What is a Headless CDP?

Headless CDP (Headless Customer Data Platform). Ever heard that term before?

Throw that into Google search. When I do, I get ads for CDP vendors (triggered from inclusion of term "cdp") and ~75K non-relevant results.

This article is probably 3-5 years ahead if its time, but bear with me...

Let's explore the history and recent evolution of the CMS (Content Management System). Many sources cite FileNet in 1985 as the first CMS. With the evolution of cloud and the proliferation of channels, CMS's have evolved.

Most companies are now migrating towards a Headless CMS. Headless CMS is mainstream now; it has it's own Wikipedia page and relevant Google results that go many, many pages deep on "What is a Headless CMS?", "Why go Headless", "Headless CMS vs. _________".

I think this article gives a good history of CMS's: https://www.contentstack.com/blog/all-about-headless/content-management-systems-history-and-headless-cms. In particular, I want to draw your attention to this image from the article.

The article ends with: "By allowing you to integrate with new technologies and applications as they come on the scene, a headless CMS is likely to be the longest-lasting solution in the history of content management systems"

Now replace the word "Content" with "Customer". And replace "CMS" with "CDP".

Another article, written in January 2017, declares 2017 as the year of the first Headless CMS: https://www.cmswire.com/digital-experience/why-2017-is-the-year-of-cloud-first-headless-cms/. Now, 2.5 years later, G2 lists 37 Headless CMS vendors (maybe more by the time you read this).

Again replace "CMS" with "CDP".

Do you see why a Headless CDP would make a lot of sense?

So, as you look at CDP's, think about the decision for Traditional CMS vs Headless CMS: (table taken from https://www.storyblok.com/tp/headless-cms-explained)

For Headless CDP, I would alter the table to:

Imagine not having to worry about sending your data outside of your secured environments. Imagine adding as much data as you want, from any source, at your storage costs (no premium). Imagine experimenting and building models at your cloud computing costs (no premium).

About a year ago, I wrote an article about why you should consider building your own CDP: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-you-should-build-your-cdp-kerry-hew/. The biggest draw is that you're building a valuable asset; you want to own this, not rent this asset.

But building can be hard. And your resources are already over-burdened. And besides, there are no Headless CDP solutions!

Except, I'd argue there is one. It's Syntasa.

They don't call themselves a Headless CDP; after all, there's no such thing.

But Syntasa addresses all the checks from the Headless CDP table above.

By allowing you to integrate with new technologies and applications as they come on the scene, a Headless CDP is likely to be the longest-lasting solution in the history of Customer Data Platforms.

Gartner's 2019 Hype Cycle has CDP's coming off the Peak of Inflated Expectations and doesn't forecast it reaching the Plateau of Productivity for ~2-5 years ...perhaps when Headless CDP's are mainstream? Hmmm...

Headless CDP isn't even a term, but I bet it will be soon. The evolution is easy to see.

You heard it here first!

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