The Unexpected Career Podcast

Dr. Nadia Morozova: Researcher & Data Analytics Entrepreneur

• Megan Dunford • Season 2 • Episode 5

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Season 2 Episode 5: Dr. Nadia Morozova, Chief Analytics and Insights Officer, shares her journey from an early passion for research to launching a Data Insights company.

Check out her TedX Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VU8wDa5gMo

Check out her website: https://enrichedinsights.com/

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Webpage: https://theunexpectedcareerpodcast.buzzsprout.com

Welcome to the Unexpected Career Podcast, where we share stories of real people and the twists and turns they have taken along their career journey. I am Megan Dunford, and as someone who found myself in the payments industry, largely by accident, I'm fascinated by how people's careers unfold and how they've gotten to where they are today. It's also why I'm passionate about reducing the pressure on young people, about going to university, what to take in school, and on getting that right first job. Today I am speaking with Dr. Nadia Morozova, chief Analytics and Insights Officer at Enriched Insights.

Megan:

Thank you for joining and participating in the podcast. I really appreciate it. And I'm really excited to jump into your journey and hear about the decisions and how you got to where you are today.

Nadia:

First of all, thank you so much for inviting me. I'm really looking forward to our conversation.

Megan:

I always like to start right at the beginning of when you were a small child, did you have an idea of what you wanted to be like? What did you wanna be when you grew up?

Nadia:

Yeah, so when I was a kid, I didn't have any particular job title role in my mind, but I knew exactly what aspects of my job I would be enjoying the most. First, I wanted to make sure that I could stay empathetic and would be able to support people in their challenging moments. Being there for others was always very important for me. For example, I was a semi-professional swimmer from the age of seven,

Megan:

Oh, wow.

Nadia:

and yeah, and the moments which I enjoyed in my swimming career the most.were when younger girls and boys were approaching me and asking me for advice, what do I do in my training to build a good swimming technique? Or how do I stay motivated after losing some competitions? I quickly realized that sharing my experience and helping younger swimmers gave me personally a lot of inspiration to overcome my own challenges. Second, I would say that I liked working with numbers, but this wasn't because I was good in it. I quite early realized that I naturally didn't have very strong attention to detail. I could make some small and painful mistakes, which I hated so much. And I realized that working with numbers was a great way to challenge myself and to address something that I wasn't good at. It was actually a very long journey for me, but seeing a clear progress the way how I could concentrate better and make less of those annoying mistakes showed me that I was on the right path.

Megan:

That's amazing. That's a great example of the growth mindset at such a young age

Nadia:

yeah. And I would say that I also had one more understanding. I would say I really enjoyed organizing things. I never tried to avoid taking a lead and bringing my energy and effort in making things at a high standard. For example, organizing family celebrations. Like, new Year's Eve was one of my most favorite, favorite family chores. I was going for activity books, learning about history and customs in different cultures and trying to bring something new and unexpected every year. I liked inviting my family and friends on the journey and share the biggest discoveries with them.

Megan:

That's such a cool activity to be in charge of when you're younger. I love that. So with those themes and interests. Did you go on to university? What did you decide to take? Like, how did you take those and move forward with them? Or did you

Nadia:

Yeah, absolutely. So if we think about the university experience, it's actually quite interesting to reflect back on it. I always knew what university I would go to study. It was just the most innovative and forward looking business school, and I was really eager to become a student there. My father advised me to study marketing as it's so all encompassing and foundational for business. But after two years in marketing department, I realized that actually marketing represents applied science, and it's much better to have the first degree either in economics or psychology. So I changed my track from marketing to psychology while continuing doing my research in consumer behavior.

Megan:

Mm-hmm.

Nadia:

Results. An interesting story. I actually did my first research in the seventh grade at school. It was quite challenging as I had to take this important commitment on top of my very busy agenda at the time, full-time school to swim in trainings per day. So this is where all my free time eventually went to. I studied stock markets and how decisions were made there, but it was more from the individual psychology perspective rather than financial point of view. Although, of course, it was very important context, right? I got so fascinated by that research process. I enjoyed all aspects of it from reading books and papers to presenting results at the conferences. And this is when I decided that I would definitely continue doing research at the university. So while everyone was still learning what it would mean for them to be student, I started looking at my first university supervisor pretty much from the first day of being a student. And

Megan:

Wow.

Nadia:

since then, every year I was taking additional research projects. Or even three on top of my regular university curriculum. So by the end of my bachelor studies, I had 10 published papers as Conce proceedings. So this is something that I really, really enjoy doing.

Megan:

Clearly. Yeah, that's a lot to do On top of a bachelor's degree is not only learning what you're studying, but you're also learning how to be an adult and how to be a student at that level. So to do 10 papers on top of that, that's really amazing. So what did you do after your bachelor's? Did you continue on with school? Did you decide to go out and, join the working world? What did you do next?

Nadia:

So actually after my bachelor's, I decided to go to work because I really wanted to make sure I. That my research has some value for business for real decision making. But now I am joking that all my pivotal career moments happened exactly at the time of some kind of financial crisis or some very strong economic challenges. So I graduated in 2009 and the economy was still very hugely impacted by the year 2008 financial crisis. So it was really hard to get the job right after the graduation, and there were a lot of moments of doubt. So I started my career at the Chamber of Commerce and industry where I was in charge of market research and I was providing guidance for companies on different markets, potential, and the competitive environment. At the same time, I was missing a lot. That aspect of consumer behavior, right? Something that I really liked doing during my university years. So after one year, I moved to Procter and Gamble, where my career in Insights properly and my first role at Procter and Gamble was focused on enhancing companies, partnerships with different retailers, starting from pharmacies, cosmetic perfumers, and baby stores. And ending with electro stores and e-commerce. The channel which just started its active development at that time. So it allowed me to build expertise across the whole P&G portfolio at the time and conduct indepth research, which provided me a lot of room. To try new and innovative research methodologies. This projects also sparked my interest in understanding of the underlying mechanisms of how we as consumers make purchase decisions. And this is where I also good idea to do a PhD. I was very eager to build further understanding of the differences between planned, unplanned and nimble purchases. But getting into PhD program took me four years and while being on that journey, I also had an opportunity to work in Switzerland and France.

Megan:

Ah, cool.

Nadia:

In 2016, I joined Warrick Business School as a PhD candidate, and this is what drove me actually to London. I actually also share details of this journey and it's key takeaways in my recently released TEDx talk. Maybe worth checking it, especially if you're interested in doing a PhD yourself.

Megan:

I will definitely link to it in the show notes.

Nadia:

Thank you. And after I finalized my PhD, the pandemic began, so another pivotal moment. And at the same time I started working at TikTok. So this was an amazing challenge to build a team from scratch while we were all locked down in our homes during the pandemic. This role also provided me an amazing opportunity to leverage the methodology, which I developed during my PhD to guide advertisers from different verticals on the unique strengths and opportunities of the TikTok

Megan:

Mm-hmm.

Nadia:

And last year I decided to take some time away from my corporate career to focus on driving further business implementation of my research findings and the product that I developed here in my PhD. So now I'm also launching a course on how to build a successful career data. In this course, I address the questions which I'm getting regularly asked during the coaching and mentoring sessions, which I've been providing in the last three years. It's a step-by-step approach which allows the next generation of data experts and data leaders to go through while thinking about their own career path in data.

Megan:

I can imagine that is going to be really helpful. Data is, especially in the current world with, AI and algorithms and, it's so important to understand it and use it to make decisions, but really have that clarity on the data itself. And what I also love is your research into also just the consumer behavior piece and how that fits in and the psychology of it. Just when you were mentioning your time at P&G and that planned unplanned impulse purchase, that's something I've never really thought about, but there must be so much psychology in it and different people, approach those things differently. Even people in my family, I'm not an impulse shopper, but I am related to people who are impulse shoppers. So yeah, the psychology piece is super interesting as well.

Nadia:

Yeah. Exactly that so that in my research I blended two approaches. So I blended behavioral science and consumer neuroscience to really being able to get this in-depth insights. Because as you mentioned, it's really difficult to fully understand how we are making these type of decisions. And sometimes it may look as like some personality trait. But actually we all make, in one way, we now there some unplanned impulse purchases. It all depends on the context, on the specific products where we are more willing to make this type of purchases. But I think we will have this kind of experience. So it's also from the consumer perspective, interesting to reflect on.

Megan:

You're right, that's a good point.'cause even though I maybe make less impulse purchases, I definitely do make them. How did you. Make the decision to take a step out of the corporate world and build your own thing.'cause I imagine that must be a little bit scary. So like how did you make that decision?

Nadia:

I would say it happened very organically to last year. I was invited to do a keynote on the future of Commerce because of course I'm very passionate about it and I have a lot of expertise in this area. I. And I agree. And after that keynote presentation, which was at Rakuten Annual Advertising Event I got so many people approaching me and asking to learn more about this methodology and to brainstorm with me how they can apply it for their work. So it kind of all developed. Naturally and organically, and I decided that if I see this demand, if I see people being very interested and I also see a lot of potential in driving revenue from both unplanned impulse purchases, I decided to go for it and see what it means.

Megan:

That's amazing. Congratulations

Nadia:

Thank you so much.

Megan:

Yeah. Being first of all, brave enough to see an opportunity and take the chance.'cause not everyone can do that. And as you said, there's so much opportunity there. It's amazing. And the other thing love about what you were sharing with your journey is. You clearly have a love for research and really digging in and understanding, which is amazing. But you also have this really practical side of okay, I've done this research, how do I get it into the world? world So even after your bachelor's, it's I've done all these papers, which for a lot of people might route you down a very academic life, but you were like, Nope, I wanna go and get a more corporate job and test out my research and get it into the world. So I think that's really unique because in some ways, the academic route would've seemed

Nadia:

more straightforward, I would

Megan:

yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Nadia:

Yeah. No, it that I think this is very important highlight. That definitely for me, the value of research is driving, of course. Thought in, in the academia and future research in terms of their academic development. But market and psychology, they are so applied sciences. So there is so much potential from the academic research in the business environment. And for me it's really important to build this connection and to make sure that industry can learn from academic research. And at the same time, academic world can make decisions on what type of research is in the best demand right now in the market, so that they can also focus on something that can be important, not just for the academia, but also for the industry. Yeah,

Megan:

Yeah, really adding value in a really practical way of, what is important where do people need information, where are the opportunities? That makes sense. I love that. When you look back on this journey, are there. Common threads or things that you see, whether you saw them at the time or you only see them in retrospect, are there kind of connection points or common threads that you see?

Nadia:

Yeah, definitely. I would say that first passion for insights, right? The tools, methodologies, data sets, they all change depending on the specific role and its scope. But I'm always looking for the best ways of empowering leaders with in-depth insights on markets, consumers, customers, and shoppers. So for me, it's important to see the confidence in the eyes of my senior stakeholders. When they're making both strategic and tactical decisions. Then I would say it's innovation. I've spent a lot of time on building solid foundation and data in order to be able to envision what's next. It definitely feels extremely inspiring. For example, one of my ex P&G colleagues has recently told me that they continued leveraging my work for many years after I left the company. I just didn't limit myself with existing methodologies. And was building data science capabilities even before it became the chairman in the company.

Megan:

Mm-hmm.

Nadia:

And I would also say that being an empathetic and authentic leader, being a leader is much harder than many people think. And it's finding a way how to make your team feel secure. Trustful and encouraged, and of course it involves a lot of hard work and dedication. My main inspiration in being a leader is to see how people thrive, how they build, understanding of their strengths, and have the right of opportunities to play on them, both on the individual and team levels.

Megan:

That's amazing and I can definitely see, those connections. Right. Back to what you were saying of when you were a kid when you were a competitive swimmer and being maybe an unofficial mentor to other swimmers, in that leadership skill and, desire to be empathetic and help lead within your swim team for example. And the innovation side like that to me really connects to the creativity that goes into planning your New Years and the research you did to make it fun and interesting and bring in different elements from, different cultures and things. So yeah, I definitely see how those are themes and connections and maybe. Even values that you have carried forward throughout your life.

Nadia:

Yeah, I think values part is definitely very important for us to understand what are our values. As early in our career as

Megan:

Mm-hmm.

Nadia:

So this is something that we can use as our guiding point throughout the whole of our career, as well as actually strengths. I think understanding of our strengths, it's very important, and also embracing our own. Weaknesses, right? So we all have our own weaknesses and I think it's the way how we approach them. Growth mindset and positive attitude really help with this. So there is always room to get better. And with the right attitude, I think there is only way forward.

Megan:

Yeah, a hundred percent agree. And, that being open to. Developing and not being good at something, necessarily right in the beginning, but still working at it and finding ways to get better and leaning on our strengths to help us balance out our weaknesses. And as you said, using our values, like the guardrails in a way of as you're making decisions, it's like, okay, let's make sure we're staying within this value set, whether it's like what company to work for or if a culture at a company is working for us or not just being always true to those is so important allows us to explore and develop and grow.

Nadia:

A hundred percent. Yeah.

Megan:

If you could go back in time and give yourself advice is there a piece of advice you would give?

Nadia:

Let me think. I would say think positive and embrace uncertainty.

Megan:

Yeah, for sure. I mean, embrace uncertainty is. So true. And it's such a hard lesson to learn no matter your age, but you, as you were saying, you've had all these big kind of decisions at difficult times in the economy.

Nadia:

Absolutely. So

Megan:

there's so much uncertainty when you started your career and then when you finished your PhD. So yeah. That's a difficult lesson and you had to learn it in probably the most difficult of circumstances. But such an important one

Nadia:

Yeah, and I think it's also very important for leaders, right? We see so many examples on when leaders don't really navigate fluently enough in the time of uncertainty and how negatively it influences their teams. Because when you don't have confidence it spreads so quickly, which is really even hard sometimes to imagine. How contagious is it?

Megan:

Yeah, for sure. That anxiety, that can just really grow the team for sure. When you look forward, so we've done a lot of, looking back, when we look forward, what is your hope or vision future, whether short term, long term, both.

Nadia:

Yeah, I would say. Now it's definitely very exciting time to be in data. You already mentioned the reasons why, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what's next in the industry and also what's next for me in terms of the my career journey.

Megan:

I can't wait to see as well, and I think, you were of there seems to be so much opportunity and you've taken this chance of building your own thing. And I agree, there is so So I'm excited to see where you go personally with it, but also just how the world is gonna evolve with AI and even, the algorithms, just how they impact the way we think, the way we look at the world.

riverside_nadia_morozova_raw-synced-video-cfr_nadia_morozova's st_0042:

The

Megan:

we make decisions and data is. Basically the foundation for all that. So be really interesting to see, that evolution.

Nadia:

Yeah, definitely. Likewise.

Megan:

Cool. This was amazing, Nadia.

Nadia (2):

Thank you so much.

Megan:

I think your journey's just really cool and I love the research, but the passion for The, what the data is saying and the creativity of wanting to build these approaches yourself and really contribute in that practical way and not just in an academic way. So I think that's really amazing. And also just the way you talk about marketing as a practical science, I've never. I heard it spoken about that way. So many people talk about marketing, like it's the art part of business, it's the content, it's the visuals.

Nadia (3):

There is definitely some art, but there is also some science.

Megan:

Yeah. And it just doesn't get talked about that much. So I love that you brought that to the forefront and that's where you're really focused is the science of marketing and consumer behavior So I think that's amazing.

Nadia:

Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me to this podcast. Really enjoyed this conversation.

Megan:

I find Nadia's journey so interesting and a few of the things that I really took away were first being connected to your values and using them as your guide is a powerful way to go through life. And Nadia seems to have been very connected to what was important to her from a young age, and you can see those values pulled throughout her journey. Second resilience. Nadia kept finding herself in really difficult global circumstances, first graduating during the financial crisis, and then finishing her PhD during the pandemic, and she didn't let those stop her. Third, curiosity, it seems to me that Nadia has followed her curiosity. Down the rabbit hole, whether it was studying trading when she was young, to pivoting from marketing to psychology in university. She doesn't just seem interested in the surface level, but wants to dig underneath to figure out how the engine works, so to speak. You even see that in her desire to put her research out into the world and her desire to support others coming up in the data field. And her advice to her younger self about learning to deal with uncertainty is so key. There is that saying the only guarantees in life are death and taxes, but I would add change to that list. And change is happening more and more quickly every day, and so being able to deal with uncertainty is a really important skill to develop.

Thank you for listening to the unexpected career podcast, please follow, share and rate on your favorite podcast provider. The unexpected career podcast is produced, edited and hosted by me, Megan Dunford. See you next week.

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