An Inside Look at Walmart’s Insights Advantage with Mark Hardy

[00:00:00] Mark Hardy: Business runs too fast today. Consumers run too fast today. The change is there. We need to be able to get those insights a lot faster, so AI helps us accelerate that process to be able to extract those insights in a much more timely manner. 

[00:00:15] MRII Announcer: Welcome to to MRII’s Insights and Innovators Podcast, where we talk to top market research professionals to get their inside stories about innovative and enduring best practices.

[00:00:26] MRII Announcer: Now here’s your host for today’s episode. Welcome to today’s 

[00:00:29] Katie Gross: episode, Walmart’s Insight Advantage, delivering Value Beyond the Aisle with Mark Hardy. I’m your host, Katie Gross. So what happens when the world’s largest retailer disrupts new industries and reshapes its own through its signature value driven approach?

[00:00:46] Katie Gross: My guest, Mark Hardy, is a senior vice president and head of Walmart Data Ventures. Mark shares how his team operates, a high growth, high value data business, and one of the world’s largest companies on earth. What makes their approach to [00:01:00] data and insights distinctive and the core principles that they drive with their success?

[00:01:05] Katie Gross: Whether you’re a seasoned market researcher or early in your career, this conversation is gonna offer you some fresh perspective on innovation, team building and thriving at the intersection of data, technology and business impact. Welcome, mark. 

[00:01:20] Mark Hardy: Thank you for having me, Katie. 

[00:01:22] Katie Gross: Awesome. All right, so let’s get kind of into setting the stage a little bit.

[00:01:26] Katie Gross: Walmart Data Ventures is a four going on five year data and insights business within the world’s largest company. So what was the thinking behind creating Walmart data ventures at Walmart? What kind of gaps or opportunity were you looking at, um, that it was designed to address? 

[00:01:42] Mark Hardy: When we started, uh, data Ventures, the original remit was to create a alternative revenue stream.

[00:01:48] Mark Hardy: So monetizing data. We took a step back and at the end of the day, monetization of data is an outcome of creating value. So we changed our remit to, uh, for data ventures, to the creation of value from [00:02:00] Walmart’s data. So as we looked at how do we create value, and we thought about. Walmart’s ultimate goal and strategy to be America’s favorite place to shop.

[00:02:11] Mark Hardy: We had to think about what that meant to us and to Walmart. It means having assortment value, experience, and trust of our customers. So when you think about the world of retail today, a typical Walmart holds about 120,000 products. But online, including an omni view of our business, so not just the physical store, we represent over 20000001st party products.

[00:02:41] Mark Hardy: So how do you make sure that you get the right product in the right place at the right time? When we’ve set, uh, a bar for our customers today that we can deliver to the majority of our customers in even under three hours. So the only way to do that is if we know our [00:03:00] customers better than they know themselves at times.

[00:03:03] Mark Hardy: So that starts with data, right? So we created Tila, and that was about four years ago that we launched it. And Sila is an ecosystem, integrated ecosystem that really allowed us to bring together our customer data, our operational data, to bring a total view of the business. That is what we started with when, when we launched Data Ventures, and this is the beginning of our journey that we have now today become a very successful part of Walmart, bringing insights to the entire business and its partners and suppliers.

[00:03:40] Katie Gross: That’s awesome. And in terms of the kind of the company, the values and the innovation, I understand that you have three core principles for success. Could you walk us through those and how they shape the team’s culture, but then also the output? 

[00:03:52] Mark Hardy: Yeah, so we started Data Venture where there’s about three of us, right?

[00:03:56] Mark Hardy: Fast forward to today, there’s about 900 of us. [00:04:00] 

[00:04:00] MRII Announcer: Wow. 

[00:04:00] Mark Hardy: How do you grow a business that quickly in, in a Fortune One company, right? And so we had to bring in the entrepreneurial spirit and the three principles that I used to drive that business from the beginning was first become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

[00:04:17] Katie Gross: I understand that you have three core principles for success. And can you walk us through those and then how they shape the team’s culture and output? 

[00:04:24] Mark Hardy: When we started Data Ventures, there was about three of us. And fast forward to today, there’s about 900 of us. So how do you go through that life cycle of growth and continue to drive the, the entrepreneurship and innovation that we did?

[00:04:39] Mark Hardy: So we really had to bring. To bear a entrepreneurial mindset, and there was three guiding principles that we set from the beginning. The first one, which is become comfortable being uncomfortable. Anytime you’re innovating, disrupting, it’s a world with that is not linear, right? There’s a lot of ups and downs and there’s a lot of [00:05:00] trial and errors.

[00:05:01] Mark Hardy: You need to be comfortable with that. It’s a certain part of a DNA of a person that is comfortable with that or not comfortable with that. So we needed to make sure that we built our team and we drove a lot of what we were doing with people who were comfortable at being uncomfortable as we’re exploring and discovering and moving forward.

[00:05:17] Mark Hardy: The second principle was love the problem, not the product. It is really easy for us to fall in love with our products. It’s our baby. They always look great to us until we put into our customer’s hands and then we find out all the things that aren’t working. If we actually understand the problem we’re solving, we are a lot more open to being, um, to receiving feedback.

[00:05:39] Mark Hardy: Correcting and pivoting as we get that feedback. So focusing on the problem was more important than focusing on the product that we were developing. And then the last principle was always ask, what is the second right answer? The first right answer is really easy, and most people stop there. But if you can push yourself to ask what is the second right [00:06:00] answer, that’s when you start understanding whether there’s an opportunity to disrupt.

[00:06:05] Mark Hardy: Or you just validated that there’s only one approach there that also makes a a difference When you think about are you entering a commodity market versus are you gonna be unique and different? Because if you get to the second right answer, most people haven’t gone there and there’s a good chance that you’re gonna do something that’s unique.

[00:06:22] Katie Gross: I love that. So be comfortable being uncomfortable. Always think about the second answer and you’re so right. Be obsessed with the problem, not with the products, and we’ll come onto ai, but there’s definitely a lot of AI products looking for a problem to solve right now. So what makes Walmart Data Ventures, we talk about differentiation.

[00:06:43] Katie Gross: What do you think it makes it unique in the marketplace today? Is it the access to the data? Is it the innovative tools, proximity that you have to the customer, or is it something else entirely? 

[00:06:54] Mark Hardy: I think it’s a combination of all that when what we did again is focused on the problem and developed a [00:07:00] integrated ecosystem.

[00:07:01] Mark Hardy: So if you look at our industry of insights and analytics over the years, you’ve seen a lot of attempts of being able to bring. Secondary research companies together with primary research companies and being able to integrate that data and even bringing in data that’s operationally driven. Well, what we’ve done in Illa is the ability to bring all that together.

[00:07:21] Mark Hardy: So we have within SILLA modules that really take to the next level the analytics around our customers. What are their behaviors over time? How are their transactions, uh, happening? So we can look at market baskets, uh, switching, for example. We can then bring in, um, insights of our operations. Where are the products?

[00:07:47] Mark Hardy: And where are they going to which stores where? How does the supply chain now fit into the ability of a customer to get that product itself? So ultimately, when we look at [00:08:00] our business, we look at it as a journey of a product from source. To shelf and the journey of our customer from home to store.

[00:08:09] Mark Hardy: Ultimately the shelf is that point of conversion, whether it’s digital or physical. And so what we try to do is get that full visibility. So add on top of that, that we built a community, a community of Walmart shoppers, which are verified shopper. They allow us to, uh, use their shopping data to help target them or append it to their analytics.

[00:08:31] Mark Hardy: So think about being able to do a survey and then be able to target a person based on their shopping pattern so I don’t have to go through a screener. But then after I get all their sentiment, I’m able now to append their shopping behavior longitudinally. Over their attitudes, bringing together actual behavior with attitudes together.

[00:08:51] Mark Hardy: And because it’s a verified shopper, we don’t run into the same problems that you get in our industry where you’re seeing over 40% of data being bad. [00:09:00] Right. So what we’ve tried to do in our ecosystem, which makes us very unique, is bringing together all those different data sets into one integrated, um.

[00:09:11] Mark Hardy: Ecosystem, which also allows us to disrupt some of the areas that we’ve seen where the data could be better to help drive decisions. Ultimately, nobody really buys insights. What they buy is the ability to make decisions, to take actions. 

[00:09:28] Katie Gross: So with so many sources of that consumer data today, the most important thing, of course, is turning it into actionable insights.

[00:09:35] Katie Gross: So how do you guys help with kind of turning it into action for the customers to then drive their business decisions? 

[00:09:42] Mark Hardy: Yeah, so first of all, it always starts with quality. Um, and hence the reason why I mentioned just before that we also look at disruption, not just in the tools, but actually in the quality of the data itself.

[00:09:54] Mark Hardy: So when we, for example, can have a verified community of shoppers [00:10:00] to be able to participate in surveys or in-home usage tests or other aspects around getting their feedback or their voice into, um, our decisions and into our insights, that alone starts with a quality there. So they’re verified shoppers, not just random panelists, right.

[00:10:20] Katie Gross: Yeah. We also 

[00:10:21] Mark Hardy: look at. The granularity of the data. Um, so for example, if you look at household panels, which are available out there, if I were to take a product where you would have. Probably 5,000 observations of that product in a given year. That same product, we would have 200,000 observations in a given week.

[00:10:41] Mark Hardy: So that allows us to go, uh, from an anana analytical point of view to a much granular, uh, perspective of what consumers are doing. Right. Even when you start taking other methodologies of capturing data, even. Let’s just say receipt capture. What we’ve seen there is at a high level, [00:11:00] it’s very good data, but as you get to a granular level, you start seeing, uh, challenges with the quality of data around average customer visits and average spend per year, just because of the way that sometimes those methodologies.

[00:11:16] Mark Hardy: Can be gained, right? So to us, we look at it as not just can we disrupt the market, can we provide better insights through the tools? But really it always starts with the quality of the data and the methodologies to get there, right? Yeah. So we continue to look at that and we continue to look for ways that we can bring something different.

[00:11:39] Mark Hardy: To the market, and we’re always trying to connect it back to sales. So it’s not just about the insights, it’s about what is the impact of that insights in terms of driving a return. 

[00:11:52] Katie Gross: Yeah, particularly as you mentioned, brand switching. What’s switching in that basket is so key. What a treasure trove of data you have.[00:12:00] 

[00:12:00] Katie Gross: So let’s move on to ai. AI is of course, transforming research, analytics and the rest of the world. So what role does it play for you folks at this time, and how much of what you deliver is being driven or supported by AI today? 

[00:12:15] Mark Hardy: I always caution people when I hear them talking about AI or even synthetic data, right?

[00:12:20] Mark Hardy: So I go back to one of our principles, right? Love the problem, not the product. So I always ask, what is the problem you’re solving with AI or with synthetic data? And there are areas that we have found that we’re leveraging AI today that are really driving value. And I think the easiest one, the low hanging fruit is.

[00:12:42] Mark Hardy: Writing surveys, right? Authoring surveys, summarizing findings on primary research that really allows us to get speed, right, in terms of that process. So if you look at some of, um, the insights processes over time, it would [00:13:00] take it 10, 12 weeks to get your findings back. Business runs too fast today.

[00:13:04] Mark Hardy: Consumers run too fast today. The change is there. We need to be able to get those insights a lot faster. So AI helps us accelerate that process to be able to extract those insights in a much more timely manner that allows us to assist the business and provide guidance to the business, right? Mm-hmm. But what we’re also doing with AI is actually driving.

[00:13:26] Mark Hardy: Action. So within Illa we have insights activation, which is our ability. We have a recommendation engine that is constantly monitoring consumer behavior, and then it publishes, uh, in the recommendation engine. Opportunities for the brands to be able to advertise within Walmart Connect, which is our, uh, retail media network.

[00:13:51] Katie Gross: Amazing. Yeah. So you can, 

[00:13:52] Mark Hardy: at any point in time, open up insights, activation, and then you pull down your strategy, whether you wanna acquire customers or whether you’re lapsing [00:14:00] customers. It will identify already ahead of time that your brand is lapsing customers, and here’s the target audience. It walks you through the analytics, how it got to that recommendation.

[00:14:10] Mark Hardy: Mm-hmm. If you want to be able to activate that on a push of a button, it sends it over to our ad center so that our, uh, media network can actually then put the creative, connect the creative to it and be able to put it out there. So we’re constantly using AI to build out that recommendation for how to be able to grow the business.

[00:14:29] Mark Hardy: We’re also looking at moving that down to store activation as well. We’ve done other things such as. As we are down in operations at store level, it’s pretty easy to walk, uh, an aisle and see where there’s an outta stock. A product is missing out of the shelf. But we’re using AI to be able to tell our store operators which product is actually going to be missing in the next 24 hours or 48 hours, even though there’s a product on there now, so that we can ahead of time.

[00:14:58] Mark Hardy: Fix that problem and [00:15:00] make sure that we get more product on the shelf. Again, it goes back to our customer’s experience, right? Making sure the right product’s in the right place at the right time. So we’re, we’re using AI to also do that. Um, we’re also using AI for next best action. So as we have coverage in stores from, uh, our partners, what is the next action that our.

[00:15:24] Mark Hardy: Associates or our partners should be taking the store to be able to drive sales and drive our customer experience. So we’re using AI with the data that we have in Illa to be able to drive operations and decisions all the way from improving the e-comm page. So your product description page, driving advertising down to store operations, leveraging that data all the way down.

[00:15:53] Katie Gross: That’s fantastic. What a, what a dream to be able to literally take action from the insight and all in that kind of same [00:16:00] ecosystem. And as you mentioned, because it is verified customers that you’re looking at, you will then see that impact on the revenue and on the sales gained. Yeah. What do you think that your customers kind of really value from, from you at the, at this time?

[00:16:14] Katie Gross: Is it the data, is it the insights, the advisory services? Kinda what do you think really matters to them and how does that influence your strategy for the next products that you’re building? 

[00:16:24] Mark Hardy: Well, I think it’s a little bit all, uh, of all of it, because this has been a journey for not just us, but um. Our suppliers as well.

[00:16:34] Mark Hardy: Mm-hmm. So the way that our industry has been built over the years has always been silos of expertise. 

[00:16:42] MRII Announcer: Yep. 

[00:16:42] Mark Hardy: All of a sudden we’re bringing it all together, which has meant that we’ve had to raise the bar for ourselves and we’ve had to raise the bar for our partners and and suppliers because now that’s asking the teams to have a skillset they may not have had previously.

[00:16:59] Mark Hardy: Right. [00:17:00] And then how do you bring ’em together and be able to make heads or tails of data that you may not be familiar with? Right. So within, uh, data ventures, we actually look at it as, and, and provide the ability for do it yourself. Do do it with me or do it for you. So each, um. One of our clients or suppliers is at a different level based on what they’re trying to do.

[00:17:26] Mark Hardy: So what we’re trying to do is help them on this journey of really raising the bar in skillset because it is new, it’s new for all of us. Um, so that’s where the data is unique. The level of granularity is unique in the data. The ability to integrate the different data points is unique. The ability to make heads or tails outta the data and bringing them together, as I mentioned before in your previous question around ai, being able to take an insight all the way down to an action that sometimes does not [00:18:00] involve just one set of data.

[00:18:01] Mark Hardy: It’s not just the consumer behavior or the customer behavior, but it is where is the product in our supply chain, as I mentioned. And how do you bring it to an action that now translates to an ROI? Right. So for each one of our clients, it’s a different level of service. And even within a client, it’s different.

[00:18:20] Mark Hardy: So we have times when we have a product, so it’s not just about insights, it’s about how do they want to ingest the data themselves. So we naturally have a UI that has all the ability to doing the analytics across each one of those modules. But some of our clients. Want to ingest the data, raw data directly into their own systems.

[00:18:41] Mark Hardy: Our ability of being able to provide a cloud feed or a BI link. BI link is just our ability of feeding, uh, bi dashboards on the fly with near real time data, and most of our data is in near real time, so we’re taking away that gap in time from. Waiting for data [00:19:00] that’s might be a few weeks old or even a couple months old, to being able to work with our operational data that is near real time, right?

[00:19:07] Mark Hardy: So what is happening in the stores now? So being able to do that, um. The analytics and being able to ingest that data so that they can operationalize it themselves. We provide that assistance too. So it’s not just the ability of doing the analytics and providing the insights, but it’s the ability of having the technology expertise to be able to help our clients and ingest data in different ways and make it in a very effective and efficient manner.

[00:19:36] Katie Gross: That’s awesome. So at MRII, we’re of course focused on skills development and training for the people in our industry to really succeed in their careers. And you’ve clearly built a very large, um, high performing insights team. So what skills or qualities do you look for in team members? Uh, 

[00:19:54] Mark Hardy: well, um, I think the first thing is a, as I look at [00:20:00] skill sets.

[00:20:02] Mark Hardy: We had a point in time when we were, um, experts in one area. Right. You’re a primary researcher and that’s what you do. You’re a secondary research and that’s what you do. I think that today I look for people who have the bandwidth to understanding, uh, a broader set, so more of a generalist who understands data in general.

[00:20:26] Mark Hardy: And is able to connect the dots. I think that is probably one of the most important skill sets, right? It’s not about how we used to do things and there’s, there’s tremendous value in the expertise that comes with each one of those areas. But having a broader exposure becomes one of those, um, elements that I look for, because it means somebody can actually help us and help our clients get more value outta the data versus just being able to extract.

[00:20:54] Mark Hardy: One level of data or one type of data and be able to provide an insight off that it, it takes [00:21:00] it from, uh. Here’s the insight to the so what of the insight and helping our clients get to that next step. Right? So that’s in terms of a skill set, I’m looking for more of a generalist around data because, uh, we have, we have people on our team that come from primary research industry, people who come from secondary research industry, people from CRM people with skill sets and operational data.

[00:21:22] Mark Hardy: And it’s amazing to see how they all come together and they all add value, right? So I think that’s one of the things I look for. In terms of mindsets, you know, for, for our business, for the way that we created this, it was really important to find people who were always curious, right? Just, um. 

[00:21:44] MRII Announcer: Yeah. 

[00:21:44] Mark Hardy: Just willing to always learn and think different.

[00:21:48] Mark Hardy: Right. Uh, and as we went on this journey, it was important to find people that had humility as part of their, um, DNA. Right. [00:22:00] Nothing happens because of one person. It happens because of a team, and as I told you before, we grew from three to 900 in a period of four years. And in order to work in that kind of environment, you need to have a sense of humility.

[00:22:13] Mark Hardy: Yes, there’s a lot of ego, a lot of pride in what we’ve done, but the humility is what allows a team to really drive itself. And then you need to find people. And I always look for people who are pragmatic. So to make something happen, no matter what conditions you’re under. And then lastly, resilient. As I said in the beginning, a lot of entrepreneurship is about failing and failing fast, right?

[00:22:39] Mark Hardy: And being able to be resilient allows you to. Understand what was going right and what was going wrong, and allows you to pivot so you can continue on your journey. Success is never linear. Success is a matter of ups and downs, and it’s your resiliency that’s gonna allow you to get to the successful point of your journey [00:23:00] on a continuous basis versus people who just fail and step back.

[00:23:05] Mark Hardy: Right. So those are the four qualities I look for in terms of the mindset, but I’m also looking for people who are. More of a generalist. Um, it’s great that they have an expertise. They can come in, but they want to be able and value the perspective broader than where they came from. 

[00:23:25] Katie Gross: Yeah, yeah. Some of the parts of your team sound much greater than the whole, as it were, given all those different skillsets.

[00:23:33] Mark Hardy: Absolutely. Is. 

[00:23:34] Katie Gross: So what have you learned from leading such a fast growing data business at Walmart that might surprise people? 

[00:23:42] Mark Hardy: Uh, entrepreneurship can happen in a Fortune one. Yeah, that, that’s, uh, probably the first one, which, uh, I, uh, doubted myself. When I was asked to, uh, lead this initiative, uh, I had the privilege of, uh, being asked to start this [00:24:00] and, um, the fact that.

[00:24:01] Mark Hardy: Again, the roots of Walmart goes back to Sam Walton, and Sam Walton himself was an entrepreneur and that has still remained as a part of the culture of Walmart. So I think that was, um, probably one of the biggest, uh, lessons I learned in this journey. Um, and then also I think the second one is, you know, I’ve been a part of a lot of.

[00:24:26] Mark Hardy: Early stage companies, startups. I’ve been a part of turnarounds in larger companies and taking companies through life cycles is always a challenge. Yeah. But to do it in warp speed that we have been able to do it is something I never experienced and, and I don’t think most people will ever have the privilege of experiencing it and trying to manage through that accelerated lifecycle.

[00:24:52] Mark Hardy: Mm-hmm. Um. There was a lot of lessons that came with that. Um, and probably the, the best one of them all was [00:25:00] the real value of a team. Um, because today you have a role and by tomorrow that role has expanded and you’re not really sure how it expanded, but it did. But you just kind of step up and go and go do it.

[00:25:11] Mark Hardy: Right? And so those were the two things that I walk away from this experience saying this was fantastic. One. Entrepreneurship can happen anywhere, even at a Fortune one, two, even at warp speed, um, the life cycles that you’re gonna go through, you can still manage through them. You just have to have the right team in place.

[00:25:33] Katie Gross: Yeah, that’s awesome. Um, and the right leadership. So congrats to you for, for such a scale and at such a fast pace. So as the insights industry continues to evolve, what is one trend that excites you most? Kind of about where we’re headed. 

[00:25:51] Mark Hardy: So for 30 years or so that I’ve been involved in the industry, I’ve always heard people talking about insights, analytics [00:26:00] should have a seat at the table and we should have a seat at the table and we should have a seat at the table.

[00:26:05] Mark Hardy: Seats at the table are earned, not given. Yeah. And. You know, for a long time we just kept doing more of the same and expected a different outcome in terms of our value. I think if you take in totality everything that’s happening in our industry right now, and especially the speed at which we can now process data into insights and then insights into action, we actually now are at a point to earn that seat at the table over and over again.

[00:26:37] Mark Hardy: I’m seeing at our clients suppliers. Where the insights and analytics function are at the table, helping guide decisions in a company, including at Walmart, by the way. And that to me is exciting. You know, it goes back to us as an industry understanding that people are not paying for the insights, they’re paying for the ability to make a decision.[00:27:00] 

[00:27:00] Mark Hardy: And take action. That drives an ROI. So if we can participate in driving the action or recommending the action and driving an ROI, we deserve a seat at the table. If all we are doing is delivering an insight, don’t expect to be there. And so what excites me is that I see a lot of momentum that really highlights that insights and analytics has a a seat at the table.

[00:27:27] Katie Gross: I love that. So it’s kind of paraphrase you. We don’t sell insights, we sell decisions and directions that have an ROI for that business, and that’s what gets us that seat at the table. 

[00:27:38] Mark Hardy: Absolutely. 

[00:27:40] Katie Gross: Awesome. Mark, thank you so much for being with us today. It has been great hearing how you, your leadership and your team of Walmart data ventures is really pushing the boundaries of what research and insights can do, especially around that actionability, um, and at speed and scale.

[00:27:55] Katie Gross: Your perspective on leadership, innovation and what the customers really value has definitely [00:28:00] given me a lot to think about as I go into the rest of my day and my week. And to our listeners, thanks so much for joining us on Insights and Innovators, brought to you by the Market Research Institute International.

[00:28:10] Katie Gross: If you enjoyed this episode, you’ll, uh, your love. Please follow, rate or share it with a colleague, and we’ll see you the next time for more conversations about where research and insights is headed and who’s leading the way. Thanks everyone. 

[00:28:24] MRII Announcer: Thanks for joining the Insights and Innovators podcast for Market Research Institute International.

 

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