Every time Senior Director of Product Management Tim Shea had to schedule a meeting, he kept a world clock open.
“This was the first project where I worked with all new teams and leaders at DISQO,” said Shea. “We brought together people not only from different organizations but different countries and timezones.”
Shea was acting as the conductor for a global symphony of product engineers at DISQO, a platform company that helps businesses understand the customer experience. Shea’s team was tasked with developing an enterprise-level SaaS version of the already robust DISQO CX platform.
WHAT DOES DISQO DO?
DISQO is a customer experience platform that provides insights to organizations. DISQO’s insights, agile testing and advertising measurement products are powered by millions of consumers on the industry’s largest opt-in consumer data platform.
“DISQO’s current versions of our Brand Lift and Experience Suite products are already in the market, being used by customers today,” said Shea. “This created a new challenge for me, as DISQO needed to protect our product value while moving quickly and efficiently.”
To bring the DISQO CX Platform to life, Shea and the product team had to become an efficient global force.
“We organized work across teams and timezones to maintain velocity around the clock,” said Shea. “How could we enable our U.S. and Armenia team members to set each other up for success? We learned that purposeful organization and documentation were critical to ensuring we used our time wisely and enabling knowledge-sharing across teams and locales.”
“We organized work across teams and timezones to maintain velocity around the clock.”
DISQO’s initial release of its integrated CX platform will become the enterprise product for all things customer-facing at DISQO. Senior Director of Software Engineering Rudy Nash shared that it joins multiple DISQO products — including its ad measurement, ad testing and the Experience Suite survey products. Nash also noted that the user-friendly interface lets customers manage their own ad effectiveness or market research studies.
“Prior to the creation of the CX Platform, each was only available as a stand-alone service,” said Nash. “While they individually offered great value to our customers — when each service was combined into a single, unified platform, it exponentially increased the power of the insights and ease of use.”
Knowledge is Power
The capability of DISQO’s insights and reach is staggering. The data insights come from an audience of more than 2.25 million members who opt-in to provide their attitudes and behaviors in exchange for rewards. This allows DISQO to gather more direct feedback without relying on unreliable methods of data collection like cookies, mobile IDs and IP addresses. DISQO’s transparency with consumers yields a more holistic view of audience and customer insights for companies.
In May of 2023, for example, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it selected DISQO’s Brand Lift and Outcomes Lift products to measure linear, digital and advanced advertising campaigns for its advertisers. Through its CX platform, companies like Warner Bros. Discovery gain access to DISQO’s audience, allowing them to understand the full-funnel purchase journey of their customers.
To bring large partnerships like the one with Warner Bros. Discovery to life, the engineering team at DISQO moves as one united force.
“I see myself as a facilitator,” said Nash. “I try to ensure we have the right people in the right place at the right time and clear any obstacles that may exist.”
For Nash, it’s also necessary to ensure everyone is well informed of the expectations and the desired outcomes.
“My management philosophy is pretty simple — hire great people, give them clear direction and get out of their way,” said Nash.
“My management philosophy is pretty simple — hire great people, give them clear direction and get out of their way.”
Nash explained how the engineering team was able to coordinate with each other by pacing out the work to ensure they were hitting the established timelines.
“It was great to see everyone’s eagerness to show their value and their exceptional skill levels,” added Nash. “Accomplishing all of this can be even more challenging when you have a globally distributed team.”
Listening to Customers
The DISQO CX Platform build didn’t simply begin with global engineering orchestration that even air traffic controllers would envy. It began with the basics — listening to customers and clear communication.
“The biggest obstacle when building a product, in most cases, is making sure you have clear requirements before you start,” said Nash. “Since that’s not always the case, we started small and gathered feedback to iterate onto the next thing.”
Phase one was to launch the product for internal use by the customer service team, followed by a self-service option for customers.
“We needed to ensure that we considered the implications of this dual customer aspect for the initial release while also establishing a framework that would allow us to build and grow,” noted Nash.
Senior Director of Customer Success, Laura Jark led the charge for transparent communications with customers and ensured their feedback was a cornerstone in the development of the product.
“In customer success, I have a unique lens into what our customers need and want from us — and how DISQO responds to that,” said Jark. “The voice of the customer is incorporated throughout all phases of the product development cycle.
“We listen and deliver unmatched accuracy and solutions to our clients — that is always our ultimate goal,” Jark added “This drive for innovation sets us apart from the rest of the market and why I love working at DISQO.”
“This drive for innovation sets us apart from the rest of the market and why I love working at DISQO.”
Jark went on to explain how the feedback gathered made it clear that customers were looking for more hands-on access to their data and insights. This clear need is why the product team created the DISQO CX platform, which was inspired by the 2022 acquisition of Feedback Loop.
“By combining our client engagement model with Feedback Loop's SaaS-first foundational product, we created a singular platform that provides rapid access to the data our clients need to make crucial decisions post-campaign,” noted Jark. “They can even use it to optimize ad campaigns in real time.”
By combining the client engagement model with the capabilities in Feedback Loop, the DISQO team adopts a new agile approach, allowing them to introduce new features to quickly and urgently address the needs of clients.
“One of the reasons we’ve captured so much market share in so little time is our ability to measure lift across platforms,” said Jark. “Our new structure paves the way for more scalable operations and the ability to serve even more clients — but most importantly, it's a testament to our commitment to putting our clients first and helping them achieve their goals.”
“Our new structure paves the way for more scalable operations and the ability to serve even more clients — but most importantly, it's a testament to our commitment to putting our clients first and helping them achieve their goals.”
The long-term vision for DISQO’s product structure includes listening to customers and creating responsive products to help meet their data needs.
“We’ve planted a flag in the ground,” concluded Nash. “All we really need to do is keep heading towards it.”
