AI strategy offsites for leadership teams
Start from your customer. Leave with a data and AI strategy your whole leadership team owns.
Two days that shape the next two years.
A tailored two-day offsite for marketing, growth and data leaders of digital B2C businesses. You leave with agreed priorities, a ranked AI portfolio, clear owners and a measurable two-year roadmap. Then we stay with you for a year of 90-day checkpoints, so the decisions get lived.
Facilitated by Dr. Maryam Ramezani-Bartsch,
built on 20 years of leading
data and AI teams at
When the strategy meeting ends, does anything change?
“Every offsite, we leave with more questions than answers, and still no decision.”
Sound familiar? We know this pain from the inside. Leadership teams rarely lack ambition on customer data and AI. What gets in the way:
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Competing priorities.
Marketing, growth, data and digital each pursue their own agenda, so nothing gets real focus.
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Blurring roles.
AI is changing what every team does. Analysts automate their reports, data teams build assistants, marketers use AI directly. Ownership blurs, and initiatives stall or fall between teams.
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No shared view of AI value.
Everyone feels the pressure, but few can say where AI helps the customer, what to build first or how to prove it works.
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Decisions that are not lived.
Agreements are announced, then fade once daily business takes over.
The Customer DNA Method: customer, team and technology in one strategy
Most AI strategy offsites look at technology alone. Our customer data and AI strategy framework works on three rings at once: the customer at the center, the team that serves them, and the technology that enables both. Each ring turns into concrete decisions, and none of them works without the other two.
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Customer. Which needs and moments matter most, and where value is won or lost along the journey.
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Team. Who owns what across marketing, growth, data and digital, and how you will work together to deliver.
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Technology. Which data you need, which AI use cases to prioritize, and how you will measure their business impact.
The six layers of Customer DNA
Our framework for understanding customers, from what they do to why they do it. In the pre-work, we use it to map what your data already tells you, and where the gaps are.
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- The question
- What larger story do they belong to?
- What it informs
- Long-term brand and product direction
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- The question
- Who do they see themselves as?
- What it informs
- Brand relevance, communities
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- The question
- Why do they choose as they do?
- What it informs
- Loyalty, lifetime value, messaging
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- The question
- What value are they looking for?
- What it informs
- Priorities, propositions, use cases
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- The question
- What do they actually do?
- What it informs
- Analytics, segmentation, personalization
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- The question
- Where and when do customers interact with you?
- What it informs
- Channels, timing, journey moments
Layer 1 of 6
Environment
The question
Where and when do customers interact with you?
What it informs
Channels, timing, journey moments
Layer 2 of 6
Behavior
The question
What do they actually do?
What it informs
Analytics, segmentation, personalization
Layer 3 of 6
Needs
The question
What value are they looking for?
What it informs
Priorities, propositions, use cases
Layer 4 of 6
Values and Beliefs
The question
Why do they choose as they do?
What it informs
Loyalty, lifetime value, messaging
Layer 5 of 6
Identity
The question
Who do they see themselves as?
What it informs
Brand relevance, communities
Layer 6 of 6
Purpose
The question
What larger story do they belong to?
What it informs
Long-term brand and product direction
Six layers, one customer
Hover over or tap a layer to see the question it answers and what it informs.
From what customers do, at the base, to why they do it, at the top.
How our AI strategy offsite works: prepare, decide, deliver
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Prepare.
We review your customer context, data landscape, business challenges and leadership priorities, and interview your leaders. Together we agree what the offsite must decide, and design the two days around it.
You arrive knowing exactly what has to be decided.
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Decide.
Two focused, productive and fun days. Your team agrees on:
- Customer opportunities: the journey moments where value is won or lost.
- Data and AI priorities: the few moves that matter most, foundations first.
- Ownership: who is accountable for what, across functions.
- Roadmap: a two-year plan with baselines and KPIs.
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Deliver.
Four 90-day checkpoints over the first year are part of the engagement. Each is a half-day online session where we review progress with the owners, check results against the KPIs, adjust the plan and help build the routines that keep decisions alive. When there is a lot of change, we plan a longer session.
An offsite does not transform a business on its own. Preparation, clear decisions and consistent follow-through do.
What your leadership team leaves with
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Strategic decisions on where to focus, made together and written down.
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A prioritized AI portfolio: use cases ranked by customer and business value, each tied to a journey moment.
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Clear ownership for every priority, with roles redrawn for how AI changes your teams.
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Measurement baselines and KPIs, so every initiative can show its impact.
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A two-year roadmap, with four 90-day checkpoints in the first year.
A leadership offsite facilitator who has sat on your side of the table
Most offsites bring either a coach for team building or an expert who presents. Neither gets a leadership team to a decision on data and AI. Maryam has led data and AI teams for 20 years and ran strategy offsites for her own teams, so she knows the questions, the trade-offs and the politics from the inside.
Why not run it yourself?
When you lead your own offsite, you cannot also take part: your team holds back, and your view shapes every discussion. A general facilitator keeps the conversation moving, but does not know data and AI practice in digital B2C. We bring both: a neutral facilitator, so your whole leadership team can take part, and hands-on data and AI strategy experience to inform, challenge and move you to decisions.
The right experts in the room.
We work with experienced coaches and facilitators, chosen for what your team needs, from leadership coaching to storytelling and public speaking. One partner, one design.
| Team-building coach | AI expert or trainer | Natural Intelligenes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facilitates the team to decisions | Yes | No | Yes |
| Deep data and AI expertise | No | Yes | Yes |
| Has led these teams as an executive | No | Rarely | Yes |
| Brings top coaches for your needs | Partly | No | Yes |
| Follows up for a full year | No | No | Yes |
Why “Natural Intelligenes”?
AI alone does not deliver results. It takes natural intelligence: people who decide together. And it takes genes: the Customer DNA that shows what truly drives your customers.
For leadership teams with big AI ambitions and too many priorities
And who are done with strategy meetings that change nothing.
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CMOs and Chief Growth Officers
who need data and AI to show up in revenue, retention and lifetime value.
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Heads of Data, Analytics and Digital
whose teams serve many parts of the business and need shared priorities.
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Cross-functional leadership teams
responsible for customer experience, marketing, growth and AI.
Meet your facilitator: Dr. Maryam Ramezani-Bartsch
Maryam has spent 20 years building and leading data and AI teams at adidas, Sky, Zalando, Delivery Hero, GoStudent, WPP Media, SAP and IBM. As a leader, she ran strategy offsites with her own teams and saw what works: start from the customer, decide together, and keep checking progress. She created the Customer DNA framework to make that repeatable. She is based in Berlin and works with leadership teams across Europe, in English and German.
- 20 years in data and AI
- Doctorate, published papers and patents
- Author of the upcoming book on Customer DNA
- Speaker
What leaders say about working with Maryam
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Maryam was instrumental in shaping our operating model, aligning stakeholders, and building sustainable processes and capabilities. She has an exceptional ability to connect strategy with execution.
Laura Warnier ex-Chief Growth Officer, GoStudent -
Maryam is ahead of the curve. Leading analytics for Customer Facing Applications at Zalando, she turned customer segmentation into something teams could actually act on, and pushed AI enablement into the analytics function before most organizations had a plan for it. She sees where data and AI are heading and builds toward it.
Antonella Stellacci VP Product, Zalando -
Maryam doesn't just bring long standing expertise in the field of data and AI. She leverages it to create strong visions for the future. Visions that turn technology into clear value for consumers and companies.
Lydia Mammen VP Digital Analytics, adidas
Where does your leadership team really stand on AI?
Ten questions, five minutes. See your score across customer, team and technology, and get three decisions your leadership team could make next. Ask your colleagues to take it too, and compare where you see things differently.
- Customer
- Team
- Technology
Your result
Where your leadership team stands
Three decisions your leadership team could make next
Questions about AI strategy offsites
What is an AI strategy offsite?
A two-day leadership offsite where your team agrees how customer data and AI will drive growth: priorities, owners and a two-year roadmap with KPIs. Ours starts from your customer, not from technology.
What should a customer data and AI strategy include?
Where AI creates value along the customer journey, which data it needs, which use cases come first, who owns them, and how impact is measured.
What does a leadership offsite facilitator do?
Designs the offsite, prepares the decisions in advance and guides the team to clear agreements. Ours also brings 20 years of data and AI leadership, so the conversation goes deeper than team building.
Is this an AI training?
No. Your team does not leave with slides about AI. It leaves with an AI strategy, a ranked portfolio, owners and a plan.
How do you make sure the offsite ends in decisions?
Through preparation. Before day one, everyone knows what must be decided and has the facts to decide it.
What happens after the offsite?
Four 90-day checkpoints over the first year are included: half-day online sessions to review progress with the owners and adjust the plan.
Who takes part?
Typically 6 to 15 leaders from marketing, growth, data and digital. We add coaches or facilitators where your team needs them.
Where do the offsites take place?
Across Europe, from our base in Berlin, at a venue we help you choose or at your own location.
What does it cost?
Every engagement is shaped to your team and goals. Book a call and we will scope it together.
Two days that shape the next two years.
Tell us where your team stands and what your next offsite needs to decide. 20 minutes, no pitch.