Data-Driven Decisions is a new limited-series marketing podcast presented by Convince & Convert and shared with our Social Pros listeners. How did this non-marketing but data-driven leader become a Chief Marketing Officer? Shafqat Islam, the CMO of Optimizely, joins this episode of Data-Driven Decisions to share how he’s leading Optimizely’s marketing team into building a culture of data and experimentation. Let the Data Do the Talking In this episode of Data-Driven Decisions, we dive deep into the world of marketing data, measurable targets, personalization and customer-centric marketing. Shafqat shares invaluable insights on how to approach personalization strategically, emphasizing the value of starting simple and scaling up gradually. He discusses the challenges of content creation for personalized experiences and offers practical advice on leveraging AI to find patterns in customer feedback from support tickets and sales calls. We also explore the critical role of experimentation and testing when it comes to new marketing ideas, and why Optimizely considers experimentation part of its culture. Shafqat explains why it’s so important for marketers to have a rock-solid understanding of the typical customer journey and why this should be documented and measurable.  In This Episode: 0:37 - How Shafqat ended up in his role 2:36 - Why Shafqat wanted to build a more data-driven culture 4:58 - How this approach affects the marketing team 7:07 - The importance of experimenting with new ideas 8:28 - Optimizely’s approach to experimentation 12:33 - Why personalization is still a huge topic for marketers 15:22 - Finding a balanced and realistic idea of personalization 18:20 - How Optimizely helps its clients use their own data to make decisions 20:54 - Why all marketers need to map out the typical customer journey and document it 24:25 - How to ensure customers get the right resources 27:09 - How Shafqat researches and understands his customers 30:14 - The most important marketing metrics 31:56 - How Optimizely uses AI to find patterns in customer interactions   Quotes: “Marketing is as much about the customer as it is about the prospect. In fact, in the business of our scale, it may be more customer than even prospect.” “It's really, really important to document the customer journey and understand all the touchpoints and then come up collectively as a marketing organization, with what we want that ideal journey to be." “Experimentation is much more than tools. To me, the idea is how do we create a culture of experimentation?” Resources: Connect with Shafqat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shafqat/ Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com/  Purchase the book at koganpage.com/datadrivenpersonalization (use code CCData20 for 20% off and free shipping in the UK and US) and sign up for more content at convinceandconvert.com.