Winning With a Data-Fluent Creative Team: Sharon Romang, VP of Creative at Front Row

In this episode of Brave New Digital World, Sharon Romang — VP of Creative at Front Row and former Smartly.io lead — joins Andy Carvell to explore how today’s most effective marketers blend storytelling, performance, and tech. From building agency-owned tools to navigating AI rollouts (and Duolingo’s recent misstep), Sharon shares battle-tested insights on where creative work is headed — and why the future belongs to the data-fluent.Find and connect with Sharon on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonromang/Resources Sharon recommends:Christine Göös on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinegoos/House of Content podcast: SpotifyEmily Sundberg: https://www.emilyemilyemilyemily.com/helloFeed Me on Substack: https://www.readfeedme.com/Julian Cole, Strategy Finishing School: https://strategyfinishingschool.com/Ashwinn (@shwinnabego) on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shwinnabegoChapters(00:00) Intro (00:51) Introducing Sharon Romang: Creative Strategist with a Performance Edge (01:53) The Future Is Already Here—Just Not Evenly Distributed (05:09) Scalable Creative: From Smartly’s Image Templates to Figma Buzz (09:19) Should Agencies Be Building Their Own Tech? (13:03) Sharon’s Shift to Data-Driven Design (17:27) Why Creatives Must Learn to Speak Performance (19:44) AI Integration: How to Do It Without Losing the Human Touch (22:59) The Duolingo Case: When “AI-First” Backfires (24:05) Figma’s AI Rollout: A Masterclass in User-Centric Innovation (26:22) Why Agencies Must Stay Ahead of Their Clients in AI (27:22) What’s Expired: One-Channel Thinking and Creative Overproduction (30:55) What’s Wired: Commerce, Creators & the Future of Shopping (32:44) Behavioral Convergence Across Generations and Markets (35:28) Sharon’s Dream: A Unified Creative Intelligence Stack (38:33) Sharon’s Recommendations for Resources