Sr Manager - Consumer Foresight

About the Role & Team

“We make magic.” That’s our motto at Disney Experiences. And it permeates everything we do. At Disney, you’ll help inspire that magic by enabling our teams to push the limits of entertainment and create the never-before-seen!

The Consumer Insights, Measurement, and Analytics organization informs strategy development through actionable data analytics, integration and insights. Our team is a key part, and we provide consumer-centric solutions through deep understanding of all related audiences.

The Senior Manager, Consumer Foresight is focused on providing analysis and thought leadership to the enterprise on the consumer of today and tomorrow. Always-on scanning of secondary studies and related insight provides the foundation for the team to define and explain shifting consumer values, marketplace signals, and behavioral trends with the goal of delivering a deep understanding of potentially radical forces. Ultimately, we are charged with helping the organization find opportunities, mitigate risks, and shape consumer experience strategies!

What You Will Do:

The Senior Manager, Consumer Foresight will be responsible for leading the strategic consumer foresight capability…

• Lead a team of foresight experts to identify and articulate disruptive trends (both macro-level and by line-of-business) and anticipate changes before they impact key business drivers.

• Leverage all consumer data and market knowledge to develop insights and strategies that optimize planning for the organization.

• Move beyond traditional foresight methods by applying a balance of proven qualitative and quantitative tools to create compelling frameworks for understanding the complete consumer landscape and mapping plausible future scenarios.

• Lead research efforts (both primary and secondary) related to future consumer experiences and portfolio expansion projects.

• Partner on ad-hoc analysis and ideation sessions (line-of-business, segment and enterprise-wide).

• Leverage collaboration and innovation across the enterprise to gain multiple, genuinely new perspectives on the organization’s most challenging problems and opportunities.

• Focus on projecting and planning for discontinuous and transformational change by analyzing rapid alterations in external environments.

• Represent the Consumer Foresight team as a leader with vision, sharing the perspective on the future consumer and key macrotrends across the organization.

• Manage multiple research vendor relationships including onboarding CIMA teams and legal documentation.

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• 10+ years related experience.

• Known for strong critical thinking and analytic skills, attention to detail, innate sense of curiosity, and passion for trends, futures and foresight.

• Passion for and focus on the consumer in the development process—willing to speak up to make sure consumer needs are central to decision-making.

• Extreme comfort with uncertainty and ambiguity; flexibility and agility to adapt to rapidly shifting timelines, priorities, and inputs.

• Solid understanding of external landscape, consumer values, and macrotrends (e.g., technological, economic, regulatory, social drivers).

• Proven ability in trend-sensing and application to yield concrete, measurable business outcomes.

• Able to recognize patterns across numerous data sources and communicate the “big picture” through highly synthesized and succinct storytelling for C-suite and other senior executives and key audiences.

• In-depth experience managing multi-phase projects and working with a wide variety of data and information sources, including qualitative research, survey data, demographic and consumer trends, industry reports, academic whitepapers, and online panels.

• Proven success integrating quantitative and qualitative findings into actionable, provocative, persuasive recommendations; Measurable success in selling in ideas to partners and leadership.

• Strong communication and presentation skills; experience with large, executive audiences.

• Able to partner effectively and be widely viewed as an outstanding collaborator.

• Experience leading a team to craft clear, compelling, visually appealing deliverables; Skilled at developing talent with a focus on the collective well-being and success of the team.

• Previous experience in highly consultative planning and/or strategy roles desirable.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in anthropology, sociology, psychology, business, economics, or related field