Jennifer Belissent, Ph.D.

I used to have a microwave with preprogrammed cooking times. The top button was for popcorn. The result: I cooked everything as popcorn. If that machine had been capturing data on my cooking habits, the next version would have been optimized for popping popcorn and nothing more. And anyone looking at the data would have […]

Data literacy among employees is critical to becoming an insights-driven organization. Here's where to turn for help.

Learn how to build a broader data and analytics community in your organization by identifying "friendlies.” 

Companies with CDOs use insights to drive decision-making and gain powerful competitive advantages. More organizations are catching on.

In the grocery business, time truly is money. Learn how new inventory management and dynamic pricing solutions can help grocers improve product turnover rates and increase profits.

In the words of Thomas Edison, the value of an idea lies in the using of it. Yeah, I’ve used that quote a lot to talk about the value of data. Data isn’t inherently valuable. But when you use it to better understand customers or to identify bottlenecks in a process or to detect fraud […]

The insights-driven city is becoming a reality. Cities can use their data to improve operational efficiency and boost constituent satisfaction.

Six months ago, it was a moonshot; now it’s much closer to home. Plant-based meats have gone mainstream at the speed of light. Back in December 2018, Forrester identified plant-based meat alternatives from startups like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat as a “moonshot” — a disruptive idea that would address customer needs emerging in the next […]

It’s not hard to see the signs that the data economy is heating up. Virtually all decision makers want to be insights-driven. They mine their own data, yet increasingly they want incremental insights that drive further differentiation and competitive advantage. External data hunting is on the rise: 56% of decision makers say their firms are […]

As the saying goes, if we waste now, we might want it later and regret the waste. Well, it’s even worse than that in the global food system. We waste now, and we want it at the same time. One of the paradoxes around food is that we have both too much and too little […]

A few days ago, I delivered a Forrester webinar on external data: why you need it, how best to find it, and how to effectively buy it. Take a look at the replay: WEBINAR: Think You’re Doing Data Sourcing Right? Think Again The premise of the research (and the webinar) is as follows: Decision makers […]

This tool can help cut through the noise of unstructured public data (like news headlines) to find the major themes and key terms.

Are you a data hunter? Got one on your team? It’s not enough to gather data — you need to actively hunt for it. When it comes to data, especially according to the decision makers asking for it, there is never enough! Decision makers today want to be insights-driven. They know they need to understand […]

How do you create an insights-driven organization? One way is leadership. And we’d like to hear about yours. Today, half of the respondents in Forrester’s Business Technographics® survey data report that their organizations have a chief data officer (CDO). A similar number report having a chief analytics officer (CAO). Many firms without these insights leaders […]

Food Tech figured prominently on the menu at Mobile World Congress 2019. Mobile operators, network equipment providers, device manufacturers and solution providers address challenges from farm, field, fishery or factory to fork, - and beyond. Venture investment has increased significantly. And, if Mobile World Congress is any indication, companies large and small are eager to get a place at the table.

Greetings from sunny but cold Orlando, where the inaugural Forrester Data Strategy & Insights Forum just wrapped up. During the event, I spent time with a seasoned data professional who joined me as a panelist in my session and who took advantage of the wealth of wisdom dispensed in keynotes and deep dives throughout the event. […]

Do cities need a “smart city platform”? It depends. Clients have been asking Forrester about our thoughts on new IoT-enabled smart city platforms launched by vendors focused on transforming city government infrastructure and applications. To answer that question, we set out to understand when and where cities might need one, and how to decide which […]

I’m often asked the question, “What’s my data worth?” And my immediate (and somewhat provocative) response is “Nothing!” Data is, without a doubt, valuable. But when stored in vaults and locked down, it is not. As the American inventor Thomas Edison asserted, “The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” That sentiment […]

The hype around big data got several things right, one being that data volumes are big and growing quickly. Digital transformation — as well as the growing adoption of IoT and the ubiquity of the device (AKA, “mobile phone”) that we all carry with us — has accelerated the growth of data. Having successfully put that data […]