Better together — using Adobe Experience Platform to improve your cross-functional team’s outcomes
One of the key factors for a successful digital transformation project is having a cross-functional team that can collaborate effectively and efficiently. A cross-functional team is a group of people with different skills and expertise who work together toward a common goal. For example, a digital transformation project might include developers, analysts, marketers, designers, data scientists, and project managers. Each of these roles has a specific contribution to make to the project, and they need to communicate and coordinate with each other to ensure alignment and consistency.
Making the most of cross-functional teams
However, having a cross-functional team is not enough if the team members do not have the right skills or the right mindset. The right skills are those that enable the team members to leverage the full potential of Adobe Experience Platform and Adobe Experience Cloud, as well as the surrounding systems that are part of the digital ecosystem. These skills include technical skills like coding, data engineering, data science, web development, and app development, as well as business skills like marketing strategy, customer journey mapping, content creation, personalization, and optimization. The right mindset is one that embraces innovation, experimentation, agility, collaboration, and customer-centricity.
Improve your teamwork with a center of excellence
One way to ensure that the cross-functional team has the right skills and the right mindset is to establish a center of excellence (CoE). A CoE is a group of experts that provides guidance, best practices, training, and support to other teams within an organization. These experts can help bundle knowledge and establish global standards for digital transformation projects, raising the professional bar and producing consistent and high-quality experiences across channels for customers. They can also help foster a culture of learning and sharing within the organization, creating a feedback loop that enables continuous improvement and innovation.
A holistic approach to digital solutions
Another key factor for a successful digital transformation project is having a holistic view of the digital ecosystem. Technology on its own doesn’t solve challenges. That technology needs to be integrated and used within the context of the business objectives and customer needs. Experience Platform and Experience Cloud are powerful tools that can help create engaging and personalized experiences for customers across channels. However, they are not standalone solutions. They are part of a larger digital ecosystem that includes surrounding systems like CRMs, middleware, ETL, data warehouses, websites, and apps. These systems need to be connected and synchronized to provide a seamless and consistent customer experience. For example:
- A CRM system can provide valuable information about customer profiles and preferences.
- An ETL system can extract, transform, and load data from various sources into Experience Platform.
- A data warehouse can store and analyze large volumes of data.
- A website or an app can deliver content and offers to customers based on their behavior and context.
All of these systems need to work together in harmony to create a unified view of the customer and to deliver relevant and personalized experiences across channels.
However, having a holistic view of the digital ecosystem is not enough if the data collected from various sources is not used effectively. Collecting data is not enough. Meaningful insights must be derived and implemented from the data to optimize customer experiences. This requires using advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that are available in Experience Platform and Experience Cloud. These capabilities include features of Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform, Adobe Customer Journey Analytics, Adobe Journey Optimizer, Customer AI, and many more.
These capabilities empower marketers and analysts to:
- Understand customer behavior patterns across channels.
- Segment customers based on their attributes and propensities to predict customer outcomes like churn or conversion.
- Attribute credit to different touchpoints along the customer journey.
- Orchestrate personalized messages and offers across channels.
By using these capabilities effectively, marketers and analysts can create more relevant and engaging experiences for customers that drive loyalty and retention.
In conclusion, achieving true omnichannel personalization at scale requires having a cross-functional team with the right skills and mindset, a holistic view of the digital ecosystem, and meaningful insights derived from data. By following these principles, organizations can leverage the full potential of Adobe Experience Platform and Adobe Experience Cloud, as well as the surrounding systems, to create customer-centric and data-driven digital transformation projects that deliver value and impact.
As a senior enterprise architect, Benedikt Wedenik is the executive technical leader who owns the design of the architecture and delivery of large-scale Adobe Experience Platform projects. His primary focus is on Adobe Experience Platform and how it enables other Adobe Experience Cloud and other products and application services in the customer ecosystem to help meet the customer goals and objectives by executing upon the use cases and capabilities. As a trusted advisor, Wedenik is constantly building close relationships with executive and senior client leadership in his projects to ensure long-term success for both parties. He has been with Adobe for roughly five years and led projects in all major industries.