Manager-Consumer Insight

“We make magic.” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences. And it permeates everything we do. At Disney, you’ll help inspire that magic by enabling our teams to push the limits of entertainment and create the never-before-seen for audiences around the world!

The Consumer Insights, Measurement, and Analytics organization informs strategy development through insights, actionable data analytics, and integration. The Emerging Businesses & Competitive Intelligence team is key to providing deep human understanding to identify new opportunities to meet desired business goals.

This role is focused on providing thought leadership, market intelligence and breakthrough insights to Disney Experiences Global Development and Walt Disney Imagineering partners on the humans of today and tomorrow and the competitive leisure experiences space. Always-on scanning of secondary sources, application of intelligence tools, and execution of global primary market research projects focused on business/concept development provide the foundation to define and explain marketplace dynamics/behavioral trends with the goal of delivering a deep understanding of potentially radical forces. Ultimately, our team is charged with helping the DX organization find opportunities, mitigate risks, and shape future human experience strategies!

What You Will Do

• Manage a team of two direct reports and the day-to-day execution of global emerging businesses & market intelligence activities including understanding and profiling the leisure experiences landscape, identifying and assessing current and emerging competitive threats, competitor’s solutions, corporate strategies and activities, and evaluating new DX concepts.
• Design and implement custom global research projects relating to international expansion proposals including qualitative explorations (ethnographies, semiotics, online communities, neuroscience techniques) and quantitative exercises to provide deeper insights into human needs, preferences, behaviors, and product development.
• Manage multiple market research and competitive intelligence agency relationships.
• Craft and deliver compelling stories relative to market trends, industry dynamics and emerging human behaviors that identify product gaps, competitive threats and strategic opportunities.
• Be a raconteur! Partner with Walt Disney Imagineering and Global Development to provide input into new product roadmap development. Manage ideation and co-creation sessions.
• Supervise the implementation of intelligence tools to analyze and synthesize data from multiple sources to generate competitive strategies.
• Oversee the development of in-depth marketplace dossiers, including current strategies, expansion plans, market dynamics, financial health and market positioning.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• 8+ years hands-on experience in related field (e.g. market research, competitive business intelligence, business analytics, strategic planning, new product development)
• 5+ years of demonstrated experience leading, motivating and coaching teams with an inclusive mindset to create a culture of creativity, collaboration, and innovation.
• In-depth experience managing multi-phase projects and working with a variety of data and information sources, including qualitative research, survey data, demographic and consumer trends, industry reports, and academic whitepapers.
• Strong critical thinking and analytic skills, attention to detail, highly developed sense of curiosity, and passion for the market research and competitive intelligence worlds.
• A deep desire to fully understand humans in the development process—willing to speak up to make sure human needs are central to decision-making.
• Utmost comfort with uncertainty and ambiguity; flexibility and agility to adapt to rapidly shifting timelines, priorities, and inputs.
• Solid understanding of external landscape and marketplace dynamics.
• Proven track record with opportunity identification, marketplace dynamics, competitive intelligence and application to yield concrete, measurable business strategies.
• Able to recognize patterns across numerous data sources and communicate the “big picture” through highly synthesized and succinct storytelling for C-suite and other senior executives and audiences.
• Proven success integrating competitive intelligence, qualitative and quantitative findings into actionable, provocative, persuasive recommendations. Measurable success in selling in ideas to partners and leadership.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills. Ability to craft clear, compelling, visually appealing deliverables. Experience with large, executive audiences.
• Able to partner effectively and be widely viewed as an outstanding collaborator.
• Demonstrated strong negotiation and organizational skills and ability to handle conflict.
• Able to travel within US and internationally as needed to support competitive data gathering exercises and qualitative research sessions.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in market research, competitive intelligence, anthropology, sociology, psychology, business, economics, or related field

Preferred Education

• MBA or Master’s degree in market research, competitive business intelligence, foresight, innovation, design thinking or other relevant field (multi-disciplinary background/strategy experience a plus)