Welcome to Segment! We’re so glad you’re here. 

Before you dive into your implementation, we want to give a quick framework that will help you ready your business to implement Segment.

This framework focuses on people, process, and technology to help you create a collaborative, business-wide operation that puts your good data to work, with Segment as the engine. Using this framework will help you build a foundation that will be durable and flexible as your business grows.

People

This may seem obvious, but aligning the right stakeholders early and often is pivotal to success with Segment. An organized, cross-functional team will not only generate consistency and buy in across the business, but will allow for a business-aligned strategy from the start. This means baking business-wide KPIs  into your use of Segment, allowing you to multiply value on top of value as your Segment instance matures. 

Of course, every business looks different, but these are the key stakeholders we recommend bringing into your Segment strategy from Day One.

• Project Champion: Think of this person as the executive sponsor for Segment within your business. They’ve got a great understanding of the value Segment brings to the business at large, and are committed to seeing projects through and unblocking other key stakeholders, if needed
• Business Owner: This person is responsible for connecting the dots between business objectives and prioritizing how Segment will be used within your business. 
• Technical Owner: The best person to leverage here will have a deep understanding of your current data architecture and will be able to guide implementation with data hygiene and sustainability in mind.
• Marketing Owner: This person will carry the vision for how data is leveraged downstream to help you drive customer outcomes. 

You may find that some people within your business fit into a couple of these prescribed roles. It may be helpful to use this diagram as a map to help you visualize your organization and identify ownership areas that make sense for your business.
 

Process

You’ve identified your owners,now you need to bring it together with a methodology that works for your business. 

We recommend creating a process centered around a Data Council, ideally consisting of the group of Segment stakeholders that you’ve already identified. This small group of stakeholders will steer how your team will both implement and maintain Segment, optimizing for sustainable, hygienic data practices that can scale as you grow, and will uphold a shared agreement about how your business is going to use Segment and maintain a hygienic data philosophy. 

Our friends at Jumbo Interactive recently shared how they’ve set up their Data Council. Check out this webinar to see their strategy in action.

A sample process might look a bit like this:

Customers that have a data council can leverage intake requests to better understand the diverse problems the business is trying to solve with Segment, and refine the solution so that it’s durable for the long term. 

As with any new process, stay open to learning from the data and the adoption of the process to inform improvements as your strategy matures or business needs change.

Technology

Wait, that’s us!
 

Bring your entire tech stack to life with Segment at the heart of it. Does it sound overwhelming? Definitely. The sure fire way to get going is to focus on one key outcome that will serve your business, and expand from there. Our healthiest customers are launching one use case at a time to create a series of simple wins that create a flywheel of momentum within Segment. 

What is the main problem you hope to solve with Segment? Check out our catalog of How to Guides based on our customers’ most common use cases and choose one that resonates most with your business needs. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions to demo it, and ultimately push it into production.

Keep stacking use cases within your workspace or use them as inspiration to solve other data problems across your business. Don’t forget to consider how cross functional partners across your business might benefit from using Segment. Here are some ideas of types of tools different business lines might be using:

Dive in!

Now that your team is aligned, you’re ready to start setting up your Segment instance. If at any point things get off track, return to these principles of people, process, and technology to re-focus.

Stay tuned into our Customer Community for best practices, guidance, and educational events. You can also reach out to friends@segment.com if you’ve got any technical questions along the way. 

If you’re ready for a masterclass on optimizing your Segment workspace, check out our webinar series on Customer Data Maturity and take a deep dive into what it looks like to move from a Foundational implementation to one that’s Advancing, and finally, Adaptive to move with you as you grow and change as a business.