
Loading summary
Domo Representative
Wouldn't it be great if you could ask your data anything at any time? Like how are sales this quarter? How's the new marketing campaign performing? What does the overall health of the company look like? And actually get answers right away. With charts and graphics and actionable information, you can with Domo's AI and Data products platform. Domo lets you channel AI and data quickly, securely and innovatively to deliver measurable insights wherever and whenever you need them. Anyone on your team can use Domo to easily prepare, analyze, visualize, automate and distribute data, all amplified by AI. Domo goes beyond productivity. It's designed to transform your processes, helping you make smarter and faster decisions and drive real growth. All powered by Domo's trust, flexibility and years of expertise in data and AI innovation. The world's best companies rely on Domo to make smarter decisions. See how Domo can help transform yours. Learn more@AI.domo.com that's AI.domo.com the Agile Brand.
Greg Kilstrom
Welcome to season seven of the Agile Brand where we discuss the trends and topics marketing leaders need to know. Stay curious, stay agile and join the top enterprise brands and martech platforms as we explore marketing technology, AI, E commerce and whatever's next for the Omnichannel customer experience. Together we'll discover what it takes to create an agile brand built for today and tomorrow and built for customers, employees and continued business growth. I'm your host Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1000 brands on martech, AI and marketing operations. The Agile Brand Podcast is brought to you by Tech Systems, an industry leader in full stack technology services, talent services and real world application. For more information, go to teksystems.com to make sure you always get the latest episodes, please hit subscribe on the app you listen to podcasts on and leave us a rating so others can find us as well. Now onto the show are brands that lack a robust customer data platform strategy, losing the ability to deliver seamless, personalized.
Co-host
Customer experiences in an increasingly data driven world.
Greg Kilstrom
Today we're joined by Beth Scagnoli, Vice President of Product Manager at redpoint Global, a company at the forefront of data driven customer experience solutions. Beth's experience spans customer data platforms, data quality and marketing automation, making her uniquely positioned to discuss how organizations can harness the power of clean, observable and composable data to create transformative customer experiences. Welcome to the show, Beth.
Beth Scagnoli
Thank you so much.
Co-host
Yeah, looking forward to talking about all this with you.
Greg Kilstrom
Before we dive in though, why don't.
Co-host
You give us a little more about Your background and your current role at redpoint Global. And for those less familiar with redpoint, can you talk a little bit about what you offer?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, absolutely. So I start with sort of redpoint, my current role. So I, like you said VP of Product Management, which ultimately means responsible for product vision and strategy and all that comes with it.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So making sure that we continue to align with our customers and what they need and what they want to do around the CDP space. I've been at redpoint for 10 years. This month I think I've done all the things I started in sort of operation, service desk, moved into services, some account management, we're dabbling in training. So I do think I have a pretty holistic view, let's say of our customers. So been here a While and really Redpoint was founded back in 2006 with the goal of, let's call it driving personalization at scale.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
That's really what everyone wanted to do, but it was sort of done in sort of a bifurcated way is what we had found. So we wanted to create this customer data platform product suite to solve that. Call it the CX Challenges right across data insight, action, kind of the theme that you're probably seeing across the board at cdp. So what we provide are capabilities around the end to end. So when thinking about CDPs it's data ingestion, quality, identity resolution, segmentation, activation, jordy orchestration all the way down, right. As well as real time personalization and really what we lean into is liberation of data. If we are obsessed with data, potentially to a fault. So really thinking about how we can ensure that all of our customers, all of our users are making the best use of their data and really understanding why data is so critical and having our sort of composable model which we can talk about later as well as deployment model that's pretty flexible, we allow for even regulated industries to use our solution. Right. We can be SaaS, we can be private cloud, we can be hybrid. So really as an organization we are trying to be the best fit for the organization wherever they are. So meet them where they are and continue kind of down that path.
Co-host
Great. Well you are definitely the right person to talk with about this topic. Let's dive in here. We have talked about customer data platforms on this show, but I think with everything moving so quickly and to your point, the pressure really to deliver on personalization at scale, I think it continues to be a timely topic and really much at the forefront in a lot of marketers minds from your perspective and Kind of just to start from, with the basics, so to speak. What makes a customer data platform so integral to delivering a great customer experience?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, I mean, I think at the most basic level, understanding your customers, your constituents and communicating with the one, the way that they want to be communicated with is paramount to that business model. And if you have some six versions of your customer, right. You have Beth in your E Comm, you have Beth in your CRM, you have Beth in your web data, you are never really going to know the true Beth.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
Who is Beth? What does BETH actually want? So sort of the main premise of a customer data platform is. Yes, sort of consolidating that data and creating a hub from which all other marketing activities can extend, but it's even beyond that consolidation. Right. It's not just throwing things in a pile. I think anyone that has children, you ask them to clean their room, they throw it in a pile. It's not cleaning. That's not helpful. We want to make sure that when you bring all the data together, then you're also thinking about data hygiene, data quality, identity, resolution. That is correct. You need to make sure things are always on. So I think customer data platform that is done correctly, that's bringing the data together correctly is then going to allow you to know, yes, this Beth on Ecom, is this Beth in my ecrm is this Beth over here on the web. And we're going to able to see, see that full picture and really deliver the experience that Beth wants, not each of these individual little bets along the way.
Co-host
Yeah, yeah, well, and I think a couple things there. I mean, so you know, I work with a lot of enterprise brands on things related to customer data. You know, so two things here that I see. I mean, one, there are software platforms that are called CDPs. There's also this concept of like a customer data platform may extend beyond a single platform. But there's also the bad part of that is we've got many data systems and siloed data systems that, you know, it's one thing to have a broad sense of a customer data platform, it's another to have a bunch of disconnected and siloed systems. When businesses start making the switch from so many siloed and start consolidating, what are some of the most immediate benefits that they can expect from implementing a cohesive cdp?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, I mean, I think it's having the, the right information about someone. Right. I think it's. There's a few different aspects to having those silence systems. Like I said, one is you're just having, you don't have that holistic view, that unified profile. I know who this person is, you know who they are in different sort of segments and different, you know, parts of their journey. But then, you know, additionally, it's thinking about latency, right? If you have your E Comm system and so you can see that I made a purchase, but then getting that information about my purchase over to, you know, whoever I'm using for email or for push notifications, is that 24 hours later? Is that, is that 60 hours later? Is that 10 minutes later?
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So I think with the CDP done properly, you should be able to get to real time or near real time, which I think that improvements in data clouds like the Snowflake model and otherwise have made a huge difference here in terms of, you may have all these different systems, but if they're all pushing data ultimately to the same place, and that data is constantly being refreshed and updated, and that profile is constantly being updated, you're going to know that Beth has made a purchase. I'm going to send a thank you for your purchase. I am going to remove Beth from, you know, any of my, my Google Ads, my Facebook ads and otherwise, right? So some of that additional spend, that additional overhead on making sure that we are communicating people with, on the right channels, that will be, that will go away, right? Because, you know, now you have that corrected version of, of the customer, of the constituent. It's up to date, it's in real time or near real time. And now you can focus your attention to other things as opposed to shifting and moving data back and forth and kind of hoping for the best.
Domo Representative
Wouldn't it be great if you could ask your data anything at any time, like, how are sales this quarter? How's the new marketing campaign performing? What does the overall health of the company look like? And actually get answers right away with charts and graphics and actionable information, you can with Domo's AI and data products platform. Domo lets you channel AI and data quickly, securely and innovatively to deliver measurable insights wherever and whenever you need them. Anyone on your team can use Domo to easily prepare, analyze, visualize, automate and distribute data, all amplified by AI. Domo goes beyond productivity. It's designed to transform your processes, helping you make smarter and faster decisions and drive real growth. All powered by Domo's trust, flexibility and years of expertise in data and AI innovation. The world's best companies rely on Domo to make smarter decisions. See how Domo can help transform yours learn more@AI.domo.com that's AI.domo.com.
Co-host
You recently wrote a blog about data observability. And you know, you mentioned how critical it is to ensure quality and accuracy. What is data observability? You know, is that. I think it's some of what you've already mentioned. But you know, what's, what's the, what's the definition of data observability? And you know, how does this support the effectiveness of a cdp?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, yeah. You know, thrilling stuff, data observability to some of us. You know, I think it's thrilling. I will say I did write down. So I think Gartner actually has a nice definition, which is the continuous monitoring and analysis of data pipelines and data quality to ensure data is reliable, consistent and usable for business purposes. So it really covers kind of the full gamut. It's the timeliness, the accuracy, the completeness of your data and making sure that are those processes in place to ensure that that is happening, but also make that available to an end user.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
You can be confident marketer you're sending to the.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
Greg. Because look at all the things we've put in place to kind of make sure of that.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
And I think that's baseline just to a solid customer experience, you know, no matter what.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
Send me the right email with the right personalization. But frankly it's required in a lot of regulated industries.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
You can't send a prescription reminder to the wrong person about it. Right. You have to really think about, you know, with especially, you know, new security and privacy compliance laws always coming down the pipe.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
You need to make sure that the data you have is fit for purpose in that way.
Co-host
Yeah.
Beth Scagnoli
I really, you know, I talk about it as the foundation like a, like a house. We use a lot of analogies at Redpoint. Pretty cool like that. And we always talk about, you know, good data. Then those data observability concepts are the foundation.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So you're building a house, you pour a foundation. If you decide to pour only half. Yeah, I use Play doh. Sure. Probably not great ideas. Don't care how cool your design is, your furniture, everything else, if you don't get that foundation correct, everything is going to crumble. So really a lot of what we think about with data observability is, yes, making sure we have the ability to put those processes in place to make sure they're there and always on. But also how can we let people know and not just say, trust us. It's happening, Right. How can we show that, how can we prove that all of this is going on behind the scenes?
Co-host
Yeah, because I mean, isn't that, I mean, there's lots of reasons for data silos and people doing one off things, but I mean, one of the reasons for that is you hit on it already is marketers or those, those dealing with customer data just don't necessarily trust the source of that data. And so that's what I like about the, the observability concept is. Yes, it's also about accuracy of the, of the information, but it's, it's the, it's kind of the work about the work, right? So it's like here's, here's why you should trust it to be accurate, right?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, exactly.
Co-host
Yeah. So how do companies start here? Or you know, if they've already started, you know, how do they continually identify and address some of these gaps in data observability so they can, you know, build towards what we're talking about here?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, and I think, you know, continually is a key word that you said there, right? So I mean, you start with the basics, right? Look, look at your current, the data that you have, right? Look at your, you know, if you have a CP or something similar, right, where you're consolidating data, you know, what is that process? Do you know where everything's coming from? Do you have access to all the data that you need to support whatever business outcomes you are trying to achieve? Do you know when that data is coming? Do you have always on data quality, does identity resolution, is that using probabilistic and deterministic matching?
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
You can get super granular and of course I can talk for, you know, 10 to 15 business days about this. But really, you know, start with the data. Start with understanding the landscape of, of your data and creating some sort of cohesive data strategy. And I would encourage that to be done not just in the IT vacuum, right? This, even though you know it, they're the ones you go to about data generally. We need to start extending this into business users, into marketing teams and beyond so that they also can really understand and weigh in on. No, I need this data because this will, you know, support X, Y and Z. So, you know, that initial audit is of course my recommendation and then really from there leaning into the basics and you know, making those basics programmatic, making them automated. Like I said, always on data quality, always on identity resolution. Data is fluid. You can't do this once and be like, cool, we're done. Everything's great. It needs to be continual, evolving process.
Co-host
Yeah, yeah. So another topic, top of mind for a lot of organizations now is composability. You know, composable being talked about a lot and not just in CDPs but a lot of areas of Martech and the enterprise. Written about composability as well and talked about a flexible approach to managing customer data. How do you see a composable data strategy empowering brands to be able to do all the things they need to adapt quickly, adapt to changing customer expectations and even other technology opportunities that arise?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, composability on its face sounds great. You've swapped things in and out. It's Legos, it's super easy. I pick what I want and I just pop it in. What could be hard And I think that could be the case. Right. I think that, you know, composability just, you know, level set. Where I think about it, it's just that modular approach.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
I got to build a solution I want to use best of breed. If anyone's seen that with the Scott Brinker Martech map, that is just mind blowing with proliferation of just stuff. Yeah, I want to be able to get the cool. The newer, the faster, the better, the cheaper. But composability does come with risks, right? Composability, then you need to have an IT team, especially in this case that really does understand API driven architecture, how different applications integrate with each other. Composability can be great. If you want to say I want to use one tool for my segmentation and I want to use it different tool for my identity resolution. Great. How about it? That's wonderful. That's not going to be super helpful if you know the tool you're using for identity resolution. It's a, you know, six day latency between getting that, that unified data over to segmentation tool.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So really, yes you could, they can be super adaptable if you have, you know, you select the right solution that does either from a single vendor or multiple vendors allow you to sort of accept, expand and contract and expand vertically and horizontally across different areas of a cdp. Because you can.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
I think especially in the case of those downstream channels.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
As new ways of communicating pop up. Being able to bring in those communication channels pretty easily. Right. Think push button connectors. That's where I think composability rut does have the greatest advantage. It can be dicier. I wouldn't be swapping in and out your, you know, your underlying data model and data ingestion processes on a daily basis. But I think thinking about data as the hub and then those, you know, composable aspects as the augmenters, the senders to the various channels, I think makes a lot of sense.
Domo Representative
The reality is striking. While we can stream movies on demand and order anything to our doorstep within a click, healthcare interactions often feel needlessly complex. Healthcare marketers, this one's for you. In Shop Stream Heal author Adeline Ashley shares actionable insights from industry leaders like Netflix, Amazon and Delta showing how healthcare can thoughtfully adapt their winning strategies. This isn't about technology for technology's sake. It's about making healthcare more accessible, intuitive and human. Drawing from real world successes and lessons learned, the book shows you how to create healthcare experiences that truly meet patient needs while preserving clinical excellence. Shopstream Heal by Adeline Ashley features a forward from Deva Flanagan, CEO of sitecore. It's published by the Agile brand and now available in print and digital formats on Amazon. Go to shopstreamheal.com for more information.
Co-host
We've talked about observability and some of those challenges there. Let's talk a little bit about. You wrote a blog as well about marketing automation and the importance of clean data. And so, you know, we've talked about observable data. Okay. Now it's got to be clean too, right? So you know, how does, how do you look at this, you know, and clean data's ability to influence ROI and other benefits.
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, I mean, I'm a broken record, right. But ultimately without that clean data that has, you know, yes, it's clean, but also has been properly unified, you could buy the coolest automation tool on the planet. You could have the finest content that money can buy. But if you are, you know, servicing that content to a consumer that does not care about it because you don't have all the information about that person, it, it just doesn't matter.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So ultimately the return on the investment, you need to have the basis in your data, in your data strategy in order to then leverage all of the benefits of, of a marketing automation tool or otherwise.
Co-host
Yeah, yeah. And so one of those benefits is certainly personalization, as you know, as we talked about at the top of the show, that delivering that personalization at scale is certainly top of mind. I think I feel like we've been talking about personalizing and one to one and stuff for like decades at this point. Maybe it's been a decade, but we've been talking about it for a while. But I do feel optimistic that, you know, with everything from some of the benefits of like Gen AI and some other things like we're looking at really being able to make this happen. What part does the CDP play in? There's obviously lots of tools, you know, at play in one to one personalization at scale. But what's the role of the CDP to help to deliver across all those touch points and everything like that.
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah. And I think, you know, a lot of this depends on who you ask about the definition of a cdp, because I see that as being a moving target too. But you know, I'll say obviously the unified profile is the first step.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So that you know everything there is to know about this particular customer. But then I think most CDPs, at least at this point, do have the concept of dynamic segmentation. Right. So you're not building segments once a month and then, you know, kind of hoping that they don't buy anything because they're in the lapsed map per segment or something. Right. So you should, as a part of your journey, orchestration how you manage your campaigns, be able to have that level of dynamic segmentation that is then based on that updated in real time or near real time unified profile.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So we should not have to think about how old my data is when I am thinking about, you know, more of always on type campaigns, evergreen, like a welcome message or your strategy with, with Google Ads, with Facebook ads and otherwise. Right. All CDP should manage that for you. You should feel confident that whatever I deploy today, everyone who's in that targeted audience is going to be, you know, qualified. They make sense to appear in this audience. Right. So things like abandoned cart. Right. You don't want me to put things on my cart. And then 10 days later you're like, hey girl, sorry, there's some things in your cart. I'm like, what are you. That was 3am I don't even remember that.
Co-host
Right, right.
Beth Scagnoli
You need to be making sure the cadence at which you communicate can be aligned with what the customer is expecting. And that won't happen unless you have your data correct. You have that dynamic segmentation and you have the ability to then communicate with those downstream channels really as quickly as they can be communicated with. And I agree. I think that thinking about segments of one, we are seeing, especially at Redpoint, the idea of micro segments and really getting down to you don't need to use just the straight up RFM type scores anymore, we could really shrink this and get to what does Greg want to see right now, today, you know, as we're recording this, what, what would make you go ahead and you know, click that call to action. And I think that's going to keep getting to your point with Gen AI more and more important. Right. We can't expect anything to be static ever again.
Co-host
Yeah, well, and the, you know, the, the end result there, obviously, you know, if you sell products, it's, you know, you want to sell more of them. But I think, you know, the end, the end goal is really it's loyalty, right? It's, it's customers that buy more, buy more often and refer others and stuff. So for those that may be, I don't know if they're skeptics so much as there's a lot of priorities in an organization. So those that are not prioritizing this, you know, how do you make the case for just the, the, the connection between this clean data, observable data and available data to things like customer loyalty?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, I mean, you know, we, we talk a lot about this with our existing customer base.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
You know, we, we talk about, you know, what are your goals, how do you, you know, what do you want to do with your customers. And I think one thing just as an example that comes down a lot is sort of a reduction in friction. And a lot of that comes down to call it, you know, call center engagement or front desk or, you know, other clientele.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
How annoying is it if you call somewhere, you give your information and then you're transferred from here to there to there and you're giving the same information over and over. It's just like what is happening? How, how am I down in this, you know, seventh circle of hell. So like for example, we have a hotel chain that uses, you know, our CDP data within their journey really to reduce that friction when you come to the hotel. Right. So we are driving communication on check in. We are sending you push notifications like, hey, it's happy hour. We know that you enjoy a happy hour. We're sending you receipts on checkout, we're sending you follow up emails for hey, you forgot to pay your bar tab last night.
Co-host
Right?
Beth Scagnoli
So not, none of this maybe is a specific NPS score on, you know, your bar tab on paid email. But knowing, you know, who I am, you know, within reason, not creepily.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
And I'm not repeating myself. Constantly providing IDs, providing my phone number 15 times is going to make me a more loyal customer. It just, it just is, right? I, I think about my, even my local mechanic, right? You know, is he the cheapest in town? No. But every time I call, he Says, hey Beth, he knows exactly what I drive, exactly sorts of problems I have. And that's going to make me go back to him because I trust him. All of it is leading up to do I trust this brand. And I think CDP plays a huge role in and like that level of trustworthiness between, you know, a consumer and the brand they're, they're dealing with.
Co-host
Yeah, yeah. So we've touched on a little bit, but you know, I do have this. I should just codify the rule here. But you know, we've got to talk about AI because you know, it's in 2024. It was like, you know, we had to, we still do. It's 2025 now. So you know, what, what do you see? You know, we've, we've touched a little bit on this and you know there's AI is a very broad umbrella, but we touched a little bit on gen AI. There's obviously some other AI tools at play with some of the data tools and everything. Where do you see, given it's 2025 now and we've been talking about at least gen AI for a couple of years now, where do you see some of the role of AI playing in enhancing a CDP's capabilities?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, I mean, so AI, you know, not gen AI, but AI machine learning, that's been around for 50 years or something. Right. You know, this needs to be there.
Co-host
Right?
Beth Scagnoli
You, you should have, you know, you know, AI as a function of identity resolution. Right. AI is a function of machine learning for, you know, generating models.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So predictive analytics. Yes. I think that, you know, what I'm seeing now is previously you'd kind of send out your data and then a month later you'd get it back scored and it's like, cool, I hope nothing's happened in that month. But here we are.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So I think that it's becoming table stakes.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
You need to kind of come bearing gifts of here's the five different models we're going to score your data on. Are they all going to be relevant? Probably not. As a generic model, a good idea, probably not. But again, we need to have a starting point, especially for those organizations that maybe are just starting.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
They're just evolving their MARTECH start. They're dipping their toes into the wonderful world of MarTech. How can we start to help them understand their data? So I do think, yes, hopefully genericization of models will become less generic.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
Using AI. But ultimately that does need to be a part of a standard cdp, I think. And I think From a Genai perspective, it's trustspend verifier. Right. We all use ChatGPT and Colada and otherwise and it's great and it is insane. Same sometimes some of the things that it comes up with. So I think that, you know, what we did at redpoint is really thinking about AI to augment what you already have.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
So using natural language to generate a segment.
Co-host
Right.
Beth Scagnoli
You know, if you're someone, you're a business user, you don't know relational databases ands and ors and parentheses. I don't want to write code. I just want to tell you what I want and I want you to show me what you built. I think that kind of a use case makes a lot of sense and I think, you know, content generation or at least as a starting point, right. Write me a cool Black Friday email, make it moderately funny and less than 300 characters or something like that. Right. I don't want to put anyone out of business, but I think some of the overhead that comes with AB tests that is just, you know, a variation on a subject line. How can we use AI to start to augment that a little bit more as well?
Co-host
Yeah, yeah, well. And where do you see the future of CDPs? I mean, you know, as they've. I know the, the, the Magic Quadrant hasn't been around for that long, but CDPs have been around for. Sorry, Gardner. But the, the, the CDPs have been around for, you know, over, over a decade at this point in some, in some capacity. What do you see on the horizon for, you know, what, what will a CDP look like in, you know, in a few years?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, I mean, a lot of the same. To the extent that the basic functionality. I do think, yes, there will be more AI, you know, both for the hype, but also as AI gets better and as things like Snowflake Cortex, right, where it's just sort of built into the product, so why not use it? I do think there's going to be more of that, more of kind of chatting with your cdp, letting your CDP tell you more about your data, as opposed to kind of vice versa. And I think privacy, right. I mean, more and more, you know, there is this hyper vigilance around privacy and data regulation and security and compliance. I think they'll need to be more of an evolution around that to make sure that you can very confidently say, yes, my data is being handled securely and it's compliant and it's ethical. And making that available in the context of the cdp, again, similar to data observability as opposed to just trust us. No, show me, show me how this is happening and then, you know, real time forever, right? Real time. Who knows what that means, right? Real time can mean that day. It could mean within 30 milliseconds. We've seen it both ways. We should be able to handle it both ways. So as you know, maybe if TikTok may be going away, who knows. But thinking about the attention span of consumers, you can't wait a week. You can't give me, make me wait a minute for something, right? I need something immediately and when I want it. So I think moving, you know, continuing to move toward improved real time data processing especially is definitely something that we are, we are heading toward, among other things.
Co-host
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I love it. Well, thanks again for all your insights, Beth. One last question for you. I like to ask everybody, what do you do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah, I mean I read the things, I listen to the podcasts, right. I think that, you know, LinkedIn, as much as it can be a bit of a cesspool, sorry, LinkedIn. There are a number of, I guess influencers that I do follow that have interesting thoughts on the evolution of product management, especially as it, you know, starts to merge or unmerge in various places with product marketing. I think that role in and of itself is shifting and really just talking to others like me, I'm in a number of sort of product management focus groups and women in product and that sort of thing. And I think just talking to real people, doing real jobs is another way that I try to stay on top of things. But otherwise it's yeah, chatting with customers, reading the books, listening to the podcasts like this.
Co-host
Absolutely.
Beth Scagnoli
Yeah.
Co-host
Well, love it. Well, thanks again. I'd like to thank Beth Scagnoli, Vice President of Product Management at Redpoint Global, for joining the show. You can learn more about Beth and Redpoint Global by following the links in the show notes.
Greg Kilstrom
Thanks again for listening to the Agile brand brought to you by Tech Systems. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to subscribe and leave us a rating so that others can find the show as well. You can access more episodes of the show@theagilebrand.com that's theagile brand.com and contact me. If you're interested in consulting or advisory services or are looking for a speaker for your next event, go to www.greg kilstrom.com that's G R E G K I H L S T R O M.com the Agile brand is produced by Missing Link, a Latina owned, strategy driven, creatively fueled production co op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Until next time, stay curious and stay agile.
Beth Scagnoli
The Agile brand.
Podcast Summary: The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®
Episode: #634: Delivering Seamless Experiences with CDP
Guest: Beth Scagnoli, Vice President of Product Management at RedPoint Global
Release Date: February 5, 2025
In Episode #634 of The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®, host Greg Kihlström engages in an insightful discussion with Beth Scagnoli, Vice President of Product Management at RedPoint Global. The episode delves into the pivotal role of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) in delivering seamless and personalized customer experiences in today's data-driven marketing landscape.
Overview of Role and Experience
Beth Scagnoli brings a decade of experience at RedPoint Global, where she currently oversees product vision and strategy as the VP of Product Management. Her extensive background spans customer data platforms, data quality, and marketing automation, providing her with a comprehensive understanding of customer needs and data management.
RedPoint Global's Mission
RedPoint Global, established in 2006, focuses on driving personalization at scale. "We wanted to create this customer data platform product suite to solve the CX challenges across data insight and action," Beth explains (03:51). The company offers end-to-end CDP capabilities, including data ingestion, quality, identity resolution, segmentation, activation, and orchestration. RedPoint Global emphasizes data liberation, ensuring customers maximize their data's potential through a composable and flexible deployment model that accommodates various industries, including regulated sectors.
Unified Customer Understanding
A robust CDP is integral to delivering exceptional customer experiences by consolidating disparate data sources into a unified customer profile. Beth highlights, "If you have six versions of your customer across different platforms, you are never really going to know the true Beth" (05:47). This unified view allows businesses to understand and communicate with customers in their preferred manner, ensuring consistency and personalization.
Beyond Data Consolidation
Beth emphasizes that a CDP is more than just data aggregation. It involves ensuring data hygiene, quality, and accurate identity resolution. "A customer data platform that is done correctly will allow you to see the full picture and deliver the experience that Beth wants, not each of these individual little bets along the way" (06:12).
Holistic Customer Profiles
Implementing a cohesive CDP provides a unified and real-time view of customers, enabling timely and relevant interactions. Beth notes, "With a CDP done properly, you should be able to get to real-time or near real-time" (08:06). This immediacy enhances the ability to respond to customer actions, such as making a purchase, almost instantaneously.
Elimination of Data Silos
Consolidating data through a CDP eliminates the inefficiencies and inaccuracies associated with siloed data systems. Beth explains, "Additional overhead on making sure that we are communicating on the right channels will go away because you have the corrected version of the customer" (08:46). This streamlining allows organizations to focus on strategic initiatives rather than data management.
Definition and Importance
Data observability refers to the continuous monitoring and analysis of data pipelines and quality to ensure reliability and usability for business purposes. Beth defines it as, "the continuous monitoring and analysis of data pipelines and data quality to ensure data is reliable, consistent, and usable for business purposes" (11:21).
Building Trust Through Observability
Data observability establishes trust in the data by providing transparency into data processes. Beth uses an analogy, "Think about the foundation of a house. If you don't get that foundation correct, everything is going to crumble" (12:30). This foundation is crucial for delivering accurate and personalized customer experiences.
Implementing Observability
Beth advises starting with a thorough audit of existing data and involving not just IT but also business and marketing teams in creating a cohesive data strategy. "Start with understanding the landscape of your data and creating some sort of cohesive data strategy" (14:07). This collaborative approach ensures that data quality and observability are maintained continuously.
Foundation of Marketing Automation
Clean and unified data is essential for effective marketing automation. Beth asserts, "Without clean data that has been properly unified, you could have the finest content, but if you are servicing that content to a consumer that does not care about it, it just doesn't matter" (19:40).
Maximizing ROI
Accurate data underpins the success of marketing campaigns by ensuring that messages are relevant and timely. This relevance directly influences return on investment, as marketing efforts are more likely to resonate with the target audience.
Dynamic Segmentation
A key function of CDPs is dynamic segmentation, which allows for real-time updates to customer segments based on their latest interactions and behaviors. Beth explains, "Most CDPs do have the concept of dynamic segmentation... based on the updated in real-time or near real-time unified profile" (21:18).
Facilitating Omnichannel Personalization
CDPs enable consistent and personalized interactions across multiple channels by ensuring that customer data is up-to-date and accessible. "You should feel confident that whatever you deploy today, everyone who's in that targeted audience is going to be qualified" (22:01). This capability is crucial for maintaining customer engagement and loyalty.
Reducing Friction in Customer Interactions
CDPs help reduce friction in customer interactions by providing seamless and personalized experiences. Beth shares an example, "We are driving communication on check-in... sending you follow-up emails... knowing who I am within reason... makes me a more loyal customer" (25:23).
Enhancing Trust and Satisfaction
By ensuring that customer data is accurate and easily accessible, CDPs build trust between customers and brands. Beth states, "Do I trust this brand? CDP plays a huge role in that level of trustworthiness" (26:12).
Integrating AI and Machine Learning
AI and machine learning are integral to modern CDPs, enhancing functions like identity resolution and predictive analytics. Beth notes, "AI as a function of identity resolution... predictive analytics... becoming table stakes" (27:00).
Augmenting User Interactions
AI enables more intuitive interactions with CDPs, such as using natural language to generate segments or create content. "Using natural language to generate a segment... creating segments without writing code" (28:35).
Ensuring Trust in AI Outputs
Beth emphasizes the importance of verifying AI outputs to maintain data accuracy and reliability. "Thinking about AI to augment what you already have... trustspend verifier" (28:09).
Advancements in Real-Time Processing
The future of CDPs lies in enhanced real-time data processing capabilities, ensuring immediate responsiveness to customer actions. Beth anticipates, "Improved real-time data processing is definitely something we are heading toward" (31:25).
Emphasis on Privacy and Compliance
As data privacy regulations become stricter, future CDPs will prioritize secure and compliant data handling. "Privacy and data regulation... make sure that data is being handled securely and compliant" (29:46).
Enhanced AI Integration
CDPs will continue to integrate more advanced AI features, making data insights more accessible and actionable. "More of chatting with your CDP, letting your CDP tell you more about your data" (29:46).
Continuous Learning and Networking
Beth stays agile by engaging in continuous learning through reading, listening to podcasts, and participating in focus groups. "I read the things, I listen to the podcasts... talking to real people, doing real jobs" (31:37).
Adaptation to Industry Changes
Staying connected with industry trends and evolving alongside them helps Beth maintain agility in her role. "Talking to customers, reading the books, listening to the podcasts like this" (32:22).
In this episode, Beth Scagnoli provides a comprehensive exploration of how Customer Data Platforms are essential for delivering personalized and seamless customer experiences. She underscores the importance of data quality, observability, and the strategic integration of AI to enhance CDP functionalities. Looking forward, Beth anticipates advancements in real-time processing and increased emphasis on data privacy, positioning CDPs as indispensable tools for building trusted and loyal customer relationships.
Notable Quotes:
Beth Scagnoli (05:47):
"If you have six versions of your customer across different platforms, you are never really going to know the true Beth."
Beth Scagnoli (06:12):
"A customer data platform that is done correctly will allow you to see the full picture and deliver the experience that Beth wants, not each of these individual little bets along the way."
Beth Scagnoli (08:06):
"With a CDP done properly, you should be able to get to real-time or near real-time."
Beth Scagnoli (12:30):
"Think about the foundation of a house. If you don't get that foundation correct, everything is going to crumble."
Beth Scagnoli (19:40):
"Without clean data that has been properly unified, you could have the finest content, but if you are servicing that content to a consumer that does not care about it, it just doesn't matter."
Beth Scagnoli (21:18):
"Most CDPs do have the concept of dynamic segmentation... based on the updated in real-time or near real-time unified profile."
Beth Scagnoli (25:23):
"We are driving communication on check-in... knowing who I am within reason... makes me a more loyal customer."
Beth Scagnoli (27:00):
"AI as a function of identity resolution... predictive analytics... becoming table stakes."
Beth Scagnoli (28:35):
"Using natural language to generate a segment... creating segments without writing code."
Beth Scagnoli (31:25):
"Improved real-time data processing is definitely something we are heading toward."
Timestamp Key:
Note: The timestamps correspond to the points in the transcript where the quotes were made.