What It Means: A Forrester podcast
Each week, the What It Means podcast invites Forrester analysts to discuss the latest trends and challenges to help business and technology leaders make bold decisions and become truly customer-obsessed. Topics range from tech-driven innovation and CX design to B2B buying trends and marketing planning. Listen now and subscribe to get a new episode each week. Got a comment or question? Email our team at podcast@forrester.com.
Latest Episodes
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How Does Automation Enable Human Innovation?
Fears that automation will replace human creativity with mindless robots are unwarranted. VP, Principal Analyst Paul Miller and Principal Analyst Dan Bieler explain why in this episode.
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Tackling Technology’s Trust Problem
What can be done to address a growing lack of trust in technology? Principal Analyst Sara Watson digs into the causes of this issue and provides some examples of firms taking proactive steps to minimize its impact.
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What COVID-Related Absenteeism Has Taught Us About Workforce Planning
COVID-related absenteeism continues to cause challenges across industries and business functions. In this episode, VP, Research Director James McQuivey and VP, Principal Analyst J. P. Gownder highlight some key learnings for workforce planning.
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The Case For Modernizing Your Operational Platforms
If aligning your operational platforms with your customer-facing platforms is way down on your IT roadmap, you might want to move it up. Hear VPs Linda Ivy-Rosser and Liz Herbert explain why in this episode.
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Why The CIO-CMO Partnership Matters More Than Ever
Technology and marketing leaders need each other, and companies need strong technology-marketing partnerships. On this week’s What It Means, VP, Senior Research Director Matt Guarini and VP, Principal Analyst Thomas Husson explain why the CIO-CMO relationship matters more than ever and the key benefits of effective CMO-CIO collaboration.
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Build A Successful Voice Of The Customer Program
Only 12% of CX pros rate their voice of the customer (VoC) program’s maturity as high or very high. In this episode of What It Means, Senior Analyst Colleen Fazio explains what’s blocking success with VoC and how CX professionals can derive value and get stakeholders excited.
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Is Employee Wellness Broken?
There’s a giant disconnect between how executives view employee wellness and how employees view it. Senior Analyst Jonathan Roberts digs into the causes and impacts of that disconnect in this week’s episode.
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It’s Time To Kick The Leads Habit
The traditional focus on individual, marketing-supplied leads is failing B2B companies and buyers. So why does it persist, and what’s a better alternative? VP, Principal Analyst Terry Flaherty and VP, Research Director Mike Pregler discuss on this week’s podcast.
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Encore Presentation — Avoid The Chatbot How-Can-I-Help-You Problem
The problem with chatbots can be summed up in one question: “How can I help you?” This question sets the expectation that a chatbot will be as helpful as a human agent, which isn’t true. But don’t scrap all your chatbots. Instead, invest in experience design, says VP, Principal Analyst David Truog on this episode of What It Means.
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The Trouble With Thought Leadership
Thought leadership content is everywhere. But, too often, it’s neither particularly thoughtful nor leading, say analysts Ian Bruce and Lisa Gately. On this week’s What It Means, they discuss what defines good thought leadership and how B2B firms can create it.
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Why Are Brands Funding Misinformation?
Marketers are accidentally funding misinformation and fueling the proliferation of dangerous falsehoods. In this episode of What It Means, Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering discusses how marketers can protect their brand from this phenomenon.
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The Customer Obsession Balancing Act For B2B Firms
B2B companies that center their strategies and operations on customers far outperform their less customer-focused peers. Still, when it comes to customer obsession, more isn’t always better. Analysts Amy Bills and Nick Buck explain on this week’s podcast why customer obsession means finding a balance.
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The Best And Worst Security Practices From Around The World
The fact is, no business can stop every breach. So is it time to shift to a “post-breach” resilience strategy? Analyst Allie Mellen thinks so. This week, she discusses the best — and worst — security practices from various global regions.
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The Two Sides Of Technology’s Environmental Impact
Is emerging tech the cause of or the solution to the climate crisis? The answer is complicated. In this episode, Analyst Abhijit Sunil and VP, Research Director Glenn O’Donnell debate the benefits and impacts of emerging tech on the environment.
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Multicloud Strategy By Design Or By Accident?
As more organizations branch out to use multiple cloud platforms and providers, the question becomes: Is there a strategy behind your multicloud decisions, or do they just happen? In this episode, Principal Analyst Lee Sustar and Senior Analyst Tracy Woo discuss the important differences.
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Will Web3 Live Up To Its Promise?
Web3 proponents have a grand vision of a fairer internet. But will it ever become reality? VP, Principal Analyst Martha Bennett examines both sides of this complex question.
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The Business Case For Inclusive Design
Why has inclusive design become so important? On this episode of What It Means, Principal Analyst Gina Bhawalkar and UX Researcher Senem Biyikli delve into the multi-faceted benefits of inclusive design.
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Marketing And The Metaverse
Is the metaverse your ticket to marketing innovation or a quagmire into which marketing dollars will sink, never to be seen again? What is the metaverse, anyway? Join VP, Research Director Mike Proulx and VP, Principal Analyst Julie Ask as they explore what the metaverse means for marketers.
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European Skill Clusters: A Solution To The Tech Talent Crunch?
With the tech talent crunch in Europe creating urgent challenges, business and technology leaders are looking beyond their local regions to fill their skills gaps. On this episode, Principal Analyst Dan Bieler and VP, Research Director James McQuivey discuss a new report that identifies and ranks Europe’s top talent regions, or “skill clusters.”
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Content Localization Is A Competitive Differentiator
Tailoring content for regional buyers is key to good customer experience, yet many global B2B companies don’t give it the attention it deserves. On this week’s What It Means, Principal Analyst Kathleen Pierce explains what a good content localization strategy entails and previews research that she’ll unveil at Forrester’s B2B Summit North America.