performance and implications on funding. • Trained users of on-line assessment program and proctored exams. • Communicated with teachers, students, and parents both in person and over the phone.