At an Energy Hackathon in Brooklyn Pam Roach, CEO, and Larry Glover, Partner, Breakthrough Marketing Technology, with PUF’s Steve Mitnick at the AABE Hackathon, at National Grid and NYU Tandon School of Engineering 30 P UBLIC U TILITIES F ORTNIGHTLY D ECEMBER 2018
e met with Pam Roach and Larry Glover on the sidelines at the Hackathon they developed with the W X American Association of Blacks in Energy, partnered with the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, National Grid and other utilities and industry organizations (including Exelon, New York Power Authority, Public Service Electric and Gas, and Con Edison). Roach and Glover were passionate in our conversation about the competing student teams hacking ideas on our energy future and as passionate about their unique approaches to understanding what drives customers facing energy choices particularly those in minority communities. PUF’s Steve Mitnick: You’re both playing a major role at this AABE Hackathon. How did you get involved and what are you doing here? Larry Glover: We’ve been involved in the energy industry for quite some time, and we’ve seen the transition from focus on energy products to focus on end user engagement. AABE [American Association of Blacks in Energy] is our client and we talked to them about new ways to bring innovation to the industry. We used our experience with Hackathons, to build a program specifjcally for AABE. We’ve modeled it after some of the better Hackathons that have been done around the country. We started building Hackathons with another colleague of ours at MIT. At 7 a.m. on What makes this Hackathon difgerent is the ability to combine nearby New York Housing industry practitioners with other stakeholders around energy, Authority housing project Saturday morning whether they be community organizations, MWBE [minority and interviewed residents. they went to a and women-owned business enterprises] or policymakers. We were Tiey collected data about particularly sensitive in including our student universe. When their feelings and attitudes nearby New York you start to hack issues about workforce, for example, we must about energy effjciency and Housing Authority have students engaged, because they are the future workforce their utility. housing project we’re talking about. Breakthrough uncovers When the challenge is making solar available in urban com- information about the uses and interviewed munities, those community partners must be part of the conversa- of energy. We ask. What residents about tion because they are the end users. If we don’t design it so that are their aspirations? How the end user understands and benefjts from the exercise, it raises do those aspirations relate feelings and the question, is this academic for AABE and for this industry? to energy? What does the attitudes about It can’t just be academic. energy sector need to do to energy efficiency PUF: You give to this Hackathon, but your fjrm Breakthrough connect with them? Because takes something from it. Describe this? every one of the energy com- and their utility. Pam Roach: What we take from it is a deeper understanding panies, the utilities, is aware of the difgerent end-user groups. of the importance of being What drives customers is not just the demographics. A tra- driven by the customer, by the marketplace. ditional starting point of energy companies, and even those But sometimes energy companies don’t know enough about outside the sector, is their sales data. Tiey use it to learn about their customers, and don’t know how to learn enough to meet their customers. Tiat tells you what and how much they bought, their objectives. We see this as an opportunity, a challenge. Our then paid, and it gives you information about their demographics. approach is often new to them. We generate insights that help To understand customers requires information beyond demo- them refjne what they ofger customers and their communications graphics. An age, where they live, their education, is not the whole to them. story. It’s not what determines their behavior. It’s not what makes Larry Glover: We think about this in two ways. It’s input and them receptive to an energy effjciency program. output. Tie input is what we’re able to gather, about the end user Or decide to pursue a career in energy versus other careers thought processes, and the new ideas that come from them. We for talented individuals. make that information relevant to what the energy company can What we get out of this is a deeper understanding of the deliver. Tie output is the defjnition and communication about the communities. In fact, that is what one of the Hackathon win- new ofgers that are meaningful to the end user, to the customer. ning teams did. At 7 a.m. on Saturday morning they went to a Pam Roach: What we do at Breakthrough, is transform D ECEMBER 2018 P UBLIC U TILITIES F ORTNIGHTLY 31
Students and mentors at the Energy Hackathon of the American Association of Blacks in Energy listening to inspiring remarks by leaders like Telisa Toliver, a Chevron vice president, who said: “At its core, hacking is about change. How to recognize it and how to prepare for it. Using the Hackathon platform to explore solutions to energy industry challenges is novel and helps our industry and communities prepare for change.” data from static, demographic, psychographic, and sociology, As we help the companies understand who these groups are to efgective communications. It’s how we engage our clients, so and what their needs are, it also is imperative to share those they are more knowledgeable, and understand what’s required to insights in our conversations with legislatures and policy makers. take best advantage of these opportunities. We look at it as input Because they are now responsible for balancing the needs and and output. We are the output side. We create that connection opportunities of everyone to ensure that solar is not disproportion- to customers. ally afgecting low income or the “have nots”. PUF: You’ve studied segments of customers and communities. Tiat’s part of what we bring to our clients and to our com- Larry Glover: We have a lot of experience understanding panies. Understanding not just their customers, but how their communities of color, and low-income communities. We have business impacts each of us. experience with African-American communities, Latino com- PUF: How did you decide to do that? munities, and Asian communities. Pam Roach: It was partly the evolving needs of the market. Within those ethnicities, there are a number of sub-segments Fundamentally, as a marketer Within those that determine how people behave, how people respond to the you must understand your ethnicities, there ofgers they receive from energy companies. Tie way we collect target customer and find end user information, is by engaging the end user. We go and a way to communicate to are a number of spend time with them in-person and digitally. them with a context that sub-segments that We do interviews. We do fjeldwork to observe. Tien we’re able they understand. determine how to understand, not just what end users say, but what’s underneath. The more you know How they think? How they feel? about them, the better you people behave, We can capture the words to use to be motivating, to get can communicate. Just like how people them to adopt a new energy related behavior. Tiat, in the long the more you know about run, is in the best interest of the end user. Because it resonates your spouse, the better you respond to the with their long-term objectives. can communicate with him offers they receive When you talk to companies who have a footprint in a region or her. It’s the same principal, from energy with one or two or three million customers, they need to know on a larger scale. how do you discern the difgerences between them? When it comes to trying companies. It’s not just how you defjne their difgerences. But how to defjne to understand how to learn their ability to participate in the process. about your target customer, Take for example solar. We understand that there are two that’s where data science comes in. Tiat’s where big data comes communities that are afgected, the haves and the have nots. in. Tiat’s where descriptive statistic come in. It’s a tool to help Today it is the haves who have the ability to take advantage of us fjgure out how to communicate more efgectively to motivate the solar opportunity. But, when they go ofg conventional usage new behavior. on the grid, the have nots now have to shoulder a great share of Tie only reason all that technical stufg matters is that it is the the support of the grid, because it’s a static cost. way energy companies can achieve end user relevance. PUF 32 P UBLIC U TILITIES F ORTNIGHTLY D ECEMBER 2018
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