Netflix on Balancing Data with Intuition for Better Insights
Elizabeth Stone
VP, Data & Insights
Netflix
Episode Overview:
Using data to gain customer insights can be difficult. Using data to gain customer insights from an ever-growing, ever-changing entertainment audience presents a much steeper challenge. In this episode, Elizabeth Stone, VP, Data & Insights at Netflix, explains how her dedicated team reflects the larger Netflix culture, balancing hard data with a mindset of learning and experimentation to make decisions that improves the Netflix experience.
Key Moments:
Key Quotes
Netflix on Balancing Data with Intuition for Better InsightsOur role is to…help creative leaders make even better decisions.
Netflix on Balancing Data with Intuition for Better InsightsYou can't predict which title's gonna be a hit as much as we wish we could. There are things that are just always imperfect about it. And so the Netflix culture also expects a lot of judgment and we expect that at every level of the organization.
Netflix on Balancing Data with Intuition for Better InsightsPeople at every level of the organization are thinking, am I working on the most impactful thing I could be working on right now? And they feel that same pull from partners saying, can we have more here? And then we all have to ask ourselves, well, if we did that, would that be higher impact for the business than what we're already doing?
Netflix on Balancing Data with Intuition for Better InsightsWe don't want be fearful of placing big bets. We want to be constantly pushing ourselves to be more innovative and certainly more excellent over time. And we want to use data and analytical thinking to really try to make the best decisions we can.
Mentions:
- Gartner Data and Analytics Conference
- Lyft
- Randy Bean and Fail Fast, Learn Faster
- ChatGPT/OpenAI
- Daft Punk / Hot Chip / LCD Soundsystem
Bio:
Elizabeth Stone leads Netflix’s Data & Insights org. Data & Insights is a centralized and globally distributed team that includes: data engineering, metrics development, analytic insights and tooling, research and development of machine learning algorithms, optimization and automation, experimentation and causal inference, and consumer research. The Data & Insights team applies this functional expertise to improve and evolve all parts of Netflix's business including the member-facing product, streaming delivery, content, studio production, games, ads, business operations, and growth. Elizabeth previously worked in finance, both as a trader and as an economic consultant, before transitioning to the tech industry, where she led teams at Nuna and Lyft. She is a graduate of MIT and Stanford University.
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