Before you sign a six-figure contract for a Customer Data Platform, you need to know which architecture actually fits your business. Most companies choose a CDP based on the most compelling sales pitch, but “fit” is rarely found in a slide deck.
Every vendor has a story: Packaged CDP vendors will tell you their platform is the fastest path to a unified customer view. Warehouse-Native advocates will claim a composable approach is the only way to be flexible and future-proof.
Both are telling the truth for the right buyer, but neither can tell you if you are that buyer. This free guide provides a structured, capability-led framework to help you separate genuine architectural fit from a well-rehearsed pitch.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
What this guide contains
This free guide introduces a structured methodology for evaluating Customer Data Platform (CDP) architectures based on your specific business requirements. It moves the conversation away from vendor-driven narratives and focuses on a capability-led assessment that puts you in control of the decision-making process.
Core Components of the Framework
The guide outlines a three-step process to reach a defensible architecture recommendation:
Step 1: Identify Capabilities: Define what your business actually needs across five layers: Data Infrastructure, Unification & Modelling, Activation, Measurement & Optimisation, and Governance.
Step 2: Due Diligence: Evaluate architecture options—Packaged vs. Warehouse-Native—against targeted questions that reflect your current operational reality.
Step 3: Weighted Scoring: Calculate a final score by multiplying capability importance by the architecture’s performance in that area.
Universal Application (D2C, SaaS, B2B)
While the guide uses a Series A D2C skincare brand as a “worked example” to demonstrate the logic, the framework itself is business-model agnostic.
The evaluation criteria are designed to be applied regardless of your industry:
- D2C/Retail: Focus on journey stitching and real-time behavioral triggers.
- SaaS/B2B: Apply the logic to account-to-contact rollups and custom propensity scoring.
- Publishing/Media: Evaluate based on high-volume anonymous event footprints and audience suppression logic.
Download the Free Guide
Access the framework and start evaluating the right CDP architecture for your specific business model.