Insights and Takeaways from Sara Feuling’s Winter Leadership Conference Session
Sara Feuling, P.E.
Senior Director of Portfolio Management, AEM
Some of the most useful insights come after the presentation when there’s time to reflect on what we heard and what we learned.
What follows in this Presenter’s Cut is a closer look at AEM’s data journey and how a phased, people-centered approach is helping us build collective intelligence with intention, without losing sight of who we are as an association.
The AEM Data Journey
We have built that mindset, leadership, and adaptation into our data journey at AEM.
We have a market share statistics program, or member data exchange, as one of our core service offerings powered by Hargrove Association Insights (HAI). HAI continues to do a great job with that as our data production partner. This is a different data journey; this is internal and operational data.
Conceptually, we identified the need to transform data. We knew we needed to do something with our data, but we struggled to understand the scope and resources. It was overwhelming and frustrating for the organization to look across its siloed data – membership, tradeshows, advocacy, other member services - without a clear understanding of the finish line, what we were really trying to accomplish.
To help define that finish line, information systems and data were defined as a strategic opportunity in 2019, but then there was COVID, then the economy, then AEM had a leadership change. This transformation needed to take a back seat – talk about adaptation.
We began our work on our information systems and data in 2023 with an internal task force that selected SysLogic as a consulting partner. Together, we developed a phased approach to data that aligned with our strategic priorities.
AEM Strategic Priorities
Building on the mindset and leadership, it is important to recognize investment and learning in data, digital, and tech strategy throughout your organization through your strategic priorities. We have been successful along our data journey because of the executive support and direction of Megan Tanel, our president and CEO.
Along with senior leadership and our board of directors, Megan has defined our AEM legacy – leave the organization better than we found it. What better way to do that than with collective intelligence. We can use data to improve our organization. We can use data to improve our industry. We can use data to bring value to our members.
We have set strategic priorities focused on data, with dedicated strategic funds and resources, solidifying the importance of data transformation. Data is a strategic asset and we have a 2026 goal to launch the first phase of a data framework to support AEM’s strategic goals and operations. With strategic priorities and association goals, data then becomes part of our operations, our day-to-day, it becomes part of our culture.
A Phased Approach
To reach that goal, we are moving forward with a phased approach to identify: operational efficiencies that improve day-to-day business operations with streamlined, standardized policies, processes, and procedures; innovations that transform AEM by introducing capabilities that would enable exponential growth or significantly impact how AEM does business; and ultimately an enterprise data program to leverage our information-based assets to drive operational and strategic decision making and provide meaningful value to members.
Our first step was taking an inventory, creating a baseline, and evaluating our current state of systems and data. We identified key departments and data stakeholders and, over the course of several months, we met with over 40% of our staff and discovered more than 100 different systems and tools being used throughout our organization, each team or department using them differently. The need for governance and standardized process flows became increasingly clear and was one of many initiatives recommended by SysLogic. These recommended initiatives, including data stewardship, enterprise analytics, and CRM integrations, came with a roadmap to help get us to the finish line.
Just like a Google maps, this information system and data roadmap is only useful if you have the people to execute it. We then developed a people strategy to define the key data and tech skills in critical roles to support our objectives. We realized very early that we couldn’t do this alone. We are not tech people; we are association people. We are in the people business, focused on service and relationships, so we continue to rely on our data and technology partners.
HR worked with SysLogic to complete a talent assessment, identifying internal high-potential individuals with skill sets that we could utilize, with opportunities to upskill current staff. Rather than hire a CTO or CIO, which was an option, we chose to supplement internal staff with external partners, like SysLogic and HAI, to fill the technical gaps. It was in our best interest to leverage HAI’s support, but that was our journey; yours could look different depending on the lift.
A restructuring and my position came from this assessment. You all have access to my background and profile. I’m a civil engineer, I’m not a data scientist or technology strategist. Instead, I have demonstrated project management experience and years of experience with AEM in a pervious role which allowed me to look across the silos of our organization and connect people and services. SysLogic helped reiterate the importance of understanding people and the culture, rather than focusing on technical data. A detailed, process-focused engineering mindset has helped me learn the technical data while also building trust in the process.
As we identified these individual needs and roles, we also identified the need for data and technology leadership. Our entire leadership team needs to become technology leaders, being comfortable leading when and where you know the least. People need to be willing to take educated risks, make mistakes, crawl, walk, then run. Megan has continued to empower her team of leaders to be patient and supportive.
