For nearly 100 years, we’ve provided business around the world with critical insight into consumer behavior. Our panels are what make this possible. That’s because they allow us to understand person-level behavior, unlike big data and other forms of information that can’t be directly linked to actual people. That’s not to say we don’t use big data in our measurement. We do. But we use it in combination with our panel data to ensure that our measurement remains person-centric.

Data science plays a critical role in our ability to recruit and maintain our panels, as well as how we leverage the data our panels provide us. Given the complexities of data science and the intricacies of panel measurement, we spoke to Stephanie Melton, a senior data scientist on our behavioral methods team, who provided insight into the role of panels, panel data, achieving representative measurement and how we maintain our panels over time.