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Over 75% of insights leaders say their work is rarely used in strategic decisions. Instead of playing a key role in guiding strategy, the Head of Insights is often reduced to producing reports and dashboards.
Somewhere along the way, the role of the Head of Insights became misunderstood. Many teams still believe that insights work is about pulling data, formatting decks, and running weekly updates. But that puts the focus on outputs, not outcomes.
So, how did we get here?
As a result, many insights leaders find themselves stuck. They’re over-tasked with low-impact reporting, disconnected from strategy, and frustrated that their work rarely drives real decisions. A study found that data-driven insights and recommendations only reach the decision-making stage 22% of the time.
The traditional insights role is stuck in the past. Most insights teams are still drowning in dashboards and cranking out reports that never get read. Your team drowns in data but struggles to show value. Here’s where it all breaks down:
Have you ever spent hours on a report only for it to collect dust? You’re not the only one. Teams are overloaded with charts and slide decks that don’t answer the real questions leadership is asking.
Insights are often fragmented. Social listening says one thing, sales data says another, and survey results? Something else entirely. Even good data leads nowhere without a narrative to tie it all together.
When insights don’t tell a story, they do more harm than good. You end up with decision paralysis: too much data, not enough direction. 72% of business leaders report that the sheer volume of data has stopped them from taking action due to a lack of confidence.
Traditional insights roles aren’t failing because they don’t have enough data, they’re failing because they’re not equipped to translate that data into decisions. That’s where the new Head of Insights comes in: less reporting about what happened, more storytelling about why it matters.
When brands stop treating insights as just numbers and start treating them as stories, they get results that numbers alone can’t deliver.
These stories can also make messaging more human. By understanding the emotions behind customer behaviour, brands can create messages and experiences that feel relevant and personal. Research shows that this type of storytelling can increase message retention by up to 22 times compared to just sharing facts and stats.
Emotional depth gives brands a real competitive edge. When you understand the situation, not just the data points, you’re better equipped to make smarter, faster decisions that move the business in the right direction.
In its early days, Airbnb had a trust problem. The idea of sleeping in a stranger’s home felt risky. Instead of relying purely on funnel metrics or conversion rates, Airbnb leaned into the emotional side of the experience. They listened to the stories behind user hesitation: fear of safety, awkward interactions, and uncertainty.
By analyzing guest reviews, support tickets, and forum conversations, the team uncovered recurring emotional themes around comfort, control, and security. This insight became the foundation for a new narrative: Airbnb is a safe and welcoming place for real people like you.
From there, they rebuilt the experience around that story: adding verified IDs, detailed host profiles, secure payments, and a messaging system for transparency.
The result? A dramatic increase in user adoption, stronger platform loyalty, and a model for how companies can turn customer emotions into product innovation.
In this blog, we outlined a few key goals you should aim for as a Head of Insights to drive real organizational growth and best practices for achieving them.
Standard reports and dashboards focused on surface-level metrics.
Create emotion-driven storylines that answer business questions. Connect data to decisions with context, meaning, and urgency (a storyline)
Creating slide decks and dashboards that leadership struggles to use.
Frame insights as direct answers to critical business decisions, helping teams act with clarity, speed and confidence.
Relying on historic trend analysis that lags behind real consumer behaviour.
Monitor real-time emotions across social platforms, forums, and reviews to uncover emerging behaviours before competitors see them.
Most social listening tools stop at tracking what happened. They pull numbers, mentions, and trends, but leave teams guessing about the deeper story behind the data.
OneCliq is different. It's built to go beyond the surface and uncover why things matter. Instead of just counting conversations, OneCliq finds the emotions, motivations, and emerging behaviours that drive them.
OneCliq Demo - See how to turn real-time consumer convo's into insights in one search
It’s designed for leaders who need more than dashboards, they need real-time emotional intelligence that they can turn into action. With OneCliq, brands can quickly build narratives that answer critical business questions, sharpen messaging, and stay ahead of fast-changing consumer expectations.
In a world flooded with data, the brands that succeed will be the ones that listen smarter. OneCliq helps you do exactly that.
The future of insights doesn’t belong to the teams with the most reports. It belongs to the teams that can tell the clearest, most actionable story.
When insights are grounded in real emotions, behaviours, and context, they move faster, land harder, and help brands make smarter decisions.
That’s where OneCliq comes in. It gives you the tools to go beyond data points and build meaningful narratives, so your insights aren’t just seen, they’re used.
Written by Mihan Bandara
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The first platform built to automate qualitative research and make it actually useful.
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