Guest · Data, identity and privacy
Sarah Robertson
Chief Product Officer, Experian
From statistical analyst through agency and consultancy to Chief Product Officer at Experian, on turning disparate data into products customers will pay for.
About
Sarah Robertson is Chief Product Officer at Experian, where she leads the data and software products the company takes to global markets. She is known for a rare composite view of the data problem, built from statistics, agency, consultancy, client leadership and insight, and for an insistence that data is only worth anything once it is tied to an outcome a customer will pay for.
Robertson started her career in statistics as an analyst, where the discipline was building a hypothesis and proving or disproving it through analytics and data. From there she moved across agency, consultancy, account leadership and insight, working over the years in financial services, insurance, loyalty and travel. She describes that path as one that naturally led her to product: the statistical grounding to build models, the client management to understand how a product is sold, and the consultancy training to question a customer to the heart of their real need.
As Chief Product Officer at Experian, Robertson now oversees both data products and software products, including a global product she calls Worldview, built deliberately with non-personal data so it can roll out across markets. She keeps product close to sales, legal and finance, insists on privacy by design, and judges her own progress candidly, putting herself at roughly 50 per cent of where she wants to be on product operations because, she says, everything takes longer in a large organisation.
Career27 years
- 2025 to now Experian Chief Product Officer
- 2017 to 2021 Experian Head of Data & Insight
- 2007 to 2017 r-cubed Strategic Account Director
- 1999 to 2006 Wegener DM Group Account Director
How Sarah thinks3 convictions
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Customer led, always
Robertson has made customer-centred product the non-negotiable inside her organisation. She traces it to consultancy, where you are trained to start from the client and their real need rather than your own idea. For her, being customer led in everything is the philosophy she has instilled in the team.
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Experimentation and speed
From the consultancy world Robertson carries an instinct that time is money, and a willingness to decide quickly. She weighs the information and the risk, and if the risk is low she simply tries it. Experimentation, in her account, beats deliberation when the downside is small.
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Human skills matter most
As AI absorbs the mechanical parts of the job, Robertson has reweighted her hiring towards emotional intelligence, critical thinking and commerciality. A product framework, she argues, can be taught to anyone bright enough. The judgement and relationships cannot, which is why she now hires for them first.
