Jess (00:06)
Welcome to Dig Inspiration, a quick recap where we dig deeper into the story behind the story. In each bite-sized episode, I'll revisit key moments from our incredible guests, highlighting the most inspiring parts of the stories they share. So today we're dropping a quick reflection on some of the most memorable parts of my talk with Kajoli Tankha Senior Director, Consumer and Brand Insights at Microsoft.

And first, I just want to start with a true human element, and that is Kajoli herself. Every time I connect with her, I'm struck not only by her intellect and her energy, but by her curiosity. And that curiosity is not just in uncovering insights in the category she's worked in, but she's curious about people and what drives them. And I think that's one of the characteristics that really makes her a good researcher.

as well as an inspiring leader to her teams, as well as a collaborative client, as a thought leader in our industry. So I first just want to really commend what I see as a top strength of hers. And it's inspiring. It makes me want to be more curious and build more time into my day to explore the things I'm curious about.

Second, I Kajoli's stories really emphasize the importance of understanding the underlying drivers of behavior.

and what signals a brand or a product can give that links to those drivers. So

gave tons of examples, right? One was the transparent window in the tea packaging, how that evoked a similar experience to buying in an open market or really memorable that the size of that shampoo bottle and creating an offering that was sort of an entry point

for these consumers to immerse themselves in this sort of sacred place of self-care and just how important that is.

Or baked beans and how different flavor profiles can evoke grilling occasions.

Or in advertisements, the protagonist interacting with the touchscreen. All of these are signals that a brand can initiate that link to that underlying driver, that underlying motivation.

Frankly, this personifies the importance of insights, right, to understand and create those connections. So just such an abundance of examples of understanding those

And finally, everyone wants to tap into Kajoli's wisdom on AI, right? If anyone's an expert, it's her. She works for Microsoft. I mean, there's a lot to learn from her. And one takeaway that I found really valuable was the idea of surrounding yourself with folks along the spectrum of AI adoption and

So if you're an AI optimist, you better tap into some skeptics, right? And I see that as an opportunity to embed what might be some healthy paranoia from that group about the implications of AI.

and really bring some of that skepticism to those that are more optimistic and sort of full speed ahead on the topic. And conversely, if you're an AI skeptic, then spend some time with optimists so you can really push your thinking and anticipate what's ahead. that conversation, really made me reflect on the team here at DIG where we have many AI experts, optimists, early adopters, but we also have a representative group.

of new users of AI, where there might be some trepidation, perhaps some skepticism. And we've really worked to create forums and touch points for all those team members to connect, to learn, to ideate, ultimately to deploy things. So I see that healthy coverage across the spectrum alive and well here at DIG. And I think it was a really important tip from Kajoli.

So that is your Dig inspiration recap for the week. We would love to hear your takeaways and thoughts on the conversation. So please do visit the link in the description and leave us a comment.