30Under30 Nominee: Mariia Verbetskaia
Great to hear from Global 30 Under 30 Nominee, Mariia Verbetskaia, an Insights Manager in the Data and Insights team at IDX, a professional services company based in Geneva, Switzerland. Mariia specialises in consumer, shopper and innovation research, helping brands understand their consumers and customers and turn that understanding into action.
How did you find your way into research, data and insights?
It wasn’t always the plan. I did a bachelor’s in Economics and a master’s in Management, so I was comfortable with numbers and interested in how markets and businesses work. However, I didn’t know insights was a career until my internship at Nielsen in Amsterdam. That’s where I discovered that insights can be applied to almost any industry, and that the job could be very dynamic; you’re always learning about a new sector and the challenges it faces. After Nielsen, I joined GfK, then moved to specialist agencies, PRS IN VIVO and Behaviorally. Today at IDX, I’m building our capabilities offering, working directly with clients and taking an active role in the Swiss market research community.
What part of your work are you most proud of and why?
I’m most proud of projects built around one simple idea: making people’s lives a little better. That has ranged from developing more sustainable packaging and innovation work on an improved home-cleaning experience to projects that help destigmatise women’s health products, something I care about deeply. The topics are very different, but in each case the research helped shape products that make a real difference in people’s daily lives. What I value most is that many of the clients I work with share a consumer-first principle. When the brand and the research team both start from what people actually need, the insights make it all the way into the final product.
What have you learned so far that you wish you’d known when you started your career?
Always ask yourself “so what?” Early in my career, I thought a strong finding would speak for itself. Now I know that insights only matter when they’re applied. Every result should lead to a clear implication for the business; what should the client do differently because of it? Asking that question from the start of a project, and not j ust at the end, shapes what you look for, how you analyse it and how you tell the story.
What excites you most about the future of insights and what would you like to help change?
What excites me most is how much AI is changing the day-to-day of our work. Many of the time-consuming tasks, like cleaning data, coding open ends or writing a first summary, can now be done much faster. That gives us more time for the part that really matters – understanding what the data means and helping clients decide what to do with it. What I’d like to help change is the perception of insights as a team that “just delivers reports”. I’d love to see our generation earn insights a seat at the table when real decisions are made. At the same time, we need to make sure that working faster never means losing quality or forgetting the people behind the data.
What advice would you give someone just starting out in the industry today?
Stay curious and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Learn the fundamentals of research design; tools will change, but a solid approach won’t. Get comfortable with AI tools and work just as hard on your storytelling. And don’t expect to know everything from day one. Every project, client and industry teaches you something new, and learning as you go is part of what makes this job so interesting.
Who has helped you along the way?
I’m grateful to all the leaders I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside throughout my career. Each of them shaped the way I work, whether by sharing their knowledge, giving me feedback or trusting me with new challenges. I’m also thankful to the teams around me. Great insights rarely come from one person: they come from researchers, analysts, strategists and clients challenging each other’s thinking and building on each other’s ideas.
