In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, customer experience (CX) is no longer just a matter of sleek interfaces or clever marketing. True transformation happens when organizations embed data-driven insights deep within their operational, technical, and structural layers—what we call working “below the glass.” This approach, known as dataful design, moves beyond surface-level improvements to create a continuous feedback loop between data, design, and delivery. The result? Experiences that are not only more relevant and engaging, but also drive sustained business value and competitive advantage.
Many organizations still treat customer experience as a function of what’s visible to the customer—websites, apps, campaigns, and store layouts. While these “above the glass” elements are important, they represent only a fraction of what shapes the customer journey. The real differentiators lie beneath the surface: the data platforms, analytics engines, operational processes, and organizational structures that power every touchpoint.
To deliver experiences that continuously evolve with customer needs, organizations must:
This holistic approach ensures that every customer interaction is informed by real-time insights, and that the organization can adapt quickly as expectations shift.
Dataful design is not the domain of a single team. It requires close collaboration across strategy, engineering, data, and product disciplines. Here’s how these teams work together to create a virtuous cycle of insight and improvement:
This feedback loop is the engine of dataful design. It enables organizations to move from intuition-driven decisions to evidence-based action, accelerating innovation and reducing risk.
Retailers are awash in data from e-commerce, in-store transactions, loyalty programs, and supply chains. Yet, many struggle to translate this data into actionable insights that drive growth and loyalty. Leading retailers are overcoming these challenges by:
For example, one major retailer ingested trillions of rows of data to map customer journeys across channels. By analyzing purchase patterns, they were able to recommend complementary products, tripling basket size and doubling average order value. These insights also enabled the retailer to monetize their digital shelf, creating new revenue streams through targeted advertising.
Consumer products (CP) companies have historically faced challenges with fragmented data and limited direct consumer relationships. The most successful CP firms are now building robust insights organizations that:
One CP company, for instance, built dynamic personas by combining quantitative and qualitative data, mapping journeys across touchpoints. This enabled them to identify leakage points, reprioritize investments, and double sales attribution in a year. Another created an internal “insights clearinghouse,” allowing business units to submit questions and receive prioritized, high-quality analysis—fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making.
To operationalize dataful design, organizations should:
Organizations that embed insights below the glass are better equipped to:
Superlative experiences not only shape customer expectations—they also reshape the organization, enabling it to produce more excellent experiences in the future. This iterative process puts organizations in a state of constant beta—always learning, unlearning, and relearning.
In a world where change is constant and customer expectations are always rising, dataful design is the key to sustained relevance and competitive advantage. By embedding insights into every layer of the business, organizations can move from surface-level improvements to end-to-end transformation—delivering experiences that matter, now and in the future.
Ready to unlock the full potential of your data and design capabilities? Let’s start the journey together.