Shaping an Insight-Led International Business: Maisie Ainsworth

Career Journey

I started at M&S about five and a half years ago. I applied to the graduate scheme in my final year at university while studying geography, not entirely sure what I wanted to do. At the time it was the Enterprise graduate scheme, which meant you could apply with any degree and choose your placements.

I joined in September 2020 and my first rotation was in the Foods events marketing team, supporting Christmas campaigns and owning projects like St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. During that time, I worked alongside the Food Customer Insight team. That was my first real exposure to insights, and I found the work they did fascinating.

My second placement was in the Plan A team within Fashion, which aligned closely with my degree. After that, I moved into International Logistics as a project manager helping to open a new European distribution centre. It was a completely different world, working with new stakeholders and getting my first real experience of the International team. It had a small, start-up feel within the wider business.

My final graduate placement was in the Sparks Insight team, where I worked on customer metric tracking and understanding how customers felt about the programme. That confirmed for me that I wanted to build a career in insights. After the scheme, I moved into the Food Insight team as a researcher. Over two years, my role expanded from supporting projects to owning end-to-end research, upskilling colleagues on self-serve tools, and leading brand perception research.

About a year ago, I saw a new role advertised in International as Insight and Reporting Analytics Manager. It felt like a natural next step. It combined everything I enjoyed in my previous role, with enough stretch to challenge me, especially around analytics and reporting.

What Makes International Different

International feels very different. Historically, it has sometimes felt like a bolt-on to the UK business, taking what it could from UK-led projects. But in the last six months there has been significant change. We are now part of global marketing plans and a global product critical path. It feels like we are on a journey to becoming a truly global business rather than UK and International operating separately.

The team itself is relatively small, which means you get to know everyone well. It feels like a safe environment to try new things. Because there are only two of us covering insights for International, we are regularly presenting to large groups, franchise partners, and different functions. There is far less siloing, and I love that more generalist nature of the role.

Skills & Growth

From a technical perspective, I have become much more data literate. Without dedicated customer analysts in the team, I have had to upskill myself, working with large external datasets, market data, and pulling insights from numbers rather than purely qualitative research.

I have also grown in confidence. People regularly ask for my point of view on trade or marketing plans based on the consumer mindset. That has pushed me to develop stronger opinions and articulate them more compellingly, especially when working with external franchise partners. In International, you are often selling the M&S brand externally as well as internally, which has stretched me.

A Defining Moment

One project I am particularly proud of from my time in Food Insight focused on value perception. We had tracked brand perceptions for years and saw improvement in value scores, but we did not understand why. As part of the project team, we conducted quantitative research to uncover what truly drives value.

We identified which factors positively influenced perceptions, such as word of mouth and quality, and which were holding us back. This allowed us to guide the business on what to double down on and what to prioritise changing. The insight was used widely across teams and demonstrated clear commercial impact. It was powerful to show that value perception was not just a metric but directly linked to business performance.

In International, I am currently introducing a Customer Collective, a panel of loyal M&S shoppers recruited from our CRM database. This will give us fast, targeted, ownable research across markets and help embed a stronger insight-led culture internationally.

Impact

Our purpose in Insight is rooted in being closer to the customer. That includes upskilling colleagues on how to gather meaningful insight in store, sharing tools and approaches to ensure feedback is captured and fed back into the business.

We bring both outward-looking insight about market trends and competitors, and inward-looking data about how customers perceive us. If we truly want to be customer-led, we have to be insight-led. My role helps shift conversations from opinion-based decisions to data-informed ones.

Culture

The team works incredibly hard. Because it is smaller, you need to understand a wider remit and take ownership. There has historically been a perception that International has not performed as strongly, which can make progress feel challenging at times. However, that perception is shifting.

There is growing positivity and momentum. International huddles now celebrate wins of the week, and there is a sense that people want to come into International. Grads are actively expressing interest in rotations here. It feels like we are building something exciting.

Why International?

No two days are the same. I could be working on Plan A research, store renewal research, long-term fashion strategy, or discussions around Food in the Middle East all in the same week. The variety is energising.

Working with franchise partners adds another layer of interest, bringing together different expertise to better understand customers. There is a strong sense of momentum and change, and it feels like we are just getting started.

Travel has also been a highlight. Within two months of joining, I was in Hong Kong, which was an incredible opportunity.

Advice for Others

There is a lot to learn when you join International. It is a different way of working, with many markets and nuances to understand. It can feel overwhelming at first, but everyone is supportive.

Openness is key. You need to be willing to learn, understand different cultures, and adapt approaches rather than simply lifting and shifting what works in the UK. A proactive attitude, curiosity, and confidence to ask questions will help you thrive.

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