Q&A: Stats Perform’s new CPO on data, AI and breaking glass ceilings

After two decades at data giant IBM, Nancy Hensley has taken on a new challenge as the polymathic chief product and marketing officer at Stats Perform. Perhaps a daunting task for some but after years at the top of the tech world, Hensley is ready for the challenge.

Speaking to EGR Technology from Chicago, Hensley touches on her past experiences at IBM and McDonald’s, including being the vanguard on data-led decisions and AI. She explores how more women can break into a male-dominated industry and reflects on her own rise to executive status.

EGR Technology: What attracted you to the role at Stats Perform? Who reached out to who in that scenario?

Nancy Hensley (NH): Stats Perform was a company I’d been watching over the years because I feel strongly about the Chicago tech scene. A recruiter reached out on behalf of Carl [Mergele], our CEO. We scheduled a 15-minute chat and talked for an hour and a half so we kind of knew we had a love match there.

There were so many things about Stats Perform that I loved. First, it was a Chicago company and I felt very strongly about being a part of the Chicago tech hub scene and promoting that. Second was the data. For all the years I worked in data, AI and analytics, the number one thing that stopped progress was the lack of trusted data.

I see this company before me that had the data and had the expertise around AI. And I could talk about sports all day – being a data and sports nerd – what can be better?

EGR Technology: What knowledge and skills from your time at IBM and McDonald’s will you bring to Stats Perform?

NH: I fell in love with analytics during my time at McDonald’s, and it helped me see how being very data-driven can change the way a company works. We were using spatial analysis to decide where we put McDonald’s stores and we were way ahead of the spatial analysis curve.

When I came into IBM, I learned a lot about being customer-focused. Really understanding how to nail the customer experience is essential to product success. I believe I bring a strong point of view and skill set.

I was able to experiment with growth at IBM, bringing those concepts of being data-driven and even introducing ideas around growth hacking and how that can be used to apply agility to a product.

The last part is strong leadership skills. At a company with 400,000, you’ve got to learn how to get things done in a highly matrixed organisation. The ability to influence and get people moving in the same direction. Some people say, ‘isn’t it like trying to turn the Titanic?’ – you’re not if you actually know how to do it.

EGR Technology: What are your main priorities as chief product and marketing officer? And what do you hope to achieve in the role?

NH: On the marketing side, the number one priority is to effectively tell the story of who we are. I felt like we’re the wizard behind the curtain that nobody knew about, and so my priority is to get us out from behind the curtain and have people understand who Stats Perform is.

On the product side, we have so much AI capability and so much data and when you combine the two, you can do some fantastic things.

My priority is to get our AI capabilities infused into our products so our clients are consuming AI, reaping the benefits and we become essential to the point where they don’t even realise that it is AI. That’s how you know you are truly effective at serving it up.

EGR Technology: How does the online gambling industry differ from your previous experience and how do you feel about the challenge of it?

NH: It is a pretty complex industry. What I love about it at its core is the sports gambling industry is data-focused. There is so much that relies on data and I think because it is so data-driven, for me, it’s an easy industry to love. Learning about it has been very interesting and I have some good teachers and people around me to understand it a lot better.

EGR Technology: As a C-level woman working in tech, a) how should companies encourage women into the industry and b) how difficult is it to break through into senior roles?

NH: With the first point, I think it is to help them tell their stories. I think that’s how women can be inspired. I remember in the early part of my career desperately looking for women mentors who looked like me.

I was a single mother and there were not many successful women executives in tech who were single mums and who could give me the inspiration that I could get there. I spent years looking for mentors that could help me feel like I could get to the other side.

That lack of inspiration led me to be very active as an advocate in terms of mentoring and women telling their stories. We still don’t have enough women that feel like they have a path to getting there so that’s really, really key.

In terms of breaking through, I probably have a bias coming from IBM because even though it was a big tech company, I didn’t feel the bias as much as other women in tech.

When I became a single mum, I thought there is no way I’m going to break into the executive ranks. It is never going to happen for me, I have too many limitations. And that is not the case if you have a company that sees the value of what you bring to the table as opposed to what your possible limitations are.

I think it is key to not see the limitations, or see being a woman as a limitation, in being able to break into the C-level ranks.