Grand Designs: “The Warehouse to CDP conversion”

Opening scene: A large meeting room at BigCorp. A systems architecture diagram with lots of boxes and arrows flowing from left to right fills a large whiteboard. Kelvin joins Jan (marketing director) and Joe (head of data) at the table, earnest expression, hands clasped in front of him.

Kelvin: So, Jan, Joe, tell me a bit about the history of the warehouse.

Joe: Well, going way back, it was originally an on-prem system, which was replaced back in 2019 with an Oracle data warehouse as part of an aborted single customer view initiative.

Jan: It’s full of crap to be honest. We have to go to IT to get anything done – and nobody uses it, apart from this one dashboard.

Joe: Somebody uses that??

They all laugh. Kelvin stands and walks to the whiteboard. Jan and Joe follow. Kelvin motions at the diagram with a flourish.

Kelvin:  So, who’s the mastermind behind all this? 

Jan: Joe’s architected it mostly. He actually plans to project manage it himself too, which should save us some money.

Joe: I’m treating Jan as if she’s my internal customer. And she’s certainly a demanding one! Hahaha

Jan: Our data is holding us back. And everyone seems to be saying a CDP is the answer. All this talk of personalisation at scale and AI… Honestly, I’d be happy if someone could just tell me which of our channels are working!

Kelvin points to the boxes on the left hand side of the whiteboard diagram.

Kelvin: I just love the ambition of this project – web and app data, ads data, social, search, CRM – and SAP? Amazing! I presume you have consent to use all this customer data?

Awkward silence. Joe and Jan look at each other.

Joe: Jan was taking care of all that with the privacy team.

Jan: I thought you were looking into it.

Kelvin: Ahem… Now, every build has its crowning glory – what’s the feature you’re most excited about?

Joe: We’ve found a new AI-based identity resolution solution to stitch customer profiles together – it looks very exciting.

Kelvin: Of course you know what I’m going to ask next. What have you budgeted for the project? And when will you go live?

Jan: We absolutely have to have this in place before Christmas – it’s our busiest season.

Joe: I’m confident. Trust the process!

Kelvin: I have to take my hat off to you guys. This is incredibly brave.

…..

Cut to Kelvin walking towards camera through the actual warehouse of BigCorp, fingers steepled in front of his chest..

Kelvin: For Joe and Jan this endeavour is akin to embroidering delicate, digital lace onto a well-worn, industrial fabric. Their artisan aspirations are commendable, but the threads of reality seem extraordinarily tenuous.

Nine months later 

Kelvin joins Jan and Joe back at the same BigCorp meeting table. Both are looking pale, drawn and exhausted. A crude drawing of male genitalia has appeared in one corner of the solution architecture diagram.

Kelvin: Jan, Joe, tell me: how’s it going?

Awkward silence before Jan and Joe start speaking simultaneously.

Jan: Well, it took us three months to sort out the consent issue.

Joe: Haha, yeah and by then of course Apple and Meta had changed their policies again.

Jan: Then when we started looking at the data we realised it was all a complete mess.

Joe: To be fair, we really couldn’t have anticipated that – you just don’t know what you’re going to find until you “take up the floorboards”!

Jan: The devs were pulled on to a big re-platforming project, so getting this prioritised has been a nightmare.

Joe: Then the startup we’d selected for the identity resolution piece was acquired by a competitor.

Kelvin: So have you actually got any data in yet? 

Joe and Jan: Errr, no.

…..

Cut to Kelvin, Jan and Joe sat in front of a screen displaying BigCorp’s ecommerce store. It’s already dark outside. Snow can be seen softly falling through the window.

Kelvin: I know you wanted to be in before Christmas. How are you measuring your marketing right now? And how are you doing for budget?

Jan: We’re making do with a dashboard that Joe’s connected to a Google sheet. It’s good enough for now – once it actually loads!

Joe: We’re already into our contingency budget, but it’s all so exciting. We’re very excited.

Kelvin smiles smugly, then turns to Jan. As the camera pans away, we notice for the first time she has a visible bump.

Kelvin: And you’ve had some other exciting news, Jan. When’s the new arrival due?

Jan: Easter, about a month before we hope to go live. But I’m planning to keep working right up till then.

Kelvin: Amazing.

…..

Cut to Kelvin, in an uncomfortably deep squat next to a BigCorp sign on a grassy mound near the car park. 

Kelvin: This Customer Data Platform is emerging as a kaleidoscope, where each fragment of the old structure refracts into a spectrum of modern possibilities. Jan and  Joe are painting a futuristic mural on an ancient, flaking wall. Their artistic ambition is admirable, but one can’t help but wonder if the paint will hold.

Another 9 months elapse

Kelvin presses the entry buzzer at BigCorp. Joe and Jan welcome him. Both have visibly aged. Joe has grown a silver-streaked beard. Jan now wears glasses. The three share an uncomfortable embrace.

Kelvin: Joe, Jan, tell me about life with your new CDP!

Jan: Well, it’s still a bit of a work in progress. But by the time summer came around we really felt we really had to start using it somehow.

Kelvin: Marvellous. And what are you actually doing with it? 

Joe: Well, there’s loads of exciting stuff planned. We’re really excited about it.

Jan: For now we just have this Looker Studio dashboard.

They proudly show Kelvin the dashboard, which features some filters and a colourful plot chart.

Kelvin: Unbelievable. So, you’re finally able to understand what’s working and what’s not?

Jan and Joe exchange a look. Silence.

Kelvin: You started out with a budget of £300,000. How much did you actually end up spending?

Joe: It’s fair to say the project has expanded in scope along the way so it’s very difficult to say.

Jan: About double that so far.

Kelvin: And big news for you personally, I believe Joe?

Joe: Yes – Jan and I are going to be separating. I’ve accepted a new job over at BiggerCorp.

Kelvin: So Jan, it’s all on you now, what’s next on the roadmap?

Jan: Well, the budget’s exhausted and there’s a headcount freeze, so we’re going to have to wait until next financial year to free up funds. Plus we just found out this morning that the CEO has signed a multi-million dollar contract with Accenture for a huge digital transformation initiative. They’re actually kicking off their six month discovery phase next week. 187 stakeholder interviews!

…..

Cut to Kelvin walking away from the BigCorp office, a drone shot pulls away to reveal a panoramic view of the building with Joe and Jan waving from the front entrance. Kelvin holds his arms out wide.

Kelvin: Transforming a dull, lifeless data warehouse into a living, breathing customer data platform has been like a pair of alchemists turning lead into gold. The CDP a time capsule burst open, its contents – once static and forgotten – are now sparkling with the future promise of rich insights and dazzling activations.

Closing credits

Make sure you join Kelvin again in next week’s Grand Designs as he follows Bo and Ben as they roll out their data democratisation initiative across 17 European markets, arming 1300 every-day users with actionable insights.

And if you’d like to know how things might have worked out differently for Jan and Joe if they’d worked with Measurelab, take a look at our iterative approach to building CDPs here.