Today’s IIAR> Around in 10 questions interview is with Anoushka Suchowa Khanna / Analyst Relations Lead, Celonis and our new IIAR> North America Chapter Co-Lead (LinkedIn).
1. What’s been your career path to becoming an AR pro?
Like most AR pros, I sort of “fell” into the world of AR. As a young journalist in my 20s, my professional career truly started when I joined Forrester. I joined as a program manager and very quickly understood the inner workings of not only an Analyst’s schedule but why vendor clients built AR programmes to begin with and the immediate value they received from these interactions. Working with analysts and clients across the globe made me appreciate the role of AR pros and the work they do to bring people, departments and strategy together.
2. What are your opinions of the IT Analyst Marketplace and where do you see it going?
We are well into the age where traditional gatekeeping of information, or publishing of benchmark reports is dying. What was once information scarcity is now information curation. What is emerging in tomorrow’s IT Analyst Marketplace is the pivot from data aggregators to “strategic context providers.” Analysts that function as advisors navigating organisations through unprecedented technological noise. The AI/value balance, hyper accelerated tech cycles and buyer skepticism is putting the fundamental function of analyst firms into question, but if this pivot sees the Analyst role emerging into a dual-powered “AI with context” service for clients, I see the impact and scope for AR to become more of a strategic one that helps analysts and clients move through this new model with ease and efficiency.
3. Now, c’mon, tell me an Analyst horror story (no names mentioned)?
I think in all my years in AR, I won’t forget an analyst agreeing to present a live webinar…right before a surgery!!! I’m not sure any of us were prepared for that one. We were able to deliver on the day but not without some panic right before the event went live. Horror or Hero? I’ll let you decide on that.
4. Where does AR reports into and how does it impacts you?
In my most recent role, AR was uniquely positioned within Strategy and Innovation. An interesting home for AR as you are at the forefront of the technology behind the product. Analysts also by default become an extension of the product ecosystem which further builds trust and nurtures the relationship beyond inquiries and briefings. AR pros face high pressure to be the “glue” in an organisation so the balance between product, go-to-market and marketing has to be strong to ensure AR is serving its purpose, and demonstrating value to the company.
5. For you, what is the most important out of the 4 cardinal points as AR outcomes?
Strategy and Opinion can feed one another, and the same goes for Sales and Marketing. I would lean toward Strategy to be one of the most important out of the 4 cardinal points as AR outcomes. I would also add my own 5th addition: Value. It is the buzzword in the age of AI. Value is what any strategy is trying to accomplish which will ultimately fuel opinion, Value is easily marketable and ultimately Value is what sells…
6. In your experience what’s the best way to get more engagement with the executives that you support?
From what I have observed, knowledge is power when it comes to stakeholder or executive engagement. It is on us AR pros to do the homework when it comes to working with internal executives (What do they care about? What have they been posting or writing about? How can my AR programme best align with their strategic goals? Why should AR matter to them?). These are the questions I’d always ensure I am equipped to tackle before I would engage with an executive. The more you can speak their language, the easier that conversation, request or update becomes. Trust is a big component in AR, and getting people outside of your team to feel they can trust your decision, judgement and representation of them matters and can take years to build. The time you spend educating yourself on the business and its priorities, the more beneficial that will be to the long-term success of your AR programme.
7. Any hobbies or favourite restaurant / food that you’d like to share?
Since moving to the US, I have become quite the Pickleball expert. The craze has hit the US and I am victim to endless hours of play during these summer nights. I like that it is a game of quick thinking, teamwork and shorter than tennis ;-). I’d like to progress this year to play competitively through organised tournaments (if my husband agrees!)
8. How would you characterise the maturity level of your AR function and what’s the roadmap ahead?
More of a neutral answer here, but I have noticed a divide when it comes to AR for marketing, AR for product and AR for advocacy. There should be one core team that can manage the internal, external and everything in-between! But I find one is either heavily skewed on marketing/lead-gen activity or product innovation and roadmap development. Maturity for an organisation depends on what AR success means to them, and this is where organisational silos can reduce internal collaboration and undermine the maturity of aprogramme.
9. What’s your best ever AR tactic and why?
Whenever running any vendor evaluation be it an MQ or a Wave, there is always a dedicated spokesperson per team or category that will have responsibility over the answers submitted. I like to take the leads of each category (usually no more than 6 or 7 stakeholders) and find a time in their schedules to run a short workshop where we get these individuals in a room/virtually to discuss their current pain points. There is magic in getting departments to spend time together – learning each other’s challenges, and coming together as ONE team (vs multiple emails, slacks, googledocs!). This exercise – albeit sometimes tricky to coordinate – is one of the best ways to showcase the value of AR, nurture a trusting partnership and help break down organisational silos, which in most cases, is a bottleneck to getting things done.
10. What innovations have you seen from other AR teams or developed in your own AR practice?
Getting creative with proactive outreach to the analyst communities we serve; whether this is through digital magazines, podcasts, short video reels -content curated for analysts doesn’t have to stop at advisory days, briefings or events. Creating a continuous feedback loop has been a great way to encourage inbound briefings, introduce customer connections and provide useful case study material for ongoing analyst research. AR professionals are marketers in disguise and this can be fully utilised within an AR programme.
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