The Data Engine
From statistical analyst through agency and consultancy to Chief Product Officer at Experian, on turning disparate data into products customers will pay for.
"I'm happy to say yes or no, right, really quickly."
Sarah Robertson is Chief Product Officer at Experian, where she leads the data and software products the company takes to global markets. She is known for a rare composite view of the data problem, built from statistics, agency, consultancy, client leadership and insight, and for an insistence that data is only worth anything once it is tied to an outcome a customer will pay for.
Robertson started her career in statistics as an analyst, where the discipline was building a hypothesis and proving or disproving it through analytics and data. From there she moved across agency, consultancy, account leadership and insight, working over the years in financial services, insurance, loyalty and travel. She describes that path as one that naturally led her to product: the statistical grounding to build models, the client management to understand how a product is sold, and the consultancy training to question a customer to the heart of their real need.
As Chief Product Officer at Experian, Robertson now oversees both data products and software products, including a global product she calls Worldview, built deliberately with non-personal data so it can roll out across markets. She keeps product close to sales, legal and finance, insists on privacy by design, and judges her own progress candidly, putting herself at roughly 50 per cent of where she wants to be on product operations because, she says, everything takes longer in a large organisation.
AI is an engine. Data is the fuel that you put into it
"It's all about the customer"
Robertson has made customer-centred product the non-negotiable inside her organisation. She traces it to consultancy, where you are trained to start from the client and their real need rather than your own idea. For her, being customer led in everything is the philosophy she has instilled in the team.
"Experimentation is also really important."
From the consultancy world Robertson carries an instinct that time is money, and a willingness to decide quickly. She weighs the information and the risk, and if the risk is low she simply tries it. Experimentation, in her account, beats deliberation when the downside is small.
"Those are the softer skills that are really coming to the forefront."
As AI absorbs the mechanical parts of the job, Robertson has reweighted her hiring towards emotional intelligence, critical thinking and commerciality. A product framework, she argues, can be taught to anyone bright enough. The judgement and relationships cannot, which is why she now hires for them first.
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