Elevating Insights Through Continuous Learning

In this episode of the Consumer Insights Podcast, Thor is joined by Victoria Ng, Director, Consumer Insights at Sodexo.

A commitment to learning—whether through formal education or experience—opens doors to diverse opportunities and fresh perspectives. It fills gaps in understanding, fosters adaptability to emerging technologies, and is fundamental to uncovering transformative insights.

In this episode, Victoria Ng, Director, Consumer Insights at Sodexo, shares how her journey of continuous learning has shaped her ability to conduct thorough research and derive meaningful insights. 

We also discuss: 

• How combining qualitative and quantitative data helps bring insights to life
• The importance of being a storyteller rather than just a “data-teller"
• Methods for leveraging emerging technologies like AI in insights work

You can access all episodes of the Consumer Insights Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or Spreaker. Below, you'll find a lightly edited transcript of this episode.

Thor:
Hello everyone and welcome to the Consumer Insights Podcast. Today, I'm excited to have an amazing insights leader joining me for what I know will be a spectacular conversation. I'm thrilled to introduce today's guest, Victoria Ng, Director of Consumer Insights at Sodexo. Victoria is a seasoned Consumer Insights leader with over a decade of experience, transforming data and insights into strategic storytelling for new and established brands. She has held research roles on the agency and client side, both in the US and internationally. In her current role, Victoria leads the Campus and Government Insights team in helping cross-functional partners make consumer-driven decisions to continuously enhance the customer experience. Thank you so much for joining me, Victoria.

Victoria Ng:
And thank you, Thor, for having me. I'm so excited to be here today.

Victoria's journey 

Thor:
Could we start off with you taking a couple of minutes, telling us about yourself, your role, and how you got to where you are today? How did it all start?

Victoria Ng:

Sure. It all started internationally, actually. I was working in Japan for a couple of years for an aerospace defense company when I realized that aerospace defense and logistics weren’t what I wanted to pursue for the rest of my career. I had majored in psychology as an undergrad and was always curious about how branding and marketing intersect with consumer behaviors. So, I decided to look for a job in consumer research, which led to my first research opportunity at a boutique innovation agency in Shanghai called Lucid 360. It was a very small team—at most, 10 of us at any one time—so it gave me incredible hands-on experience learning all aspects of research. That was my first real exposure to the field. We focused primarily on qualitative research, doing a lot of new product development and co-creation sessions with Chinese consumers and Fortune 500 clients in China.

It was an amazing experience. I learned how to moderate for the first time, and I got to travel across Asia to understand how consumer behaviors were constantly evolving. It was an exciting time, as many international companies were trying to figure out how to enter the Asian market. We were consistently testing new products and concepts, which made it a fantastic learning environment. After a couple of years there, I wanted to broaden my research experience by joining a larger agency to leverage the additional capabilities and tools they could offer. That led me to Kantar, formerly Millward Brown, where I joined their qualitative agency team. At Kantar, we focused on advertising testing—one of Millward Brown’s specialties—and worked closely with the quantitative teams to develop new products and concepts for Fortune 500 clients. It was a great experience because it helped me understand how a large agency operates and how to effectively combine qualitative and quantitative research capabilities when recommending strategies to clients.

By that point, I had spent about five years living and working internationally, so I decided to return to the United States to continue my career. I took a role as a strategist at a branding agency, aligning with my original passion for branding and marketing. One of the things I found while working on the research agency side was that you don’t always get to see where your recommendations go. How do clients apply the insights and suggestions you provide? Sometimes, you might see a product on shelves, but more often than not, you don’t know what happens next. I wanted to understand how insights contribute to branding and how clients use them to create strong brands in the market.

That role gave me valuable experience in expanding my branding and marketing capabilities. However, after a couple of years, I realized I missed the consumer research side of things—talking to consumers, understanding their daily behaviors, and identifying their needs. So, I returned to the research world on the agency side.

After a few more years, I felt I had spent the majority of my career on the agency side, and I developed that itch researchers often get to go client-side and see what it’s like to work for the brand itself. I was fortunate to find an opportunity at UCLA on their marketing research team. That was my first exposure to academia and higher education, where I worked with academic program departments to understand emerging employment trends over the next three to five years.

My role involved determining how these trends should influence the types of academic programs UCLA developed, how to market them, and identifying the types of students who would benefit most from those programs. After a few years at UCLA, I transitioned to my current role at Sodexo, where I lead insights for Sodexo Campus and Government. We operate a food service business in these verticals, and my team’s job is to help internal teams understand key consumer needs. For example, we explore emerging Gen Z and Gen Alpha trends that will impact our food service business over the next few years. We ask questions like: What are university students looking for in a campus dining experience? How can we continue to innovate and provide products and services that meet their needs? By answering these questions, we aim to increase customer satisfaction and help our clients become better partners in food service and dining.

Defining an insight

Thor:

Wow. With such an international background and experience working abroad on both the agency and client sides, I’m dying to know—how do you define an insight, and has that definition changed over the course of your career?

Victoria Ng:

Yeah, that's a great question. I think, at the beginning of my career and still today, an insight to me has always been the "aha" moment, right? It’s not necessarily something consumers explicitly tell you during a focus group or interview. Instead, it’s about connecting the dots—identifying the common themes across the consumers we’re talking to and uncovering the shared need state that’s either missing or not being fulfilled today. To me, that’s where the true insight lies. It’s not just about saying, “Students love Chick-fil-A.” Sure, we all know they love the brand—it’s popular, and the food is great. But what’s driving that loyalty beyond just the food quality or taste? Is it the consistency of the brand experience that keeps them coming back? For example, understanding that deeper layer is what makes the insight valuable.

For me, it’s about connecting the trends and data points we observe through research and distilling them into a larger theme that speaks to an overarching consumer need.

That’s where we can innovate, creating better products and services to enhance their experience.

Thor:
Fantastic. And when we were preparing for this episode, you shared that you disagree with the idea that qualitative research isn't as valuable. Can you tell us how you've come to that belief?

Victoria Ng:

Sure. I mean, I think it’s partially because I was biased, right? Growing up in my research experience and starting out with qualitative research really drove my passion for understanding the "why" behind the data points we see in quantitative research. I just love that aspect of actually having conversations with consumers directly and hearing, in their own words, what their experience with a product or brand is like. Throughout my career, I’ve often encountered situations where clients or internal teams simply want a data point. They just want me to say, “99% of consumers want X.” My pushback to that is always, "Great, we can get that for you, and it’s easy to measure and track—but you won’t know why 99% of those consumers want X." And knowing the "why" is crucial. For instance, what if you can’t offer that specific product, brand, or service? Understanding the underlying reason they want it might lead you to other ideas or opportunities. For example, if the root need is convenience, you can explore different solutions or technologies that deliver on that need, even if it’s not the exact thing mentioned in the data point. For me, qualitative research is essential—whether at the beginning or end of a quantitative study—to bring insights to life in a more meaningful way. It helps us truly understand what consumers are looking for and, more importantly, why.

Thor:
Now, do you have any specific stories you can share on this?

Victoria Ng:

Sure. So last year, we conducted a student lifestyle tracker, which we run every two years to track the evolving university student experience in the United States. It covers everything from why students choose the college they attend to what they’re most excited about when starting college and what concerns they have. It also explores their goals for graduating—whether it's finding a job right away, securing the highest-paying job, or pursuing a role they’re passionate about, for example. As you can imagine, with a tracker like this, it’s a large-scale study with a substantial number of questions. It generates a wealth of data points that allow us to compare behaviors and trends year over year. However, for me, I pushed to include some qualitative work in this tracker when we ran it.

For instance, one of the data points we uncovered was that 87% of students feel that dining on campus helps them build community and is their number-one way of socializing with friends. That’s an excellent statistic for us at Sodexo, as a food service business, to know that food plays such a significant role in fostering community on campus. But when we conducted one-on-one interviews with students, we uncovered stories that brought this data to life. For example, one student shared how every Thursday night, they and their friends would knock on dorm room doors to gather everyone and head to dinner together. Another student, who was a freshman post-pandemic, explained how they struggled to meet new people and make friends. The dining hall became a key space for them—one night, while eating alone, another student noticed and invited them to join their group. That simple interaction helped them feel more connected. t’s stories like these that bring the data points to life and provide deeper context to the insights we see in the research. When presenting to a client, these stories help drive the point home even more effectively, in my opinion.

Thor:

And if we were to zoom out on this, when it comes to combining quant and qual to get the bigger picture, to understand the why, what are the steps to take?

Victoria Ng:

Yeah, I think it honestly depends on the objective you're trying to solve for. I get this question a lot, and I think if you're tackling a challenge or question where you have no idea where to start—even if you were to conduct a survey tomorrow—you might not know what types of questions to ask or what answer options to include. In such cases, qualitative research is a great way to begin and gather some exploratory insights. For example, if you're exploring the future of food, starting with focus groups involving customers or clients can help uncover key themes and ideas across both audiences. These insights can then be tested in a follow-up quantitative study. On the other hand, when dealing with something like our student lifestyle tracker, which we've been running for a few years now, we already know the KPIs and key metrics we’re tracking over time. However, to add depth and context to the trends we're observing, qualitative research can be invaluable. It brings color and life to what consumers are experiencing and helps illustrate what the actual university experience looks like today. Ultimately, it depends on where you are in the research journey, the specific question you're trying to answer, and how much data you already have at your disposal.

AI in insights: opportunities and pitfalls

Thor:

My understanding is that you believe it’s really important to incorporate AI and emerging technologies into insights work. Where do you see the biggest opportunities in this space? Conversely, where do you see the biggest pitfalls? And what aspects of AI are you most skeptical about?

Victoria Ng:

Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of talk about that today, given the emergence of AI across all different industries. But I think there’s so much potential for the market research industry. Speaking for myself, my team of three is like a small but mighty SWAT team within Sodexo Campus. And honestly, there’s only so much work that three people can manage and leverage effectively.

Using AI and tools that can handle the nitty-gritty work—such as data analysis, combing through hundreds or thousands of verbatims to identify key themes and takeaways—could be a game-changer.

If we can do that more efficiently, it frees up time for my team and me to focus on the actual analysis. We can spend more time answering questions like: How do we apply these insights and findings to our business today? What do we do with these takeaways? How do we leverage them to create, again, new products and services, as opposed to spending the majority of that time doing the actual data analysis and reading through all the verbatims, for example? I think it's making our work more efficient and allowing us, again, to focus more time on the strategic aspect of research and how to make it actionable for our business, which I think can benefit everyone in the end.

Thor:
Love that. And in preparation for this episode, you mentioned that insights leaders should aim to be storytellers, not data tellers. Can you share with the audience a bit more about what you mean here?

Victoria Ng:

Correct. So again, across my career, I’ve worked with many different types of clients and teams—some who truly understand the value of insights and others who see it simply as a data point to validate an idea they already have. I like to think of our team as storytellers because, ultimately, we are the consumer advocates, right? It’s our job to know what consumers are looking for day in and day out. In our case right now, that’s university students. Sometimes we’re asked very specific questions, such as: What are university students looking for when it comes to mobile ordering? How many of them are using it today? Those are important data points to understand for the business. But I think the key lies in embedding that data into a larger story.

For example: Why is mobile ordering so important? What does convenience actually mean to university students today? How are their experiences outside of campus shaping their definition of convenience when they’re on campus? We know, for instance, that students grew up with services like DoorDash, allowing them to order food whenever they want. This behavior becomes ingrained, so when they arrive at college, they bring with them the same expectation—to be able to order food easily, whenever and whatever they want.

The challenge then becomes solving for that need and expectation within the unique context of a college campus, which is inherently different from the experience they had living at home with their parents. How do we create dining solutions on campus that meet this expectation for convenience? By telling the holistic story: This is where the student came from, this is why they have these expectations today, and this is what they’re looking for in campus dining. That narrative is far more compelling than just saying, for example, “70% of university students use DoorDash.” It adds depth, context, and a stronger connection to actionable insights.

Thor:
Victoria, why do you think insights teams struggle with this?

Victoria Ng:

Now, that is a good question. I think sometimes, honestly, when you've been working with data for so long and you're used to pulling out key numbers and looking at calculations all day, it's easy to get lost in the data. Especially when the data is telling a strong story—like high percentages or a significant number of consumers behaving in one way or another—it’s easy to develop tunnel vision. When you're focused on answering one specific question during research, for example, it can sometimes limit your perspective. But I really believe that bringing to life the "why" behind the data point and the experience is key to making the story resonate, especially with internal teams. Having been on the client side for several years now, I’ve noticed that one of the challenges in these roles is convincing internal teams why the insights matter—why it’s not just about a data point or a statistic, but about understanding the bigger picture and its implications.

Thor:

Switching gears for a bit, your career path is really interesting. Considering you’ve had international experience and are currently pursuing your MBA, could you tell us more about what motivated you to take those career steps?

Victoria Ng:

Sure. So, I have always wanted to get an MBA since the beginning of my career. It's just an aspiration that has always been there for me. And I think, as a researcher—and I can't speak for everyone, but for myself personally I never really grew up with that business acumen through my research experience, right? I know research really well, inside and out, and I think I have a really good grasp on understanding companies’ or businesses’ needs and challenges. But could I have, you know, could I pick up a balance sheet and really know what that means? Could I read a financial statement and understand what's going on with the business? Did I understand how operations work? Right? Like Sodexo is a huge food service operations business. And so, just knowing all the different processes that have to work in place—supply chain, logistics, and how all that works together to actually get a business to run—was really important for me. And so, that's why I decided to get my MBA two years ago. I will be graduating this June, so I'm very excited. It's probably been the toughest thing I've ever done in my life, but I would encourage anyone who has always just wanted to, again, build up their business acumen and leadership skills.

This is a great way to do that. It's really taught me a lot about myself as a leader, as an insights leader over the years. And now that I'm leading, even though it's a small team, it's really helped me grow myself as a leader and learn how to position our team as a strategic partner internally with our teams, right? So, we sit within the marketing team now here at Sodexo Campus, and how do we better work with our sales teams, operations teams, and retention teams to be that collaborative strategic partner that they're looking for? And I think the MBA has really helped me gain those skills over the past two years in terms of how to develop those internal relationships with key stakeholders and just have a better executive presence overall.

Thor:

And if you had to, on top of what you just said, pinpoint some of the most powerful learnings from these career experiences, what advice would you share to other insights professionals looking to enrich their careers?

Victoria Ng:

I would say have a look at where you think your own knowledge gaps are. For example, for me, it was really about understanding the financials of a business and how it's run and operationally what goes into making a business successful. And I think now having these skills through the MBA as well as the leadership development, again, have made me a stronger leader internally because I can come to the table and not just present insights, but say, okay, what are the impact that these insights are gonna have on the growth of our business going forward? What is the impact of helping to increase customer satisfaction year over year, going to have on customer loyalty, which leads to additional revenue for the business, et cetera. So I think just having that holistic view and knowledge will help us become better insights leaders in terms of applying the insights more strategically to a business and speaking just on that same level as senior leadership does, right? Again, just when you're talking about revenue growth and sales, et cetera, I think these are all, this is just language and acumen that is foundational to being a really good leader within any company, in my opinion. And so I, as an insights or research professional, if that's something that you feel like is a gap in your experience, like I did. I'd strongly recommend, you know, whether or not it's an MBA or some kind of executive program or certificate program even, I think it's always helpful to continue to nurture those skills and grow as a professional.

Thor:

I think you've shared some really powerful learnings with us today. But if you had to summarize, what's the one big takeaway you want listeners to get from this episode?

Victoria Ng:

I would say that we should all continue to learn, right? So whether that's going back for more education around a specific area that you feel like you want to just learn more about or to grow in, such as an MBA or maybe a data analytics program, or even learning how to leverage emerging tools like AI and ChatGPT and how to apply it to our business and our roles. I think we have such an important opportunity to again position insights and research teams as strategic partners within organizations. And I think the more that we can continue to be on top of these emerging trends and again, new advances in technologies to make our jobs easier and more efficient, you know, my I guess my takeaway at the end of the day is continue growing, right? No matter what area or aspect that you're interested in, whether that's more research or even outside of research. I think we are such well-rounded professionals when it comes to truly understanding someone's needs. And we are well positioned within companies today to help grow the business in more ways than just doing research.

Dream insights lunch

Thor:
Wow. Unfortunately, Victoria, we’re at the end of this conversation. As you know, I love to end by asking—who in the world of insights would you love to have lunch with?

Victoria Ng:

Oh, that's a great, great question. I should have put more thought into this before we jumped on. But I think he, so I'm going to put him in the world of insights, even though he does many different things.

But Adam Grant is someone who I follow religiously and listen to all of his podcasts.

And as an organizational behavioral psychologist, I think he has just such a good grasp on understanding people and what really drives them and motivates them. If you've listened to any of his podcasts again, he's just such an engaging speaker and he asks just the most brilliant questions to get the deepest experiences and thoughts from people. And I think that he is someone I would love, love to have lunch with just to pick his brain about how he does that day in and day out with all sorts of people. So I think he's kind of a great researcher and insights person at heart because of that.

Thor:

Adam Grant is definitely a fascinating person. So if that lunch ever happens, I'll probably be around eavesdropping somewhere.

Victoria Ng:

I'll be sure to invite you for sure!

Thor:

This has been such a fantastic conversation, Victoria. Your perspective on insights is truly something and I think we can all learn from it. Now before we end today's episode, I'd love to return some of the moments of our conversation that have really stuck with me. You started out by saying that an insight has always been the aha moment, connecting the dots between trends and data points to highlight the common need state, common need state, not being fulfilled today. Many stakeholders will ask for specific data points and as a researcher, we can get those, whereas quant data will give you powerful data points, big data points. Qualitative research will help you go beyond that to understand the why is it that 99% of consumers want X? If you're looking for career growth, start by asking yourself, where are my biggest knowledge gaps? Never stop learning. We should all continue to learn. Whether that is deepening your knowledge about AI or getting a degree. Now I know that I've learned a lot from talking to you today, and I'm sure our audience has as well. So thank you so much for joining me today, Victoria.

Victoria Ng:

And thank you Thor for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity.