Data scientists and change agents often find themselves producing valuable insights that don’t make it to the decision table. Not because their data or evidence is wrong, but because the message doesn’t land, failing to influence executive decisions. The video explores how teams doing research and analysis can communicate their findings more effectively to executive decision-makers.
How to Influence Executive Decisions with Data
Learn to frame analyses in business terms, translate technical metrics into impact language, and deliver insights that drive action. Jeff Allison explains how to align with executive priorities: strategy, risk, opportunity, revenue, and cost. He shares real-world examples and practical frameworks.
A few key takeaways
- Understand how decisions are made
- Understand the budget cycle
Selling with be difficult if you don’t understand how decisions are made
Jeff Allison explains that real organizational effectiveness comes from understanding how decisions are actually made and building strong cross-functional relationships. By collaborating early with counterparts—such as engineering and manufacturing partnering on packaging and testability—teams avoid downstream problems and build trust. These relationships later enable faster support, smoother approvals, and easier access to decision-makers. It takes effort, but it pays off.
Understand the budget cycle
In the video snippet, Jeff Allison explains that one of the biggest hurdles in influencing executive decisions is asking for significant funding outside the normal budget cycle. While VPs often have small discretionary “slush funds,” they cannot cover large requests—such as adding a multi-person team for months—because the money must come from elsewhere. Executives would need to pull budget from either a committed program with customer-promised dates or a non-committed programwhose schedule would slip. Both options create real business risk, making approval extremely difficult. His advice: ensure major initiatives enter the formal annual budgeting process. If something is urgent, propose short, time-boxed efforts(3, 6, or 9 weeks) so executives can fund limited progress without destabilizing existing commitments.
Full video for “Influencing Executives’ Decisions with Data”
In the full video below, Jeff covers:
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- Understanding the executive mindset
- Framing the problem in business terms
- Telling a clear, action-oriented story
- Timing insights for maximum influence
- Building relationships, not just reports
- Avoiding common pitfalls
About Jeff Allison
Jeff Allison has over 30 years of experience in the high-tech industry, specializing in product development, change management, technology adoption, sales, and marketing. He spent 20 years at Cisco (1992–2012), advancing from EDA tools manager to Vice President of Engineering. At Cisco, he led engineering design services for high-end routing platforms and spearheaded cross-functional initiatives to unify best practices, improve quality, and boost customer satisfaction. Before Cisco, he worked at Racal-Redac, establishing North American engineering sales support for EDA tools. Jeff holds an engineering degree from the University of Wales (1984) and brings deep insight into technology growth and transformation.
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