Core Concepts Unpacked
As you begin your journey with Real-Time CDP, you will encounter a few foundational concepts that are essential to understanding how the platform works. Think of these as the key vocabulary for the language of your data.
Term
Simple Definition & Analogy
Why It Matters
Experience Data Model (XDM)
The universal dictionary for all your data. Provides a standard language so data from different systems can be understood and combined without confusion.
Ensures consistency and interoperability across systems.
Schema
The blueprint for a specific set of data.
Analogy: If XDM is the dictionary, a schema is the sentence structure for a particular thought.
Analogy: If XDM is the dictionary, a schema is the sentence structure for a particular thought.
Every piece of data must follow a schema’s blueprint, ensuring correct structure.
Class
Defines the fundamental behavior of the data in a schema.
Types: Record (noun-like) and Time-series (verb-like).
Types: Record (noun-like) and Time-series (verb-like).
Tells the platform whether data describes who a customer is or what a customer did.
Field Group
A reusable collection of fields describing a single concept.
Analogy: Like a paragraph block for “Mailing Address” with street, city, state, zip.
Analogy: Like a paragraph block for “Mailing Address” with street, city, state, zip.
Saves effort by reusing common fields (e.g., address, contact details) across schemas.
Identity
A piece of data that uniquely identifies a customer (email, CRM ID, loyalty number, browser cookie ID).
Critical for stitching together data from different sources about the same person.
Namespace
Provides context for what kind of identity a value is.
Analogy: Namespace “Email” tells the system
Analogy: Namespace “Email” tells the system
john.doe@example.com is an email, not random text.Prevents ambiguity, ensuring IDs are linked correctly (e.g., distinguishing a CRM ID of “12345” from a Loyalty ID of “12345”).
Profile
The unified, 360-degree view of a single customer created by stitching together data from all sources.
Serves as the “single source of truth” powering personalization.
Segment
A group of profiles sharing attributes or behaviors, defined by rules.
Analogy: Like a smart playlist for customers.
Analogy: Like a smart playlist for customers.
Allows creation of targetable audiences for marketing and personalization.
Destination
External system where segments and profile data are sent (email platforms, ad networks, personalization tools).
Enables activation of unified data to drive customer experiences.
Sandbox
An isolated virtual environment for development and testing.
Analogy: A practice kitchen to test recipes without affecting the main restaurant.
Analogy: A practice kitchen to test recipes without affecting the main restaurant.
Lets you safely build/test data models, ingestion flows, and segments without impacting production.
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