CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) are a hot item right now in the martech world. While they certainly drive tons of value when done right, standing up a CDP is never as simple as flipping a switch. When working to get a CDP operational it’s critical to develop and prioritize your use cases but transforming your organization is just as important.

If an organization decides to only focus on use cases and technical implementation details without making any shift in how the organization would operate to support the CDP, the results would be ‘sub optimal’!

Support Your CDP With a Center of Excellence

We recommend creating a “center of excellence” (with all of the proposed use cases laid out across the entire customer journey) and a steering committee (with the right leaders who have the necessary skills to help drive goals forward) to lead the charge.

If stakeholders are not aligned and there is no center of excellence, the CDP would be stood up without fully utilizing its capabilities. Technology can serve as an opportunity to rework an organization, but without the necessary changes in organizational structure, the CDP implementation will likely fail. We’ve seen tremendous success when the organizational culture is agile and adaptive, and the teams are focused on speed to value. A CDP will not bring about cultural change. There is work that must be done to set that structure up internally.

Check out our guide here to learn other common pitfalls to avoid and how to get the most out of your CDP.